WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the following comment after the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community released a report on how the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) reports crimes following polygraph examinations.
Grassley requested the NRO Inspector General look into the allegations first revealed in press reports. The NRO Inspector General’s office recused itself from the investigation about the agency’s failure to report serious crimes due to its own role in the inadequate reporting process. Those allegations were investigated by the Intelligence Community Inspector General. The NRO Inspector General has written a separate report on other allegations that Grassley raised, including the abuse of polygraph authorities to seek admissions beyond the scope of the examination. Grassley said it was important for the NRO Inspector General’s office to also release its report in order for Congress and the public to determine whether the problems at the agency have been adequately addressed.
Here is Grassley’s comment.
“It’s hard to understand why the NRO failed to immediately report crimes involving children. Memorandums of Understanding are not law. And, while it is generally appropriate to follow these MOUs, the NRO showed a complete lack of common sense in failing to require reporting of serious state crimes of this sort. Even when NRO did report one admission of sexually abusing a child to the Defense Department in 2010, it is disturbing that the subject’s clearance remained active, even as of April 4, 2014.
“The NRO has made important strides in reducing the time it takes to report crimes from over 100 days to an average of 3 days, but quite frankly, sometimes that’s still too long. It’s unacceptable to give a person who has admitted to viewing child pornography or of sexually abusing children any time to destroy evidence or strike again.”
