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

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• 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
• Publication Date: December 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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.