Reuters

Tuesday - 14:56 04/18/2000, EST

FBI Looks for Laptop Missing With U.S. Secrets

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A laptop computer which may have held classified

information disappeared from the State Department about two months ago

and the FBI is investigating whether it was stolen, the State Department said

Monday.

The Washington Post said the computer disappeared from the department's

Bureau of Intelligence and Research and definitely contained highly classified

information.

It quoted a senior State Department official as saying the laptop's

disappearance, from a supposedly secure conference room at the

department, set off an intense effort to recover the computer and a search for

suspects, including contractors who had been renovating the area.

Another person familiar with the incident said the missing computer contained

code-word information, a classification higher than top secret, including

sensitive intelligence information and plans.

State Department spokesman James Rubin confirmed that the computer was

missing and said that because of the possibility it held classified information,

the FBI was investigating in conjunction with the department's Diplomatic

Security bureau.

After the incident, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked the head of

Diplomatic Security, David Carpenter, to make a thorough review of security.

``He has put together a team of security experts. The review began in March

and is expected to be completed shortly,'' the spokesman said.

Representative Benjamin Gilman, the New York Republican who chairs the

House International Relations Committee, said Monday he will hold hearings

in May on what he called unacceptable security lapses at the State

Department.

``The missing laptop is the latest in a long string of security failures at the

State Department,'' he said in a statement. ``It is obvious that the department

lacks a professional environment that is sensitive to security concerns.''

In 1999 FBI agents discovered a Russian spy lurking outside the department

and then found an eavesdropping device in a conference room that they

believed he had been monitoring.

In 1998 a man in a tweed coat strolled into the executive secretary's office,

six doors away from Albright's office, helped himself to a sheaf of classified

briefing materials in plain view of two secretaries and walked out. He was

never identified and the materials were not recovered.

Gilman said, ``Such security lapses are not acceptable. Whatever changes

are necessary at the State Department to better protect our nation's secrets

should be undertaken.''

A senior State Department official told the Post it was unclear whether the

laptop was misplaced or stolen. If stolen, he said, it was not known whether

the thief realized the sensitivity of the material it contained.

The laptop's disappearance was not the result of poor security procedures but

the failure of department employees to follow those procedures, the Post

said, citing the senior official. He said it appeared that some contractors had

not been properly escorted when working in the building, according to the

newspaper.

Rubin said the State Department had already taken steps in recent months to

improve security and was committed to further steps. ``We continue to

upgrade security... This is a work in progress,'' he added.