Chief Alyeska Pipeline Investigator Quits : ENERGY: The secret probe of whistle-blowers causes flap.

The private investigator who ran a secret sting operation aimed at Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. whistle-blowers resigned abruptly Thursday after being told to quit or be fired, according to a director of Alyeska’s security firm.

Wayne Black, who had been promoted in August to vice president of Alyeska’s security contractor The Wackenhut Corp., abruptly resigned at about 4 p.m. Thursday after meeting with George Wackenhut, the security firm’s chairman.

The resignation came a little more than a week after a House committee concluded three days of hearings into possible illegalities in the 1990 sting--a hearing that exposed Alyeska and Wackenhut to intense and embarrassing scrutiny.

The secret probe, conducted by Wackenhut at Alyeska’s behest, targeted a retired Virginia oil tanker broker, Charles Hamel, who has been the source for Congress, regulators and the media of information about Alyeska’s questionable environment practices. Alyeska, a consortium of seven oil companies, operates the 880-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

The ultimatum to Black was an apparent about-face: Wackenhut stoutly defended Black before the committee. He also denied that the Alyeska probe was improper or illegal.

Black resigned the day two letters were delivered to Chesterfield Smith, a Wackenhut outside lawyer and board member, alleging that Black attempted to investigate and “expose” employees who helped the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep.George Miller (D-Martinez).

In a letter dated Thursday, Jeff Freburg, an investigator in Black’s special investigations division, wrote to say he resigned the previous Monday because of his concern over what he called “questionable investigative practices” in Black’s division.

Freburg added that Black had been attempting to discredit David Ramirez, a current Wackenhut investigator who provided written testimony to Miller’s committee.

For his part, Ramirez wrote his own letter to Smith saying that he has been subjected by Black to a negative “propaganda” campaign since he testified to the committee. “Wayne Black is destroying my professional reputation and interfering with my personal life and people who associate with me,” Ramirez wrote.

Smith said he met Thursday with Wackenhut. At the end, Wackenhut decided Black’s unit “was causing far more turmoil than it made profits, and that it couldn’t continue, and Mr. Wackenhut concluded he would talk with Mr. Black, and say it had to stop, that it was all over,” Smith said.

Black resigned immediately, and an internal committee is mulling whether to disband the special investigations division entirely, Smith said.

For his part, Black disputed Smith’s account, denying he was given an ultimatum and saying it was his decision to leave the firm.

“It’s much nicer to go back to my small corporation where IN actually do some of the work myself; instead of just reading about it and pushing a pencil,” Black said in an interview from Miami.

He also denied any attempt to probe or discredit current or former Wackenhut employees who helped Miller’s committee.