Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 2, 1994 TAG: 9405020051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated PRess
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Many in Congress, including the Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees, want to write new laws giving the FBI the lead role in investigating cases of suspected spies inside U.S. intelligence agencies.
Congressional critics of the CIA - and even some of its regular supporters - have concluded after seeing the Ames case unfold that the CIA needs fixing and that the only way to ensure that the fixes are longlasting is to put them into law.
"Obviously, something is severely broken out there," said Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "We in Congress fund that agency and we have to help them try to find the corrective measures."
Rep. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, was more blunt: "This will never happen without legislation. The CIA is incapable of reforming itself."
The administration agrees that it needs to tighten its spycatcher's net, but it doesn't want reforms to be imposed by Congress. The executive branch traditionally opposes efforts by Congress to legislate matters of national security.
"We don't need additional legislation to govern how law enforcement and intelligence can better work together," James Woolsey, the CIA director, told an American Bar Association panel Friday.
Woolsey said that is one of the conclusions of a task force he and Attorney General Janet Reno formed last year to study ways of improving cooperation.
Ames, 52, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to commit espionage and evade taxes. He was sentenced to life with no chance of parole. His wife, Rosario, 41, pleaded guilty to a lesser version of the espionage charge; her sentencing was put off until August.
Woolsey and Justice Department officials are scheduled to testify this week before the House and Senate intelligence committees on an administration plan for getting the FBI more closely involved in CIA espionage investigations.
Administration sources speaking on condition of anonymity said other elements of the proposal included these main points:
The FBI would replace the CIA as the main agency supervising counterintelligence investigations in all U.S. spying agencies.
A senior FBI agent would be assigned to work in the CIA's counterintelligence office and a senior CIA official would be placed at the FBI's counterintelligence office.
by CNB