BYRD SEEKS SENATE PROBE OF CHARGES OF REPORT-ALTERING AT CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R000903820031-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2011
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: September 29, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/07/29: CIA-RDP88B00443R000903820031-9
THE WASHINGTON POST
Byrd Seeks Senate Probe of Charges of Report-Altering at CIA
WILLIAM J. CASEY
By Joanne Omang
Washington Pat Staff Writer
Senate Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd
(D-W.Va.) yesterday asked the Senate Se-
lect Committee on Intelligence to investi-
gate charges by a former CIA intelligence
analyst that one of his intelligence reports
was altered to support Reagan administra-
tion policies in Central America.
Intelligence committee officials said that
the request probably would be granted and
that a hearing could be held as early as next
week. The former analyst, John R. Horton,
said he would cooperate in any congression-
al probe.
Byrd said he was "shocked" by published
reports of Horton's revelation that he re-
signed from the National Intelligence Coun-
cil last May after CIA Director William J.
Casey rewrote an intelligence evaluation on
Mexico over Horton's objections.
Sources close to Central America policy-
making said yesterday that Casey rewrote
Horton's evaluation of Mexico's internal
economic and political troubles to suggest
that the problems could endanger the coun-
try's political stability, and that U.S. secu-
rity interests might be threatened.
Such an evaluation "overstated the dan-
gers beyond where Horton wanted to go,"
one source said.
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid
visited the United States May 16-18, short-
ly after Horton resigned. The rewritten
evaluation could have been used by U.S.
officials to make de la Madrid more recep-
tive to U.S. pressure that he help in oppos-
ing leftist-and, in particular, Ni-
caraguan-influence in the region, this
source said.
"The idea was to get de la Madrid to go
for a tougher line in Central America be-
cause of his own problems," another source
said. He denied published reports that
Casey had sought to launch a covert action
program in Mexico with the aid of Horton's
report.
Horton refused to discuss the contents of
the rewritten report, saying in a telephone
interview Thursday that it had nothing to
do with Central America. Yesterday he con-
firmed that it involved Mexico, noting that
the CIA puts Mexico in a category separate
from Central America.
In Byrd's letter to Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (D-N.Y.), intelligence committee
vice chairman, he said, "If accurate, these
reports indicate there has been a shocking
misuse of the CIA for political purposes.
"If the Congress cannot rely on the un-
tarnished accuracy of the CIA's intelligence
reports, then the asserted factual basis for
virtually every major foreign policy decision
of this administration is brought into ques-
tion," the letter said.
A spokesman for Moynihan's office said
the senator would request an investigation
as soon as possible. Committee officials said
that such requests nearly always are grant-
ed and that the hearing might be held next
week. They said Casey and Horton would
be called to testify.
Reached at his home in Maryland, Horton
said, "If they're interested, I'll talk to
them."
Another intelligence committee official
said the staff had asked the CIA for a writ-
ten report on Horton's charges.
Horton said that although he supports the
administration's overall policy in Central
America, he was concerned that debate
within the administration on tactical moves
in that, region is circumscribed by conser-
vative ideological considerations. He said all
options are not considered, and he ex-
pressed concern that the CIA eventually
might be blamed "if any cans get hung
around anyone's neck" in regard to events
in Central America.
JOHN IL HORTON
"If they're interested, I'll talk"
Approved For Release 2011/07/29: CIA-RDP88B00443R000903820031-9