National crisis center established under Olmert; government to crack down on security leaks.
By JPOST.COM STAFFeliyahu winograd 298.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Prime Minister's Office announced that work to implement the recommendations made in the Winograd Committee's interim report was complete, Israel Radio said on Monday morning.
According to the report, a national crisis center inside the PMO that would operate a situations room during times of emergency had been established.
The Knesset has received a memorandum ahead of an eventual bill regarding the National Security Council's work methods to be addressed after the summer recess, said the report.
Since the release of the committee's report on Israel's management of the Second Lebanon War, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been meeting regularly with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and with other representatives from the ministry. Also, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has been conducting meetings on the matter on a near-weekly basis.
Within the context of the report's findings, weekly ministerial meetings have been held in order to assess the security issues in depth.
The issue of security leaks has also been addressed by the prime minister, in accordance with the report's recommendations. The number of participants in security-related meetings has been reduced to include ministers only and the cabinet secretary will be responsible for informing ministers of the security clearance required at the beginning of each meeting.
Last week, Olmert promised to force ministers to undergo polygraph tests if information was released to unauthorized sources. Former IDF chief of general staff, Maj-Gen. (res.) Amnon Lipkin Shahak, who heads the committee overseeing the report's implementations, said that such a move should be made if other measures were unsuccessful. Further, as of Sunday, cellular phones were banned from cabinet meetings.
