THE WAR ON SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002-8
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002- -
ARTICLE A RED
ON PAGE
U.S.NEWS g WORLD REPORT
12 August 1985
The War on Spies
As Washington steps up
defenses against a growing
security threat, critics
warn against overreaction.
Shaken by a rash of spy scandals, the
White House and Congress are mount-
ing a major counterattack against for-
eign espionage operations in the U.S.
The campaign seeks to fight hostile
intelligence activities by curtailing the
army of Soviet agents in the United
States, strengthening the government's
counterintelligence arm, deterring
Americans from selling secrets and
curbing the number who are cleared to
handle sensitive information.
Three spy cases now in the courts
are responsible for ringing alarm bells
on Capitol Hill over what is perceived
as a growing security threat.
In one, an agent of the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation, for the first time
ever, is accused of passing secret docu-
ments to a female KGB agent, who was
his lover.
In a second, a former Central Intelli-
gence Agency employe is alleged to
have given her Ghanaian boyfriend se-
crets of American intelligence opera-
tions in Africa.
The third case-the most worrisome
in the view of counterintelligence spe-
cialists-involves a retired Navy chief
warrant officer, John Anthony Walker;
his sailor son; his brother, who is a re-
tired Navy officer, and a friend, who also
served in the Navy. They are charged
with selling vital military secrets to the
Soviets over more than a decade.
These cases add to widespread un-
easiness over a KGB drive to acquire
advanced American technology that is
banned for export to the U.S.S.R.
Tightening security. As Washington
seeks to seize the initiative in the war
against spies, it is Congress that is set-
ting the pace. Previously rejected mea-
sures now being seriously considered
by lawmakers would-
^ Expand the use of polygraphs.
Lawmakers are conferring on legisla-
tion that would give the Pentagon the
green light to use polygraphs to test
the loyalty of defense and contractor
personnel. Over the next two years,
the Pentagon is authorized to run
10,500 mandatory lie-detector tests on
defense and contractor personnel with
access to the government's most sensi-
tive information.
^ Stiffen penalties for espionage.
Some in Congress are calling for the
execution of spies uncovered -in the
armed forces during peacetime, con-
trasting with the present maximum
punishment of 10 years' imprisonment.
^ Intensify security checks. After the
Walker case came to light, Congress
added 25 million dollars to the Penta-
gon's budget to finance an extra 150,000
reinvestigations of personnel previously
given security clearances. Defense In-
vestigative Service officials say that the
money will enable them to increase the
number of street agents by 50 percent.
In addition to these moves to deter
Americans from turning to espionage,
Congress is taking steps to reduce the
threat posed by the 2,600 Soviet-bloc
diplomats stationed in the United States.
The FBI estimates that one third of
these are actively engaged in spying.
This small army of Soviet agents is
expected to be reduced by legislation
that would permit Moscow to keep no
more diplomats in the U.S. than the
number of American officials stationed
in the U.S.S.R.
At the same time, lawmakers are
trying to cramp the style of an esti-
mated 200 Kremlin spies based at the
United Nations by making all Soviet-
bloc diplomats assigned to the world
organization get State Department
permission for travel, thereby mak-
ing FBI surveillance easier.
The administration, while endors-
ing enthusiastically most congressio-
nal initiatives, has its own agenda in
the antispy campaign. Its major ef-
fort is directed at tightening security
by curtailing the number of people
cleared to handle secret information.
Defense Secretary Caspar Wein-
berger has directed that 10 percent
of the 4.3 million security clearances
held by Pentagon employes and con-
tractors be revoked by October 1. An
even more ambitious and controver-
sial cutback is being pursued by Navy
Secretary John Lehman, who hopes
to slice the Navy's clearances in half.
In two months, he has achieved a 19
percent reduction, eliminating
170,000 and downgrading 63,000.
Not all of the administration's ef-
forts are aimed at individuals. Other
reforms given new impetus by the
Walker case include the installation of
hundreds of thousands of "scrambler"
telephones, tighter computer security,
and stepped-up surveillance at defense
plants during off hours.
Taking it to the KGB. The Walker
case also has boosted efforts to expand
counterintelligence by the FBI. An ad-
ministration official says that President
Reagan does not intend to concentrate
on passive measures-such as limiting
security clearances-but aims to focus
also on monitoring and investigating
hostile intelligence officers in the U.S.
Actually, the administration quietly
and steadily over the past four years has
added funding for counterintelligence,
with the support of the intelligence
committees in Congress. Although de-
tails are top secret, some threads of the
new activities can be discerned.
