U.S. PROVIDING BRITISH A WIDE RANGE OF INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84M00127R000100060005-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2007
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 15, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release. 2007/05/03: CIA-RDP84M00127R000100060005-7
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1982
U.S. ovid 'British a Wide Rare oflntddl er e
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Special ton New York Times
WASHINGTON, April ' 14 The
United States is providing Britain with
political and military information on
Argentina from a full range of Ameri-
can intelligence resources, Administra-
tion officials said today.
Those officials said that the sharing
of intelligence with Britain, including
that from aerial surveillance, elec-
tronic intercepts, covert agents and dip-
lomats; was based on cooperation dat-
ing back to World War II.
"It's become routine,". said. an in-
formed official.
jeopardize our ability to play the role
both countries wish us to perform.",
."Since the onset of this crisis," Mr.
Haig said, "the United States has there-
fore not acceded to requests that would
go beyond the scope of customary pat-
terns based on existing bilateral agree-
ments." He added that such "custom-
ary" assistance would continue.'
'Sltuatlon Is Too Critical'.
Mr. Haig stroke after President Rea-
gan had told reporters in the Rose Gar-
den at the White House this morning
that he would not comment on the re-
ports of American assistance to. the
British. "This situation is too critical
that any comment, I think; can be taken
one way or the other and endanger the
peacekeeping or ? peacemaking pro-
cess." Why the Administration changed
that decision was not clear. .. _.
The officials said that the United
States was also helping the British Gov-
ernment to communicate via satellite
with the fleet steaming toward the
Falkland islands and particularly'with
the nuclear-powered submarines al-
ready on station there, 8,000 miles from
London, the officials said.
Other help, they said, was being given
in the form of fuel supplies at Ascension
Island, under an agreement signed in
1962, and in South Atlantic weather re-
ports that are also routinely made
available to most who ask for them.
The officials indicated that all of that
assistance came under the definition of
"customary patterns," as described by
In London, a spokesman for the Brit-
ish Defense Ministry told reporters, ac-
cording to wire service dispatches, that
the Soviet Union was gathering infor-
mation on the British fleet in the Atlan-
tic and passing It to Argentina.
The Argentine ambassador here, Es-
taban Takacs, denied that his govern-
ment was receiving information from
the Soviet Union. In a televised inter-
view this morning, the ambassador
said: "There is no military cooperation
between the Soviets and Argentina."
On American sharing of intelligence
with Britain, Administration officials
noted that British intelligence services
had been instrumental in the formation
of United States intelligence organiza-
tions during World War II. and that
cooperation between the two, despite
periods of. strain, had developed stead-
Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig
Jr. this afternoon. Not to continue fur-
nishing such assistance, they suggest-
ed, would damage United States rela-
tions with Britain and therefore lessen
American influence in the crisis.
Mr. Haig appeared in the State De-
partment press room this afternoon, to
read a carefully worded statement in
which he asserted that the United
States has "long-standing relations"
with both Britain and Argentina.
"We have been careful to maintain
these relationships in order to preserve
our influence" with both nations, he
said. "Failure to live up to existing obli-
gations, or going beyond them, would,
ily since then.
They said that, in accord with that
practice, the United States was provid-
ing Britain with the widest range of in-
telligence reports on the situation in Ar-
gentina and around the Falklands. -
The American officials would not dis-
cusss specific sources and methods or
operations. But they suggested that the
assistance included surveillance from
satellites or Air Force SR-71 long-range
reconnaissance planes.
. Other information comes from elect.
tronic interceptions, they said. Regard-
less of whether the Argentine codes
were broken, specialists at the National
Security Agency are able to produce in-
telligence by analyzing the flow of radio
traffic by volume and direction.
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