Woolsey Blasted for Not Vowing CIA Is Fail-Safe

On his last day as the nation’s top spymaster, departing Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey came under sharp fire Tuesday when he said that he could not assure the American public that an espionage scandal like the recent Aldrich H. Ames spying case will not recur.

On Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the CIA’s annual assessment of world threats to U.S. security, Woolsey was publicly challenged when he told the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he could not give “a percentage or numerical odds” on whether another Ames case was inevitable.

“No head of any intelligence agency anywhere in the world should ever give a guarantee that his country’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies will not be penetrated by foreign espionage,” Woolsey said.

His comments drew a sharp rebuke from newly installed committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). The senator suggested that the CIA, with a reported annual budget of $28 billion and a worldwide network of resources, should know for sure whether its organization is fail-safe.

Calling Woolsey’s answer insufficient, he added: “I think we ought to get a lot more by way of assurances than you’ve just given us.” Ames, former head of the CIA’s Soviet counterintelligence branch, was arrested last winter and confessed to selling secrets to the former Soviet Union and later to Russia over a nine-year period. Officials have called his betrayal the most damaging spy case in U.S. history.

“You’re supposed to be the super spy for the United States around the world,” Specter told Woolsey. “I think we have to expect more, demand more and get more from the CIA than anyone else. And I think we’ve got to find a way to do that.”

The exchange served as a blunt postscript to Woolsey’s two-year tenure at the helm of Washington’s intelligence network. Woolsey abruptly announced last month that he was resigning to spend more time with his family, ending a tenure marred by criticism on a number of fronts: for his handling of the Ames matter, for lawsuits alleging that the CIA discriminates against women and for reportedly having little real access to President Clinton.

In his testimony to the committee about the potential for espionage scandals, Woolsey seemed to be saying that as one who has run the nation’s spy apparatus, he did not think it prudent to give a blanket statement of reassurance that the problems of the past will not revisit the agency.

He added: “We are implementing a number of changes to reduce the likelihood of another Aldrich Ames occurring in the CIA or other parts of the government as well. But absolute assurances should not be given by any intelligence agency head.”