FBI to Increase Polygraph Testing

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 22, 2001 -- This week's spy scandal rocked the FBI and brought to light its apparent security weaknesses. Today, FBI sources told ABCNEWS the bureau will begin expanding its use of polygraph tests.

It appears Robert Phillip Hanssen, arrested this week after allegedly spying for 15 years at the FBI, was never subjected to a lie detector test.

The Soviets, and then Russians, allegedly paid him $1.4 million in cash and jewels for his secrets. He is charged with two counts of espionage for Moscow. His indictment was supported by a 100-page affidavit that included letters allegedly written by Hanssen to his counterparts there.

FBI sources told ABCNEWS today that Hanssen repeatedly downloaded classified information from bureau computers and was allowed to take it wherever he wanted, no questioned asked.

"He had access to the whole range of the FBI's efforts … hundreds of cases against the Soviet Union," said former Hanssen friend and colleague Paul Moore. "He supervised the people who did the analysis on those cases."

FBI officials told ABCNEWS that Hanssen's arrest this week made them realize that they have had limited procedures to prevent the theft of classified computer files by authorized personnel. In their affidavit, prosecutors say Hanssen was getting so much information at one point that he considered using his palm pilot for "rapid transmittal of substantial material in digital form."

Prosecutors also believe Hanssen regularly tapped into the FBI's database to see if he was under investigation. However, the FBI never audited the system to detect Hanssen's alleged activities.

Early Criticism of Procedure

In a 1997 report, Michael Bromwich, the Justice Department's inspector general, criticized FBI management for not reacting more quickly to signs of leaks and for its"failure to devote priority attention" to the devastating loss ofCIA and FBI intelligence information from their Soviet intelligence operations.

But a bureau spokesman said some recommendations made by the inspector general's office in 1997, which included improving training and communication, were enacted and were responsible for Hanssen's arrest this week.

"The [inspector general's] recommendations were constructive and incorporatedinto the FBI's counterespionage program," FBI spokesman John Collingwood said. The report was done after the arrest and conviction of notorious CIA agent Aldrich Ames, who pled guilty in 1994 of spying for the Soviet Union.

"Thepost-Ames focus on the possibility of additional compromises leddirectly to the charges against Hanssen. Substantial resources andexpertise are being afforded to this effort."

Learning Lessons

Attorney General John Ashcroft promised Wednesday to search for answers as to why Hanssen's alleged spying went undetected. Ashcroft appointed former CIA and FBI Director William Webster to review FBI security procedures andrecommend changes that could prevent future incidents.

After the Ames spy case. the CIA overhauled its counterintelligence procedures and began administering polygraph tests more often. But while the CIA was improving its security, the FBI took almost no action, one former FBI agent said.

Former FBI agent Ed Curran, who helped the CIA with the overhaul, said recommendations to broaden the FBI's own polygraph program languished for more than three years.

"We spent the last few years trying to convince them [there was] a very significant threat," Curran said adding that "there was a significant resistance in the FBI to polygraph [testing]."

Questions Never Asked

The FBI continued with its policy to give background tests to all FBI personnel every five years, but those checks only included a basic financial review and did not include the polygraph tests.

"A polygraph exam, if it's very, very specific in its questioning, is [an] independent review," Curran said. "You're either going to pass this thing or you're going to fail it, and if you fail it, you need to explain what the problems are."

Hanssen never had to answer those sorts of questions, the FBI believes.

Tracy Silberling, an FBI spokeswoman, said the FBI began testing new agents in 1994. The FBI still has to examine documents but they believe Hanssen, who was hired before 1994, was never given the polygraph test.

Hanssen was arrested Sunday night after he allegedly deposited a package containing classified information in a park near his Virginia neighborhood.

Although officials refuse to say what led them to Hanssen, there has been speculation that a Russian diplomat arrested last year by the FBI may be the person who turned Hanssen in. Sergey Tretyakov, who worked at the United Nations in New York, defected around the time the FBI says it began investigating Hanssen.

ABCNEWS’ Pierre Thomas, Joanne Levine, and ABCNEWS.com's Maria F. Durand contributed to this report.