THE CIA SPEAKS NO EVIL, UNLESS IT SO CHOOSES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100240007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 12, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP
ARTICLE
OBI PAGE,
The CIA Speaks
No Evil, Unless
It So Chooses
The CIA would like us to believe
that, though it may see evil and hear
evil, it speaks no evil. Its policy, re-
affirmed by the current director,
William J. Casey; is that the CIA
will "neither confirm nor deny alle-
gations appearing in the media."
This is patently untrue. The
spooks will, when they choose, rush
to deny any hint in the press that
they have misbehaved. For example:
? In August, charges were pub-
lished that the CIA had been in-,
volved in the death of Marilyn Mon-
roe 20 years earlier. An official CIA
spokesman dismissed the accusa-
tions as untrue, even absurd.
? In July, Casey went on record
with a categorical denial that the
CIA had meddled in the Salvadoran
elections. Any CIA involvement, he
said, had ?been -purely benign and
open; there had been no dirty tricks
to affect the elections.
t In January, 1982, the CIA went
public to deny official agency in-
volvement in the gun-running activ-
. ities of its former. agent, Edwin P.
WASHINGTON POST
12 FEBRUARY 1983
its policy of "no comment." A Greek ments provided were not only in-
exile leader named Elias Demetraco-
poulos has been butting his head
against the CIA's stone wall for years
in his attempt to prove that he was
the victim of a covert smear cam-
paign. Suspecting' that he had been de-
famed by political enemies, Deme-
traeopoulos obtained CIA documents
concerning him through the Free-
dom of Information Act. The mate-
rial from the CIA files showed that
charges against him, accusing him of
communist leanings, had been re-
futed by the CIA.
Yet in 1977, The New York
Times published an extremely crit-
ical story about ' Demetracopoulos,
citing as sources unidentfied "CIA
officials" and agency "files."
By a not-so-funny coincidence,
the Times story appeared 'just as the
Senate was getting ready to inves-
tigate charges, by Demetracopoulos
and others,. that the CIA had close
ties to the military junta which had
ruled Greece several years earlier.
Demetracopoulos had long been a
thorn in the side of the military dic-
tatorship.
In his dogged attempt to clear his
complete and unsatisfactory," but
had been classified, which "made it
impossible for me to follow up on it
by reviewing the information with
Mr. Demetracopoulos."
Aspin suggested a- solution: have
the CIA review its files and the
Times story and write him "an un-
classified letter that states flatly and
clearly that, contrary to The New
York Times article, the agency has
concluded that there is no basis on
which to impeach Mr. Demetraco-
poulos' honesty." -
Casey replied with the old refrain
about agency policy "to neither con-
firm nor deny allegations appearing
in the media." My associate Lucette
Lagnado obtained copies of the cor-
respondence.
. The -CIA did, however, publicly
deny that it had given any informa-
tion to the Times r oport, r for his
1977 article.
Footnote: Demetracepoulos has
taken his case to court. In an unusu-
al move, Aspin has asked the presid-
ing judge to declassify the docu-
ments the CIA gave him on the De-
metracopoulos affair.
name, Demetracopoulos enlisted the Salute to a Pro: Leo Durocher to
help of Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) of the contrary, nice guys don't always
the House Intelligence Committee. . finish last, even in Washington.
The congressman asked the CIA for President Reagan certified this when
information, which it agreed to pro- he appointed Jack A. Gertz, for 22
vide: years the Bell System's man in
But when it suits its purposes, the ?+ But. the material -was useless. Washington, to the .National Com-
spy agency will adhere stubbornly to'_ Aspin wrote Casey that the".docu missions for Employment Policy.,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100240007-9