AN ENORMOUS RISK

U.S. intelligence hasn't always been very, well, intelligent. That's the conclusion of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has released its review of an internal CIA report concerning the impact of tainted information supplied by convicted double agent Aldrich Ames. The CIA took "an enormous risk that may have jeopardized the U.S. national security interests," the committee's report concludes, by failing to alert government officials and policymakers that some agency information was actually being provided by the KGB. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Kerrey, who led the Senate inquiry, also faulted CIA Director John Deutch for understating impact of tainted information and have requested a comprehensive review of all CIA sources for the past 10 years. But TIME's Doug Waller says a major CIA shakedown this isn't. "At most, this represents a spanking for an old sin," he says. "Moreover, the allegation that CIA disinformation led to billions in wasteful Pentagon spending -- one of the major charges -- could not be substantiated, when military spending was investigated."