CIA misled court, US judge decides

7/21/2009

WASHINGTON - CIA officials committed fraud to protect a former covert agent against an eavesdropping lawsuit, a federal judge has ruled. He is considering sanctioning as many as six people who have worked at the agency, including a former CIA director, George Tenet.

According to court documents, US District Judge Royce Lamberth referred a CIA attorney, Jeffrey Yeates, for disciplinary action. He also denied the CIA’s renewed effort to keep the case secret because of the agency’s “diminished credibility.’’

The judge also criticized the CIA’s current director, Leon Panetta, saying he’s given conflicting accounts about what should be revealed.

The lawsuit was brought by a former Drug Enforcement Agency agent, Richard Horn, who says his home in Burma was illegally wiretapped by the CIA in 1993. He says Arthur Brown, former CIA station chief in Burma, and Franklin Huddle Jr., chief of mission at the US Embassy in Burma, were trying to get him relocated. The agency has not said whether it monitored Horn, but Horn claims he was monitored unconstitutionally.

Tenet in 2000 asked that the case against Brown be dismissed because his identity was a state secret. Lamberth threw out the case in 2004 but found out last year that Brown’s cover had been lifted in 2002. He decided the CIA intentionally misled the court and revived the case.