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FBI Leak Probe Irks Lawmakers
The Washington Post ^ | 8/2/02 | Dana Priest

Posted on 08/02/2002 1:18:34 AM PDT by LibWhacker

Many Spurn Polygraph Requests On Issue of NSA's 9/11 Intercept

FBI agents have questioned nearly all 37 members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and have asked many if they would be willing to submit to lie detector tests . . .

The rest of the story is here.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crime; liedetector; senate
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Those refusing are highly suspect and should be followed around the clock.
1 posted on 08/02/2002 1:18:34 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
Isn't this called harrassment?

What idiots. All they need is ONE Intel Committee member to blow the lid off FL800.

They really pushed the button with Traficante.

If I were a senator I would publicly ask that anyone with information regarding FBI wrongdoing in regard to national security come forward to his or her office.

THAT WOULD MAKE HELL FREEZE OVER.

2 posted on 08/02/2002 1:37:18 AM PDT by japaneseghost
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To: LibWhacker
Anyone who thinks that lie detector "testing" is a good idea doesn't know about "the lie behind the lie detector."


3 posted on 08/02/2002 3:05:26 AM PDT by George Maschke
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To: LibWhacker
From Newsday.com's AP Political Wire:

Some Lawmakers to Take Lie Tests


By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON

Associated Press Writer

August 2, 2002, 12:54 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The FBI has asked several members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to submit to lie-detector tests as part of the investigation into who leaked information related to the Sept. 11 attacks, a law enforcement official said late Thursday.

"Lie-detector tests are a standard element of FBI investigations and they are meant to eliminate people from suspicion," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They are always voluntary."

The Washington Post reported in Friday editions that nearly all 37 members of the intelligence committees have been questioned and many have been asked to take lie-detector tests. Several lawmakers have refused to take the test, the newspaper said.

The FBI's investigation is broad in scope -- several dozen congressional staff members also have been questioned and even some CIA agents have been interviewed.

Investigators are trying to determine who leaked information to CNN about communications in Arabic that made vague references to an impending attack on the United States. The communications were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10.

An intelligence source later told The Associated Press they contained the phrases, "Tomorrow is zero hour," and "The match is about to begin."

The intercepts weren't translated until Sept. 12.

Their relevance is uncertain. Intelligence officials say it's not clear if the conversations referred to the hijackings. Even if they did, they offered few clues about the nature of the attacks.

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has called the disclosure of the language "alarmingly specific."

"The selective, inappropriate leaking of snippets of information risks undermining national security, and it risks undermining the promises made to protect this sensitive information," he said.

The leak investigation was sought by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press
Until President Bush and AG Ashcroft clean house in the Executive and Judicial branches of the clinton fifth-column holdovers, we will not recover our Constitutional Republic and safeguard the American dream.
4 posted on 08/02/2002 3:09:28 AM PDT by brityank
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To: George Maschke
That's why it is not allowed in court, George. However, it is a good psychological tool to use in an investigation. That said, I would not willingly take another one.
5 posted on 08/02/2002 3:12:32 AM PDT by brityank
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To: brityank
Yes, about all the polygraph is good for is as an interrogational prop. Unfortunately, too many in law enforcement (and, apparently, on FreeRepublic) actually believe that the polygraph can detect deception.
6 posted on 08/02/2002 3:18:47 AM PDT by George Maschke
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To: LibWhacker
What's good for the goose.......

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CNN.com /US
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EDITIONS

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FBI to start polygraph tests following spy probe

Director likely first to take lie detector test

 

In this story:

Colleagues say suspect knew everything

Congress plans own investigation

Suspect 'didn't fit the profile'

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI will begin making all of its employees undergo random polygraph tests probably within the next few weeks, according to high-level FBI officials.

The looming policy change came as sources said Robert Hanssen, accused of selling U.S. classified information to the Russians, never had a polygraph test during his 25-year FBI career.

Hanssen was arrested on Sunday at a park near his Vienna, Virginia, home while allegedly dropping classified materials into a secret location for pickup by Russian agents. He was charged on Tuesday in federal court with two counts of espionage activities from the 1980s.

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A former co-worker of Hanssen talks about the story


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CNN's Kathleen Koch visits the park where Hanssen allegedly made "dead drops"


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CNN's Kelli Arena says 25-year veteran Philip Hanssen is charged with spying for Russia for the last 15 years


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As a symbolic gesture, officials said the first employee tested will likely be Director Louis Freeh, followed by the deputy director and other assistant directors.

