Ex-CIA Chief's Computer Scandal

4:05 p.m. 3.Feb.2000 PST

WASHINGTON -- CIA director George Tenet on Thursday refused to comment on revelations that his predecessor's home computer, which contained highly classified files, was used to contact pornography sites on the Internet, possibly by an outsider.

A CIA inspector general report found that an unclassified computer that former CIA director John Deutch used to work on highly secret material at home was used to contact "high risk" or pornography sites on the Internet.

There was no evidence that Deutch himself had visited any of the high-risk sites, only that his computer had been used for that purpose.

But the revelations raised concerns that classified information on the computer used to connect to the Internet could have been accessed by an outsider.

"I can't and I won't," Tenet said when asked at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to comment on the information which become public late Wednesday.

"Much of the [inspector general] report was classified. And I think in fairness to everybody involved, let's just let the facts and the inspector general and the two [intelligence] committees work their way on this issue," he said.

The New York Times first reported on the classified inspector general's report that criticized the CIA's internal investigation of the case in which top-secret files were found on Deutch's home computer, including files on presidentially approved covert action programs.

Deutch, who headed the spy agency from May 1995 to December 1996, had his security clearance suspended in August 1999 and at that time said he had "erred" in using computers not configured for classified work.

Deutch did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Another finding was that a former Russian scientist living in Europe had sent an email message to Deutch, but it was not answered by the former spy chief.

On Wednesday, Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee he could not give assurances that the files on Deutch's computer had been secure from outside access, although there was no evidence to suggest such access had occurred.

At Thursday's hearing, one senator raised a parallel between the Deutch case and that of Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory charged with downloading highly secret information from a classified system onto an unclassified computer.

Tenet responded that "there is a great difference in the two cases." In Deutch's case the Justice Department declined any action, while Lee was indicted, he said.

Attorney General Janet Reno declined to directly comment on whether the Justice Department had used a double standard in refusing to prosecute Deutch, while charging Lee for mishandling classified information.

"Each case speaks for itself based on the evidence and the law, and a judgment has to be made based on the evidence in that particular case," she said at her weekly news briefing without elaborating.

A Justice Department official later sought to draw a distinction between the two cases, saying the top-secret information that Lee allegedly transferred to a unclassified computer was not related to his work.

He said computer violations involving classified work-related information normally are handled internally by the individual agency, and he also drew a distinction between "sloppiness" and "nefariousness."

The official said he doubted the Justice Department would reopen the Deutch case in view of the CIA inspector general's report.

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