[CTRL] F.B.I. Is Proposing a Special Division for Hunting Spies (2 0f 2)

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

June 26, 1999


F.B.I. Is Proposing a Special Division for Hunting Spies
By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON -- The F.B.I. is proposing to create a division devoted solely to
rooting out spies, part of a Government-wide review of counterintelligence
following suspicions that China tried for two decades to steal nuclear
secrets, Government officials said Friday.

After the cold war and the breakup of the Soviet Union, American
intelligence agencies increasingly focused on fighting terrorism, believing
that espionage would become less of a threat. As a result,
counterintelligence efforts dwindled, according to experts inside and
outside the Government.

At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, the national security
division added counterterrorism operations to its traditional emphasis on
fighting espionage. Officials said there was a sense that as the battle
against terrorism became more important, counterespionage operations were
given less priority.


Now officials are proposing new ways the Government should organize to make
sure that there is an emphasis on both threats, the officials said. Some
aspects of the review were first reported by The Los Angeles Times.

The F.B.I. Director, Louis J. Freeh, has proposed splitting the national
security division into two divisions, one to fight terrorism and the other
to root out spies, both led by assistant directors, the officials said.
Attorney General Janet Reno has approved the request and forwarded it to the
White House, they added.

The Government-wide review also includes the Pentagon and the Central
Intelligence Agency and is expected to lead to an overhaul of all
counterintelligence efforts.

The review is a tacit acknowledgment that the Government has failed to keep
pace with new forms of espionage, in a world of scientist-to-scientist
contacts and academic conferences. The United States faces not only efforts
to steal military secrets, but also economic espionage aimed at stealing
technology or getting information that would help a country's goods compete
against American products. The espionage is conducted not only by foreign
governments and military intelligence services, but also by corporations.

The review represents the first time the three agencies have collaborated on
a systematic assessment of espionage threats.


A new division of the F.B.I. devoted solely to counterintelligence would add
agents and analysts to the efforts against foreign espionage, increasing the
agency's staff.

The bureau is likely to revise its traditional system of assessing threats
and allocating budgets on a country-by-country basis, known as the National
Security Threat List, officials said. The bureau will broaden its
assessments of risk, including threats from corporations and even
international criminal organizations.

At the Pentagon, the review will focus on threats to the military and the
risk that contractors, academics and research laboratories that work with
the agency could provide important information to other nations, said
Kenneth Bacon, the Defense Department spokesman. "The review will analyze
the threat and determine whether our response is adequate," he said.

At the C.I.A., officials said that only preliminary discussions had been
held to review counterintelligence operations. George J. Tenet, the Director
of Central Intelligence, and Freeh testified on Wednesday before the Senate
Intelligence Committee about the review.

The Government is changing procedures at the country's nuclear weapons
laboratories. Those changes, including special squads of F.B.I. agents at
the labs, are being handled by officials at the bureau and the Energy
Department. The reorganization plan is a reaction to criticism of the
Government's handling of suspected Chinese espionage at the labs.

Some lawmakers said the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had failed to
investigate aggressively possible instance of Chinese espionage including
cases like that of Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist suspected of helping
the Chinese acquire advance thermonuclear technology. Lee has denied that he
ever spied for China, and Chinese officials have denied stealing nuclear
secrets.

F.B.I. officials said the Lee case showed how hard it was to insure the
safety of American security secrets in an environment of informal contacts
between scientists working in exotic disciplines that are often hard to
ferret out and evaluate.

Some law enforcement officials have said the increasing focus on
counterterrorism cases, including both domestic and international
investigations, had drawn attention of senior managers away from the ongoing
and often unglamorous counterintelligence work of keeping track of foreign
visitors and Americans traveling abroad.

Reorganizing counterintelligence operations represents the latest step in
the long and often troubled relationship between the agencies primarily
responsible for catching spies, the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. Throughout most of
the cold war era, the two agencies were often at odds over
counterintelligence policy, jealously guarding their turf.

F.B.I. agents and C.I.A. officers recruited their own informants and often
refused to share leads and information about potential cases. At times, the
counterspy operations seemed to spin out of control. James J. Angleton, the
counterintelligence chief at the C.I.A., conducted zealous hunts for
suspected moles at the agency, an effort that threatened to bring the agency
to standstill and ruined the careers of loyal agency employees.

Fledging cooperative efforts in the 1980's culminated in the successful
prosecution of the Aldrich H. Ames, the C.I.A. officer who in 1993 pleaded
guilty to spying for Moscow after an investigation concluded that he had
turned over to the Russians the identities of more than a dozen East bloc
officials who were secretly spying for the United States.

After the Ames case, a shattering experience for the C.I.A., new rules were
adopted to require the agency to report possible security breaches to the
F.B.I. The two agencies have exchanged personnel to work on
counterintelligence matters, and Freeh and Tenet have sought to forge a
better relationship.

Specific events have helped, like the F.B.I.'s arrest in Pakistan in 1997 of
Mir Amal Kansi, who was returned to the United States and convicted of
killing two people in 1993 outside C.I.A. headquarters.

Energy Official Resigns

ASHINGTON -- The first senior Government official to lose his post in the
furor over Chinese spying charges resigned Friday. Victor Reis, an Assistant
Secretary of Energy who oversaw the nuclear weapons laboratories, submitted
his resignation to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, an Energy Department
spokeswoman said.

Reis was one of many Energy Department and lab officials to come under fire
for counterintelligence problems at the Government's weapons labs. He had
also angered Richardson by aligning himself with Republican senators who
have proposed legislation that would create an agency in the department to
handle the nuclear weapons programs.

The department's inspector general is conducting an investigation into the
handling of the spy case. It is expected to be completed in about a month,
when Richardson is expected to announce disciplinary action against other
officials, possibly including dismissals.
--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind or thunder, who
want to see the fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that
faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this
book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and
dates"
    -Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ: 9815080   Operator Taliesin_2 of #SacredNemeton on IRC PaganPaths

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