Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 9:12 a.m.
The former Air Force pilot and member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence said the committee also intends to examine whether Chinese agents were used to "subvert or otherwise manipulate" the U.S. political process.
"Without question we must get concrete answers to the lingering questions of intelligence security in the U.S.," Gibbons, R-Nev., said in a statement from Washington on Tuesday.
"The questionable and inept handling of counterintelligence matters at the Department of Energy, the insufficient attention paid to security at our national laboratories ... and the prominence of trade consideration over those of national security were all driving forces behind the disaster at hand," he said.
The breach of security outlined in the committee's report Tuesday underscores the long-overdue need for changes in an intelligence community decimated by shrinking budgets and other problems, Gibbons said.
"Anyone who reads this report will inevitably come to the same disturbing conclusion that I did - America's most closely guarded secrets evidently were not closely guarded at all," he said.
He said counterintelligence at the Energy Department has been of specific concern to the House panel "and we have been periodically notified of related developments."
He said he was working closely with Committee Chairman Porter Gross "in examining whether these notifications were of a timely and comprehensive nature."
Gibbons said the panel will examine "Chinese-directed espionage against the United States, including efforts to steal nuclear, military, economic, intelligence and diplomatic secrets.
"We will examine Chinese-directed covert action-type activities conducted against the United States, such as the use of agents of influence and efforts to subvert or otherwise manipulate the U.S. political process.
"We will investigate the issue of whether the committee was kept properly advised of developments by the FBI and DOE, including allegations that information was withheld from Congress at the direction of seniors at DOE" and the National Security Council, Gibbons said.
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