This is one of the parts of the government that is supposed to keeping you safe from terrorism as part of that "a little essential liberty in exchange for a facade of security" bargain the public made with Bush after 9-11: 

It has surfaced that the US State Department can't account for up to about 1,000 laptops, perhaps as many as 400 of which belonged to the department's Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program.

Maybe we will find out that this part of some super-secret plan that the neocons have been cooking up to scare the terrorists into abandoning their plots via a "shock and awe" display of how much information we have on them. They'll be so shocked and awed that, rather changing their plans, they will just give up.