ABC News reports. Excerpt:
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 and recommend 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.”