Bush plants old fox in FBI chicken coop


(first published 2001)

FEB 23 -- As the FBI mole scandal rocked Washington, President Bush, in a hastily convened news conference, yesterday called for "civil discourse" -- defending FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and upholding Freeh's appointment of William H. Webster, who formerly headed the FBI and CIA, to probe security problems at the bureau.

It has become clear since the spy case broke that the FBI was aware of concerns about adversary penetration of its security but failed to take countermeasures, such as requiring random polygraph tests of agents.

In response to a question, Bush said, "I have confidence in Director Freeh. I think he is doing a good job," adding: "He has made the right move in selecting Judge Webster to review all procedures in the FBI to make sure this doesn't happen again."In his initial comments, Bush said he wished for GOP and Democratic civility. "One of my missions has been to change the tone of the nation's capital to encourage civil discourse," he said.

On Feb. 21, 2001, this page [website] noted the curiousness of the appointment of Webster to investigate security problems at the FBI in the wake of the arrest of a longtime mole for Russia, top FBI counterspy Robert Philip Hanssen.

Webster was CIA chief while Aldrich Ames was doing his dirty work against America. Many voices inside the CIA had warned during the mid to late 1980s that there was penetration near the top because of too much going wrong.

The White Houses of Reagan and the senior Bush should have been warned about the security problem but the elder Bush made it clear that he had complete confidence in the CIA, and no high-level security breach was identified. His son, George W., was a key White House assistant at that time.It wasn't until extraordinary pressure from people in the field was felt that the FBI and CIA set up a joint mole-hunting task force near the end of Bush's term.

But the Ames debacle was continuing under Webster, who, it appears, left the Reagan and Bush White Houses out of the loop on the severity of the problem at the CIA. Also under Webster, a number of other security scandals erupted.

Freeh's appointment of the 76-year-old Webster, who is a former FBI chief, to investigate the security problems appears to be largely political damage control but it is unlikely to give professional security and intelligence people much comfort.

This page updated Feb. 23, Feb. 28, 2001