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As if the new directives forbidding use of the term "jihadist" to name the enemy weren't enough evidence that State is in meltdown, here is more: "As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, according to officials familiar with the findings."
"Hundreds of Laptops Missing at State Department, Audit Finds," by Jeff Stein for CQ Politics (thanks to Sr. Soph):
Hundreds of employee laptops are unaccounted for at the U.S. Department of State, which conducts delicate, often secret, diplomatic relations with foreign countries, an internal audit has found.As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, according to officials familiar with the findings.
The program provides counterterrorism training and equipment, including laptops, to foreign police, intelligence and security forces.
Ironically, the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program is administered by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), which is responsible for the security of the department’s computer networks and sensitive equipment, including laptops, among other duties. It also protects foreign diplomats during visits here.
DS officials have been urgently dispatching vans around the bureau’s Washington-area offices to collect and register employee laptops, said department sources who could not speak on the record for fear of being fired.
The inventory sometimes strips DS investigators of their laptops for “days, or weeks,” they said.
The State Department’s Inspector General launched an audit of the equipment about three months ago. Only the first stage, or inventory of equipment, has been completed.
A State Department official referred all questions regarding laptop losses to the Inspector General....
“Unaccounted for” does not necessarily mean the laptops have been lost. But they are “missing” until they have been found or otherwise accounted for.
Auditors found that the department had lost track of $30 million worth of equipment, according to one official, “the vast majority of which . . . perhaps as much as 99 per cent,” was laptops....
Posted by Robert at May 5, 2008 1:14 PM
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Here I sit shaking my head once again. At best, this is a huge waste of money. I guess if they don't pay for them themselves, it doesn't matter if they go "missing". Just let the taxpayers buy another one.
Why do they call it common sense if it's not common??
Posted by: gymgal![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 5, 2008 1:30 PM
Stuck on stupid. It should be noted that most of these bozos are probably "career diplomats", not political apointees.
Posted by: MP at May 5, 2008 1:35 PM
"The program provides counterterrorism training and equipment, including laptops, to foreign police, intelligence and security forces."
Perhaps that's exactly where they went.
It's so hard to win a war when we are ourselves, well, ... incompetent.
Posted by: Sounder at May 5, 2008 1:36 PM
I have a comment, but my brain has just kicked in, and now, I have nothing, NADA. zilch. One big cypher. I just wonder if the...oh, never mind. We're doomed.
Posted by: Jewel Atkins at May 5, 2008 2:07 PM
"As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, according to officials familiar with the findings"
does this mean as many as 400 anti-terrorism employees did not report their missing laptops upon returning to work the next day?...
DOOHHH>.
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 5, 2008 2:07 PM
Obviously the missing 400 laptops in the anti-terrorism unit had the offending word "terror" joined in some way with the words "jihad" or "islam."
The only way to rectify the matter is to sanitzied these computers so as not to cause offense to islamic terrorists --- uh, I mean jihadist terrorists --- uh, what I mean to say is -- Mabel.
Yeah, that's it, that's the ticket, we don't want to offend Mabel, sure that's it, get it?
Don't offend Mabel.
Posted by: witness at May 5, 2008 2:14 PM
Oh, yeah, I know what I wanted to say.
"Ssssssh, go back to sleep. The government will take care of everything!"
Posted by: Jewel Atkins at May 5, 2008 2:18 PM
They simply need to drink more Pepsi. The beverage has special ingredients designed to sharpen the mind, which in turn will help them locate the missing laptops; plus there's the added benefit of saving Israel, so buy more Pepsi folks!
at May 5, 2008 2:43 PM
Since truth has been banned from State, what's the loss here? I'm almost joking.
Posted by: Bosch Fawstin at May 5, 2008 3:11 PM
How does one say Dumb and Dumber is the Bush administration in Arabic?
اخرس هو البكم وإدارة بوش
Posted by: SoteriA at May 5, 2008 3:15 PM
Has anyone checked Sandy Berger's pants yet?
"Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program"
Maybe the "Anti-" part is a misprint.
Posted by: RalphInfidel at May 5, 2008 3:33 PM
"As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program.."
So what is the total number of Department of State computers that are missing? And how many still in the possession of the various officials are infected with Jihadi controled trojans?
Posted by: songdongnigh at May 5, 2008 4:14 PM
400 new jihadi websites just magically appeared.
Hmmmmm.......
Posted by: profitsbeard at May 5, 2008 5:17 PM
Odds are the missing laptops can be found in the homes of those who reported them missing. Johnny's probably playing games on one right now.
Posted by: PMK at May 5, 2008 5:37 PM
"Has anyone checked Sandy Berger's pants yet?
"Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program"
Maybe the "Anti-" part is a misprint.
Posted by: RalphInfidel "
bwahahahaha..and Sandy wears big pants..
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 5, 2008 5:56 PM
MEMO TO CONDI:
We must no longer use terms like: "missing" and "unaccounted-for".
