Monday, Mar. 16, 1987

G-Man Among the Spooks

By Elaine Shannon/Washington

William Webster first heard the term "plausible deniability" a few months after he took command of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That was the last time. "I have a responsibility to know about these sensitive operations and to be accountable," he said, banning the phrase. "I wasn't sent here not to know what was going on."

If, as seems likely, the Senate confirms Webster to head the Central Intelligence Agency, he will be entering territory where plausible deniability still exists. If Webster has his way, however, he will ban the policy again. A man of unassailable integrity with a spongelike mind for detail, Webster, 63, is likely to run the CIA as he did the FBI -- by the book and in close consultation with Congress. Says Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd: "Webster is a highly regarded professional who will bring much needed credibility to the CIA."

A St. Louis lawyer and lifelong Republican who was appointed to the federal bench in Missouri by President Nixon in 1971, Webster became head of the FBI in 1978. He took an agency demoralized by the paranoid political spying that marked J. Edgar Hoover's last years and aimed it at truly criminal activities. He shifted agents away from the statistic-making bank-robbery and stolen-car cases that Hoover favored, and authorized long-term undercover operations against organized crime, something Hoover refused to do. With that insider information and thousands of legal wiretaps, the FBI has locked up hundreds of top Mafia figures across the country. Webster's men also branched out to pursue drug traffickers, white collar criminals, corrupt officials and spies.

Even so, Webster did not escape controversy. In the late 1970s the FBI conducted its Abscam investigation, videotaping Capitol Hill lawmakers as they accepted bribes from agents posing as representatives of an Arab sheik. Though the inquiry led to the convictions of one Senator and six Representatives, critics charged that the FBI's tactics amounted to entrapment. Webster also oversaw the arrests of eleven agents, most notably Richard Miller, who was convicted of espionage last June. The Judge, as he likes to be called, preferred that route to Hoover's practice of summarily firing the offender and burying the evidence. "He takes deep pride that we handle our own problems," said Roger Young, a former assistant director. "He is glad that this was something we ourselves discovered and have taken steps to correct."

But can a man who has lived in the black-and-white world of law enforcement navigate in a universe that is all shades of gray? Commanding a corps of clannish, spit-and-polish G-men is slim preparation for managing the articulate intellectuals, technocrats and covert operatives who make up the CIA. Webster impressed agency officials when he successfully ousted Soviet KGB officers from the U.N. last fall, but some analysts are distressed by his inexperience in foreign affairs. "Webster's a nice guy," says one critic. "But it remains to be seen whether he has the breadth and depth for the job."

Behind the patrician style is a demanding boss. "He holds everybody accountable, and you damn sure better have the right answers," says former Aide David Divan. Webster, who insists on making every important decision and many minor ones himself, is notoriously slow to make up his mind. Yet he has proved receptive to creative, and politically risky, ideas. He introduced an ( effective counterterrorism program at the FBI; in recent years agents have successfully infiltrated several terrorist groups. He does not reject outright the notion of capturing wanted criminals and terrorists overseas and bringing them to the U.S. to stand trial.

Despite this, Webster often admonished his FBI colleagues that the end does not justify the means. Fretting over a request to bug the chambers of a Chicago judge, he told an associate, "We have to take a strategic look. Even if we win, do we lose? Are they going to say we will be in the confessional next?" He ultimately approved the bugging, but insisted the conversations could be recorded only when agents watching the judge's chambers had good reason to suspect that the visitor would offer a bribe. The case, known as Operation Greylord, resulted in the conviction of seven judges and 17 other public officials.

Webster's passion for the law will shape his first days at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Former CIA Director William Casey moved the CIA's office of legal counsel to a Virginia office building miles from Langley, demoralizing agency lawyers and symbolizing his indifference to their work. At FBI headquarters Webster keeps his legal specialists a few steps away and is sure to continue that practice when he moves across the river. "Adherence to the rule of law, both nationally and internationally, is a very important principle," he said last week.

As Webster prepares for his Senate hearings, he is likely to have little time for his fiercely competitive tennis games or his weekends on the farm in rural Missouri. A widower with three grown children, Webster seldom drinks anything stronger than soda pop and is a devout Christian Scientist. A history and poetry buff, he is fond of quoting Lincoln and John Kennedy, a choice that displays admirable bipartisanship, if nothing else.

Even those who favored Deputy Director Robert Gates to succeed the ailing William Casey seem reconciled to Webster. "Anything is better than the current lack of direction," says a CIA official. Those who know the Judge well insist that he is the best man for the job, but for reasons that may not go down well with those agency types who are used to skirting the law to get things done. "They're bound to feel a little besieged at the CIA right now," said former Attorney General Griffin Bell, who recruited Webster for the FBI post. "The FBI felt that way ((in 1978)), and they started taking pride in the bureau again. I think the same thing will start happening at the CIA, but they're going to have to obey the law. He's just what they need."