F.B.I. Agent Ousted Over Her Handling Of a Chinese Spying Inquiry

NY Times ^ | 1/30/02 | DAVID JOHNSTON

[truthandlife]

The director of the F.B.I., Robert S. Mueller III, has removed a senior counterintelligence official from her job over her handling of an investigation into suspicions of Chinese espionage, bureau officials say.

The espionage investigation centers on suspicions that China tried to recruit a spy against the United States. Officials provided few additional details, and as a result the identity of the subject of the investigation is unknown. They also would not say whether any spying had actually taken place and what, if any, information may have been compromised.

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said Mr. Mueller had lost patience with Sheila Horan, one of the bureau's highest ranking women, for failing, in his view, to conduct a sufficiently aggressive inquiry into the accusations. Mr. Mueller was said to be especially displeased that she did not provide him sooner with details about the case.

In what officials said was an unusually swift decision, Mr. Mueller transferred Ms. Horan from her job as acting head of the bureau's national security division to an administrative support position. They said she was expected to leave the bureau. Ms. Horan did not respond to a telephone call to her office.

The agency's national security division, also known as the counterintelligence division, has been reeling since the espionage inquiry last year that unmasked a senior agent, Robert P. Hanssen, as a Russian spy, and has been trying to regroup at a time when the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence operation has been vastly overshadowed by the bureau's efforts to cope with terrorism.

Any suggestion of Chinese involvement in espionage has been particularly delicate to the Justice Department since the collapse of the case against Wen Ho Lee, a nuclear weapons scientist who was initially suspected of spying for China. Dr. Lee, who pleaded guilty in September 2000 to one count of mishandling classified material, has charged that he was singled out for hostile scrutiny because he is Chinese-American.

Mr. Mueller, who was on the job less than two weeks when the Sept. 11 terror attacks occurred, has been preparing to announce a broader personnel shakeup and reorganization of the F.B.I.'s top managerial ranks. His actions in Ms. Horan's case are widely viewed in the bureau as reflecting his increasing confidence as head of the law enforcement agency.

Mr. Mueller has been demanding more accountability from top officials at the F.B.I. and has been under pressure from Attorney General John Ashcroft to strengthen the bureau's management.

The espionage inquiry is said to be unrelated to Beijing's discovery last month of sophisticated satellite-activated bugging devices installed aboard a Boeing 767 jetliner that was delivered to China in September as President Jiang Zemin's official aircraft.

President Bush is scheduled to visit Beijing in a few weeks. Thus far, the bugging case has brought no official protest and appears to have had little impact on the United States- China relationship.

Friends of Ms. Horan said that Mr. Mueller had unfairly blamed her for longstanding problems in the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence operations. In particular, they said, she was singled out for weaknesses that Mr. Mueller had concluded had hampered the bureau's efforts to thwart Chinese espionage.

Other officials said that Mr. Mueller had been planning to overhaul the counterespionage operations and had been impatient with the breezy and independent style of Ms. Horan, an agent with more than two decades of experience at the F.B.I.

In recent months, Ms. Horan's standing had eroded. She had been a deputy to Neil Gallagher, who before his retirement had headed the national security division and took much of the criticism from Congress concerning the Lee case. Under Mr. Gallagher, Ms. Horan had been in day-to-day charge of spy investigations.

Earlier, Ms. Horan had worked at the F.B.I.'s Washington office heading counterterrorism investigations. She was placed in charge of the initial investigation into the East Africa embassy bombings in 1998, an inquiry that led to the conviction of several Al Qaeda followers of Osama bin Laden.

The shakeup over the Chinese case comes as Justice Department internal inquiries into the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence operation are nearing completion and are expected to conclude that the national security division needs to be strengthened and brought under tighter managerial control.

A broad review of the F.B.I.'s counterespionage division has been under way for nearly a year led by William H. Webster, the former director of the F.B.I. and the Central Intelligence Agency. Another review by the Justice Department's inspector general is nearing completion.

[OKCSubmariner]

Flamefront, I agree with your point in reply #35 that many would not be likely to look deeper into the China situation after GW Bush gave a patriotic speech last night.

