PUBLICITY TO COMPLICATE U.S. SPYING, EXPERTS SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505380037-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: April 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505380037-2
STAkT
I
STAT
DALLAS MORNING NEWS(TX)
16 April 1986
>>
Publicity to complicate U.S. spying, experts say
Libya expected to tighten up methods of communication
By Richard Whittle
Washintton Bureau of The Nees I
i WASHINGTON - President
Reagan's public confirmation that
US. intelligence intercepted mes
sages showing Libya to be behind
the April 5 bombing in Berlin will
make it hard to tap such communi?
cations again, experts said Tuesday.
"It's not uncharitable to call?it a
tnci;y break," said a former senior
US. intelligence official. "And
likely as not, becattse of the disclo-
sore; it will be a good deal of time
before we have another break this
lucky."
Terrorists usually operate in
small "cells" of two or three people,
makilzg it almost impossible to dis-
cover'their plans, this and other ex-
perts noted. But Libya under Col.
Moammar Khadafy has been either
bold of careless about disguising its
involvement in terrorism.
"Our intelligence has really
solid goodies on Libya," said a cur-
rent US. official, who demanded
anonymity. "The Libyans are not
noted for their super-sophisticated
telemetry, and they also bluster and
brag a lot. Their IIiessages are read-
ily picked out of ilia air."
But that will change, the experts
agreed, Sollowing Reagan's confir-
matioti c-n television Monday night'
'that the United States had inter-
cepted messages between Tripoli
and the Libyan People's Bureau in
East Berlin oa March 2S, Apri14 and ,
after the April 5 bombing. -
"They'll change codes and
they'll change methods of commu?
nicating,"said the former senior in-
telligence official. ""4Zie ,president
went verb far last night in giving
away the obvious source of access.
So yoti;re ~ likely to get informa?
lion (that way) for a long time."
George Ca4?ver, a former deputy
director of thesj~,;~omplained that
Reagan "was so detailed that it may'
be a very long time before sve get
anything like that comparable qual-
ity, and as a result, Americans
might die."
But others said the judgment
was akin to decisions presidents
have msde through the years, tak?
ing the chance of revealing intelli?
genre sources and methods in order
to win political support for actions
involving war or the threat of it.
"The commander in chief deter.
mined that it was in the interest of
the country to open up and explain
,.that we had intelligence to support
?~e attack on Khadafy for the disco
~otubing,"said John Greaney, exec-
. utive director of the Association of
Farmer Intelligence Officers and a
32-year CIA veteran.
"In 1965, when the Soviets were
sanding missiles into Cuba," Grea-
ne9 recalled, "the president (John
P. Kennedy) went public with the
photographs we had of the Soviet
.missiles. Not many people realized
that we had a capability to take
those kinds of picture in those
days."
"It's a political judgment." said
another former intelligence offi-
cial. "You have to give some specif-
ics ifyou're going to get support."
"You're willing to pay that price
to get the support of your country
and your allies," said retired Adm.
Daniel Murphy, who sat oa the Na-
tional Security Planning Group at
the G4hite House when he was chief
- oT staff to Vice President George
Bash.
These intelligence experts also
predicted that U.S. ability to inter.
cept Libyan communications -and
Libya's tendency to use electronic
communications -could return to
normal before very long.
"The odds are that eventually
they'll go back to (electronic mes-
sages)," said the former senior in-
telligence official. The alternntive
is to rise couriers, this expert said.
Greaney argued that the Libyan
intercepts show that the U.S. intelli-
gence community is improving its
abiliry to help combat terrorism. He
said those who discerned the mes
~8~ between Tripoli and the East
Berlin People's Bureau deserved
credit for their diligence.
The 60,000 or so civilian and mil.
itary employees of the National Se?
curity Agency can rise satellites and
earthbound listening devices to in?
tercept almost any radio or tale.
phone conversation or any cable or
telex transmission in the world.
The bigger problem is sorting
through what is intercepted.
"This demonstrates the vigi-
lance with which the intelligence
community is working on the ter-
rorists," Greaneysaid.
Bnt Greaney and others cau?
tinned that terrorists rarely make it
so easy to spy on them. Spy planes
and satellites, known as, "national
technical means," and what is
called "COMIIVI"' - community
lions intelligence, or interception
of communications signals - sel-
dom work against terrorists.
"The overhead systems will gen-
erallytell you when terrorist train-
ing is taking place, but they don't
tell you who's being trained and
where they go from there," said Rob
Simmons, former staff director of
the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Communications intelligence is
usually of minimal use, Simmons
said, because "terrorist groups are
usually extremely small, and while
in the course of a terrorist event
they may communicate between
themselves and with the outside
world, they generally don't talk be?
tore they go into action. So a second
important means is of marginal as
sistance."
This leaves "HUI~*I'," or
human intelligence -the infiltra-
tion of agents into terrorist groups,
But penetrating terrorist groups is
$lmast impossible, the experts say.
To illustrate the point, one intel-
ligence expert cited a widespread
belief in intelligence circles that
one of the American hostages miss
ing in Beirut was the CIA station
chief and was captured by Shiite
terrorists when he was trying to
make contact with a Shiite he
thought might be willing to become
an agent.
"Terrorist groups are small, they
are highly disciplined, they keep
close track of their members, and
it's very difficult to insert some-
body into the group itself," said
Simmons.
For these reasons, said Grease}?,
"Intelligence is, a great many times.
more good luck than good manage-
ment. You don't always have it,
that's'Qhe problem." ,
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505380037-2