On Monday, Albright reassigned the deputy of the Intelligence and Research Bureau, Donald Keyser, in light of the laptop investigation, which reportedly recommended a month's suspension without pay, according to the New York Times.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Tuesday: "She had to consider how she wanted the bureau to go through the transition and what kind of leadership she wanted. She decided in that context to reassign one of the senior people."
Boucher would not go into more detail on the decision, but did say Albright's choice factored in the pending retirement of Stapleton Roy, the bureau's chief and one of the highest-ranking diplomats at the State Department. Roy had intended to retire in January, but in light of the swath of disciplinary decisions, he moved that decision up to Dec. 5.
The New York Times and Washington Post reported Tuesday that Roy quit his job in protest of the disciplinary action against Keyser. Boucher differed with this assessment.
"Don't believe what you read in the newspaper," Boucher said. "He did not describe it that way to me. There is a relationship to everything that is going in the bureau. He felt now was the time for him to leave his post and retire."
A senior State Department official even told reporters that Roy quit because "he wanted to take some responsibility for the missing laptops."
In January, a laptop disappeared from the intelligence bureau, a laptop that reportedly contained highly sensitive information on weapons proliferation. The disappearance prompted a full-scale investigation that revealed, among other things, an attempt to bug a State Department conference room as well as other missing unclassified computers.
The investigation changed the culture at the State Department, leading Albright to include attention to security issues in annual employee reviews.
That investigation led to recommendations that six employees of the department's intelligence branch be disciplined, ranging from official reprimand to dismissal. The employees, including Keyser, may now appeal the decision with human resources and eventually the secretary of state.
One potential problem in the last days of Albright's tenure is the appearance of a double standard for career employees versus political appointees.
American Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, a political appointee, was stripped of his security clearance in September after repeatedly violating security rules, such as drafting diplomatic cables on insecure laptops in airport lobbies. But Indyk's security clearance was restored in October in light of clashes in Israel and the need to have the U.S. ambassador working at full capacity.
The State Department's assistant secretary of intelligence and research between 1985 and 1989, Morton Abramowitz, said this week's disciplinary action raised the question of a double standard. "Indyk willfully violated security procedures. It raises a question mark about differential treatment.
"I'm not asserting there is differential treatment, but it raises the question."
Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.