CIA RELAXES ITS POLICY ON CRIMINAL INFORMANTS

WASHINGTON-The CIA has loosened its rules to let field officers recruit
informants with violent or criminal backgrounds without prior approval from
headquarters, a U.S. official said Friday.

CIA Director George Tenet and other senior agency officials changed the
policy so officers can get information about terrorists as quickly as
possible, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Under the policy shift, field officers can recruit such sources immediately
if they have information on terrorist threats. Within a few days, they must
inform the head of the CIA's clandestine service, Deputy Director for
Operations James L. Pavitt, who must approve the recruitment.

Since 1995, field officers have had to seek approval from CIA headquarters
in Virginia before using someone with a history of human rights abuses as a
source, for example.

No such application was ever denied, CIA spokesman Bill Harlow has said,
but critics in Congress have said the rule chilled attempts by field
officers to recruit sources who may have unsavory pasts.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, senior congressional members with
intelligence oversight have called for a relaxing of the rules, likening
these relationships to the informant networks street cops have in a city.
Any informant with access to someone like Osama bin Laden is unlikely to
have a clean background, critics of the rule say.

The prior-approval rule was put in place in 1995 after congressional and
public criticism of the CIA's ties to a Guatemalan colonel linked to two
murders in the early 1990s. The CIA also performed an "asset scrub,"
ridding itself of some sources with similar backgrounds.

Previous to 1995, field officers had no approval process for recruitments,
the official said. A move was afoot in Congress to eliminate the rule.

The 2002 intelligence budget passed by the House would do away with it and
have Tenet create new guidelines. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the ranking
minority member on the House Intelligence committee, said that "despite
repeated assurances from senior CIA officials that these guidelines had not
had a negative impact on the quality or quantity of assets, it has become
clear" that case officers believe it has hurt their efforts to gain crucial
information on narcotics trafficking, weapons proliferation and terrorism.