This remark you wrote really is timely in view of a lot of things about Bush policy with China:

"She appears to also possibly to be a ChiCom appeaser. "

You may well be correct, but the IRONY of all this is that GWBush and HW Bush have been and still are also APPEASERS of China. So Mueller removes an alleged China appeaser Horan when Mueller serves in an administration that blatantly appeases China eonomially and militarily.

It is frustrating that GW Bush can get way with his appeasement of China (without being criticzed or challenged at the risk of being called unpatriotic)by hiding behind our country's need to rally behind the President to fight the very terrorism of which China is the leading backer-Iran, Iraq,AlQaeda, Bin Laden,Hamas,Hezbollah,etc.

The nations Bush named in his speech as proliferationg weapons of mass destruction and training terrorists , Iraq, Iran and North Korea should be on the list. But China backs them and is a leading proliferator of weapons to terrorists. And HW Bush helped build up Iraq with weapons of mass destruction. The very weapons Bush named in his speech, chemical, anthrax and nulcear materials and technologies were transferred to Iraq by HW Bush in the late 1980s. And China and Iraq are now working very losely together to destroy the US and GW Bush knows it.

Why did not Bush criticize China's terrorisim and nuke threats against the US in his speech? Bush appeases China eonomically and militarily and never really publicly critices them strongly for their support of terrorism-that is appeasemnt of China by Bush .

Yet if I criticize Bush on China many will not listen and will say I am hurtng the Presidents ability to fight terrorsim against the very people Bush appeases, the Chinese!!This is more than hypocrisy and double think. This is a corrupt, duplitious and evil charade being perpetrated on the AMerican people. There should be a public dialog on this. When it comes to China, GW Bush is not who he says he is.

If I felt we had more time, I could pick a different time than after the Bush sppeh to make my points about Bush and China ad Iraq. But, while this is a public topic in everyone's mind and since we are running out of time with China's and Iraq's designs, I chose to make my points now especailly since there are many, many things about Bush's speech that are worse than hyporitical about China and Iraq, they are flat out evil. I do not want to wait until later to remind people (when they will have forgotten) about what Bush did or did not say in his speech about China and Iraq.

I want the historical record to show that I warned people now about the long standing appeasement and buildup of China ecomnomically and with US missile defense and nuclear weapons technology by GW Bush policies and the buildup of Iraq with weapons of mass destruction by HW Bush. People will remember that I told them about this when they later realize that the US has been had by China and Iraq (terrible wounds to the US are coming at the hands of China and Iraq IMHO) because of the charade over duplitious Bush China and Iraq policies.

[OKCSubmariner]

Sorry but reply #41 was filled with typos, the wrong version got released. Here is the correct version of reply #41:

Flamefront, I agree with your point in reply #35 that many would not be likely to look deeper into the China situation after GW Bush gave a patriotic speech last night.

This remark you wrote really is timely in view of a lot of things about Bush policy with China:

"She appears to also possibly to be a ChiCom appeaser. "

You may well be correct, but the IRONY of all this is that GWBush and HW Bush have been and still are also APPEASERS of China. So Mueller removes an alleged China appeaser Horan when Mueller serves in an administration that blatantly appeases China economically and militarily.

It is frustrating that GW Bush can get way with his appeasement of China (without being criticized or challenged at the risk of being called unpatriotic)by hiding behind our country's need to rally behind the President to fight the very terrorism of which China is the leading backer-Iran, Iraq, AlQaeda, Bin Laden,Hamas,Hezbollah,etc.

The nations Bush named in his speech as proliferating weapons of mass destruction and training terrorists , Iraq, Iran and North Korea should be on the list. But China backs them and is a leading proliferator of weapons to terrorists. And HW Bush helped build up Iraq with weapons of mass destruction. The very weapons Bush named in his speech, chemical, anthrax and nuclear materials and technologies were transferred to Iraq by HW Bush in the late 1980s. And China and Iraq are now working very loosely together to destroy the US and GW Bush knows it.

Why did not Bush criticize China's terrorism and nuke threats against the US in his speech? Bush appeases China economically and militarily and never really publicly criticizes them strongly for their support of terrorism-that is appeasement of China by Bush .

