Free Republic

Question: WAS ANGLETON RIGHT? What does it say about the state of US intelligence in the late nineteen-eighties and early ninety-nineties that two top counterintellgence officials-- Aldrich Ames in the CIA's anti-Soviet counterintelligence and Robert Phillip Hanssen in the FBI Soviet counterintelligence-- were moles for the Russian Intelligence Service? Under such circumstances, who controlled the recruitments the CIA and FBI were making during this period? ANSWER: James Jesus Angleton, the chief of the CIA's counterintelligence staff from in 1953 to 1974, principal concern was not with "moles" per se, but with the inherent vulnerability of intelligence services to systematic deception....

Agencies Engage in Finger Pointing and Blame Each Other The fallout from the September 11 attack on America has finally settled over Washington. The FBI, CIA and NSA are now suffering under the microscope of 20/20 hindsight. Like the proverbial three monkeys – blind, deaf and dumb – the agencies are passing the buck and pointing fingers at each other. In July 2001, I wrote that the FBI needed to be reformed. (See FBI Story: Inside Look at Agency in Need of Reform.) My editorial then followed news that the agency was missing a large number of its own weapons....

The FBI has given lie-detector tests to hundreds of employees with access to sensitive information as part of a broad internal security reform effort, Director Robert Mueller told reporters Wednesday. The agency administered polygraph exams to 700 employees after authorities arrested veteran agent Robert Hanssen in February 2001 for selling secrets to Russia for nearly two decades. Seven of the 700 employees flunked the polygraph, but failure is not an automatic indicator of wrongdoing, Mueller said. The agency has plans to periodically administer tests to additional employees. Employees at other federal law enforcement agencies, including the CIA and the Secret...

<p>WASHINGTON — The FBI had the wool pulled over its eyes by convicted spy and ex-agent Robert Hanssen, even though Russians told the U.S. of Hanssen's activities.</p> <p>Eight years before Hanssen was arrested on charges of spying for Moscow, Russia complained to the U.S. government that he tried to give U.S. secrets to a high-ranking military intelligence officer.</p>