Officials admitted there is a cultural stigma to overcome at the bureau. "When CIA employees hear polygraph, they think 'normal course of doing business'," one FBI official said. "But when our guys hear polygraph they think of it as a tool used against criminals."

The FBI's computer systems also are being redesigned, officials said, though not specifically in reaction to the Hanssen case. The redesign will include updating audit abilities and flagging mechanisms. For example, even though Hanssen searched his name several times to see if he was under investigation, the computer system did not raise any red flags.

The officials also said they have not yet located the $600,000 Hanssen allegedly was paid for offering secrets to the Russians.

But the officials said the search for funds will continue as long as necessary and that the bureau "wants the money back."

The officials emphatically disputed press reports that Sergei Tretyakov, former first secretary of the Russian mission for the United Nations, was involved in the Hanssen Case.

As previously reported, Russian documents acquired by the FBI last year allowed the bureau to focus its investigation on Hanssen. Before that, they had not been looking at him at all.

When asked about how those documents were acquired, bureau officials had no comment. But they did say that the dossier gave them "fairly substantial knowledge of everything Hanssen gave up" to the Russians and that it provided a solid start for a damage assessment.

Colleagues say accused spy knew everything

FBI agents had boxes of evidence and computer hard drives to dissect on Thursday, material taken from Hanssen's home. His former boss said Hanssen knew "everything" about U.S. intelligence activities.

With the target of a covert, four-month-long surveillance in custody, agents were able to investigate openly -- and to speak out about the damage such a spy at Hanssen's level could do to intelligence operations.

David Major, Hanssen's boss and a 20-year colleague at the FBI, told The Washington Post that Hanssen had access to "everything -- all sources, all methods, all techniques, all targets."

"There's only a few people in counterintelligence that have to know everything, and he was one of them," Major said.

Co-workers said Hanssen was incredibly knowledgeable about many topics -- including computer programming -- and that he had developed a system to automate the FBI's Washington Field Office teletype for receiving communications from agents in the field.

"It's going to be horrible," Paul Moore, a former colleague who said he considers Hanssen a close friend, told the Post. "You develop a capability into the other side that puts information into your hands -- and somebody comes along and blows that up."

Congress plans own investigation

FBI agents returned on Wednesday to the home Hanssen shared with his wife and two of their six children, as lawmakers promised their own investigation.

FBI agents were also at the State Department where Hanssen, a 25-year veteran FBI agent, had been posted since 1995. They interviewed former colleagues, trying to determine if they could tie Hanssen to any security breaches there.

Hanssen has been charged with handing over classified documents to Soviet agents and with revealing the names of double agents working in what was the Soviet Union and now Russia. Two of the double agents allegedly unmasked by him were executed.

He is being held without bond at an undisclosed location.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold hearings on the Hanssen case next Wednesday, according to a spokeswoman for committee chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama.

Sen. Bob Graham, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said a quick response from Congress is necessary.

"We've just had a case in which some of our important national secrets have been stolen over a period of 15 years," said Graham, D-Florida.

Suspect 'didn't fit the profile'

The FBI is still trying to assess the extent of the secrets lost in the case -- something that could not be done while Hanssen was under investigation. The agency began investigating Hanssen only late last year, FBI Director Louis Freeh said.

"He knew all the trip wires," said Richard Alu, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who worked with Hanssen for several years.

The FBI redoes background checks on agents every three years or so, so any red flags that might have indicated a problem with Hanssen -- financial troubles, marital problems, drug or alcohol problems -- would have turned up.

"He didn't fit the profile," said Alu. FBI officials filed a 110-page affidavit with a federal court that accuses Hanssen of dropping off intelligence information for the Russians on more than 20 occasions. The material included more than two dozen computer disks and thousands of pages of government documents, the bureau charged.