Yet if I criticize Bush on China many will not listen and will say I am hurting the Presidents ability to fight terrorism against the very people Bush appeases, the Chinese!! This is more than hypocrisy and double think. This is a corrupt, duplicitous and evil charade being perpetrated on the American people. There should be a public dialog on this. When it comes to China, GW Bush is not who he says he is.

If I felt we had more time, I could pick a different time than after the Bush speech to make my points about Bush and China ad Iraq. But, while this is a public topic in everyone's mind and since we are running out of time with China's and Iraq's designs, I chose to make my points now especially since there are many, many things about Bush's speech that are worse than hypocritical about China and Iraq, they are flat out evil. I do not want to wait until later to remind people (when they will have forgotten) about what Bush did or did not say in his speech about China and Iraq.

I want the historical record to show that I warned people now about the long standing appeasement and buildup of China economically and with US missile defense and nuclear weapons technology by GW Bush policies and the buildup of Iraq with weapons of mass destruction by HW Bush. People will remember that I told them about this when they later realize that the US has been had by China and Iraq (terrible wounds to the US are coming at the hands of China and Iraq IMHO) because of the charade over duplicitous Bush China and Iraq policies.

[Squantos]

They probably caught her in the FiBi archives section trying on J. Edgars dresses....

One more Clintonista put in their place IMHO.....Stay Safe

[Askel5]

GOP's the "Big Daddy" party when it comes to China.

Why else you think they had to stoop to paper bags of cash at Buddhist Temples to get Americans focused on the Dems as the "real" culprits?

[F16Fighter]

Is this Director Mueller's idea of "heads rolling"?? Why not also ban Ms. Horan from chocolate milk at the FBI commissary?

Time to get SERIOUS about discipline at the Bureau.

[OKCSubmariner]

Reply #39 is very good important info about Horan.

But the fact remains that if Horan is a ChiCom appeaser, she was one at a high level post investigating the Chinese at the FBI during the HWBush adminstrations when HW Bush was appeasing the Chinese.

Also the ties between Clinton and HWBush and GW Bush via Mena and Jackson Stephens and Saudi terrorist backers make me believe that the duplicitous Amerian policies with the Chinese are/were done by HW and GW and Clinton in concert and with each others knowledge.

And remember that GW Bush did not want anymore investigations (he said move along put it behind us) into Chinagate and the findings of the COx report, findings that showed similar treasonous US nuclear transfers to China during BOTH the HW Bush and Clinton administrations.

Look at all the Clinton holdovers in GW 's administration (like Mueller who served for HW Bush and Clinton) Bush could also have gotten rid of many Clinton holdovers without Congressional approval but instead has kept too many of them.

[rdavis84]

"Why did not Bush criticize China's terrorisim and nuke threats against the US in his speech? Bush appeases China eonomically and militarily and never really publicly critices them strongly for their support of terrorism-that is appeasemnt of China by Bush ."

I believe the Bush Family; GHWB, Neil, Prescott, GWB, ---all have the ego driven belief that they Understand the Chinese. They believe they can make traditional Deals with them that make a lot of Money for both China and themselves.

A quick review if the trade imbalance shows who's paying for that Money Making, you and me.

It's also interesting that there has NEVER been an issue of Christianity that has gotten in the way of those deals. But yet most believe the Bush Family are ideal examples of Rewarded Christianity.

[cardinal4]

Or leaks more of the details about the Islamic fundamentalists involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing....

Or documents proving that Clinton knew the money they received from China for the 1996 campaign came directly from the Peoples Army/Navy of China.(PLAN)

[archy]

Do we have any dope on Ms. Sheila Horan? Article with pic, regarding the Kenya US Embassy bombings:

I had this one bookmarked as a part of the nosing into Osama's previous activities and funding of other pre-09/11 naughtiness.

***** *****

Thursday, August 13, 1998 Published at 13:29 GMT 14:29 UK

World: Africa

Five suspects held over Kenya bombing

FBI and Kenyan officials sift through the wreckage

Kenyan police have detained a total of five people in connection with last week's bombing of the United States embassy in Nairobi.

