Bush Voices Confidence in FBI, Concern Over Spy Case

President Bush voiced his support Thursday for FBI Director Louis J. Freeh in the wake of questions about how a senior FBI counterintelligence agent had managed to avoid detection for more than 15 years while allegedly spying for the Russians.

“I have confidence in Director Freeh. I think he does a good job. I have confidence in the men and women who work at the FBI,” Bush told reporters at the White House.

At the same time, however, Bush said that he and Freeh remain “deeply concerned” about the spy scandal surrounding jailed FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen and want to find ways to improve counter-terrorism measures and plug security leaks.

“I am mindful that there are people who don’t particularly care what America stands for and people who are interested in our secrets,” he said. “We will find spies, and we will prosecute them.”

Indeed, even as authorities seek to assess the damage wrought by Hanssen’s alleged spying, they are continuing to investigate other possible leaks as well. FBI spokesman John Collingwood said Thursday that authorities are investigating more than a dozen other potential espionage cases to determine the source of possible leaks in U.S. intelligence.

Collingwood would not discuss details of any of those cases, but a source familiar with the inquiries said that, in one instance, a CIA agent has been suspended since 1999 because of an investigation into possible Russian espionage.

Authorities are reviewing that case to determine whether the agent should be reinstated, but the source stressed that this investigation is continuing and that Hanssen’s arrest “does not necessarily exclude” the CIA agent.

Bush’s vote of confidence for Freeh echoes the support that the popular FBI chief has received from congressional lawmakers in the last few days in the face of one of the worst national security crises of Freeh’s career.

When the Hanssen case was made public Tuesday, Freeh declared that “the buck stops with me. I’m accountable for it. . . . It clearly happened on my watch.” But congressional leaders have shown little inclination to hold his feet to the fire over this latest spy case, focusing instead on exploring ways to tighten security.

Bush, at his first news conference since taking office, sidestepped questions about how the FBI should beef up its counterintelligence operations or whether the agency should be more aggressive in giving polygraph tests to employees such as Hanssen to detect possible problems.

Although the CIA and other federal agencies have resorted to periodic polygraphs in recent years, the FBI has consistently resisted the idea because of concerns about cost, need and effectiveness and the effect on employee morale. The bureau only requires testing of prospective employees, with other exams done on a case-by-case basis.

The bureau also has faced repeated criticism in recent years over its poor coordination and lack of aggressive investigation on spy matters. But the FBI insisted Thursday that it has taken steps to plug such security gaps. Bureau officials said that some of those stepped-up measures may in fact have helped apprehend Hanssen, but they refused to say what those steps were.

Bush said he will await the results of an ongoing review by former FBI and CIA chief William H. Webster into possible security reforms that may be needed at the FBI. Freeh “has made the right move in selecting Judge Webster to review all procedures in the FBI to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Bush said.

Hanssen, a senior FBI counterintelligence agent specializing in Russian affairs, was arrested Sunday on espionage charges after he allegedly left a cache of secret documents for his Russian handlers at a park near his home in suburban Washington.

Authorities charged that, since 1985, when they allege he first volunteered to spy for the Russians, Hanssen has handed over thousands of pages worth of top-secret data to them in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. He is expected to plead not guilty.

FBI officials are just beginning to assess the security damage allegedly caused by Hanssen as they retrace his steps at the FBI.

Authorities believe that the secret information Hanssen allegedly sold allowed the Russians to uncover three U.S. moles within their own ranks, two of whom were executed. But because he had broad access to a range of top-secret operations and methodologies--a veritable “playbook” on FBI intelligence--some believe that they may find many more revelations.

“This thing’s as bad or worse than [Aldrich H.] Ames ever was,” a congressional intelligence source who has been briefed on the case said Thursday, referring to the CIA employee who spied for the Soviets for nine years before his arrest in 1994. Ames pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence in prison.

One issue likely to draw scrutiny in the wake of the Hanssen revelations is whether intelligence agents really know how to detect a possible spy.

Often, the signs have been clear. Ames, for instance, first aroused suspicions among colleagues at the CIA when he began flaunting an apparently newfound wealth, even buying a $500,000 home with cash in the midst of an erratic agency career.

Similarly, there were warning flags in the case of convicted spy Richard W. Miller, one of only two FBI agents before Hanssen to have been accused of espionage, recalled John Libby, now a private attorney in Los Angeles, who prosecuted him. Miller, arrested in 1984, had been excommunicated from his church and had family and money problems when he began having an affair with a Soviet agent and passing top-secret data.

“That is precisely the type of person the KGB would want to target for recruitment,” Libby said in an interview. “What’s interesting with Hanssen is that he seems to have had a stellar career in the FBI and he didn’t fit the profile from what we know.”