WASHINGTON, April 4: As many as seven FBI employees with access to highly classified information face more investigation after taking polygraph tests given to tighten security following the discovery of a Russian spy within the FBI, officials said on Wednesday.
“We have identified up to 700 persons who were responsible for looking at highly classified information and have run a polygraph programme that I believe has been successful in that we have some assurance on all but one percent, and the others we are looking at,” FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters.
“We are heartened that less than 1 percent of the 700 raised issues that require further investigation,” he said, days before the release of a special commission’s report on how to improve security after the Robert Hanssen spy case.
Mueller acknowledged that security had not been a “principal priority” at the FBI, but added, “We’ve moved to address that.”
One of the steps adopted after the Hanssen spy case, which badly damaged the FBI’s reputation, has been expanded use of polygraph tests for current FBI employees.
Hanssen, a 25-year FBI agent and counter-intelligence expert, pleaded guilty to spying for Moscow and is awaiting sentencing next month. His lawyer has said Hanssen began spying in 1979, just three years after he became a special agent.
FBI Assistant Director Kenneth Senser said polygraph tests have been given to about 700 employees since July. The “overwhelming majority” successfully completed the test.
Senser, a career CIA official now in charge of the FBI’s security division, said the 1 percent, whose responses during the test triggered concern, still were being “worked with.”
THOUSANDS MAY FACE TEST: Senser said the next step under consideration would be a “limited expansion” of the polygraph tests.
The commission, chaired by former FBI and CIA director William Webster, has studied how to improve security for more than a year. Webster headed the FBI during some of the time when Hanssen, one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history, committed his espionage.
The report is expected to be released late this week.
In the mid-1990s the FBI started giving polygraphs to new hires and some agents working on highly-sensitive cases. But Hanssen and other long-time agents were never tested.
In other steps, Senser said the FBI was moving to limit access online. Hanssen combed through the FBI’s computer system to get classified information and check whether he had fallen under suspicion, according to court documents.
Senser said the FBI also has reduced “by a couple of thousand” those within the agency who have access to the most sensitive information.
Mueller said polygraph tests were just “one indicator” of when follow-up investigation would be required. Mueller said polygraph test involved “a narrow set of questions.”
He said the FBI awaited the report’s recommendations on new financial disclosure requirements, which could reveal unexplained sources of money. Hanssen sold national security secrets for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.—Reuters