-Caveat Lector-

"They noted that some computers the ex-official used were donated
to schools without the hard drives being destroyed. When
investigators located the computers, they were able to recover
significant Pentagon information."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001009/aponline164533_000.ht
m

Pentagon Can't Find Deutch Disks
By John Solomon
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Oct. 9, 2000; 4:45 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON –– Pentagon investigators have been unable to locate
computer diskettes that ex-CIA Director John Deutch used to store
a journal when working at the Defense Department, officials say.
The journal contained classified information.

Deutch has declined to be interviewed about the whereabouts of
the disks, created during his tenure as deputy defense secretary
in the mid-1990s, officials said.

"There's no way to tell what their ultimate disposition might
have been without talking to Dr. Deutch, and he has declined
requests for our investigators to talk with him on this or other
topics," Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

The investigation of the missing diskettes comes after CIA
officials already concluded that Deutch improperly recorded
government secrets in a private journal about his government
experiences. He stored the journal on electronic storage cards
during his tenure as head of the spy agency.

While the storage cards he used at CIA have been recovered, the
Pentagon was unable to locate the diskettes Deutch created during
his Defense Department days, when he began the journal, officials
said Monday.

The Pentagon has been conducting a damage assessment to determine
if his action jeopardized national security. The Justice
Department also is investigating whether any criminal charges are
warranted.

Deutch's lawyer on Monday declined comment, citing the
investigations. Deutch cooperated with the CIA probe, and earlier
this year apologized for sloppy handling of classified
information.

At CIA's urging, Pentagon criminal investigators began their own
inquiry in February into Deutch's handling of classified
information when he was the No. 2 defense official from 1993 to
1995.

They concluded he began compiling the journal during his tenure
at the Pentagon and stored it on diskettes.

"Dr. Deutch was known to transport these floppy disks in his
shirt pocket," the investigators wrote in their report, which was
obtained by The Associated Press.

The investigators also found Deutch began to experience technical
problems with the disks at the end of his tenure at the Pentagon,
prompting him to change to higher-capacity storage cards at CIA.

The electronic cards can store hundreds of times more information
than a single floppy disk.

According to the final draft report, Pentagon investigators also
found Deutch "declined departmental requests that he allow
security systems to be installed in his residence," where he
sometimes worked on classified documents. His home computers were
sometimes used to access the Internet.

The missing diskettes are likely to focus new attention on the
government's ability to protect its most important secrets – an
issue that has received extensive scrutiny in the aftermath of
the Wen Ho Lee case at the Energy Department nuclear weapons
labs.

Lee was accused of downloading 10 computer tapes of nuclear
weapons design secrets from the labs. Unable to locate seven
tapes, the government charged Lee with 59 felonies and kept him
in solitary confinement for nine months while trying to build a
case against him. The government eventually reached a plea
bargain in which Lee pleaded guilty to a single count of
mishandling nuclear secrets. He also agreed to tell what he did
with the information he admits to having downloaded onto tapes
and unsecure computers.

The government has not charged Deutch with any wrongdoing.

The Pentagon investigators who probed Deutch raised concerns
about lax Pentagon computer security.

They noted that some computers the ex-official used were donated
to schools without the hard drives being destroyed. When
investigators located the computers, they were able to recover
significant Pentagon information.

None of the information was classified, but the investigators
warned that such lax security could result in "the improper
release and use of classified or sensitive information.

"Current policy on what is required to dispose of these types of
hard drives is not clear. We recommend that the department
implement policy that requires the destruction of all computer
hard drives, classified and unclassified, before the computer is
disposed of outside the DOD," investigators wrote.


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