CIA Settles Veteran Agent’s Sex Bias Suit : Discrimination: Some subordinates retaliated to her charges of a ‘pervasive atmosphere of machismo’ with claims that she was a drunk and a sexpot. She’s to receive $410,000.

The CIA has agreed to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by a veteran senior female agent under which the agency will pay her $410,000, plus attorney fees and court costs, sources involved in the matter said Wednesday.

“This settlement does not concede the assertions of gender discrimination” that the agent made against the agency or its individual officers, the CIA said in a statement.

Rather, CIA Director R. James Woolsey said that the role of intelligence in the national security is “critical” and “we must focus on the future, not on litigation based on events of several years ago.”

Victoria Toensing, attorney for the agent who was listed in court papers only as “Jane Doe Thompson” but identified by several sources as Janine M. Brookner, said: “They agreed to pay her a substantial amount of money. The facts speak for themselves.”

In her suit, Brookner, 53, charged that the CIA is marked by a “pervasive atmosphere of machismo and sexual discrimination.”

She alleged that subordinates at the CIA’s Jamaica station, where she was assigned in 1989 as station chief to clean up a problem-wracked outpost, retaliated with charges of their own against her that led to an investigation by the agency’s inspector general.

The subordinates charged she was a drunk and a sexpot, accused her of cheating on her overtime slips and of misusing a CIA helicopter assigned to Jamaica for drug operations.

Brookner eventually found herself discredited by the agency and assigned to make-work projects in a windowless cubicle at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

The agreement to settle followed daylong discussions Tuesday at the Justice Department, which represented the CIA in the litigation. The CIA statement said Woolsey’s goal, in agreeing to the Justice Department settlement, was “to achieve closure on Ms. Thompson’s claims against the CIA and put this case behind us.”

Toensing, however, said: “I think we presented them with facts that persuaded them it was better to settle than to proceed to trial.”

She declined to elaborate, but another source familiar with the discussions said the new information involved the CIA’s investigation of Brookner.

Brookner’s suit was expected to go to trial by March. U.S. District Judge Albert Bryan Jr. this week postponed argument of pretrial motions in the case set for Friday pending presentation of the proposed settlement.

Under terms of the settlement, Brookner will retire from the agency.

The settlement apparently has no direct effect on separate negotiations by the CIA to head off a class-action lawsuit by nearly one-third of the agency’s female case officers in its directorate of operations, or clandestine division, who contend that the agency has discriminated against women.

In his statement, Woolsey said he was committed to ensuring an environment of fairness for all.

“I am committed to this not only because it is the right thing to do for employees, but because I believe we do our mission far better when we draw on the talents of a diverse work force,” Woolsey said.