WASHINGTON - At the very time in 1994 that top CIA officials were touting new counterintelligence procedures designed to prevent another disaster like the Aldrich Ames spy case, veteran case officer Harold Nicholson was allegedly following in Ames' footsteps by betraying secrets to Russian intelligence agents, depositing unexplained sums in his bank accounts and running up big credit card bills.
Such brazen willingness to risk detection suggests that Nicholson "had total disregard for the CIA's counterintelligence capability, and believed the agency couldn't change its spots" by effectively tightening internal security, said one former CIA official with some knowledge of the case.
While the CIA and FBI yesterday portrayed Nicholson's arrest over the weekend as proof that they had learned their lesson after the humiliating Ames case, some former CIA officials and case officers warned it was too soon to be certain of that.
On one hand, the FBI, exercising new counterintelligence powers, caught Nicholson and says it has overwhelming evidence against him, including a surveillance videotape showing him photographing classified documents. The case shows that the CIA is much more willing than in the past to consider the possibility that it has traitors in its midst, according to former officials.
But, according to accounts provided by officials yesterday, Nicholson operated as a Russian spy for at least a year and a half before counterintelligence investigators formally opened a probe of his activities early this year. The failure of the post-Ames reforms to deter Nicholson may mean there are still spies to be caught, former operatives say.
The Nicholson case is the first major, publicly known case that tests the effectiveness of the post-Ames reforms.
After learning that Ames had sold bags full of secret documents to Moscow for nine years and gone undetected despite brash activities like driving a Jaguar, the CIA and the FBI forged a new partnership designed to monitor intelligence officials more closely.
After noting the importance of maintaining vigilance, CIA Director John Deutch said at a news conference yesterday, "this arrests demonstrates that the counterintelligence reforms that have been put into place in the wake of Aldrich Ames have taken hold and have led to our success in catching the spy Nicholson."
However, in light of the apparent absence of any deterrent effect on Nicholson from the Ames reforms, a former clandestine officer said the CIA would have to wait to find out whether it still had a broad problem. It would only know for sure if "two years from now, there is this case and others made public" of spies inside the agency.
A former case officer said the Nicholson case "may signal there are more people like this than we believed," but added, "the new procedures are going to catch them."
Former CIA Director William Webster said yesterday he did not subscribe to the idea that Nicholson's alleged spying coming shortly after Ames raises broad questions about agency security. "The potential is always there but that doesn't mean there should be any blanket condemnation. Like any other organization, the CIA is going to have personnel with vulnerabilities."
Those vulnerabilities appear to be particularly serious with individuals like Nicholson, who displayed a seemingly reckless attitude towards the possibility of getting caught.
For example, he underwent three polygraph examinations in late 1995 that showed that he appeared to be lying when he was asked whether he was trying to hide unauthorized contacts with foreign intelligence agencies, according to an FBI affidavit in the case. He appeared to understand that he had a problem with tests and later was denied overseas assignments that he had avidly sought, but Nicholson still went on doing business with the Russians.
"There are always people with a 'they'll never catch me' attitude that have a way of deluding themselves," said one former CIA official.
Another retired intelligence official, who was given a short briefing, said Nicholson's bosses believe "he was a strange guy ... pretty brazen and maybe a little nuts, who needed more adventure" and thus apparently signed on with the Russians.
Former CIA Director Robert Gates said there "is a new attitude" at the agency, including a change in the former belief "that the agency could never be penetrated." He said Ames was the first CIA case officer in the almost 50-year history of the agency caught spying for the Russians, and Nicholson may be the second.
Before, Gates said, "they looked at all the evidence through a prism of disbelief. ... They now are accepting that there will be sour apples."
He added that now there also will be a "question of whether there was somebody before Ames."
Like Ames, Nicholson apparently failed to realize he was under suspicion for a year after his repeated polygraph failures. Deutch and other top officials said that other factors that they would not identify had also drawn Nicholson to the attention of counterintelligence investigators in late 1995.
But also like Ames, Nicholson continued to operate even after he came under suspicion and may have caused important intelligence losses during the time that he was being investigated.
The FBI affidavit shows that Nicholson traveled to Thailand in December 1995 after he had failed the polygraph tests and was not put under surveillance. He went to Singapore last June after requesting and receiving sensitive information that had no relevance to his work. Although he was under close surveillance on that trip, it appears he gave information to his Russian handlers.
Just two weeks ago, a search of Nicholson's office at CIA headquarters disclosed 40 documents relating to Russia that were all under top levels of classification, and he was allegedly planning on giving photographs of those papers to a Russian contact in Switzerland when he was arrested at Dulles International Airport Saturday.