CIA . . . SLAPPING THE WRIST-SLAPPER

A Senate committee today delivered a scathing assessment of theCIA's handling of the Aldrich Ames spy scandal, saving its hardest slam forCIA Director R. James Woolsey, who reprimanded 11 senior CIA officials last month, but fired no one. TheSenate Intelligence Committeesaid Woolsey's "mild" actions were "seriously inadequate and disproportionate to the problems." It also faulted former CIA directors William Casey, William Webster and Robert Gates -- agency chiefs during Ames'nine years of spyingfor Moscow -- for their role in an intelligence debacle which led to the executions of a dozen Soviet double agents and left the U.S. spy network in shambles. "I believe my decisions were fair and just," Woolsey said today.Post comment onWashington