Rocked by claims that 10 or more intelligence sources may have been executed in the Aldrich Ames scandal, the CIA is in the midst of a painstaking review of procedures, including:
-- All intelligence documents that may have been handled by the career CIA officer.
-- The status of any agents with whom he had some contact.
-- Conversations he had with other intelligence personnel about sensitive matters.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is also working closely with the CIA and FBI in the damage-control effort. Ames' final assignment at the CIA was in the agency's counternarcotics center. A prime CIA concern is to ensure that its Russian intelligence sources escape further harm.
"There will be a lot of care about that," says former CIA director William Webster.
Some of the measures they might take, says Webster, include calling some intelligence contacts "home for awhile."
In addition, many of the CIA's clandestine operations in Russia could be shut down for a year or more - leaving U.S. intelligence "blind" to a large extent - says Richard Shultz, director of International Security Studies at Tufts University.
"Anything that crossed this guy's (Ames) desk, they've got to put on hold," Shultz says.
The seriousness of the damage that might have been caused if Ames is guilty is reflected in the large amount of money the FBI says he was paid over the past decade by the Soviets and Russians - more than $ 1.5 million. "The Russians are notoriously stingy spymasters," says former State Department intelligence official Mark Lowenthal. "They were paying him for very good stuff," says Lowenthal, senior foreign policy specialist at the Congressional Research Service.
Congress, the CIA and the Pentagon are moving ahead with studies on how to tighten security within intelligence agencies in the wake of one of the nation's worst spy scandals.
Many of the CIA's personnel have been badly shaken by the case. "Everybody I talk to is very bitter about it, very unhappy," says former CIA official Vincent Cannistraro. "They're feeling a great deal of embarrassment."
Intelligence specialists say the FBI has expressed concerns about two lie detector tests Ames passed. Another issue is why his lavish lifestyle - including a $ 540,000 Arlington, Va., home paid for in cash - didn't arouse more suspicion.
Intelligence officials say Ames had pretended among colleagues that the money came the family of his Colombian-born wife, Rosario. She was arrested last week along with Ames on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage.
The effectiveness of lie-detector tests, as well as of personal finance audits of CIA and Pentagon employees, are among matters under review by an intelligence advisory commission.
