REAGAN PRAISES CASEY DURING CIA GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390105-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 105
• Publication Date: May 25, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390105-5
WASHINGTON POST
25 flay 1984
D.
Reagan Praises :Casey
Ground-Breaking Ceremony
By David Hoffman
Wuhtnaton Post Stan Wrtt&
President Reagan used a ground-
breaking ceremony at CIA headquar-
ters yesterday to praise William J.
Casey the day after Democrats on a
congressional subcommittee identi-
fied the CIA director as the recipient
of briefing papers prepared for Pres-
ident Carter during the 1980 cam-
paign.
In an outdoor speech to about
2,000 employes at the agency's head-
quarters near Langley, Reagan said,
"Your work, the work of your direc-
tor (and) the other top officials have
been an inspiration to your fellow
Americans and to people every-
where."
Casey has been involved in two
controversies in recent weeks: the
one over the debate papers and an-
other over his alleged failure to tell
the full truth to congressional over-
sight committees about CIA-backed
mining of Nicaragua's harbors.
The mining was carried out as
part of the CIA's assistance to the
"contras" who are battling Nicara-
gua's Sandinista regime-support
that Congress has threatened to shut
off.
Reagan's trip yesterday was "cer-
tainly an endorsement" of CIA ac-
tivities generally "and the role its
director is playing there," White
House spokesman Larry Speakes
said. "The president has not changed
his position on Director Casey" fol-
lowing the critical congressional re-
port, and Casey still enjoys Reagan's
"full confidence," Speakes added.
The House Post Office and Civil
Service subcommittee on human re-
sources said it has "difficulty accept-
ing" Casey's sworn statement that he
does not recall receiving the Carter
briefing papers or giving them to
James A. Baker III, now the White
House chief of staff. The panel said
the "better evidence" supports Bak-
er's claim that he got the papers
from Casey.
Reagan did not mention the brief-
ir. g papers controversy in his re-
marks yesterday, nor has he yet read
the 2,413-page subcommittee report,
Speakes said.
White House counsel Fred F.
Fielding may brief the president
about the document later, he added.
As a result, Speaker said, Reagan
cannot "pass judgment" on the doc-
ument and `the matter still rests
with the Justice Department."
The Justice Department is ap-
pealing a federal judge's order that it
appoint a special prosecutor to in-
vestigate the case. The subcommit-
tee's chairman, Rep. Donald J. Al-
bosta (D-Mich.), has called for the
appointment of a special prosecutor,
known officially as an independent
counsel.
On Capitol Hill yesterday, Senate
Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-
W.Va.) said "it is about time" that
Reagan personally call Baker and
Casey and ask them, "What is the
truth here? What do you know?"
Speakes said the president had
long planned to take part in the
ground-breaking ceremonies for a
$190 million, seven-story addition to
CIA headquarters. When Reagan
arrived, Casey strolled at the pres-
'CIA
ident's side from the helicopter to
the site of the ceremony and intro-:
duced him.
Baker did not attend. Casey,
asked by reporters about the briefing
papers, promised a statement later
in the day, but none came.
The president said in his 10-
minute speech that "an intelligence'
agency cannot operate effectively,
unless its necessary secrets are main-
tained ...." He cautioned against
endangering the "life and work" of
intelligence agents and sources be-
cause of "carelessness, sensationalism.
or unnecessary exposure to risk."
Reagan also identified as "one of
the greater dangers facing you" the,
"loss of necessary secrets through
unauthorized and illegal disclosures
of classified information." He said it
was "improper, unethical and plain
wrong."
The president, who has sought
budget increases and more personnel.
for the CIA, called the agency "the
eyes and ears of the free world" and
declared, "You are the tripwire over
which totalitarian rule must stumble
in their quest for global domination."
Reagan claimed that U.S. support
"for people whose countries are the
victims of totalitarian aggression has
blunted the communist drive for
power in the Third World." This
appeared to be an indirect reference
to the CIA's covert operations in
Central America.
The president yesterday described
a "period of readjustment" during
which "some of our adversaries who
had grown used to disunity or weak-,
ness from the democracies are not
enthusiastic about the success of our
policies or the brightening trend in
the fortunes of freedom."
STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390105-5