WASHINGTON (AP) – Senior staff at the U.S. Embassy to Japan, including Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, have used personal email accounts for official business, an internal watchdog said in a report Tuesday.
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“In addition, OIG identified instances where emails labeled “Sensitive but Unclassified” were sent from, or received by, personal email accounts”, it said. The messages are also believed to contain sensitive, but not classified information, media reports said.
The inspector general also found problems with Kennedy’s chief of staff, Debra DeShong Reed, in its report on the U.S. embassy in Japan.
Kennedy, the daughter of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy, has been ambassador to Japan since 2013.
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy was singled out by the State Department’s watchdog for using a personal email account to conduct official business.
“Department policy is that employees generally should not use private email accounts (for example, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, and so forth) for official business”. Sensitive but unclassified information can be shared outside of the government, though officials are required to use discretion. “Such risks include data loss, hacking, phishing, and spoofing of email accounts, as well as inadequate protections for personally identifiable information”. However, it puts further spotlight on the department’s struggle to keep its information secure. Kennedy is only said to be dealing in Sensitive but Unclassified material.
“This is allowed, so long as measures are taken to ensure that official records sent or received on personal email are preserved and other requirements are observed”. The review is ongoing.
The emails revealed the State Department knew Ambassador Stevens’ life was in danger 18 months before the terrorist attacks.
The 64-page audit, which included 65 recommendations to improve operations, identified a number of other shortcomings, including a focus by embassy analysts on daily reporting at the expense of developing contacts in the country; an uneven performance from diplomatic satellite offices; and hiring levels in the political, economic and consular sections that were “greater than [the] workload warrants”.
Tuesday’s report comes after the State Department inspector general’s investigation into Kennedy’s Tokyo embassy.
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The report says the ambassador is very popular in Japan because of her family history and has an “innovative” approach to public diplomacy.
