Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: From Knight-Ridder/Tribune and The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
And top CIA officials appear to agree.
"I think they know their system is broken," committee member Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., said after Russians wonder why Americans are so upset. A6 a closed-door session with CIA officials Thursday.
Committee Chairman Dan Glickman, D-Kan., said in an earlier interview: "I have very grave concerns on the aspect of due diligence by the CIA, on their oversight and monitoring of people who have exceptionally sensitive information. Obviously there was a major failure here."
At the same time, congressional sources confirmed reports that the deaths of at least 10 Soviet citizens who spied for the United States were attributable to spying alleged to have been carried out by CIA official Aldrich The fundamental reason for assistance to Russia is to serve the interests of the United States. It's not charity. Secretary of State Warren Christopher H. Ames.
From 1985 until last month, Ames had access to some of the nation's most sensitive information. He appears to have eluded detection despite his frequent, unreported contacts with Soviet officials, his affluent lifestyle and his large cash transactions.
In the world of spies, those are the earmarks of a CIA mole.
But Ames passed two routine lie-detector tests at the same time he is alleged to have been spying for Moscow, government officials said.
During all the months that the alleged spy operation was under inquiry at the CIA, President Clinton maintained his policy of support for the government of President Boris Yeltsin in the spirit of post-Cold War collegiality.
With the revelation of the charges against Ames, senior officials argue that to have done otherwise would have played into the hands of just the kind of people who ran the alleged operation: unrepentant cold warriors out to sink U.S.-Russian relations and Yeltsin's reformist government.
It is essentially a defense against accusations of naivete and other criticism that started building even before the political explosion over Russia's alleged payment of $1.5 million to an American spy.
At stake is whether Clinton can maintain enough of a benign view of Russia's political and economic transition to justify reduced U.S. defense spending and a focus on U.S. domestic concerns. He must also justify aid to Russia, which next year is set at more than $2 billion.
To do so, administration officials in effect have absolved Yeltsin of responsibility for the alleged spy operation and adopted a split-lens view of Russia in which the forces of light, seen as aligned with Yeltsin, are doing battle with the dark forces of extreme nationalism, Communism and undercover backers of Ames in Russia's intelligence community.
The incident prompted angry members of Congress Thursday to demand a damage assessment before sending more money.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher caught the criticism from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee where he spent nearly three hours talking about the administration's foreign aid goals.
Christopher stood firm in the face of calls for an interruption in U.S. aid to Russia.
"The fundamental reason for assistance to Russia is to serve the interests of the United States," he said. "It's not charity."
by CNB