-Caveat Lector-
5 State Department Officials Cited
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:36 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department doesn't take strong
enough action against diplomats who violate security regulations,
a senator charged following news that five department employees
temporarily lost security clearances for such breaches.
``They didn't say they fired anyone, did they?'' said Sen. Rod
Grams, R-Minn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. ``They don't take security violations very
seriously.''
He said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright almost certainly
would be asked about the issue when she appeared before a hearing
of the committee Tuesday to assess foreign policy during the
Clinton administration.
Grams commented to The Associated Press after department
spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that as of Jan. 1,
officials have suspended the security clearances of five
employees for violations of security policies.
Another 27 employees had their security clearances suspended for
other reasons in the past 18 months to two years, Boucher said.
The disclosure followed announcement over the weekend that Martin
Indyk, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, was under FBI and State
Department investigation for suspected security violations.
Indyk has lost his security clearance and no longer can
participate in Mideast diplomacy.
``He's highly regarded for his contributions,'' Boucher said
Monday. ``Obviously, the fact that he doesn't have a security
clearance, and therefore is not able to participate in the
deliberations, makes things more difficult, because he has been
an important member of the team.''
Boucher said there was no indication of espionage and ``there has
been no indication that any intelligence information has been
compromised. This is a question of security procedures that have
not been followed.''
He provided no details of the other cases. He said he did not
know which employees had been reinstated, but said he assumed
some had been.
Last week, Grams dropped a hold he had placed on the appointment
of seven career foreign service officers who had been nominated
for ambassadorships. They had accumulated about 100 security
violations.
The violations reportedly included leaving safes open and
removing classified documents from embassies.
The first American ambassador stripped of his security
clearances, Indyk was sidelined as U.S. mediation to break a
deadlock between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat entered another critical stage.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were due to resume talks here
on Wednesday.
Indyk said in a statement this weekend: ``I regret that my trying
to do the best possible job under very difficult conditions has
led to the temporary suspension of my security clearances.
Jeopardizing the national security interests of the U.S. is
absolutely abhorrent to me, and I would never do anything to
compromise those interests.''
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FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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