GOING PUBLIC TO GUARD SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302000008-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: June 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/31 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302000008-2
ARTICLE APY
ON PAGE U. S.NEWS F, WORLD REPOR
an unprecedented series of spy trials
has revealed that the U.S. has lost a
torrent of secrets to foreign powers.
Like tales from the most bizarre spy
thriller, disclosures of greed, betrayal
and deception are pouring from court-
rooms. More than half a dozen accused
spies have been arrested, and a manhunt
is under way for another who escaped.
By Casey's estimate, the losses have
been devastating to U.S. security. "Ev-
ery method we have of obtaining intelli-
gence-our agents, our relations with
other intelligence services, our photo-
graphic, electronic and communica-
tions capabilities-have been severely
damaged," he says. That may be hyper-
bole to mislead Moscow. But by any
measure, the losses are substantial.
Two recent trials have revealed the
disclosure of some of the nation's most
While William Casey retools the CIA,
sensitive secrets to the Soviet Union.
According to federal prosecutors, the
Walker family spy ring for 16 years
provided Moscow with precise details
of U.S. military communications.
The Walker ring-including former
Navy men John, the ringleader, his son
Michael and brother Arthur-betrayed
wholesale the secret encoding of U.S.
Navy messages. Adm. James Watkins,
chief of naval operations, says the cost
of offsetting the compromise of tech-
nology will be $100 million.
In a second courtroom, the govern-
ment successfully prosecuted Ronald
Pelton, a former midlevel employe of the
National Security Agency, for allegedly
betraying to the Soviet Union that the
U.S. has for years been intercepting cod-
ed secret Soviet military messages.
The CIA has been particularly con-
V111
U.S. raises the veil to combat spies, leakers, while trying to curb the media
Going public
to guard
secrets
lhirchenko waved as he redefected
to Moscow-and then disappeared
cerned about Pelton, because one of the
highest objectives in espionage is to
crack an enemy's codes. With that ac-
complished, a country can learn anoth-
er's plans. One of the most famous exam-
ples occurred during World War II
when the U.S. broke the Japanese code.
The breakthrough led to the destruction
of four Japanese aircraft carriers and
victory in the Battle of Midway. Similar-
ly, the breaking of the German code
aided the Allies' invasion of Normandy.
in retaliation for the ax
The CIA itself has not escaped. the
rash of betrayals. A manhunt is under
way for Edward Howard, the first CIA
agent publicly known to have sold out
to the Soviets. After being fired by the
agency in 1983, Howard blew the cover
of a Soviet military expert spying for the
U.S. and revealed the methods of the
CIA's Moscow station. Ironically,
Howard used CIA countersurveillance
techniques to elude FBI agents guard-
ing his home in Santa Fe, N.M., last
September and is still at large.
The Soviets are not alone in harvest-
ing U.S. secrets. China and Israel ob-
tained classified documents from U.S.
spies Larry Chin and Jonathan Pollard.
Chin, an intelligence analyst who sold
U.S. assessments to Peking for 30
years, committed suicide in jail. Pol-
lard, who worked in Navy counterintel-
ligence, pleaded guilty in early June to
spying for Israel.
The CIA's own counterintelligence
failures played at least a partial role in
the drain of information. John Walker,
Pelton and Howard all went to Vienna
to meet with KGB handlers, but, says --~^
agency consultant Roy Godson, "We
didn't catch them ere. ese penetra-
tions could have been avoided by better
counterintelligence." Soviet defector Vi-
taly Yurchenko, who later redefected to
Moscow, exposed the treachery of How-
ard and Pelton to CIA interrogators.
Some intelligence analysts fear that
disclosures stemming from public trials
such as those of Walker and Pelton
may do more harm than good. Better,
they claim, to turn spies into double
agents or triple agents. Says William
Stevenson, author of A Man Called In-
Pollard spied for Israel, with results
roiling American-Israeli relations
trepid: "The worst effect of these trials
will be to discourage foreign nationals.
from cooperating with us."
The administration plainly hopes that
by putting accused spies through public
trials, and winning stiff punishments, it
can deter other betrayals. But it also
wants to safeguard information that is
revealed in the trials.
Increasingly, the CIA's efforts to lim-
it information at spy trials-along with
growing administration concerns about
leaks of classified information-have
put the Reagan team, and especially
Casey, on a collision course with the
press. At times, that conflict has over-
shadowed.the trials themselves.
Top-level officials at the CIA report
that the agency's chief public-informa-
tion officer, George Lauder, regularly
tries to persuade journalists to with-
hold details considered too sensitive by
the agency. On more than a half-dozen
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/31 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302000008-2
 _ I ] I L L III III I ILI, l i L: L.i IL 111UMl l.: M I11ID 1111.11;111 LI ll l I . _ 1J1. l . 1. 1 I L
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/31 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302000008-2
2-
vened successfully, persuading news or-
ganizations not to print or broadcast
stories he thought would damage na-
tional security.
Casey points out that he is obliged by
law to protect "sources and methods"
of intelligence gathering, and he has
publicly said that journalists are show-
ing more restraint.
Threats of prosecution
Casey has not always won, and lately
he has become even more forceful in his
campaign. The Washington Post and
other news organizations have been told
that the administration may prosecute if
the leakage continues, and Casey has
recommended prosecution of NBC.
Managing Editor Leonard Downie
of the Washington Post believes Casey's
crusade stems from growing concern in
Congress over the CIA's covert actions.
"I am a bit skeptical about Casey's
threats against the press," Downie
says. "He could have made his con-
cerns known in a more cooperative
way. We have withheld information
many times as a result of national-secu-
rity concerns." NBC News President
Larry Grossman says the network had
broadcast last November a report
about Pelton similar to one that later
drew Casey's objections: "Apparently,
Casey didn't see that one. His threats
do not sound carefully thought out."
But even if the administration does
deflect attention from the spy trials and
covert operations, it still must contend
with the underlying causes of both
treachery and leaks: Greed, ego and the
machinations of Washington infighting.
by Robert A. Manning with Charles Fenyvesi,
Steven Emerson and Jonathan Rosenbloom
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/31 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302000008-2