WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2001
To Catch A Spy
Newspaper Reports U.S. Was Tipped Off To Spy Years Ago
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The committee chair expressed confidence in FBI boss Louis Freeh. (AP)
"What we're interested in is stopping this as much as we can. You know there will probably be other spies, don't be surprised," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said after the hearing.
The panel questioned FBI Director Louis Freeh, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft in a three-hour hearing about the case of Robert Hanssen.
The 25-year veteran of the FBI is accused of selling secrets to Moscow, including the names of double agents and information about U.S. electronic surveillance methods, for $1.4 million in money and diamonds.
Lawmakers raised questions about why law enforcement authorities did not catch the alleged spy sooner.
The hearing also focused extensively on how much damage was done to national security and also on whether internal FBI security needed to improve to prevent a mole from going undetected for such a long period of time.
The case had inflicted "a lot of damage" to national security and a net assessment was being conducted, Shelby said. "Some people say we maybe never know the true extent, but what we've heard it's big, it's serious," he added.
A key topic was whether a more rigorous polygraph regimen was needed at the FBI, a concept that Shelby and some other committee members supported.
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"I don't think thee's any silver bullet," committee Vice Chairman Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, said.
Graham likened a polygraph, or lie-detector test, to a metal detector. "It's more likely to deter than necessarily be the evidence to convict somebody," he said.
Shelby would not discuss explanations the committee — which planned to hold more hearings on the issue — nor received the specific measures the FBI would institute to catch spies within the U.S. government.
The hearing came amid revelations by The New York Times on Wednesday that a Russian intelligence source warned the United States in the mid-1990s that Moscow had a spy inside the FBI.
The tip prompted the FBI briefly to conduct an inquiry, but it was abandoned after the same source later said Moscow's agent was in the CIA, the newspaper said.
The break for U.S. authorities in the Hanssen case came when they obtained original letters written between an American code-named "B" and "Ramon," and his Russian handlers. Law enforcement officials say those letters pointed to Hanssen as the alleged spy.
Court documents released on Tuesday said a computer disk placed in a black trash bag that Hanssen allegedly left for Russian handlers on the day of his arrest contained an encrypted letter saying he knew he was under suspicion.
Hanssen, who had been under surveillance, was arrested on Feb. 18 after FBI agents watched him drop off a package in a park in Virginia.
An FBI affidavit quoted the letter as saying: "It seems, however, that my greatest utility to you has come to an end, and it is time to seclude myself from active service."
The letter, signed by "Ramon Garcia," also said: "Something has aroused the sleeping tiger. Perhaps you know better than I."
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