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Top CIA official took lie detector test in leak case

"There's been a fundamental shift in practice at the Publication Review Board ... There's literally been a reinstitution of the 1950s attitude, that what happens at CIA stays at CIA."

Mark Zaid, a lawyer representing many former CIA employees

The crackdown on leaks at the CIA that led to the dismissal of a veteran intelligence officer last week included a highly unusual polygraph examination for the agency's independent watchdog, CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, intelligence officials with knowledge of the investigation said on Sunday.

The special polygraphs, which have been given to dozens of employees since January, are part of a broader effort by CIA Director Porter Goss to re-emphasize a culture of secrecy that has included a marked tightening of the review process for books and articles by former agency employees, according to a lawyer who represents many authors who once worked for the CIA.

Authors say the agency's Publications Review Board has been removing material that would easily have been approved before.

While the board in the past has generally worked with retirees to make manuscripts publishable, it more often now appears to be trying to block publication, the authors say. And reprimands for violations have become more stern, including letters warning of possible Justice Department investigations.

"There's been a fundamental shift in practice at the Publication Review Board," said Mark Zaid, the lawyer. "There's literally been a reinstitution of the 1950s attitude, that what happens at CIA stays at CIA."

As the inspector general, Helgerson was the supervisor of Mary McCarthy, who was fired last Thursday after admitting that she had leaked classified information to reporters about secret CIA detention centers and other subjects, agency officials said.

Goss himself, and the CIA's deputy director, Vice Admiral Albert Calland III, volunteered to take polygraphs during the leak investigation to show they were willing to undergo the same scrutiny they were asking other employees to undergo, agency officials said.

But Helgerson's status as the independent inspector general -- a post to which he is appointed by the president and from which he can only be removed by the president -- makes his submission to a polygraph even more unusual.

L. Britt Snider, who served as inspector general from 1998 to 2001, said in an interview on Sunday night that he had not taken a polygraph examination as inspector general.
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