SEATTLE -- Six laptop computers containing sensitive information used in training for airport screeners have been stolen, but the degree to which security was compromised remains unclear, The Seattle Times reported.
A trainer who reported the theft called it a "breach of national security." A spokesman for the training contractor, Lockheed Martin, denied the loss posed a security risk. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency initially decided not to investigate but might reconsider.
The Times did not identify the trainer and said she could not be contacted.
The theft is being investigated by the internal affairs section of the Transportation Security Administration, spokeswoman Jennifer Marty, declining to give more details.
The case involves laptops similar to one that was reported stolen last fall from a hotel meeting room in Philadelphia during a break in a training session, The Times reported Thursday.
According to an investigation report by a King County sheriff's deputy, a Lockheed Martin trainer reported six laptops were taken July 28, a day after a training session at the Doubletree Hotel near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The trainer told deputies she asked that the laptops and other equipment be placed in a storage area after the session, only to find that the aluminum shipping crate containing the six computers was gone the next day.
She said she was "astounded" to learn that the storage area was easily accessible, 10 feet from the hotel's back door and open to employees.
According to the investigation report, the trainer said "the computers contained training information concerning airport security and training methods for airport screeners."
The Transportation Security Administration requires that such laptops be kept in secure places, such as a locked hotel room, locked car trunk or locked training room, and that they be password-protected with additional password security for training documents.
Trainers are told to report thefts of the devices as a risk to national security to assure FBI attention, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Wendy Owen told The Times.
"When we talk 'sensitive,' we're talking about information we prefer not to have out there but obviously not detrimental to the safety and security of the nation in any way, shape or form," Owen said.
TSA employees said the laptops contained "sensitive security information," a term defined by the Department of Homeland Security as material that could be "detrimental to the safety of passengers in transportation."
Owen said the information consisted of TSA screener training programs that typically include instruction in how to read X-ray machines and how to use a metal detection wand -- details which agency employees said could help a terrorist evade security measures.
"You're basically looking at a blueprint of the training process for TSA," said Carlos Yeager, a former Sea-Tac screener. "That's shocking. That's not supposed to be out there for everybody to have."
FBI Agent Roberta Burroughs said that after being assured by Lockheed Martin and TSA the laptops contained "nothing sensitive, the agency decided last week not to get involved in the case.
With Lockheed Martin acknowledging that sensitive material was involved, that decision could change, Burroughs said.
"It is certainly interesting," she said.
Downer retreats
on Taiwan
By John Kerin
20aug04
THE US has slapped down Foreign Minister Alexander Downer over his diplomatically explosive comments that Australia would not automatically back Washington in a war with China over Taiwan.
The US State Department yesterday reiterated Australia's "pretty clear" obligations under the ANZUS treaty, after Mr Downer's comments following a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing on Tuesday.
While Mr Downer tried to backtrack from the remarks yesterday, the diplomatic stumble is embarrassing on the eve of the election when the Howard Government is determined to establish its credentials with neighbours.
The blunder -- and Mr Downer's failure to win any concessions from Pyongyang during his trip to North Korea to help ease nuclear tensions -- will undermine the Government's bid to demonstrate that it can back the US alliance in Iraq while still maintaining a major security role in the region.
Mr Downer yesterday retreated from his Beijing remarks, describing the prospect of a flare-up over Taiwan as "hypothetical". He stressed that Australia always maintained a position of not commenting on the position it would take.
"I have no idea in a hypothetical situation -- which would be a terrible crisis for the Asia-Pacific -- what action any country would take, including ours," Mr Downer told CNN in Hong Kong. "We've always maintained the position, in the 8 1/2 years I've been the Foreign Minister, that we make no comment about what would happen in a hypothetical circumstance."
Two days earlier, Mr Downer told his Beijing audience that the ANZUS alliance was invoked only in the event of an attack on either country and that it was the US that was obliged by a separate agreement to defend Taiwan.
A spokesman for the State Department yesterday said: "Our position on cross-strait tensions is clear. We want to see a peaceful resolution of the issue (and) we are opposed to the use of force."
There has been a long-held assumption that, under the ANZUS alliance, Australia would provide military support to the US, should China invade Taiwan.
But Mr Downer's suggestion that Australia would not necessarily come to Taiwan's aid is a stunning shift in the power balance in the Pacific, which some defence analysts suggest is permanent and recognises China's growing economic importance.
Paul Dibb of the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre said last night that Mr Downers' comments had "threatened the very fabric of Australia's alliance with the US".
"I'm not at all surprised if the Americans have reacted, because, if there is armed conflict over Taiwan, the Americans will expect us to support them," Professor Dibb said.
Leading Australian security analyst Allan Behm said last night the US comments represented a "ticking off" of Mr Downer by the US.
"It just adds to the perception that not only did Mr Downer's Beijing comments show a lack of strategic thinking, but he and the Government are not in command of a sensitive foreign policy issue."
Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd seized on the comments last night, suggesting Mr Downer had performed a "backflip" and his trip to North Asia had turned into a disaster.
"The magnitude of Mr Downer's diplomatic blunder on Taiwan has been reinforced by the US State Department," Mr Rudd said.
"Mr Downer's statement was unproductive and unhelpful in the extreme, and it is not appropriate for any foreign minister to speculate publicly on national responses in relation to a military crisis in the Taiwan Straits."
But defence and foreign affairs analysts said that while they were surprised Mr Downer had publicly expressed the view Australia might not automatically support the US over Taiwan, government people had been expressing similar views in Canberra for months.
Mr Downer's comments represented not only a shift in Australian foreign policy but also a recognition of China's increasing economic importance to Australia.
"For Mr Downer to make the point publicly in Beijing suggests a significant shift in our relations with the US and a growing recognition of China's power in the Pacific," Lowy Institute senior fellow Alan Dupont said last night. "And this has come from an Australian government far closer to Washington than most."
Former Australian ambassador to China and ANU professor of economics Ross Garnaut said last night Mr Downer's first comments represented "wise foreign policy in terms of the Australia-China relationship".
"If the ANZUS alliance is to survive long-term, then both countries have to be free to make decisions which are in their long-term policy interest," Professor Garnaut said.
So does that mean that "Airport Security" is now an oxymoron?