F.B.I.'S DISCIPLINE DEFENDED IN WAKE OF ARREST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280022-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: October 5, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280022-1
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ARTICLE APP~F.AR~
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TIMES
5 October 1981+
F.B.I.'s Discipline Defended in Wake of Arrest
By LESLIE MAITLAND WERNER
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - Present
and former officials of the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation insisted today
that espionage charges against a bu-
reau agent represented an isolated
event and not a broader security prob-
' lem.
"I see no evidence of a breakdown in
discipline or moral values," said W..
Raymond Wannall, former assistant
director in charge of the bureau's intel-
ligence division. "I don't see where this
calls for any reorganization or
change." .
Mr. Wannall and James R. Malley,
president of the Society of Former Spe-
cial Agents of the F.B.I., both said they
were gratified that the bureau had con-
ducted its own investigation and ar-
rested the suspect agent, Richard W.
Miller.
Mr. Miller, who was arrested in San
Diego Tuesday night, has been accused
of conspiring to sell classified docu-
ments to a female Soviet agent in
whom he had a sexual interest. Accord-
ing to the bureau, he gave the woman,
Swetlana Ogorodnikova, classified ma-
terials on American foreign counterin-
telligence that she passed on to the
Soviet Consulate in San Francisco.
"Every so often somebody goes bad,
and no matter how much you check on
them or try to keep track of them, you
can't follow everyone around on a 24-
hour-a-day basis," Mr. Malley said.
Bill Baker, assistant director of the
bureau for Congressional and public af-
fairs, said the case seemed to be one of
"personal frailty, not system frailty."
"While we have not yet completed
our damage assessment, we don't be-
lieve it will be severe or long-lasting,"
Mr. Baker said. "The supervison of
agents as currently exists is effective;
however, we will continue to examine
our policies, including the polygraph
question, which remains under study."
For several ears bureau officials
have eat whether
h ii-
21 h or e
detector tests should routinel be a -
ministe to agents who wor in sens
j-
live areas.
The practice has not been imple-
mented at the ureau a though em-
ployees of the Central Intelligence
Agency and the National Security-
ency are periodically required to
submit to them.
A national security directive issued
by President Reagan in 1983 would
have required some bureau offices with
access to highly classified information
to submit to routine polygraph screen-
ing. But protests in Congress caused
the Administration to rescind the or-
der, along with another measure call-
ing for lifelong censorship of some Fed-
eral officials.
Written bureau policy says that an
agent may be asked to take a poly-
graph test and that adverse inferences
may be drawn in some cases if he
refuses. Court papers filed in the Miller
case include an account of his activities
that he gave to the bureau's chief
polygrapher, suggesting that Mr.
Miller was given a lie detector test.
The bureau Director. William H.
Webster, said last year that the bureau
was "rethtnlung" whether it had "an
obligation to use more care in screen-
ing applican-ts`ari uu3iungt o woo
Mriin nt1on sa sec-only from tFm-e to
time`such as >'s Gone 6 the C.I.A.''
"~ a erg's need to move in
that direction," he said. He added,,
however, that he thought it important
to "stay out of people's private lives to.
the extent oossihte.
"Unless entirely relevant, life 'style '
ought to be avoided in polygraph,
examinations and in any kind of audit- ;
ing procedure," Mr. Webster contend-,
ed. Mr. Webster has said that agents
are given polygraphs, only to corrobo-`
rate other evidence'of wrongdoing.
Roger Young, Mr. Baker's predeces-.
sor as an assistant director, and other
former bureau officials disputed con-'
tentions that bureau discipline had suf-;
fered by Mr. Webster's belief that the
F.B.I. should not intrude on an agent's
personal life unless it affected his work
performance.
G. Gordon Liddy, the former Water,
gate conspirator and a former bureau'
agent, said on ABC-TV's "Nightline"?
Wednesday night that discipline in the'
bureau had become "virtually nonex-.
istent" compared with discipline when:
J. Edgar Hoover directed the bureau. -
"The bureau is probably one of the,
most disciplined organizations in the,
world," said Homer Boynton, former
executive assistant director of the bu-
reau. "It's not as disciplined as it was;
25 or 30 years ago, but neither is the
-
world, or the Army or the Navy. Under.
Hoover, you were not allowed to drink'
coffee on the iob."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280022-1