Senior Kenyan investigator Peter Mbuvi said: "We are talking to them. We are questioning them. We are interrogating them ... because of suspicious activities."

Peter Mbuvi: Kenyan police
is holding five suspects

No details were given as to the nationality of the detainees and it is not clear whether the detentions represent a breakthrough.

More than 250 people were killed in explosions which happened almost simultaneously outside US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Friday.

Several people are being held in Tanzania in connection with the blast outside the embassy in Dar es Salaam.

Jane Standley: as the bodies are flown back, US determines to find bombers The bodies of 10 Americans killed by the Nairobi bomb are being flown back to Washington, where a memorial service will be held on Thursday.

Vehicle clue

Sheila Horan, head of the FBI's operation in Kenya, said investigators had made some progress in identifying the vehicle that delivered the Nairobi bomb.

"We have been successful, we think, in identifying certain parts of the delivery vehicle," she said.

Cathy Jenkins in Nairobi: Kenyan authorities and the FBI were"very keen to show there is co-operation" She said the work was painstaking.

"We are literally sifting through tremendous piles of debris."

Ms Horan was was asked if she knew the kind of explosive used or who was to blame.

"If I did, we wouldn't be here today," she replied.

Sheila Horan: FBI is "shifting
through tremendous piles of
debris"

Asked whether the FBI was monitoring fundamental extremist cells in Kenya and East Africa, she said that the organisation would be monitoring target areas.

But she refused to comment on whether the embassies in Tanzania and Nairobi have received prior warnings of an attack.

In an opening statement, Ms Horan said that Kenya had pledged and delivered full co-operation and was sharing its resources with the FBI.

She stressed that there was full co-operation between the FBI and the Kenyan authorities.

On behalf of the FBI, she offered "the deepest sympathy and compassion" to Kenyans and members of the diplomatic community who had suffered losses as a result of the bombing.

In Nairobi, efforts to find any more survivors have ended. A memorial service was held amid the rubble on Wednesday.

-30-

[archy]

[Too bad those *target areas she said that the organisation would be monitoring* didn't include the World Trade Center towers, which had been a target before.]

See also this completely and entirely unrelated story, while remembering the theory advanced by former British Intelligence officer Ian Fleming [via his Goldfinger novel character Auric Goldfinger] that *Once is coincidence, twice is circumstance, but three times is enemy action....*

-archy-/-

[SlickWillard]

From http://www.fungasafari.com/Page8005.htm:

Delamere girls on Longonot

... a seriously daggy shot of some Delamere girls on Longonot circa 1963.
Left to Right : Val Beakes, Estelle Osborne, yours truly, Yvonne Houreau, Pat Riggs (I think) behind her, unrecognised blonde in front, Mary Gramenopolous, Sheila Horan and one more unrecognised at the back.
I think Gilly Matthews was on this trip.
Did she take the photo and does she remember it?

Alene Ivey neè Hughes

 

[OKCSubmariner]

How close was Horan to Freeh and Hanssen???

[OKCSubmariner]

How close was Horan to Freeh and Hanssen???

[OKCSubmariner]

How close was Horan to Freeh and Hanssen???

[archy]

Some good lookers too! How about Pixie (if you follow the links)? Hefty, but horny!

Pixie could be quite the dance partner in her day, I'd imagine....

archy-/-

[thinden]

"The espionage investigation centers on suspicions that China tried to recruit a spy against the United States. Officials provided few additional details, and as a result the identity of the subject of the investigation is unknown."

yeah, and his name was bill clinton.

[Woodkirk]

It seems to me that during the entire reign of King Louis Freeh, the Kenyan Bombing Investigation conducted by Shiela Horan was one of the few that properly and quickly led to the arrest of the actual perpetrators. Contrast that with OKC bombing, TWA 800, et al where FBI incompetency is legend and suspicious.

Was she demoted because Mueller feared her diligence and honesty which he wanted tempered with incompetence and poitical compromise.

Did her dismissal have anything to do with her opposition to the Global Crossing purchase by Hutchison Whampoa.