Report: FBI security deficient

WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- An independent commission has found "significant deficiencies" in FBI internal security, according to the commission's report released Thursday.

However, many of its criticisms were anticipated by FBI officials, who took steps to correct some of the deficiencies before the release of the report.

The Webster Commission was formed after last year's arrest of FBI traitor Robert Hanssen, who spied for Moscow for at least 22 years in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and valuables.

"During our review of FBI security programs, we found significant deficiencies in bureau policy and practice," the report's executive summary said. "These deficiencies flow from a pervasive inattention to security, which has been at best a low priority. In the bureau, security is often viewed as an impediment to operation, and security responsibilities are seen as an impediment to career advancement."

The 107-page report said that prior to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, the FBI focused on detecting and prosecuting traditional crime, "and FBI culture emphasized the priorities and morale of criminal components within the bureau. This culture was based on cooperation and the free flow of information inside the bureau, a work ethic wholly at odds with the compartmentation characteristic of intelligence investigations involving highly sensitive, classified information."

The report points out that Hanssen, a supervisory special agent who worked in counterintelligence, "gave the Soviet Union and Russia vast quantities of documents and computer diskettes filled with national security information of incalculable value."

The depth of Hanssen's betrayal was shocking, the report said, but just as shocking was "the ease with which he was able to steal material. ... Hanssen usually collected this material in the normal routine of an FBI manager privy to classified information that crossed his desk or came up in conversation with colleagues."

The commission said it focused its investigation on four areas: the structure of the bureau's security programs, and the policies and procedures designed to ensure the integrity of its personnel, information systems and documents.

Anticipating much of the criticism in the report, FBI officials gathered reporters for a briefing in the bureau Wednesday.

FBI Director Robert Mueller and Assistant Director Kenneth Senser, a CIA careerist detailed to the FBI, outlined a number of security changes that were made before the report was released.

Those changes include the creation of Security Division, which Senser heads, and a myriad of improved procedures. Security will become a "career-track" at the FBI, and will be staffed by a "non-agent cadre."

The Webster report acknowledged some changes but said more needs to be done.

"Although the FBI has begun to take steps to improve security, senior management has not fully embraced the changes necessary to bring bureau security programs up to par with the rest of the intelligence community," the report said.

The FBI's "security function must be given stature, resources and visibility, and bureau senior management must commit to a security program as a core FBI function," the report stated.

The report recommends the establishment of an Office of Security reporting directly to Mueler -- something bureau officials said has been done with the new security division.

"The commission also recommends that the FBI consolidate its security functions, which, in sharp contrast to other agencies are fragmented, with security responsibilities spread across eight headquarters divisions and 56 field offices."

Thursday, Mueller and Senser anticipated the commission's criticism, saying the sole responsibility will lie with the Security Division.

The FBI must also "develop programs to address information system security," the report said.

Wednesday, Senser also anticipated that criticism, noting that Hanssen had been allowed to "surf" the FBI's database. That database is being compartmentalized, Senser said, with access to each area on a "need-to-know" basis.

The Webster commission was headed by former FBI and CIA Director William Webster, and included former Defense Secretary William Cohen and former Attorney General Griffin Bell. The seven-member panel also included Robert Fiske Jr., a New York Republican who served briefly as Whitewater special counsel before being superseded by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.