Homeland official charged in sex sting held

Sexual explicit requests
On several occasions, Doyle instructed her to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.

The arrest “raises serious concerns about the department’s hiring policies and, more important, its security clearance practices,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y.

Pledging to investigate those practices, King said Doyle may have used a government-issued computer to “provide potentially sensitive information over the Internet to a complete stranger.”

“What if the person on the other end had been a member of al-Qaida or a similar terrorist organization and used this information to blackmail Mr. Doyle?” King said.

It was not immediately clear when Doyle received his security clearance, which gave him access to sensitive Homeland Security information. A senior Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because it involves a personnel issue, said Doyle’s security screening consisted of an FBI background check but did not include a psychological exam.

The clearance was valid for five years; Doyle was hired by the federal government, at the Transportation Security Administration, in 2002, officials said. He previously worked, for 26 years, as a reporter at Time magazine in Washington. A former colleague said Doyle is divorced.

Neighbors surprised
Neighbors in Doyle’s leafy neighborhood said they were surprised that the mild-mannered security employee was nabbed in the undercover sting. Doyle’s house is just behind an elementary school yard.

“I was shocked because I didn’t think it was something he would do,” said neighbor Asha Andreas. “He was gone a lot working. It worries me, too, because I have three kids.”

Law enforcement agencies in Florida and other states have focused on conducting stings in recent years to catch people trying to lure children for sex over the Internet. The agencies set up fake profiles of young boys and girls and then wait for predators to take the bait.

Doyle’s arrest capped a number of other security breaches at Homeland Security, still in its fledgling stages after being created in 2003 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Other security problems include inadequately trained guards at the department’s headquarters in Washington and vulnerable information-sharing systems that could allow classified intelligence to be accessed without authorization.

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