ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Below
White House personnel security chief Craig Livingstone resigned and former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum took the blame for the FBI files controversy Wednesday. But both insisted they were unaware a low-level aide was gathering background material on Republicans.
They told a House investigative committee that the problem was not caused by any sinister motive but by bureaucratic bungling and their failure to supervise an Army civilian employee who gathered the files.
``In the Clinton White House I knew, there was no enemies list,'' Nussbaum said.
As he announced he was quitting, Livingstone maintained that Anthony Marceca - the Army employee Livingstone brought to the White House - had relied on an outdated Secret Service list to gather the FBI files to determine who was eligible for White House passes.
``I did not recognize the problem, and for that, I am truly sorry,'' Livingstone told the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
Saying ``I bear full responsibility,'' Nussbaum issued a blanket apology to the hundreds of former Bush and Reagan administration employees whose FBI files were gathered in late 1993 and early 1994.
``There were tremendous pressures,'' Nussbaum said, citing a heavy workload and Clinton's decision to reduce White House staff by 25 percent. Nussbaum said that the cutbacks forced them to bring in detailees such as Marceca and youthful unpaid interns to help.
Livingstone told the committee that interns with no security clearance worked in his office, typing out forms near the open vault that contained hundreds of sensitive personnel files.
Livingstone said the interns were told that secret and top secret information was kept in color-coded folders - and if they saw one, they were not to open it.
The testimony was greeted skeptically by committee Republicans. Chairman Bill Clinger, R-Pa., charged presidential aides in the Clinton White House were ``amateur detectives rooting around for dirt.''
``It is extremely troubling to think the president could allow his staff to so cavalierly handle security matters,'' he said.
The committee also released several documents Wednesday that Republicans said bolstered their case. Among them:
A White House memo indicating a presidential aide was assigned to spy on travel office employees during a trip to California just days before they were fired in May 1993.
An FBI e-mail message that suggested federal prosecutors were interested in timing the indictment of travel office chief Billy Dale so that charges would be brought just before the 1994 elections. Dale was acquitted of mishandling travel office funds last year. The Justice Department dismissed the memo as a ``bunch of hooey,'' saying the FBI author misunderstood the case.
Documents showing the White House chief of staff's office checked out personnel files of the fired travel office employees, prompting an objection from a White House aide. ``This should not be happening,'' Mary Beck of the personnel management division wrote in a memo.
In a separate matter, the White House acknowledged it compiled computer files on members of Congress, political contributors and reporters to help decide whom to invite to the White House and to keep track of supporters.
- Cox News Service contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Livingstone. color.by CNB