Security access denial at issue

U.S. intelligence agencies are abusing rules on access to classified data to punish employees who upset security officials or who go against prevailing bureaucratic viewpoints, according to three officials who say they were unfairly forced out.

F. Michael Maloof, until recently a veteran Pentagon security official in the office of Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, said his security clearances were revoked based on false charges by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that he failed to report contacts with a foreign national he met while working for the Pentagon in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. He later married the woman, who is now a U.S. government translator.

Mr. Maloof was notified by the Defense Department in 2001 that “information tends to show a security risk may exist that could cause potential vulnerability to coercion, exploitation or pressure due to foreign influence caused by close and continuing ties of affection and obligation.”

Mr. Maloof said the charges that he had had an intimate relationship with the Georgian woman at the time were “totally inaccurate.” He also said that, contrary to the charges, he reported his contacts to the DIA as part of an effort to develop ties to a senior Georgian official.

“There was no intimate relationship, contrary to what was stated,” he said. “I told them that, and they ignored it.”

Mr. Maloof said he did not begin dating the woman until years later.

According to Mr. Maloof, the loss of his top-secret clearances followed several Pentagon review boards and finally was formalized in 2003, after details of his personnel security file were disclosed to several newspapers as part of what he said was a campaign to discredit him in the press.

The suspension coincided with Mr. Maloof’s work on a special-intelligence analysis that showed previously undisclosed links between Sunni and Shia extremists, including al Qaeda’s ties to Saddam Hussein’s government.

His analysis was bitterly opposed by officials in the CIA and DIA, who disagreed with its findings.

According to Mr. Maloof, one DIA analyst told him, “We don’t like people like you looking over our shoulders.”

“It was retaliation for the report I was working on,” Mr. Maloof said of the clearance revocation.

Pentagon spokesmen declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing personnel issues.

National Security Agency (NSA) official Russ Tice also had his top-secret clearance suspended after he reported suspicions that a female co-worker showed signs of being a Chinese spy.

Mr. Tice will face an NSA appeal board later this month, and he expects the agency to dismiss him. The supersecret agency conducts electronic eavesdropping and code-breaking.

Another NSA official, a 17-year specialist involved in highly classified work, was punished and forced to retire after his clearances were suspended based on an “inconclusive” polygraph test indicating he might be a spy and saboteur.

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