Mission Impossible?
CIA, From Cl to his executive secretary [Nora Slatkinj, while he reveled in being a Cabinet member." L.- -craft, professionalism and adherence to At the same time, Lake also must be clever American values," one top agency official enough to muster enough political support from -Ls said. "Good luck. Tony." the White House, the Congress and the press to as, The agency has lost not only some of its see him through any new scandals that come ,,,.,.respect and self-confidence, but also the So- his way. Woolsey lost the confidence of the „ „yiet threat that nurtured its esprit de corps White House and eventually stopped going to and its budgets for the 50 years of its existence. meetings there. Lake has a solid relationship "Vet spying is an important as it ever was. The with the new national security adviser, Samuel :`.” threat of a global nuclear holocaust has abated, R. Berger, his former deputy, which should help "`'.'but more diverse threats abound. What are the ensure that doesn't happen again. Intentions of North Korea's leaders? What are the contents of a Kazakh nuclear physicist's he challenge for Lake will be to both em- briefcase? Who's on the guest list at a terrorist brace and discipline his battered agency, training camp in Yemen? America's electronic •T to restore its pride while stressing the intelligence network remains the envy of the important of obedience to the law and respect world, but satellites, cameras and microphones for human rights. CIA officials and administra- are not as good at ferreting out that kind of in- tion policymakers say Deutch did little to im- formation. Besides, even Third World countries prove the agency's bread-and-butter work of are becoming more adept at protecting their se- collecting human intelligence, the task that crets, using fiber optics, commercial encryption most distinguishes the CIA from other intelli- programs, digital switching and, in the cases of gence agencies and one that is likely to grow -"4ran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea, underground even most important during the next four •- bunkers. The CIA's ability to buy and steal "hu- years. ....7inan intelligence"—the kind collected by spies To accomplish this, Lake will have to attack ',,:.anstead of satellites—is inadequate and getting three major problems in the clandestine service. The first is the CIA operations directorate's Reforming and rebuilding America's cLandes- long-standing policy of promoting case offi- ....tine service will require Lake—who must first cers—spies who recruit and run foreign pass muster in Senate confirmation hearings— agents—based on how many agents they re- to be both a lion and a fox. The CIA has a long cruit, not according to the quality of their tradition of scorning outsiders. Senior CIA offi- agents or the value of the intelligence they pro- cials say Lake will have at best a month to win duce. Although the CIA's Directorate of Opera- the respect of the agency's top managers. He tions now has an "asset validation" system, must be tough enough to take on the en- some clandestine service officers estimate that -, trenched mandarins of the CIA's Directorate 'of "cheap recruitments" (a few of them downright Operations, the spy service, which chewed up fraudulent) still account for at least 75 percent hoth the current CIA director, John Deutch, and of the CIA's assets, Even worse is the CIA's iDeutch's predecessor in the Clinton administra- habit of recruiting large numbers of spies—in holt, R. James Woolsey. Cuba and East Germany, for examp`7'..- —slim Lake cannot afford to repeat the mistakes his really work for the other side. "predecessors made. Both Woolsey and Deutch The second problem is the quality cif Ameri- surrounded themselves with a handful of loyal ca's own spies, exemplified by Deutcli's claim aides and insulated themselves from the rank- that suspected RI ssian mole Harold 'Jicholson and-file at the CIA. "Woolsey never got a feel was a standout officer. The CIA is having diffi- for the place,", says a senior CIA official. culty meeting its recruiting targets, despite "Deutch delegated all his day-to-day authority lowering some of its standards, amoiag other
"ea"PM.2t$17.7:4*.M15-tit.:7'. 7., 17S, same finding even a few good men and women, it is sponsible for managing day-to-day operations in asking its clandestine service officers to go after France was ordered to prepare a short paper on harder targets. Gone are the days when a case proper tradecraft techniques, (Write on the officer could get ahead by recruiting a Soviet blackboard 100 times: "I will not recruit double diplomat at a cocktail party in Ouagadougou. agents.") The Paris chief of station was given Terrorist groups, drug cartels and nuclear the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. The oper- weapons labs are tougher to penetrate than for- ations directorate's European division chief, eign embassies. hi addition, the CIA is once who had approved the ill-starred French opera- again trying to expand its Non-Official Cover tion, got a plum chief-of-station assignment. (NOC) program, moving spies out of U.S. em- bassies and hiding them behind fake companies The senior officer who presided over the and other facades. Without official cover as dip- CIA's blown operation in Iraq, in which Saddam- lomats, however, case officers can be impris- Hussein executed hundreds and probably thou- oned or even executed if they are caught, in- sands of Kurds, earlier helped run a similarly stead of simply being declared persona non bungled operation in Iran that cost at least 20 grata and sent home. Iranian CIA assets their lives. Although the offi- The CIA also has tried to improve the quality cer was dressed down in at least one meeting, of the training it provides to case officers, espe- CIA officials say Deutch has not officially repri- cially at its basic training facility at Camp Peary, manded, let alone disciplined or fired, anyone in things accepting and promoting some spies who near Williamsburg, long a drying-out stop for of- the DO's Near East Division for botching the cannot even speak a foreign language. Drug ficers with drinking problems. But the fact that Iraq operation. tests and polygraph exams are partly responsi- Nicholson was assigned there as an instructor Deutch's stiffest punishments were reserved ble, but the larger problem is the fact that few suggests that Lake may want to take a hard for mid-level officers in Guatemala who failed to top college graduates these days prefer the CIA look at how good agency training really is, both report that at least one of their assets in the to investment banking, the State Department for new officers and for mid-career spies. Guatemalan military was implicated in the mur- or even journalism. he third problem Lake must confront is der of an American citizen and that numerous When the CIA was handed the job of carrying the spy service's lack of accountability. others were probably guilty of human.rights out reconnaissance missions for the U.S. mili- TDespite their shared reputations for ex- abuses. But Deutch ignored the sloppy:inhde- tary in Bosnia (a task the Pentagon didn't want ceptional self-assurance, both Woolsey and quate reporting from the CIA station in:Guate- for fear of casualties, and one that has resulted Deutch treated the clandestine service with kid mala and focused exclusively on the 'Charges in the accidental death of one female CIA offi- gloves. Given carte blanche by the House and that had raised hackles on Capitol Hill and in the cer), the clandestine service found it had fewer Senate intelligence committees to clean house press. The message, many clandesting s;rvice than four officers who could speak even pass- after the Aldrich Ames spying scandal, Woolsey officers concluded: Deutch was more interested able Serbo-Croatian. In Iraq, the CIA routinely ignored the CIA inspector general's recommen- in political and public relations problems than deployed officers unschooled in that region's dations and declined to fire even one of the offi- the underlying rot in the operations directorate. languages, cultures and history to run and de- cers damned by the agency's Ames investiga- How will Lake handle similar situations? Will he brief its Iraqi and Kurdish agents, with predict- tion. Deutch was nearly as gentle. Senior DO seek to impose tougher punishments? able results. There has been a parade of other , officers were both amazed and relieved when Under the circumstances, it is hardy ris- botched CIA operations in recent years in Paris, he allowed the highest-ranking officer implicat- ing that young case officers are leaving•the.EIA. Rome, Athens, Istanbul and Helsinki, among ed in the scandal, clandestine service chief other places. Hugh (Ted) Price, at best a minor sinner in the An inspector general's investigation iiiio