FBI Headquarters Not Cleared for Classified Intelligence

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, AlterNet at 1:41 PM on July 7, 2008.

Steve Aftergood of Secrecy News reports on a somewhat awkward revelation before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Turns out FBI headquarters isn't secure enough to store classified documents:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is part of the U.S. intelligence community, has the lead responsibility for domestic surveillance of foreign intelligence and suspected terrorist targets.

So it seems like a rather crippling defect that the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, cannot satisfy government standards for storage and use of classified intelligence records.

“The Hoover Building does not meet the Interagency Security Committee’s criteria for a secure Federal facility capable of handling intelligence and other sensitive information,” the Senate Appropriations Committee observed in a new report on the 2009 Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations bill.

Tagged as: fbi

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.