At least a dozen parks in northern Virginia are identified as dead-drop locations in the FBI's thickly detailed affidavit, which purports to quote directly from correspondence between Russian handlers and their source.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Kate Snow, Justice Department Correspondent Kelli Arena, Reporter Kathleen Koch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


RELATED STORIES:
FBI digs more into spying case
February 21, 2001
FBI agent charged as Russian spy
February 20, 2001
Sources: Deal in the works in case of accused Navy spy
February 6, 2001
Pardoned spy plans trip home
December 16, 2000
FBI director Louis Freeh testifies on Wen Ho Lee case
September 26, 2000
FBI's Freeh expected to defend handling of Wen Ho Lee case
September 25, 2000
CIA spy hunter talks to CNN
May 29, 2000

RELATED SITES:
Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • FBI Press Room - Press Release - 2000 - Veteran FBI Agent Arrested and Charged with Espionage
Central Intelligence Agency
US Department of State
U.S. Department of Justice
Embassy of the Russian Federation
Russian FSB (former KGB, in Russian)

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7 posted on 08/02/2002 6:45:59 AM PDT by Bob Buchholz
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To: LibWhacker
It's time for the elected officials to serve some time...They are not above the Law as they think! If they leak it's a crime and no slap on the wrist like they did with the Torch!
8 posted on 08/02/2002 9:00:08 AM PDT by JohnPaulJones
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To: JohnPaulJones
It's time for the elected officials to serve some time...They are not above the Law as they think! Exactly....no more playing politics with national security.
9 posted on 08/02/2002 9:06:55 AM PDT by Eva
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To: brityank
Until President Bush and AG Ashcroft clean house in the Executive and Judicial branches of the clinton fifth-column holdovers, we will not recover our Constitutional Republic and safeguard the American dream.

And I'd add the Legislative branch as well. The biggest bunch of active traitors in the country are to be found there, imo, and the smug SOBs need to be rooted out.

10 posted on 08/02/2002 9:18:14 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
The Feebs pwobe is iwking the widdle waw-makews?

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

FINE! Now, let's make a list of the names of all the pols who refuse to take a poly.

11 posted on 08/02/2002 9:20:47 AM PDT by mewzilla
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To: Eva
We just need to cut to the chase, and get CNN to tell us who ratted. We are talking about classifed information that is sensitive to national security. As far as I'm concerned, CNN is just as culpable as the informer.
12 posted on 08/02/2002 9:21:13 AM PDT by marvlus
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To: LibWhacker
You know, it's already bad enough that these jerks do not, repeat DO NOT, have to go through a backround check to see this stuff. Grrrrrr....
13 posted on 08/02/2002 9:22:19 AM PDT by mewzilla
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To: George Maschke
All people who have top secret clearance are required to submit to periodic or specific lie detector tests as part of the employment. People who are on the intelligence committee should be requried to undergo the same demands that we give to citizens who work on top secret projects.

Any representative who refuses a lie detector test should be removed from the committee. It is suspiciuos that congress would require citizens who are given top secret information to submit to these tests, but they refuse to take them themselves when they are provided with top secret information.

The issue is not the accuracy of the test. It is the hypocrisy of the members of this committee.

14 posted on 08/02/2002 9:23:40 AM PDT by P-Marlowe
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To: George Maschke
With most of the Senators and Congressmen, the best lie detector test is just to see if their lips are moving.
15 posted on 08/02/2002 9:25:03 AM PDT by theophilusscribe
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To: LibWhacker
And I'd add the Legislative branch as well.

No; in reality that job is [collectively] OUR responsibility. Fat chance with all the 'useful idiots' that the Exec and Justice are allowing free reign to!

16 posted on 08/02/2002 9:25:41 AM PDT by brityank
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To: japaneseghost
It should be stated or made a point! If you refuse your off the committee! The Intelligence committee folks should have to be cleared for information like the people who work with are!!!! No exceptions.....We are taliking about national security here not party agenda.
17 posted on 08/02/2002 9:27:22 AM PDT by JohnPaulJones
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To: mewzilla
Dubya will get them, mewzilla, I'm convinced. This war makes it a whole new ballgame and business as usual for these traitors is an activity from a bygone era.

While they await the firing squad, may they wistfully reminisce of the "good old days" when the USSR existed, and daily treason was a favorite democRAT pastime.

18 posted on 08/02/2002 9:33:11 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: brityank
. . . that job is [collectively] OUR responsibility . . .

But not in wartime. We cannot afford to wait to imprison our traitors at six-year intervals.

19 posted on 08/02/2002 9:37:34 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker
What difference can this make?
It should be obvious to all that members of Congress (except James Trafficant and high-profile Republicans) are ABOVE the law.
Patty "The Leaker" Leahy
Bobby "Torch" Torricelli
Jim Moran (Illegally airing intercepted Gingrich cell phone call)

Even when caught red-handed stealing from taxpayers, they do a token sentence and proceed to collect 6-figure Congressional pensions:
i.e. Danny Rostenkowski

20 posted on 08/02/2002 9:43:52 AM PDT by TheGrimReaper
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