Justice Department Probes CIA For Possible Leaks

Justice Department Probes CIA For Possible Leaks

WASHINGTON (December 5, 1998 7:39 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) -- The Justice Department is conducting an obstruction-of-justice probe of CIA officials who passed along to a satellite contractor sensitive information about a Senate investigation into technology transfers to China.

Government officials reached late Friday said the criminal investigation centers on information passed by the intelligence agency to Hughes Electronics Corp., maker of both commercial and spy satellite systems.

At issue is whether that information compromised a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into allegations that Hughes and other U.S. companies violated federal export laws by sharing restricted technology with China as part of commercial satellite export deals.

There is no dispute that the CIA passed information on to Hughes -- the CIA has acknowledged as much to both the Senate committee and the Justice Department. The question being examined by the department is whether the CIA broke the law in doing so.

"The CIA is cooperating fully with the investigation," said an agency spokesman.

The probe was first reported in today's editions of The Washington Post and the New York Times .

U.S. officials familiar with the investigation said it focused on two incidents in which information connected with the Senate investigation was passed by CIA officials to counterparts at Hughes.

The CIA told Hughes officials that one of the agency's analysts, Ronald Pandolfi, had told Senate investigators that he had concluded as early as 1995 that Hughes had become too aggressive in marketing technology to China.

CIA officials also advised Hughes that some company officials might be called before the Senate panel. The agency further sought to make available to Senate investigators the names of Hughes executives who were familiar with the technology transfers to China and could give their version of the disagreements with Pandolfi.

When the CIA informed the panel it had told Hughes that company officials might have to testify, committee staffers and some senators were furious, according to officials familiar with the case.

Several CIA officials, including general counsel Robert McNamara, are scheduled to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the CIA's role in the Hughes case.

The potential case against the CIA appears to boil down to one of interpretation. Some on the intelligence committee argue that the CIA may have obstructed justice by revealing to Hughes information about the committee investigation.

The CIA, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case, argues that the information passed on to Hughes was shared in the normal course of business and that the committee was informed of the information sharing.

"At worst, this could be viewed as a miscommunication among government agencies," said one U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Several investigations -- both by the Justice Department and Congress -- have focused on concerns that China received valuable information useful in improving ballistic missiles from U.S. contractors who were ostensibly working with China on commercial satellite projects.

By JOHN DIAMOND, Associated Press Writer