MEGAmole Deutch pussyfooting with the Justice Department....
Deutch Declines to Answer Questions
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2000
Former CIA director John M. Deutch has declined to answer written questions sent to him in July by Justice and Defense department investigators who are trying to determine whether he compromised classified materials as a top Pentagon official from 1993 through 1995.
"We and Justice have collaborated [on the Deutch investigation] and compiled questions together last summer, which Deutch through his counsel declined to answer," a Defense Department spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said yesterday.
A Justice Department special prosecutor informally recommended to Attorney General Janet Reno last month that Deutch be prosecuted for violating security rules. Deutch has admitted that while he was CIA director, he used government-owned but unclassified computers at home to write classified documents. He and his family also used the computers to gain access to the Internet, making the classified documents vulnerable to hackers.
Reno has yet to respond to the recommendation and may be waiting for the Defense Department to conclude its inquiry into similar practices by Deutch while he was in the No. 2 job at the Pentagon.
Quigley also said yesterday that the CIA and the Pentagon have reviewed "in excess of 1,000 e-mails" sent by Deutch over an unclassified Defense Department computer system while he was at the Pentagon and the CIA. And, he said, investigators have been unable to locate computer floppy disks on which Deutch compiled a journal of his Pentagon activities.
In the case of both the e-mails and the floppy disks, the question is "What was the information, was it classified, how classified was it?" Quigley said. He added that the Pentagon's inspector general has drafted a report and is expected to complete it soon.
Deutch's attorney, Terrence O'Donnell, was out of town and did not return a telephone call for comment yesterday.
© 2000 The Washington Post
washingtonpost.com
HEY, QUIGLEY! Gimme that damn questionnaire! I'll fill it in for you.... <g> |