Words like "temporarily misplaced" and other less pejorative language is to be used from now on.
Posted by: Ummah Gummah at May 5, 2008 8:55 PM
Alright people, if you are not too bright with math, it does not add up.
30,000,000 x .99(99 Percent) divided by 2000(A really really high priced laptop-you can get good ones less than 1000) = 14,850. 14,850 does not equal 400.
Who is the fool? Where is this money going? Someone needs to be held responsible. Seriously.
Posted by: PaulMichaelOwens at May 5, 2008 9:16 PM
LOL. Gummah. Funny.
Good eye, Paul, but you're wrong about getting a good laptop for a couple grand, especially in government procurement. The gubmint pays obscenely high costs for electronic equipment. (I work for the government and we pay over $5K each for crummy, low-end Gateway desktops in good server-style cases).
My guess is the missing laptops ARE good desktop-replacement notebooks and they paid more like $10K a piece for them. Even at that, however, we seem to be missing a lot more than four hundred laptops.
Hmmm.
I just want to know what data is also unaccounted for.
HAID
Posted by: Haid Dasalami at May 5, 2008 10:06 PM
I've quoted you and linked back to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2008/05/re-meltdown-at-state-dont-mention-jihad.html
at May 6, 2008 2:09 AM
Besides the money lost for those laptops, is it not more inportant, what kind of information is on those computers? Classified information?
Peoples names, who thru negliance,lives might be in danger, or their families?
What is working in the government anyway.
at May 6, 2008 3:04 AM
This sort of stuff seems to happen at various security offices around the world. Missing laptops, mislaid USB drives, inefficient checking checking procedures, etc.
I know we only hear about it when something goes wrong (and plenty of times we don't even hear abotu that), but surely the culture at these places needs some overhauling.
One laptop - dangerous, but possible. But a whole bunch?
Someone's not looking after their area...or maybe someone who left the job took some souvenirs - you know, for sentimental reasons.
Posted by: carpediadem at May 6, 2008 3:05 AM
The State Department is the antithesis of "good government". The primary reason there are so many problems in the world is because there is a State Department presence in every country. If you understand the "loony left" mentality, you understand the State Department. The security issues at the State Department are legion and similarly notorious. The State Department is likely the most anti-security agency in the USG. One can only shake one's head as we continue to provide our enemies with our secrets. And the sad thing is, is that noone rpt noone will be punished - guaranteed. And it will continue - on and on and on ... a last, sobering story to warm your sense of security --- for a long time, it was State Department policy to allow numerous foreign goverment reps to walk unescorted throughout the building at State. Other agencies complained vigorously - without success - that it was a security sieve. Note that there are bags containing Top Secret (TS) info set in trays throughout the halls waiting for pick-up so the bags containing TS and other higher classification papers could be destroyed. What did the intellectually superior minions at the State Department say when it was discovered that diplomats from some "not so friendly" countries (who were allowed to roam the halls unescorted) were found carrying shopping bags filled with these bags of documents? "This is not a common occurence. We will ensure that additional measures will be taken to secure these bags. How long had the policy (no escort) been in effect? No one knew since it had been ongoing for many, many years. I rest my case.
Posted by: Leonydus at May 6, 2008 5:05 AM
'If you understand the "loony left" mentality, you understand the State Department.'
Hmmm that's one point of view.
How do you explain the mentality of Bush, Wolfy and Rice, et al ?
Posted by: Big Luke at May 6, 2008 8:30 AM
"Someone's not looking after their area...or maybe someone who left the job took some souvenirs - you know, for sentimental reasons.
Posted by: carpediadem
do you mean like the Clintons and the Clinton staff when they looted the Whitehouse as they left.
at May 6, 2008 9:57 AM
So we cannot use the terms Jihadist, Jihad or Jihadism at the state level! No problem, just use these alternate words instead of the ones prohibited:
Jihad = Terror
Jihadism = Terrorism
Jihadist = Islamist
Jihadi = Koranist
And no meaning will be lost in these traslations or use of alterate words.
Posted by: Lebanese at May 6, 2008 10:03 AM
So we cannot use the terms Jihadist, Jihad or Jihadism at the state level! No problem, just use these alternate words instead of the ones prohibited:
Jihad = Terror
Jihadism = Terrorism
Jihadist = Islamist
Jihadi = Koranist
Optional, you can use the woord rats or rats
And no meaning will be lost in these traslations or use of alterate words.
Posted by: Lebanese at May 6, 2008 10:04 AM
So we cannot use the terms Jihadist, Jihad or Jihadism at the state level! No problem, just use these alternate words instead of the ones prohibited:
Jihad = Terror
Jihadism = Terrorism
Jihadist = Islamist
Jihadi = Koranist
Optional, you can use the word rat or rats for any of the above words and no meaning will be lost in these traslations or use of alterate words.
at May 6, 2008 10:07 AM
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