Do you want to know a secret?

Insight on the News, March 23, 1998 by Timothy W. Maier

Rep. Porter Goss, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, launched an extensive probe in February into the possible breakdown of the White House security system after a pattern of apparent widespread abuses that may have left the most-guarded U.S. secrets unprotected. "This matter has caught my attention and there is an investigation going on," Goss confirms to Insight.

The chairman declines to provide details, but congressional sources say the previously undisclosed investigation is expected to go wen beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and is an "encompassing probe" that will review federal agencies, including the Commerce Department and the Pentagon, which may have engaged in policies that compromised national security. If there is evidence for prosecution, the intelligence committee could send a full report to the Justice Department.

Former Clinton spinmeister George Stephanopoulos has claimed security under Bill Clinton is better than under any other administration, but that is not the assessment of former White House FBI agents Gary Aldrich and Dennis Sculimbrene. They claim the Clintons hired employees with histories of drug abuse who exhibited careless attitudes about classified information. Aldrich went public with his concerns in a book, Unlimited Access, and remains frustrated that little has been done. "The intelligence committee has no interest in national security," he complains. "That boggles my mind."

Aldrich can take comfort that the theme of his book may be the heart of the forthcoming intelligence probe. Interviews with other intelligence experts who conducted White House background investigations and spoke with Insight on condition of anonymity portray an alarming picture of abuse, as do a series of General Accounting Office, or GAO, reports. The professionals say background investigations have not been as thorough as in prior administrations, and unfavorable reports often are ignored.

"The security offices don't take background investigations seriously," says an intelligence source who conducted White House and Department of Energy background checks for a private firm hired by the Clinton administration under a process called Background Investigation by Contract -- the first time a private firm had been hired to do checks previously done by the FBI. "They would deny some clearances but also grant clearances I would never grant" the investigator tells Insight. "The Clinton administration changed requirements for security clearances. There was massive drug use turning up -- much more than in other administrations. One reason some positions were not filled was that the president's appointees could not get cleared."

Sound unbelievable? Check the cast of characters in the scandals that prompted the intelligence committee to take a hard look at whether secrets were compromised, sold and delivered. From Filegate to Templegate and Zippergate, there are troubling questions that aren't easy to answer.

The Arlington National Cemetery scandal involving Larry Lawrence certainly raises questions not only about whether plots were "for sale," but whether security clearances also were waived for big donors. The former ambassador to Switzerland, who donated nearly $200,000 to Clinton's 1992 campaign, lied about his war record and still managed to receive a clearance in 1993. Diplomatic security failed to turn up the fact that Lawrence was a college student at the time he claimed he fell off a Merchant Marine ship on the Murmansk run. The State Department recently turned over information on this matter to the Justice Department, which initiated a criminal investigation. But it is unclear whether the target of that probe is someone involved in lying about the vetting process or concerns tax money Lawrence owed, according to congressional sources.

Insight since has learned that Lawrence may not have been the only U.S. ambassador whose background check accommodated questionable findings. Mari Carmen Aponte, who served on the Clinton transition team and was nominated by the president to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, allegedly cohabited with a man whom U.S. counterintelligence considers a Cuban DGI agent, according to a confidential intelligence memo delivered to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms and obtained by Insight. The man is not named in the memo.

The suspected Cuban agent allegedly introduced Aponte to Cuban DGI officers in Washington; she reportedly was recruited as a "DGI asset," according to the memo. "When the FBI questioned her about her involvement with Cuban intelligence, she reportedly refused to cooperate, saying that since she was not seeking a permanent White House position she was not subject to a background check," the memo states.

Nonetheless, Aponte subsequently was provided a top-secret clearance at the State Department despite objections by career personnel there. The CIA is aware of the situation but believes it can isolate her from Cuba-related issues if she becomes ambassador, according to the memo. The State Department declined comment and Aponte did not return calls.