GEN. ROGERS: SHOW SPY PHOTOS IN EUROPE DEBATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200710012-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: July 23, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/05: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200710012-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE 1,*
AIR FORCE TIMES
23 July 1984
:
G~nIRd~j~iSfj
?
in Europe Debat
e
and Commander in Chief, Europe weaponary and supplies deep in-
By TOM PHILPOTT within the U.S. command struc- side the Soviet bloc, were taken by
Times Staff Writer
ture. He said he has asked for the
release of seven intelligence pho- sa"If i(Sen) Sam Nunn wants to
SHAPE, Belgium Gen. Ber? tographs as SACEUR "knowing as help us in our effort here in West-
nard W. Rogers (USA), com- CINCEUR that they have it." ern Europe, let him also ... con-
mander of NATO forces in Eu- Rogers said that he pressed the tinue to push to get release of the
rope, wants intelligence point again with Washington offs- documentation we have to the
photographs released to show the cials after the government recent- nublic here," Rogers said.
offensive nature of the Soviet mili- ly released a classified overhead
tary buildup and to bolster U.S. photograph showing communist
arguments that Europeans need to military activity in Nicaragua.
do more to defend themselves. "Well, I went back again on that
Rogers, in 'a recent interview one and said, 'You know, there
with American reporters, said he must be a nuance here on over-
has tried since 1980 to win public head platforms which is lost on
release of intelligence photo- me. What's the difference between
graphs to sway European public that kind of platform from another
opinion but "the damn intelligence kind of overhead platform?' "
community won every time." Rogers said that effort also
"I wish we could have spent the failed. "It was more important, I
afternoon here just showing you guess, to show those things in Nic-
photographs from overhead plat- aragua at that time from an over-
forms .. How we can see the of- head platform . . . than it was to
fensive orientation of the Warsaw convince the West Europeans."
Pact," Rogers said. Some Europeans, he said,'
aid, still
"They've got miles and miles believe that the Soviet deployment
and miles of petroleum pipelines of the SS-20 intermediate-range
stockpiled along the western edge missiles "is just a myth of the
of the Soviet Union. And they've United States' imagination foisted
got acres and acres and acres, in off on the public so we can make a
various locations, of river-cross- greater case for bringing in new
ing equipment," he said. "It isn't nuclear weapons."
to cross rivers going east. It isn't "Well," Rogers said, "we know
to have pipelines going back to- it's not so. But I can tell you a line
ward Moscow. It's to head west, drawing (of the SS-20 or Soviet
you see." , Backfire bomber) in a booklet
Rogers said he sympathizes called Soviet Military Power isn't
with the concerns of the U.S. intel- very damn impressive."
ligence community that the Sovi- Soviet Military Power .is a
ets not learn about the quality of glossy publication published annu-
the overhead surveillance. "It's ally by the Pentagon since 1981 to
not that the Soviets don't know show a need for larger. defense
we're doing it. It's that they may budgets. It has included previous-
not know how damn well we're do- ly classified photographs of Soviet
ing it," he said. weaponary, but depicts the SS-20
But, Rogers said he considers and other advanced systems with
it's more important "to convince artists' conceptions instead.
the Western European public that President Reagan, in his so-
there's credibility that undergirds called "Star Wars" speech of
our assessment and to break down March 1983, used aerial photo-
this complacency and the wishful graphs, previously classified as I
thinking (about Soviet inten- secret, to show Soviet military ac-
tions)." tivity in Central America and the
Since 1979, Rogers has served in Caribbean basin.
the dual post of Supreme Allied Apparently the photographs
Commander, Europe for NATO Rogers wants released, of Soviet
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/05: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200710012-8