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2 laptops draw 46 investigators
By MARY JACOBY, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- The Air Force has assembled a team of 46 special agents to investigate the disappearance of two laptop computers from a highly secure room at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, the military's command center for the war in Afghanistan. The laptops, one of which is believed to contain classified information, were last seen Aug. 1 and were reported missing the following day, said Maj. Mike Richmond, a spokesman for the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations. Richmond declined to elaborate on the nature of the classified information on the laptop or the details of the investigation. But he said the number of agents assigned to the investigation "reflects the fact that we take it very seriously and we're going to work hard to resolve it." The MacDill-based U.S. Central Command, headed by Army Gen. Tommy Franks, plans and executes military actions in 25 countries in the Middle East and South Asia, including Iraq and Afghanistan. It is central to the war on terrorism. On Monday, Franks was in Washington to brief President Bush and his national security advisers on options for attacking Iraq. Bush has said he wants to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom he calls a terrorist threat. Military officials are confident no information pertaining to Franks' briefing of Bush was on either of the laptops, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo. Beyond that, officials are not certain what information may have been on the computers, said Young, who helps determine the Defense Department budget and maintains close ties with the military. The 46 special agents arrived in Tampa over the last several days from Air Force postings around the world, Richmond said. He said the team will augment a group of five Air Force investigators who are permanently assigned to MacDill. The Office of Special Investigations is the criminal investigative arm of the Air Force. The five MacDill-based OSI agents will continue to work on routine base matters in addition to being available to assist in the laptop inquiry, Richmond said. Investigators, meanwhile, have conducted around 300 interviews with military personnel who had access to the secure room or knew someone who did, Young said. In addition, investigators have sent out questionnaires about the matter to all personnel on the base, Young said. About 1,400 responses had been received by Thursday. Young said he does not have enough information yet to say whether he believes there are security problems at MacDill or whether espionage is involved. "I will say I was just recently at MacDill and visited with Gen. Franks at Central Command. The security is quite secure. They have a pretty good idea of who comes and goes there," Young said. At this point, Air Force investigators are classifying the laptops as missing, not stolen. Said Young: "We can all hope that somebody just misplaced them." The laptops were stored in a highly restricted room with alarms called a Secure Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF in military parlance. Richmond said he has never seen the SCIF at MacDill and could not describe it specifically. But he described access to a similar secure room at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, where he is assigned. "I have a card that swipes me into our headquarters here but not into the SCIF here. If I want to go into the SCIF here, I have to be escorted in," Richmond said. Escorts are military personnel with special authorization to enter the SCIF, he said. The laptops were discovered missing Aug. 2 by MacDill employees who were assisting the Air Force in another investigation, this one into the source of a recent New York Times story. The July 5 story reported details from an "American military planning document" that called for a land, sea and air attack on Iraq from three sides. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the investigation into the source of the leak to the New York Times. The investigation is being conducted by an Air Force OSI team based at Andrews Air Force Base. In the course of the leak inquiry, the laptops turned up missing, Richmond said. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news briefing Wednesday that security depends in large part on the good faith and diligence of military personnel. "If you have individuals that are willing to commit crimes -- you know, in the end it comes down to your trust and confidence in the people that work there," Myers said. Myers said there could be an innocent explanation for the missing laptops. "If it was the case that they were taken off for maintenance and nobody appropriately logged that in, we'll find that out," he said.
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