ACCESSION
NUMBER:342122
FILE ID:POL208
DATE:05/03/94
TITLE:CLINTON AUTHORIZES CHANGES IN COUNTERINTELLIGENCE STRUCTURE (05/03/94)
TEXT:*94050308.POL
CLINTON AUTHORIZES CHANGES IN COUNTERINTELLIGENCE STRUCTURE
(Signs directive, U.S. officials tell Congress) (560)
By Wendy S. Ross
USIA Congressional Affairs Writer
Washington -- President Clinton has authorized significant changes in the
U.S. counterintelligence structure to foster closer cooperation among
concerned government departments and agencies, according to a group of U.S.
officials.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director James Woolsey, Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) Director Louis Freeh and Deputy Assistant Attorney
General Jamie Gorelick told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence May
3 that the authorization is contained in a new presidential directive.
The directive was not made public because it is classified as secret.
However, the National Security Council distributed a three-page
unclassified summary.
The new directive was deemed necessary in the wake of the Aldrich Ames spy
case, according to the U.S. officials, who point out that it includes
creation of a new National Counterintelligence Policy Board that will
report to the president through his national security adviser. The
position of chairman will rotate every two years among the CIA, FBI and
1efense Department.
The directive "represents the best thinking of the entire intelligence
community," Gorelick said.
Woolsey said it "places the policy and coordinating machinery of
counterintelligence in the hands of the National Security Council itself."
He said he is "committed to seeing expanded cooperation between law
enforcement and intelligence," adding that "even one case of unnecessary
friction between the CIA and FBI is one the president and the Congress
should not tolerate and the nation cannot afford."
Expressing his satisfaction with the presidential directive, Freeh said that
it integrates the exchange of counterintelligence information at every
critical level. "Our mission is to protect national security," and the
directive "gives us a working solution" by calling for the total
cooperation among agencies against our common enemies -- spies," he said.
The administration also has introduced legislation in Congress called the
Counterintelligence and Security Enhancements Act of 1994, the three
officials said, pointing out that it would give intelligence agencies more
authority to check out employees financial records.
The administration's bill "appears to be something that we can work with,"
said Intelligence Committee Chairman Dennis DeConcini. But he noted that
the legislation does not deal with the relationship between the CIA and
FBI, leaving that to the presidential directive.
He and several other members of the committee said they thought it would be
better to put the directive into law, something the administration strongly
opposes.
Also appearing before the committee were two of its former co-chairs,
Democratic Senator David Boren and Republican Senator William Cohen.
"It's ironic," Boren said, "that as the Cold War has worn down, the level of
espionage has gone up."
The president's directive is a "step in the right direction," but "this
committee can add to the positive work that's been done already," Boren
said. The trick in forging legislation, he said, it to "catch the balance"
between being too suspicious and not suspicious enough, to balance the
constitutional rights of individuals with the need to strengthen national
security.
The end of the Cold War did not mean the end of spying, Cohen said, adding
that "Mr. Ames should have quit the service and gone public" with his
criticism of the intelligence community. Instead, Cohen pointed out, Ames
"chose to stay in the public service and betray his country."
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