Philip Shenon

A - G

Shenon, Philip. "Bipartisan Bill Offered on 9/11 Panel's Proposals." New York Times, 8 Sep. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]

A bill offered in the Senate on 7 September 2004 by John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) would "enact virtually all the [9/11] commission's recommendations, including its call for a national intelligence director to oversee all of the government's spy agencies.... The sweeping legislation was immediately embraced by the commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, who appeared at a Capitol Hill news conference to announce the bill's introduction."

[Reform/00s/04/Debate]

Shenon, Philip. "Chief of Sept. 11 Panel Assesses Blame but Holds Off on Higher-Ups." New York Times, 19 Dec. 2003. [http://www.nytimes.com]

Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the federal 9/11 commission, said in a telephone interview on 18 December 2003 that "information long available to the public showed that the attacks could have been prevented had a group of low- and mid-level government employees at the F.B.I., the immigration service and elsewhere done their jobs properly." Kean also said "that his investigators were still studying whether senior Bush administration officials should also share the blame."

[GenPostCW/00s/03/Commission]

Shenon, Philip. "C.I.A. Is Unfairly Blamed in Chemical Blast, Panel Is Told." New York Times, 17 Apr. 1997, A14 (N).

At a joint hearing on 16 April 1997 before the two intelligence subcommittees, the CIA's investigator of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the Iraqi ammunition depot at Kamisiyah pointed to intelligence reports both before and shortly after the Gulf War with warnings that chemical weapons had been stored in the vicinity of that facility.

[CIA/90s/97/Iraq]

Shenon, Philip. "C.I.A. Officer Admits Guilt Over Hezbollah Files." New York Times, 14 Nov. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]

On 13 November 2007, Nada Nadim Prouty, "[a] Lebanese-born C.I.A. officer" who previously worked for the FBI, "pleaded guilty ... to charges that she illegally sought classified information" from FBI computers about the radical Islamic group Hezbollah. Prouty "also confessed that she had fraudulently obtained American citizenship." She "faces up to 16 years in prison." The plea agreement "appeared to expose grave flaws in the methods used" by the CIA and FBI "to conduct background checks on its investigators."

[CIA/00s/07; FBI/00s/07]

Shenon, Philip. "C.I.A. Report Says It Failed to Share Data on Iraq Arms." New York Times, 10 Apr. 1997, A1, A12 (N).

At a news conference at CIA Headquarters on 9 April 1997, the CIA released a report revealing that it had "solid information in 1986" that chemical weapons had been stored at the Kamisiyah ammunition depot in southern Iraq. "Despite that evidence, the agency failed to include the depot on a list of suspected chemical-weapons sites provided to the Pentagon before the [Gulf] war."

[CIA/90s/97/Iraq]

Shenon, Philip. "C.I.A. Was with U.N. in Iraq for Years, Ex-Inspector Says." New York Times, 23 Feb. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]

"The CIA began placing American spies among U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq only a year after the end of the Persian Gulf war of 1991 and worked closely with the United Nations to organize the inspections, a former arms inspector says. The former inspector, Scott Ritter, said in a new book [Endgame] that he and a senior CIA official operating under an assumed name had planned some of the largest and most complex inspections undertaken by the United Nations and that the United Nations inspection teams had included 'CIA paramilitary covert operatives.'"

[GenPostCW/90s/UN-Iraq]

Shenon, Philip. "Criticism From Many Quarters Greets Plan to Split C.I.A." New York Times, 24 Aug. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]

"A radical proposal by Republican senators to break up the C.I.A. and transfer other intelligence agencies out of the Pentagon met with an expected rush of strong criticism on [23 August 2004] from influential lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, and drew a noncommittal response from President Bush." Former DCI George J. Tenet said that "Senator Roberts's proposal is yet another episode in the mad rush to rearrange wiring diagrams in an attempt to be seen as doing something."

[Reform/00s/04/Debate]

Shenon, Philip. "Delays on 9/11 Bill Are Laid to Pentagon." New York Times, 26 Oct. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]

According to Congressional officials and commission members on 25 October 2004, "[a] months-long, behind-the-scenes lobbying effort by the Pentagon to water down the powers of a new national intelligence director is largely responsible for a stalemate threatening to derail Congressional efforts to enact the major recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission."

[Reform/00s/04/Debate]

Shenon, Philip. "Ex-Senator Kerrey Is Named to Federal 9/11 Commission." New York Times, 10 Dec. 2003. [http://www.nytimes.com]

[GenPostCW/00s/03/Independent]

Shenon, Philip. "Former C.I.A. Analyst Is Arrested and Accused of Spying for China." New York Times, 24 Nov. 1985, A1, A31.

[SpyCases/U.S./Chin]

Shenon, Philip. "Former U.N. Arms Inspector Is Criticized by State Dept." New York Times, 24 Feb. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]

"The State Department said on [23 February 1999] that a new book by Scott Ritter ... was inaccurate, misleading and could 'only serve Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine.'"

[GenPostCW/90s/UN-Iraq]

Shenon, Philip. "From Dour 'Mortician' of F.B.I. to Suspected Russian Superspy." New York Times, 21 Feb. 2001. [http://www.nytimes.com]

"The Russians apparently never knew the name of their prized American spy. To them, he was only B or Ramon or R. Garcia, the code names that the hypercautious American used during the 15 years that he is said to have provided Moscow with some of the most sensitive intelligence documents in the files of the F.B.I."

Details of the case released by law enforcement officials on 20 February 2001 "offer little explanation for the motivations of a man who, unlike the brazenly greedy Mr. Ames, was never obvious about enjoying the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and diamonds that his Russian handlers supposedly provided. Mr. Hanssen was remembered by F.B.I. colleagues as dour, colorless, socially awkward 'the mortician,' as he was called behind his back, both for his personality and his penchant for dark, unstylish business suits."

[FBI/Hanssen]

Shenon, Philip. "A G.O.P. Senator Proposes a Plan to Split Up C.I.A." New York Times, 23 Aug. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]

SSCI Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) said on 22 August 2004 that he will "propose legislation to break up the Central Intelligence Agency and divide its responsibilities among three new spy agencies. The plan would eliminate the Pentagon's direct control over the National Security Agency and create a post of national intelligence director with virtually complete control over the government's $40 billion annual intelligence budget. The sweeping proposal,... which would also provide the national intelligence director with budget authority over counterterrorism and counterintelligence programs of the F.B.I., goes far beyond the recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission."

[Reform/00s/04/Debate]

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