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Issue Brief

January 19, 2001

Clinton Establishes New Federal Counterintelligence Orgnizations

by Samir Singh
AAAS Center for Science, Technology, and Congress

On January 5th, President Clinton issued a directive adding two new organizations to the already sizeable federal counterintelligence (CI) community. He created the National Counterintelligence Board (NCIB) and the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, charging both with "identifying, understanding, prioritizing and counteracting the intelligence threats faced by the United States in the 21st Century."1

The new Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive will replace the National Counterintelligence Center, which was created in 1994 in response to the arrest of CIA mole Aldrich Ames. In a shift away from Cold War style espionage prevention, which pursued the identification and surveillance of external hostile interests, the new office will seek to isolate and protect internal resources around the nation that might be vulnerable to foreign interests. These internal resources might include anything from research within the information technology or biotech industries to defense and biomedical research performed at national laboratories. As one official said, the CI Executive's job will be to "identify the universe of stuff that would be unthinkable if we lost."2 The CI Executive will also develop strategies to ensure that, once identified, these resources and their facilities are secured.

The responsibility for implementing the CI Executive's anti-espionage security strategies falls to the NCIB. The NCIB will convene on a semi-annual basis and is chaired by the Director of the FBI. Also included are the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and a senior representative of the Department of Justice. The Board is also responsible for selecting and overseeing the National Counterintelligence Executive.

Members of the CI and defense communities have received the President's decision with open arms. President-elect Bush is expected to do the same.

The reorganization comes on the heels of the Department of Energy's security breach in which Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was accused of giving nuclear secrets to China. The government's response to the Lee case resulted in the termination of the foreign scientist exchange program, the implementation of polygraph testing for all scientists, and the resignation of numerous researchers from the Los Alamos facility.

Given this recent track record, the new CI offices may be seen as a threat to free scientific exchange within both national laboratories and among high technology members of the private sector identified as national security interests. Of greater concern is the absence of protocols or limitations on how far the new offices may go in their quest to safeguard the nation against espionage.

Ultimately, policy insiders agree that the single most important aspect of this new structure will be who is selected as CI Executive. As one Republican congressional aide put it, "the power of the [Office of the CI Executive] is going to depend on who they put in the job."3 Unfortunately, that decision isn't expected until the first few months of the Bush presidency.

Issues

• Will it be possible to identify the most salient aspects of the nation's scientific and technological resources in order to protect them?
• How much support will the new offices receive from the private sector if countermeasures conflict with R&D? In the past, cases such as that of Wen Ho Lee have illustrated the negative affect on morale and productivity that comes with heightened security protocols.
• What degree of access will the new CI Executive have to classified information within the private sector?
• Changing the focus of counterintelligence towards the protection of the nation's most valuable secrets seems a positive move, but it may limit scientific freedom and exchange.

References

1. The National Counterintelligence Center. "The Presidential Decision Directive on Counterintelligence."
2. Risen, James. "Clinton Creates Post to Protect Nation's Secrets."
3. Ibid.