CLOAK-AND-DAGGER RELICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402820036-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: November 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402820036-0
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phned other than by Congress itself.
Daniel Schorr
Cloak-and-Dagger Relics
dent Reagan were to identify an official
of the executive branch as having dis-
closed information about the anti-ad-
dafii operation to The Washington Poet,
that person could be prosecuted for es-
pionage. This is the result of the pre-
cedent set when Samuel Loring Mori-
son, former Navy intelligence analyst,
was convicted under the 1917 Espio-
nage Act for having provided three clas-
sified satellite photographs of a nuclear.
powered Soviet aircraft carrier to Jane's
Fighting Ships.
The problem becomes stickier how.
ever, if it turns out to be a congressional
source. On one occasion, in 1975, the
Justice Department threatened to with-
hold classified information from the
House intelligence committee if the ma-
terial was not protected from disclosure.
But it has never been suggested that a
member of Congress could be died-
5
WASHINGTON POST
14 November 1985
York Times) at a time when it was a Libya's Muanmaar Q has been
subject of intense criticism by some the subject of a previous leak, In Aug.
members of Congress. ust 1981, Newsweek reported that op-
In 1975, the CIA's support of the position had developed in the House
anticommunist S M in Angola (also intelligence committee during a brief.
a Kissinger project) was disclosed mg on a plan to destabkilize the Qaddafi
after it became an issue in the House regime. The Reagan adminiaration
Foreign Affairs Committee. The late denied the existence of any sueh* -
Rep. Leo Ryan, a member of that There followed a scare over reported
committee, told me in an interview at Libyan "hit aquads" out to murder
the time that he could condone such a President Reagan. Intelligence 0&
leak if it was the only way to block an cials now believe there were no such
ill6onceived operation. "hit squads"-that the whole thing
. Ryan was -with Sen. Harold Hughes, the author, was a hoax meant to put Reagan on
ghes, of legisla- notice that plotting against a president
tion that banned CIA involvement in could be a two-way street , t ti,..
Angola, (That pron was recently That has apparently not debited
the president from approving'~qne
To minimize damaging leaks, the more plan to undermine Qaddsft~O9ne
congressional leadership eventually again the leak occurred shortly after-4
agreed to restrict briefings on covert briefings in the congeeesiorW bft&.,
operations to the Senate and House in- gence committee. telligence committees. That did not. By law, the administration however, solve the problem. give ply notice to Congress of
In 1983
Sen
Barr
Goldw
t
h
.
.
y
a
er, t
en for covert operations. The intelligerkie '
think that I am baring any great jour- chairman of the intelligence committee, committees and their staffs are sup`
nalistic secrets) the exposure of covert put on the public record the CIA-organ- posed to respect the secrecy of the',n- r
intelligence operations is frequently a ized mining of Nicaraguan har ors with formation. But, in an era when cover
form of congressional whistle-blowing. a letter to CIA r Willi y aid to Nicaraguan contras is openly A&.
A leak often occurs when a clandestine objecting to- & operation. (That letter bated, the old-style clandestine plan runs into substantial opposition became a prime exhibit in Nicara o ff'
during a briefing for congressional gun's tiro may be a thing of the past, . . .
complaint to the International Court of It may be time to consign the cloak
committees. P Justice.) Sen. Jesse Helms was charged and dagger to a museum. Anyway,. the
For example, in 1974 the Nixon- with-but denied-having revealed cloak.
Kissinger plan to undermine Chile's H6 covert i to the election campaign
President Salvador Allende leaked to of El or's President Jose Na-
the press (Seymour Hersh of The New . poison Duarte.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402820036-0