CIA’s ‘Cult of Protectiveness’ Criticized : Intelligence: In unusual slap, two lawmakers blame agency chief Woolsey for insular attitude in which security threats can thrive.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee complained Thursday that CIA Director R. James Woolsey is fostering a “cult of protectiveness” at the agency that allows potential security threats to thrive and could impede reforms needed in the wake of the Aldrich H. Ames spy case.

The criticism from Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) and similar views expressed by Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, represented an unusual slap at the head of an agency whose chief normally receives special deference on Capitol Hill.

DeConcini, at a breakfast session with reporters, said Woolsey and lesser CIA officials have been so loath to share sensitive internal information with the FBI that they should be compelled to do so by legislation. The FBI, by law, is charged with conducting counterintelligence investigations--those aimed at rooting out U.S. moles.

A CIA spokesman declined comment, saying: “We’re not responding to the retiring chairman,” a reference to DeConcini, who is retiring at the end of this year.

Glickman, in an interview, said of the CIA: “The cult over this is very protective, very collegial. There’s a reluctance to share anything with anybody.”

Of Woolsey, Glickman said: “He’s not particularly bold. . . . He’s more reactive than I would have liked.”

As investigations into the spy scandal continue, the criticisms demonstrate that Woolsey has not succeeded in erasing doubts about his handling of security problems, and that Congress will try to legislate reforms at the agency.

The Administration is considering an executive order or a legislative proposal of its own to strengthen the FBI’s role in handling counterintelligence failures at the CIA, The Times has learned.

The order, if issued, would put teeth into an earlier memorandum of understanding between the FBI and CIA under which the intelligence agency is to notify the bureau when it discovers a counterintelligence breach and would assign FBI agents to the CIA’s counterintelligence unit.

“The problem is that the CIA has an intelligence mentality and doesn’t look for criminal leads,” said an Administration source familiar with the issue. “A mechanism is needed that forces the agency to alert the FBI.”

Legislation introduced by DeConcini would require CIA officials to share all counterintelligence data with the FBI, making the failure to do so a felony.

“The biggest problem in counterespionage is that the FBI doesn’t have access to all the CIA information they need,” DeConcini said. “You can’t have a law enforcement agency charged with this task that doesn’t have access to the files.

“One problem is the CIA culture of deniability--their tendency to deny that they’re doing anything. There’s a cult of protectiveness, and it runs counter to any external review of their operations. You need a legislative fix or it (cooperation with the FBI) isn’t going to work.”

DeConcini said that FBI Director Louis J. Freeh told him the FBI has had “unprecedented cooperation” with the CIA in recent years. “But when we pressed the issue more closely, we found they (the FBI) had been denied information 10 to 12 times,” he said.