CIA Officials Blamed for Spy Case Damage : Espionage: Congressional reviews of Ames affair see breakdown of plan to prevent national security breaches.

After a series of closed-door sessions, congressional reviews of the Ames spy case tentatively have concluded that top CIA officials were to blame for damage caused by a suspected mole’s sale of national security secrets to the Soviet Union, according to ranking members of Congress.

Senate and House intelligence committees are grimly piecing together what is now widely described as a painful breakdown by top CIA officials of a plan to prevent security breaches of the kind posed by accused spy Aldrich H. Ames.

Ames and his wife, Rosario, might have been caught years earlier if the CIA had fully complied with a 1988 memo of understanding with the FBI on internal security, the chairmen of both committees said in interviews. Negotiated and approved by the two agencies after a wave of spy disclosures in the mid-1980s, the memo outlines a comprehensive security process to ferret out such threats.

But instead of following it by promptly alerting the FBI, which is responsible for counterintelligence investigations, to a series of warning signals, top CIA officials kept their suspicions inside the agency, the chairmen said. When they later did call in the FBI, not enough information or access was provided to do the job.

The CIA lapsed into a traditional cloak-and-dagger “culture of secrecy,” said Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Intelligence people have a hard time being straightforward, up front with legitimate law enforcement investigations that deal with their areas, in this case counterespionage,” DeConcini said.

Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that, because the CIA repeated mistakes of the past, the Ames case was “a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

Ames, at one time chief of Soviet counterintelligence in the CIA’s Soviet-East European division, and his wife were arrested Feb. 21 on charges that they conspired to commit espionage. They allegedly were paid an estimated $2.5 million beginning in 1985 to spy for the Soviet Union and later Russia.

The couple is accused of revealing the identities of U.S. agents, causing the deaths of at least 10 sources helping the United States abroad and vastly compromising CIA intelligence efforts.

Both houses of Congress are now looking into reports that specific information about Ames known by CIA officials was not fully disclosed to the FBI at several critical junctures.

Even now, the CIA is not being completely forthcoming about counterintelligence and security vulnerabilities, the intelligence committee chairmen said. The agency’s reluctance, which they attributed to an apparent attempt to protect intelligence tactics and personnel, is hindering the congressional investigations, they said.

“The agency is still being defensive,” DeConcini said. “Trying to get information the last couple of days has been like trying to pull teeth without permission. It’s hard.”

Although the Ames investigation was launched during the George Bush Administration, CIA Director R. James Woolsey, a Clinton appointee, is coming under increasing criticism. “Woolsey has been a little reluctant to talk to us about the extent of the damage,” Glickman said.

Several U.S. officials have noted that, before he became CIA chief, Woolsey served on a commission that recommended steps to tighten protection against moles. But as director, the officials said, Woolsey largely has failed to follow through on those recommendations.

Lawmakers also expressed amazement this week that several top agency officials have been promoted by Woolsey, despite apparent lapses in oversight of Ames. Among those whose roles are being questioned by lawmakers are Hugh E. (Ted) Price and Thomas Twetton, former senior officials in the CIA operations directorate who directly supervised Ames.

Congressional sources are now suggesting that major personnel changes may be necessary at the CIA.

“It requires some very strong medicine and that deals with people,” DeConcini said. “I’m not fingering anybody and I’m not saying who should be considered for replacement. But obviously there are some problems there that are hard to explain.”

As a result of congressional hearings, there is a growing demand for legislative action. In the Senate, the Intelligence Committee is preparing measures to give the FBI greater power to investigate the financial records of intelligence employees. Those measures include FBI access to tax statements, bank transactions, credit cards, mutual funds and other personal finances.

Earlier this week Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) introduced a bill requiring leading intelligence officials to file financial disclosure statements each year. Heflin said that his intent is “to expose sudden, unexplained or incongruent financial gain or holdings to agency review.”

But for someone engaged in espionage, there is no guarantee of truthfulness. Ames, for example, lied each year on his federal income tax return, omitting his extra income and failing to report his five foreign bank accounts, according to prosecutors.

Speaking to reporters after his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Woolsey promised close cooperation with Congress, the FBI and other executive branch agencies in their investigations. He also outlined three steps that the CIA will take as it examines the issue:

* A review of security and counterintelligence policy and procedures by a security panel with assistance from Brent Scowcroft, White House national security adviser under Bush; former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and W. Douglas Gow, former associate deputy director of the FBI for investigations.

* A thorough damage assessment overseen by Rich Haver, a high-ranking intelligence official.

* An independent inquiry by CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz to address counterintelligence practices and procedures as they relate to the Ames case.

Woolsey called CIA cooperation with the FBI in the case “exemplary” and said that he expects it to remain so. “This espionage case is serious,” Woolsey said. “I will not tolerate excuses or lethargy about these matters and I will not offer excuses to our committee or to the public.”

The Senate, under pressure from the Justice Department not to conduct an independent investigation that might jeopardize prosecution of the Ameses, has agreed to a compromise under which Hitz will conduct an investigation and report to Congress.

Times staff writers Doyle McManus and Ray Delgado contributed to this story.