CIA IGNORED CHIN'S POLYGRAPH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320071-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 71
• Publication Date: February 5, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320071-7
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5 February 1986
CIA ignored Chin's polygraph
By Bill Gertz -
and Warren Strobel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Accused spy Larry Wu-Ili Chin
failed the only lie-detector test he
took during more than 30 years as a
CIA translator, but the polygraph re-
sults were not reviewed by CIA secu-
rity for more than a decade, accord-
ing to an intelligence source.
Mr. Chin's trial began yesterday in
U.S. District Court in Alexandria,
with a government prosecutor
charging that the CIA veteran had
access to ? and passed on ? highly
sensitive information about U.S.
policy toward China and intelligence
efforts targeted against the commu-
nist nation.
"The classified documents that
Chin had access to were often the
same documents that were sent to
the secretary of state, to the Na-
tonal Security Council, to the secre-
tary of defense, to the vice president
and to the president of the United
States," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jo-
seph Aronica told the crowded
courtroom.
Mr. Chin, the subject of a two-year
FBI investigation, faces 17 counts of
espionage, tax evasion and failure to
report a foreign bank account stem-
ming from an alleged 34-year career
as a "mole" in the CIA.
The intelligence source, who de-
clined to be identified, said Mr.
Chin's 1970 polygraph test revealed
deception in response to loyalty
questions ? but that Central Intelli-
gence Agency security officials
failed to review the test until 13
years later, when the FBI began its
investigation of Mr. Chin.
A pretrial memorandum submit-
ted by prosecutors Monday stated
that Mr. Chin told FBI agents he
passed the polygraph test. Mr. Chin
said the questions were vague and
that he might have failed if he had
been questioned in his native Can-
tonese instead of English.
Prosecutors said they plan to in-
troduce the results of Mr. Chin's
polygraph test as evidence in the
trial.
Gen. Richard Stilwell, a retired
Army officer who headed the Penta-
gon's review commission on secu-
rity procedures last year, confirmed
yesterday that Mr. Chin was given a
polygraph examination in 1970, but
he did not disclose the results.
Reports that Mr. Chin was given
only one polygraph test, that it in-
dicated deceptive answers and that
this was not investigated have raised
dOtibts within the administration
about CIA security procedures, the
intelligence source said.
, Last September, CIA officials con-
AP
Larry Wu-Tai Chin (right) is escorted by a U.S. marshal to Federal Court in
Alexandria yesterday for opening of his trial for espionage, tax evasion
and failure to report a foreign bank account, during 34 years with the CIA.
firmed that the agency's security
chief, William Kotanish, had been
transferred to another CIA division,
but said the move was not related to
any security problems.
Mr. Kotapish was replaced by a
CIA official with no operational ex-
perience, the intelligence source
said. Itaditionally, CIA security offi-
cials have been appointed from
within the agency's operations di-
rectorate, the source said.
Prosecutors said they
plan to introduce the
results of Mr Chin's
polygraph test as
evidence in the trial.
In court yesterday, Mr. Aronica
charged that "for 30 years Chin lived
a lie, a double life," by spying for
China's Ministry of Public Security
while working for the Foreign
Broadcast Information Service and
other more sensitive branches of the
CIA.
"Chin's duplicity is highlighted in
July of 1981" when, two weeks after
he was honored at a CIA ceremony,
he traveled to Hong Kong and the
nearby island of Macao to meet with
the second in command of China's
intelligence service, Mr. Aronica
told the nine-woman, three-man
jury
An attorney for Mr. Chin con-
ceded that his client passed on doc-
uments to the Chinese in return for
cash, but said the documents were
harmless and part of a plan by the
Chinese-born CIA veteran to foster
better relations between the two na-
tions.
"Nothing at all about submarines,
atomic bombs, guns, troop move-
ments" was taken, said attorney Ja-
cob A. Stein. "Nothing at all of that
kind."
Mr. Chin, 63, plans to testify on his
own behalf, Mr. Stein said.
Mark Robert Johnson, a special
agent with the FBI's counterintelli-
gence unit and the prosecution's
first witness, testified that at a Nov.
22 interview prior to his arrest, Mr.
Chin admitted passing documents
classified as "secret" to the Chinese
at regular meetings in Hong Kong
and lbronto.
"He said he has passed so many
documents that he couldn't recall
any specific one that he had passed,"'
Mr. Johnson testified.
"He said, 'Morally, I was right. Le-
gally, I know I'm guilty: " said Mr.
Johnson, who also quoted Mr. Chin
as saying, "The fact that I took
money is what really hurts:'
npciaRsified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320071-7
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