FBI limits agents' access to nation's highest secrets

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is reducing by hundreds the number of agents with access to the nation's most sensitive secrets and has administered lie detector tests that have identified possible problems with fewer than 10 of its employees, officials said.

The actions are among the first visible signs of a large overhaul of the FBI's internal security system, which began in 1999 but took on new urgency after a senior agent was discovered last year to have spied for more than a decade for Russia.

Senior FBI officials said while no new espionage suspects have been identified, the number of employees being referred to the Office of Professional Responsibility for investigation has been increasing.

"Our goal is to bring the culture along to the point where security is considered part of the daily operations," said Ken Senser, a CIA employee who was brought over to the FBI to improve internal security. He oversees the FBI's new security division.

Over the last six months, the FBI has reduced by hundreds the number of employees who have access to what is called Sensitive Compartmented Information, data even more sensitive than top secret intelligence.

At times roughly half the FBI's 28,000 employees held SCI clearance before the number was reduced. Officials said the new, lower figure is classified, but only employees who need to know such information for their immediate jobs now hold the high-level clearance, officials said.

"We focused on the numbers of people who had access to SCI, and actually we were able to reduce that number noticeably," Senser said.