State Department Employees Pressed to Protect Secrets

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGANZP5FJEC.html

Oct 20, 2000 - 01:20 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Paper shredders, State Department employees are
told, must trim classified documents down to slices no larger than
1/32 inch by 1/2 inch. Disposal can also be achieved, they are
advised, with machines that that can "pulverize" secrets into powder.
Safes storing sensitive materials must weigh at least 500 pounds - too
heavy to be carted off.

James D. Tromatter makes these points tirelessly in briefing after
briefing as part of the State Department's intensified efforts to keep
employees security conscious - and secret materials away from
unauthorized eyes.

Since May, about 9,000 employees have heard the message from the
amiable yet no-nonsense Tromatter, who gave up his Army career four
years ago to become a security expert at State. Attendance is
mandatory.

The goal of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is to end a string
of security lapses plaguing the department, the result, many in
Congress believe, of a culture that is inattentive to security
requirements.

There was the case of the Russian spy operation a year ago that
involved use of a sophisticated eavesdropping device planted in a
seventh-floor conference room. The Russian who got caught listening to
the device outside the State Department was sent packing last
December. Who planted the device remains a mystery.

More significant is the case of the laptop computer with highly
classified information that disappeared around Feb. 1 from a
conference room in the department's Bureau of Intelligence and
Research. It was alleged to have contained highly classified
information about arms proliferation issues and about sources and
methods of U.S. intelligence collection.

The lapses left Albright feeling "humiliated." At a meeting of State
Department employees, she dispensed with the ambiguities so common to
her trade.

"I don't care how skilled you are as a diplomat, how brilliant you may
be at meetings, or how creative you are as an administrator, if you
are not a professional about security, you are a failure," she said.

Less than three weeks later, Tromatter began his briefings, which
consist largely of reminders: Top secret material is always covered by
a special sheet that identifies it as such. Use red "secret" labels on
computer disks that have been used on classified computers. To
hand-carry top secret information requires a top-secret clearance.

Copying of top secret materials must be carried out by a "top-secret
control officer." Secret and confidential materials can only be copied
on designated machines. Since the briefings began, Tromatter says,
reports of infractions are down by about 20 percent.

Tromatter, a native of Williamsburg, Va., says the most common
security infraction involves leaving a classified document uncovered
on a desk.

He says that of the various threats the State Department faces, none
is greater than what he calls "sigint," or signals intelligence. It
involves the intercept by unauthorized persons of classified materials
sent by facsimile or telephone.

The security lapses did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill.

"It is obvious that the department lacks a professional environment
that is sensitive to security concerns," said House International
Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y. Said Porter Goss,
R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, "There is not
sufficient awareness, or sufficient attention, to security" at the
department.

It hasn't been easy for Albright to overcome these perceptions. Not
long after her speech to department employees, Sen. Rod Grams,
R-Minn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
complained that six foreign service officers nominated for
ambassadorships had committed a total of 62 security infractions,
including one with 22 on his record.

To Grams, it seemed hard to reconcile Albright's warnings about the
need for vigilance with coveted promotions for people not always
attentive to security issues.

Grams held up the nominations for months but then allowed them to
clear the Senate after extracting further concessions from the State
Department on employee accountability for infractions.

In September, the quest for increased security consciousness suffered
another setback. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, was
stripped of his security clearance after he was alleged to have
removed classified briefing books from his office, among other
infractions.

Three weeks later, the security clearance was reinstated because
Albright felt Indyk was needed to deal with the ongoing violence
between Israelis and Palestinians. But there was no halt to an
investigation into his supposed wrongdoing.

Congress kept up the heat on the administration this week by approving
a bill that subjects government employees to up to three years in
prison for willfully disclosing nearly any classified information.

The bill was passed despite warnings that it gives the government a
blank check to criminalize any leaking it does not like.


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