From: http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/clinton-intel.html The New York Times May 6, 2000 Criminal Investigation Follows Review of Agency's Internal Handling of Deutch By JAMES RISEN WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department and the F.B.I. have begun a criminal investigation to determine whether the former director of the C.I.A., John M. Deutch, mishandled classified material by placing it on unsecure computers in his home, government officials said today. The investigation, which amounts to a reversal by the Justice Department, is the result of an internal review of the case ordered in February by Attorney General Janet Reno, following criticism of the C.I.A.'s handling of the case and of her initial decision not to prosecute Mr. Deutch for the security lapses. Ms. Reno ordered the new inquiry to determine whether her initial decision not to prosecute him was in error and whether he should now face criminal charges. She decided against prosecution last year, officials said, without ordering any investigation by the F.B.I. The investigation is the result of an internal review of the case ordered earlier this year by Ms. Reno. For the new, criminal investigation, officials said, the Justice Department has assigned a prosecutor to work directly with F.B.I. agents. They are pursuing an inquiry that focuses on whether Mr. Deutch should face criminal charges for having retained highly classified information on his unsecured home computers while he was leading the agency. Separately, officials said, a special White House intelligence panel presented President Clinton with a toughly worded report that is critical of current and former C.I.A. officials for failing to follow through adequately on the evidence against Mr. Deutch. The report by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board was presented to Mr. Clinton personally earlier this week by the board's chairman, former Senator Warren B. Rudman. The report's findings, they said, were similar to those of the C.I.A.'s inspector general, who also found that senior C.I.A. officials failed to investigate aggressively Mr. Deutch when the computer lapses were discovered. While the presidential board's findings remain classified, officials described its report as sharply critical of the roles played by several of the agency's most senior officials, including some who had worked closely with Mr. Deutch. Calls to Mr. Deutch's lawyer were not immediately returned tonight. In the past, Mr. Deutch has apologized for the security lapses. Critics of the Justice Department have questioned what they describe as the lenient treatment of Mr. Deutch in light of its highly publicized prosecution of Wen Ho Lee, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who has been charged with transferring and copying large volumes of secret nuclear data from the lab. Officials said that the board's report was particularly critical of the roles in the investigation played by the agency's former executive director, Nora Slatkin, and the former general counsel, Michael O'Neil. Ms. Slatkin comes in for the heaviest criticism, officials said, because she was effectively in charge of the agency's botched initial investigation. Both Ms. Slatkin and Mr. O'Neil had been brought to the C.I.A. by Mr. Deutch, and had close relationships with him. Others cited in the report included the agency's former inspector general, Frederick Hitz, and Richard Calder, currently the deputy director for administration. Mr. Hitz began the inspector general's investigation of the Deutch matter but it was completed last year by his successor, L. Britt Snider. The presidential board also criticized the agency's current director, George Tenet, for allowing Ms. Slatkin to take charge of the Deutch investigation. Ms. Slatkin, Mr. O'Neil and others criticized in the new report have previously denied that they took any actions to impede the investigation. The presidential board began its review of how the C.I.A. handled the Deutch matter at the request of Gen. John A. Gordon, the agency's deputy director, who was dissatisfied with the internal efforts to review the matter, officials said. General Gordon has received a copy of the presidential board's report and will try to determine whether the agency should take any further disciplinary action against those involved in the Deutch case. The handling of the Deutch case has been highly controversial from the start. The case began just as Mr. Deutch was leaving office in December 1996, when an agency computer security specialist discovered that Mr. Deutch had placed large volumes of classified material on unsecure computers in his home, including information about some of the government's most sensitive covert operations. The material included detailed personal journals about Mr. Deutch's activities at the C.I.A., and memos prepared for President Clinton. Placing classified material on these unsecure computers represented potential violations of both agency rules and federal law. Three days after the classified material was detected, Mr. Deutch deleted more than 1,000 files from his personal computers, the inspector general's report said. The C.I.A. security staff began an investigation, but before long it bogged down, and some security officials became convinced that senior agency officials were trying to protect Mr. Deutch from a thorough inquiry. The security staff wrote a report on its investigation in 1997 without ever questioning Mr. Deutch. No action was taken against Mr. Deutch for more than a year, when the agency's inspector general was told by an employee that the earlier investigation had not been handled properly. Until the inspector general started his own investigation in early 1998, Mr. Tenet had taken no action to reprimand Mr. Deutch or discipline any other current or former agency officials. Mr. Tenet has said there was never any attempt by anyone at the C.I.A. to constrain the internal inquiry intentionally. The inspector general notified the Justice Department of the Deutch matter in 1998. The delay in notifying the Justice Department about the case allowed a one-year time limit on appointing an independent counsel to run out, to the inspector general's report said. The independent counsel act was still in effect at the time. "Application of the Independent Counsel statute was not adequately considered" by agency officials handling the case, the report says. "Given their failure to report to the Department of Justice on a timely basis, this in effect avoided the potential application of the independent counsel statute." But in April 1999, Attorney General Reno decided not to prosecute Mr. Deutch. Officials now say that decision was reached without any F.B.I. investigation and before the agency's inspector general had issued its report on the case. After the inspector general issued his classified report on Mr. Deutch's actions last August, Mr. Tenet suspended Mr. Deutch's CIA security clearances. At the time, Mr. Deutch issued a statement apologizing for his actions. The inspector general's report recommended that a special C.I.A. accountability review panel be created to examine whether Mr. Tenet and other top officials properly handled the agency's internal investigation. That accountability review panel issued a classified report earlier this year, and presented it to General Gordon for use in determining disciplinary action. But officials said he was not pleased with the report and in February, General Gordon asked the presidential board to conduct an independent review. The presidential board interviewed Mr. Deutch during its review of the matter, officials said. The White House has rejected a request from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for a copy of the presidential board's report, but Mr. Rudman has briefed the committee on his findings, officials said. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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