Central Intelligence Agency

A man in a pickup truck sped through the main checkpoint outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters last month and crashed onto the CIA's front steps, the spy agency revealed. Guards were unable to move quickly enough to activate pop-up metal barriers designed to halt intruders "due to the very high speed of the vehicle," the CIA said. The driver, David Crump, 37, of McLean, Va., is in a correctional facility for psychiatric evaluation.

President Clinton has selected career intelligence officer John E. McLaughlin to serve in the No. 2 spot in the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Director George J. Tenet announced Thursday. McLaughlin, 58, was chosen to succeed Air Force Gen. John Gordon, who was sworn in Wednesday as director of the new National Nuclear Security Administration in the Department of Energy. Once formally nominated, McLaughlin's post is subject to Senate confirmation.

Robert M. Gates appeared headed for confirmation as director of the Central Intelligence Agency as the Senate debated his nomination. "The question is no longer whether he will be confirmed, but by what margin," said a Democratic aide to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Gates picked up endorsements from Sens. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) and Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.). Two other Democrats, Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and J. James Exon of Nebraska, said they would vote "no."

The Senate confirmed George J. Tenet as Central Intelligence Agency director, ending months of uncertainty about the leadership of the nation's spy service. In a voice vote and without opposition, the Senate approved Tenet--who had been acting CIA chief and the agency's No. 2 official--for the top job. The vote came hours after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 19-0 in closed session to support Tenet's nomination.

KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov has accused the Central Intelligence Agency of plotting to subvert the Soviet economy, describing promises of Western aid as an illusion, Leningrad Television reported. It showed taped excerpts of a furious speech by Kryuchkov to a closed session of the Soviet parliament last week.

The man named by the new CIA chief to be the agency's executive director said he would not take the position following reports that he was accused of shoplifting more than two decades ago. However, Michael Kostiw will work at the agency as a senior advisor to Porter J. Goss. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Kostiw was accused of shoplifting when he previously worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in 1981. Kostiw has not confirmed or denied the theft charge.

A spy is a fabulist, a spinner of false tales, a maker of unreal worlds. A spy is a seducer of reckless hearts and broken souls, and a voyeur of the carnage left behind. A spy is not true. But Gennadiy Vasilenko and Jack Platt never lived strictly by the rules of their profession. Platt, of the CIA, and Vasilenko, of the KGB, were assigned to corrupt each other. Instead, they reached across the minefield of Cold War espionage to forge an extraordinary friendship.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ask President Clinton for an independent investigation into whether the CIA was involved in the distribution of drugs in South-Central Los Angeles. "This is a real issue with the county paying the price in terms of hospital care for babies born to crack cocaine mothers, building prisons like Twin Towers, and child dependency issues," said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who introduced the motion.