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If the Bush administration is so concerned about Americans' privacy, why did the VA wait two weeks to report data theft?

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George W. Bush, May 13, 2006: “The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities.”

News reports, May 24, 2006: The Department of Veterans Affairs, warned for years that its information-security efforts were inadequate, waited two weeks before asking the FBI to help investigate the theft of data on 26.5 million veterans from the home of a VA analyst who shouldn’t have had it there in the first place.

By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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