Secret Senate Documents, Parleys Called Leak Risks

Amid growing concern about government leaks, Senate officials have discovered that a hideaway meeting room where congressional leaders frequently discuss national secrets is vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping, it was learned Thursday.

At the same time, a survey conducted by three committees found that the Senate has what one official termed “the potential for serious security problems” because it has no standardized procedures to protect top-secret documents stored in senators’ offices.

These findings resulted from an overall reassessment of Senate security ordered by Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) after the arrest last December of a transcriber, working under contract to the House Armed Services Committee, who allegedly tried to sell a classified transcript to a Soviet agent. And they come at a time when members of Congress are being criticized by Administration officials for divulging national secrets to the news media.

Room Under Dome

Alfred M. Lehn, who heads the Senate Office of National Security Information, said Dole recently ordered improvements in the Senate’s secret meeting room, which is directly under the Capitol dome, after experts determined that the decade-old facility was vulnerable to modern surveillance devices.

Lehn said the improvements--which are believed to involve reinforcing the room’s lead-lined walls--were necessary even though there was no evidence that the security of the room had ever been violated.

“The question was whether in 1986 it (the room) met with the standards that you’d like it to meet,” he said. “I think there were reasonable grounds to think that it did not meet those standards. There are now ways that you can eavesdrop from a distance that didn’t exist a few years ago.”

Lehn said a separate study conducted by the Senate Rules, Government Affairs and Intelligence committees and submitted to Dole several weeks ago found that nobody in the Senate has any idea how many classified documents are being stored in offices of individual senators or how many Senate employees are authorized to read top-secret documents. The report recommends creation of a centralized system to control classified materials.

Potential for Problems

“The report found there is good cause to believe that we have the potential for serious security problems,” Lehn said. “You do have an awful lot of offices that can store classified material--120 separate places under the control of 300 to 400 people in four different buildings. We need some central office that will be responsible for all of it.”

But Lehn quickly said the report found “no indication of any breach or attempted breach” of security because of the current procedures.

As a result of the study, Lehn said, the Senate will soon take steps to determine how many Senate employees have been authorized by the FBI to read classified documents and, if necessary, will reduce the number. “I have a gut feeling that there are too many staff people with clearances,” he said.

In addition, he said, Senate officials plan to determine how many senators keep classified documents in their offices and to establish standardized procedures for storing them. Under law, every senator has the right to read classified materials without seeking special approval.

In the House, Michael J. O’Neill, chief counsel of the Intelligence Committee, said his members have discussed the idea of creating a centralized office to protect secret materials. If the Senate sets up such an office, he said, the House will probably do likewise.

But O’Neill emphasized that the special room where the House Intelligence Committee meets to discuss sensitive matters has been improved regularly over the years to keep pace with the increased capabilities of eavesdropping equipment. He said his committee also has had a system for regularly disposing of outdated classified documents since it was founded in 1977.