U.S. Probe Of Former CIA Chief Expands

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13948-2000Sep15.html

By David A. Vise and Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 16, 2000; Page A01

John M. Deutch, who has admitted mishandling classified information
while serving as director of the CIA, is now under investigation for
similar security violations when he previously held high-level posts
in the Defense Department, according to confidential documents and
officials familiar with the case.

Deutch allegedly used unsecured computers at home and his America
Online account to access classified defense information in the early
to mid-1990s, the documents, compiled as part of a Pentagon probe,
show. The alleged violations occurred before and after Deutch issued a
February 1995 memo reminding Defense Department employees that only
"properly reviewed and cleared" information should be placed on
computer systems accessible to the public.

"We find his conduct in this regard particularly egregious in light of
existing DOD policy directives addressing the safeguarding of
classified information," an internal Pentagon memo said. "This
situation was exacerbated because Dr. Deutch, while serving as the
[deputy secretary of defense], declined departmental requests that he
allow security systems to be installed in his residence.

"The evidence we obtained clearly establishes that Dr. Deutch failed
to follow even the most basic security precautions," the memo added.

Deutch's attorney, Terrence O'Donnell, did not return a telephone call
for comment yesterday.

Deutch served as defense undersecretary for acquisitions and
technology from April 1993 to March 1994, when he became deputy
defense secretary, a job he held until he was appointed CIA director
in 1995. He left the CIA in December of the following year.

Two days after Deutch retired from the CIA, agency computer personnel
discovered classified information stored on government computers at
Deutch's home. After a series of investigations, Deutch admitted the
security breach, apologized for violating CIA policy and was stripped
of his security clearances.

Initially, the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Deutch. But
earlier this year, Attorney General Janet Reno decided to review the
matter after criticism that Deutch had received much more favorable
treatment than former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Judiciary
Committee, confirmed that the probe had been widened and challenged
the Justice Department to take a hard look at Deutch's alleged repeat
violations.

"This is now a pattern," Grassley said. "Evidently, Mr. Deutch is a
congenital downloader of classified information. It will be
interesting to see how the Justice Department deals with this case,
especially in light of the Wen Ho Lee case."

Paul E. Coffey, the retired prosecutor tapped by Reno earlier this
year to review the matter, has been briefed on Deutch's alleged use of
computers at home, and has expanded his investigation to include
Deutch's years at the Pentagon.

Coffey has told Justice Department officials that he believes charges
should be brought against Deutch for improperly handling classified
documents on unsecure computers that were linked to the Internet,
sources said.

Coffey's recommendation has not made its way from the Criminal
Division to Reno, who will make the decision on how to handle the
case, sources said.

Generally, cases similar to Deutch's have not led to criminal charges
but have been handled through administrative sanctions. Reno recently
declined to comment specifically on Deutch's case.

There is no evidence that computer hackers or spies obtained
classified information as a result of Deutch's actions. It is not
clear from the documents precisely what kinds of information Deutch
was working with. But among the computer files were Deutch's daily
journal, which included information on the range of military
operations for which he was responsible.

Some of the computers Deutch used were given away or sold by the
Defense Department as surplus property and ended up in various places,
including a scrap metal dealer in Baltimore and a university in
Florida.

Senior advisers to Reno have expressed concern about the appearance of
a double standard when the Deutch case is compared with Lee's. The
former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, accused of 59 felony
counts of downloading nuclear secrets to unsecured computers and
portable tapes, was released from jail earlier this week after
receiving an apology from a federal judge, who said the Justice
Department's handling of the case had "embarrassed our entire nation."

Lee pleaded guilty to a single felony count of mishandling classified
information and agreed to cooperate with investigators by answering
questions about what happened to the tapes.

Deutch developed regular work habits at the Defense Department and the
CIA that led him to use a variety of unsecured computers at home while
carrying computer memory cards and disks in his shirt pocket,
government documents show.

One unanswered question is the whereabouts of some floppy disks he
used to store classified military and intelligence data until he
determined he needed more memory space and transferred the information
to larger personal computer memory cards.

A probe by the CIA inspector general determined that Deutch had four
of these cards containing nearly 100,000 pages of information,
including the daily journal he kept.

Deutch used numerous government-owned Macintosh computers at his home
in Bethesda while serving in the high-level Defense Department posts,
and several of those recovered by investigators contained a
"significant amount" of military information, according to the
documents. "Several witnesses told us that none of the computers . . .
were designated to store classified data," an internal Defense
Department memo said.

Deutch and his family members used government-owned computers at his
home to access his America Online account, according to government
documents.

Deutch acknowledged to investigators that before becoming CIA
director, he was aware of the principle requiring physical separation
of classified and unclassified computers. However, Deutch said he
believed that when he deleted a document, the information was no
longer recoverable and that his general practice was to copy documents
onto floppy disks and delete the initial file.

But computer experts told investigators that each time Deutch updated
his journal, his computer automatically created a temporary file that
was stored on the hard drive of the computer and would have been
available to hackers when he accessed the Internet via America Online.


*==============================================================*
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