"WHITEWASH WEDNESDAY." Fittingly, the CIA was the first to know. But many in its rank and file were dismayed by Director James Woolsey's closed-circuit report to the staff on the investigation of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames. "Whitewash Wednesday," one officer called it. Woolsey shared few secrets. While deploring Ames's betrayal, which destroyed the CIA's Soviet network of spies and consigned 10 agents to death, he largely blamed "systemic failure." He reprimanded 11 officers and singled out by name only one -- both publicly and in-house -- for lapses.
Even then, he pulled his punches. Three of the severely reprimanded had already retired and one, former Bonn station chief Milton Bearden, was only days from retirement. Although Ted Price, the deputy director of operations, was singled out, Woolsey blunted the criticism by lauding his "ability and professionalism" and keeping him at his post. Among the reprimanded but not named was Alan Wolf, the CIA station chief in Rome when Ames's drinking problems and security violations were overlooked. Twelve officers named by CIA investigators as culpable were not punished at all.
Morale within the Directorate of Operations, which handles covert activities, has plummeted. Many expected that Price, unpopular among the rank and file, would be forced out. "A lot of DO people are furious that Price was exonerated," said one retired officer. For Mel Goodman, professor of national security at the National War College and a former CIA analyst, the message was clear: "The old boys network is alive and well."
