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FBI Reports On Missing Laptops and Weapons
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Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the ranking Republican member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the Justice Department reported only two missing laptops to his committee when asked for a tally of incidents last year.
"This is the latest in a long string of personal information breaches at federal agencies, and there is no end in sight," Davis said.
The FBI quarreled with the inclusion of 43 missing weapons in the current report, saying that they were lost or stolen before the inquiry began. But Fine's investigators said the report includes all weapons and laptops reported missing during the study period, and noted that the weapons in question were not included in the previous audit.
To "delete them would give the appearance that the FBI had 43 fewer lost or stolen weapons than was actually the case," the report said.
The FBI reported that the contents were unknown for six of the 10 missing laptops with potentially sensitive data.
The rest included one in Boston with software for creating identification badges; one in New Orleans used to process digital images from surveillance operations; and one stolen from the security division that contained a "security plan" for an electronic access system. The final laptop was stolen from the FBI Laboratory at Quantico and contained the names, addresses and telephone numbers of FBI employees.
The lost or stolen weapons include "handguns, rifles, shotguns and submachine guns," the report said. More than 80 percent were pistols, and about 10 percent were training weapons that did not use live ammunition.
The 2002 report found nearly 1,000 firearms were missing at the FBI and other Justice agencies, including at least 18 weapons later recovered by local police departments in connection with criminal investigations. Several were used in armed robberies and one was found in the pocket of a murder victim, according to the previous audit.
