CLOAK-AND-DAGGER ACTION: IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT?

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000100390021-7
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 29, 2010
Sequence Number: 
21
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
December 8, 1982
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000100390021-7.pdf126.72 KB
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100390021-7 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MO ON PAC 8 DECEMBER 1982 Last in a three part -operations Is it worth the effo... Cloak-and-dagger ac A wary Congress pulls on the-reins secret The Senate Select Committee on Intelli- By Daniel Sout heriand Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Washington Despite reports of major CIA-supported operations against Nicaragua. the Reagan administration may be doing less in the cloak-and-dagger realm than some of Its officials originally planned to do. For one thing, the capability for such action had been re- duced in recent years. Then there is always the danger that a secret oper- ation will be publicly exposed. causing greater damage to the United States than any gains that might be made. A Senate source says that it is the lat- ter factor as much as anything that has en- abled the Senate Se- lect Committee on Intelligence, beaded by Arizona Republi- can Barry Gold- water. to persuade the administration not to go ahead with a number of appar- ently risky secret op- erations. The Senate and House commit- CIA Dkee w Casey tees on intelligence do not have the right to cancel such a pro- posed operation, but they -do have to be consulted. They also have a say .over the, funding for the intelligence agencies.._- Reports-appearing for more than a year, in the US press concerning CIA-supported raids into Nicaragua may have already had an :inhibiting effect on those oper- ations. The most recent reports indicate that the Honduran Army has been dispers- ing some of the border camps from which former Nicaraguan national guardsmen have launched raids. It was not clear : whether this action was merely tempo- rary. One reason for it may have been to avoid causing any embarrassment to - "t Sanitized Copy Approved for Release genre. meanwhile, was reported to be ask-: ing for more information on the cross-bor- der operations. In the House of Representa- tives, Congressman Mi- chael D. Barnes (D)..of Mar) land, bead of thein- ter-American affairs sub- committee, has intro- duced a resolution which would ban such covert op- erations. Mr. Barnes said he did not think the reso- lution had much chance of passing. but tbought.it might serve as a warning to those in the administration who were proposing such operations. According to insiders, the original Idea for a covert action more often than not comes from the executive branch and not from the US Central Intelligence Agency Itself. CIA officials feel they have -been badly, "burned " by, public -exposure of their past abuses. They are not eager to relive the controversies of the 1970s. For the CIA to proceed with -a covert action, the President must find that such an operation is important to national secu- rity. This is the case even if the operation involves nothing more than planting an , editorial in a foreign newspaper. Indeed. most covert actions consist precisely of this sort of thing, says one source. "Doing a little public relations," as be put it. President Carter came to office sounding skeptical about secret CIA oper- ations and seemed to have kept them to a minimum during the first part of his term. But frustration over the taking of hostages in Iran as well as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the Carter adminis- tration to - take - ?an-- -other .look at -covert operations.-- Accord- `-ing to a -number ?-?of sources, Mr. Carter then' authorized art- increase in-such op- erations, portico- = )arty in the - props-' ganda field.