by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

A 40-year-old gay man who has worked at the CIA for 18 years as a communications specialist filed a discrimination lawsuit against the agency in September, charging that security officials unfairly targeted him for a counter intelligence investigation because of his sexual orientation.

The gay employee, who is identified only as Plaintiff P.C. 1, charges that CIA security officials incorrectly interpreted his answers on a routine polygraph test in May 2000 to mean he was being deceptive or withholding information about his relationship with a foreign intelligence officer.

"His career is now on hold until this matter is resolved," said Roy Krieger, the employee’s attorney.

The gay employee added his name to an on-going lawsuit, first filed in January 1999, called M.K. v. CIA Director George Tenet, in which 14 other CIA employees allege that the CIA discriminated against them because of their race, gender, and national origin. The employees also allege that CIA officials retaliated against them for filing suit and violated internal procedures for handling employee complaints.

The case is pending before Judge Ricardo M. Urbina in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

CIA spokesperson Mark Mansfield said the CIA never comments on pending litigation. But he added, "The notion that the CIA discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation or on any other basis is unfounded."

Mansfield noted that the CIA has officially recognized a group of gay CIA employees called ANGLE. "That is indicative of the agency’s policy and practice," he said. "Our gay employees make an important contribution to our mission."

The case of Plaintiff P.C. 1 marks the first known time a gay employee has filed a discrimination suit against the CIA since the early 1990s, when the agency discontinued its past policy of dismissing gay employees on grounds that their sexual orientation made them susceptible to coercion or blackmail.

Veteran D.C. gay activist Frank Kameny, who is considered an authority on gays and security clearances, has said the number of anti-gay discrimination cases filed against the CIA declined sharply after President Clinton took office in 1993. Clinton ran on a platform of ending workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. He later issued an executive order banning sexual orientation discrimination in the issuance of security clearances.

Krieger acknowledged that his client’s tenure at the CIA since 1990 partially supports Mansfield’s assertion about the treatment of gay employees. Krieger points to a section of the employee’s lawsuit stating that the employee voluntarily disclosed his sexual orientation to the CIA in 1990, seven years after he began work there in 1983.

The lawsuit says the employee had to contend with a "rabidly homophobic" CIA station chief in 1997 while stationed at an overseas assignment. However, the employee is not aware of any problem or adverse action against him as a result of his decision to come out until May 2000, according to Krieger.

At that time, the employee had completed an overseas assignment and returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for routine processing for a new assignment, the lawsuit says. The suit says part of the routine processing involved taking a polygraph test.

"After the first round of questions the polygrapher declared that he was indicating deception on questions regarding foreign contacts," the suit says. "Plaintiff P.C. 1 discussed the foreign contacts he had, said nothing was untoward or unusual about his relationship with them, and that all had been previously reported in accordance with CIA regulations," the suit says.

During three subsequent polygraph tests, officials interrogated the employee about his relationship with a "security protective officer for the foreign minister of the host country" where he had been stationed from 1997 to 2000, the suit says. The suit describes the security officer as a "non-gay foreign national male who was a close friend of the United States Embassy Regional Security Officer" and a friend of some members of the embassy’s U.S. Marine Corps security guards.

According to Krieger, CIA employees assigned to U.S. embassies overseas routinely conduct business with members of foreign security or intelligence agencies in nations considered friendly to the United States. The lawsuit filed by the gay employee doesn’t identify the foreign nation in question.

Krieger said the CIA officials interrogating the gay employee repeatedly asked him if he had a sexual relationship with the foreign security officer or whether he solicited the officer for sex. The employee denied having a sexual relationship with the officer and said he never solicited the officer for sex. However, he confirmed that he socialized with the officer and that on one occasion he invited the officer to his apartment for breakfast, the suit says.

"On no occasion did Plaintiff P.C. 1 ever make any sexual advances on I.D. # 88 [the foreign security officer], as it is not his habit to do so with people whom he believes to be heterosexual," the suit says.

Krieger, whose law firm Paleos & Krieger specializes in CIA and national security cases, said he believes his client received a "false positive" reading on the polygraph test. He said views on the reliability of polygraph tests vary among experts, with some claiming that between 10 percent and 50 percent of those who take polygraph tests receive false positive readings.

"There is no obvious explanation for why he reacted to the polygraph the way he did," Krieger said. "He wishes he knew why this happened."

"We feel that because of his sexual orientation, they are focusing on whether he had an improper sexual relationship with the foreign security officer," said Krieger. Krieger said the CIA has not initiated or pursued any inquires of the Marine security guards who also socialized with the foreign security officer, a development, Krieger said, that suggests CIA investigators are singling out the gay employee for greater scrutiny.

"On information and belief, Plaintiff P.C. 1 avers that his treatment is the direct result of a negative bias by defendants against his admitted homosexuality," the lawsuit states. The suit says the gay employee believes the CIA’s action violates an executive order issued by President Clinton in 1997 that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation when deciding on whether someone is eligible for a security clearance.

Krieger said a "large number" of CIA employees receive positive polygraph tests. Like his client, they are prevented from taking overseas assignments until they are cleared from such inquiries.

"We call it polygraph limbo," he said.

Krieger said the CIA recently approved his client for a temporary overseas assignment. Although he remains under investigation, he said the client is hopeful that the decision to approve the temporary assignment is an indication that CIA investigators would soon clear his name and allow him to resume his normal career duties.

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