THE SHOWDOWN OVER CIA'S DIRTY TRICKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303550002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 1, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303550002-5
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP(RT
1 August 1983
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The Showdown Over
CIA's "Dirty Tricks"
Even if the "secret war"
in Nicaragua is endorsed by
Congress, debate over covert
action will not end.
The uproar in Congress over Central
Intelligence Agency support for Nica-
ragua's anti-Sandinista rebels is the
storm front of a bigger controversy
about covert U.S. actions worldwide.
The broad issue at stake in the battle,
which was headed for a showdown in
Congress in late July, is this: Is it moral
or even feasible for the United States,
with its open society, to employ "dirty
tricks" to promote its foreign policy?
At a rare closed session of the House
of Representatives on July 19, adminis-
tration critics used the moral argument
in calling for a cutoff of funds to 10,000
or more rebels in Nicaragua.
That argument is summed up by
Representative Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.)
with the claim that the "secret war" in
Nicaragua "undercuts the U.S. image
in the world as a nation that acts legal-
ly, fairly, decently and overtly."
Aid held vital. White House officials
insist that help for the anti-Sandinista
guerrillas is vital to stop the flow of
military supplies from Nicaragua's
Marxist government to leftist guerrilla
forces in El Salvador and elsewhere in
Central America.
The controversy is shaping up as a
major test not only for Reagan's Cen-
tral American policy but also for his
plan to rehabilitate covert action as a
key element in U.S. overseas strategy.
In this, he has reversed a policy initiat-
ed during the Ford and Carter admin-
istrations that virtually dismantled the
CIA's department of' : dirty tricks."
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The action by Presidents Ford and
Carter stemmed from disclosures in
1974 and 1975 that CIA clandestine
operations had included spying on
Americans-such as in illegally open-
ing mail and penetrating antiwar orga-
nizations-and plotting to assassinate
several hostile foreign leaders.
Rebuilding. Over the past 30
months, William Casey, Reagan's CIA
director, has given high priority to re-
building the agency's capability to con-
duct covert operations. The adminis-
tration has left little doubt that it sees
such actions as essential and legitimate
weapons in America's arsenal.
Now, that policy is facing its stiffest
challenge from the congressional re-
volt against supporting anti-Sandinista
guerrillas in Nicaragua. Why has the
operation triggered such a reaction?
One reason is widespread concern
about the danger that the U.S. will be
drawn into a shooting war in Central
stony about th
Cuba at the B
Congress, too, now subjects coven
activity to close monitoring__a duty it
took on formally after the scandals that
broke in the mid-1970s.
Other operations. Intelligence spe-
cialists point out that, while the Nicara-
guan project is under attack, other co-
vert operations have come to light
without provoking a negative reaction.
A notable example is CIA support for
anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan.
'..Nobody is raising a finger to that,"
observes former CIA Director Stan-
field Turner, "because we'd be glad if
Afghan freedom fighters take over
their government."
Still, there is a faction of lawmakers
that is challenging not only the Nicara-
guan action but also, on principle, the
morality of American covert opera-
tions. Critics such as Representative
Jim Leach (R-Iowa) say these actions
make hypocris? of democratic law and
lower the United States "down into the
gutter of Communist-type behavior."
Aside from moral considerations, crit-
ics claim that covert actions have
proved counterproductive, leaving a
legacy of bitterness against the U.S. in
many parts of the world. They attribute
CIA-backed Nicaraguan rebels are at the heart of the covert-action controversy.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303550002-5 -- - -