The FBI is stepping up electronic
surveillance in an effort to uncover es-
pionage in this country. At the same
time, the CIA is helping friendly gov-
ernments identify and thwart Soviet
agents overseas in a strategy calculated
to disrupt KGB operations wherever
possible. In the past two years, over
lance photo with 9ratlana A 11
KGB agent to whom 10 aNegedlp ~
0l
crets. She has pleaded gulity to spew;
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002-8 ,,
150 Soviet spies have been expelled
from countries around the world, well
above the number of expulsions report-
ed in previous years.
Plans now under consideration at the
White House to further beef up the
counterintelligence effort have not
been disclosed.
Just how much difference all this will
make in the great spy war is unclear-
and also controversial. Some experts
point out that this is not the first at-
tempt to curtail security clearances
and classified documents. Earlier ef-
forts, they say, petered out before pro-
ducing significant results.
A move in the 1970s to cut security
clearances eventually was abandoned in
the face of bureaucratic resistance. In-
stead, clearances over the past decade
grew at a pace that overwhelmed the
agents assigned to conduct background
investigations. Between 1981 and 1983,
things were so bad that the Pentagon
simply stopped doing reinvestigations,
even though these are required every
five years for those with clearances at
the top-secret level or above.
Fiscal hurdle. The cost of imple-
menting a tougher security policy is
another obstacle. Expanding follow-up
investigations to include the 3 million
defense and contractor workers with
secret clearances would add 623 mil-
lion dollars alone to the budget of the
Defense Investigative Service over the
next four years.
Senator William Roth (R-Del.), who
3 Spy Cases That nigger Alarm
Ex-Navy radioman Jerry Whitworth is ac-
cused of supplying vital codes to the Sovi-
ets through John Anthony Walker, Inset, al-
leged head of family spy ring.
Total now il-a
clearer .3 million.
headed an investigation earlier this
year of the security-clearance pro-
gram, argues that "given the enormous
scope of the problem, there is no magic
solution. What we need are steady and
some rather prosaic steps."
Some are concerned, though, that
the steps now being taken are an over-
reaction to the Walker case. "I'm
afraid," says Senator Patrick Leahy (D-
Vt.), vice chairman of the Select Com-
mittee on Intelligence, "that part of
what we're seeing is just a PR response
to past negligence. Providing a death
penalty for spies eliminates their in-
centive to cooperate and the possibility
of a trade with the Soviets. They aren't
going to trade for spies if we send them
in a casket."
Similarly, the expanded
use of lie-detector tests is de-
nounced by critics as poten-
tially counterproductive.
Representative Jack Brooks
(D-Tex.) claims that the tests
will "implicate all the inno-
cent people who are worried
or upset about being interro-
gated with a polygraph ma-
chine. The good, hotshot
criminals and spies are going
to beat the rap."
Even some members of
Congress who support the
use of polygraphs say they
should not be relied on too
heavily. Senator Leahy puts
it this way: "We don't want
the careers of Americans ruined be-
cause they drank too many cups of cof-
fee one morning."
Necessary tool. Retired Gen. Rich-
ard Stilwell, who is in charge of a com-
mission conducting a review of the
Pentagon's security policies, staunchly
defends polygraphs as a tool for detect-
ing possible spies. While stressing that
clearances are never withheld solely
because of a lie-detector test, he says
the polygraph has a "high utility ... in
identifying applicants who are clearly
unsuitable."
The plan to beef up counterintelli-
gence also is stirring controversy, with
some top FBI officials siding with the
critics. Edward O'Malley, head of the
bureau's counterintelligence force,
Former CIA clerk Sharon Scranage Is
charged with giving secrets of U.S. Intelli-
gence operations to Michael Agbotul Sous-
soudis, Inset, her Ghanaian lover.
says that the government
should adhere to the At-
torney General's guide-
lines that were promul-
gated to avoid the
excesses committed by
the FBI and CIA in the
1970s. "I hope," he adds,
"that there is no overre-
action or hysteria."
Whatever the criticism,
both Congress and the
Reagan administration
are determined to carry
on with their intensified
war against spies. Sup-
porters of the policy em-
phasize that this is a strug-
gle that the U.S. must be
prepared to wage for
years ahead.
"It's a little like crime
on the street," says Sena-
tor Roth. "You're never
going to be finished with
it. But we are making a
good start." ^
By DAVID WHITMAN with ROB-
ERTA. KITTLE, ORR KELLY and
ROBERT S. DUDNEY
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807370002-8