The head of the CIA summed up the Aldrich Ames spy scandal Wednesday by saying, "Something went wrong from the point of view of the security system."
In an interview with members of USA TODAY's editorial board, James Woolsey said: "That's a matter we just have to study very carefully once we have all the facts."
Ames, 52, a CIA veteran, is accused of selling U.S. secrets to the Soviets and Russia in exchange for more than $ 2.2 million. He and his wife, Rosario, 41, are expected to plead guilty today in a deal that swaps Ames' cooperation for a lenient sentence for his wife.
Woolsey says the plea agreement allows intelligence experts to quickly "move onto the second and more substantive phases" of damage assessment, and the search for other wrongdoers and failed policies.
Asked how much of the case will ever become public, he said, "I think we'll come to an agreement on how to let the public know . . . what occurred."
Some changes have already been forced upon the CIA. The FBI and Defense Department "will both end up having substantial roles" in counterintelligence policy, says Woolsey, because of past failures by the CIA and FBI to cooperate on spy cases. He also said the CIA:
-- Is closely watching "the devil's brew of countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea" because they provoke crises, stockpile weapons or sponsor terrorism.
-- Won't be able to warn the military early about an attack by North Korea, though it will "be of quite a bit of assistance to U.S. forces' command" in other ways.
