The CIA and the Defense Department are studying ways to tighten internal security to block the kind of treachery allegedly committed by CIA employee Aldrich H. Ames, accused of being a Russian agent.

CIA Director James Woolsey told the House Intelligence Committee Thursday that lie-detector tests of agency and Pentagon employees and audits of their personal finances are among issues already being examined by an existing advisory commission. The panel, created in May, will report its recommendations soon, he said.The future role of polygraph tests and financial audits in counter-intelligence is particularly relevant now because of what many in Congress are calling Ames' incredible success in evading detection for several years.

Ames worked for the CIA for 31 years and once held one of its most sensitive jobs - head of a Soviet counter-intel-li-gence branch whose mission was to prevent penetration of the CIA by the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency. That is precisely the act the FBI accuses Ames of committing.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that Ames passed CIA polygraph tests twice during the 1985-94 period he is accused of having sold some of the U.S. government's most sensitive secrets to the former Soviet Union and to Russia for payoffs totaling $1.5 million.

As part of its internal safeguards against treason, the CIA tries to test its employees with polygraphs every five years, but there have been backlogs. Ames, who had access to large amounts of top-secret material at the CIA, was tested on schedule without his spying being discovered, said one government official. Another official said the tests were conducted in 1986 and 1991.

The House and Senate Intelligence committees plan to review the circumstances of the Ames case, including the apparent break-down of internal controls and implications for safeguarding U.S. national security secrets.

"The Ames case raises disturbing questions about the internal controls and management of counter-intelligence activities, at least within the CIA," Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan., chairman of the House panel, told Woolsey.

Woolsey, whose appearance had been scheduled before Ames and his wife, Rosario, were arrested Monday, said he could not discuss the substance of the case because it is in the courts.

But he called it "a terrible, very serious spy scandal" and suggested it is unrealistic to expect the CIA to block all would-be traitors.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was more blunt: "We can't allow someone to put the lives of our people in jeopardy for money," he said about Ames.

Hatch has already added such a provision to the Senate-passed version of this year's anti-crime bill but said the House usually weakens or kills death penalty laws. He urged President Clinton to back the proposal so it will pass.

"When a potential turncoat calculates whether he will betray his country for profit, the prospect that he or she may be sent to the electric chair should be part of his or her calculation," Hatch said.

While Hatch wants the death penalty for treason, he says cutting aid to Russia because of the incident would hurt American interests by undermining reformers and possibly restoring communists to power.

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Agreeing with him was Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which directly oversees the CIA. "We try to do the same thing, to recruit their people. What should concern us is that one of our people sold out, not that they were spying."

***** Additional Information

Ames aided Demos

Accused Russian spy Aldrich Ames donated $5,000 to the Democratic Party in 1991 and 1992, records show. Ames made three contributions totaling $5,000 in 1991 and 1992, according to Federal Election Commission records.

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