PRESIDENT SAYS HE INTENDS TO KEEP GADHAFI OFF BALANCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920018-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: October 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920018-9
WASHINGTON POST
3 October 1986
President Says He Intends
To Deep Gadhafi Off Balance
Reagan Denies Domestic Disinformation
By David Hoffman
WtshinKton Pnst St.df Writer
President Reagan said yesterday
that he wants to make Libyan lead-
er Moammar Gadhafi "go to bed
every night wondering what we
might do" to deter terrorism, but he
denied that a plan he approved in
August involved the spread of "dis-
information" through the American
news media.
Reagan was responding to a re-
port yesterday in The Washington
Post that the administration
launched a secret effort of decep-
tion aimed at convincing Gadhafi
that he was about to be attacked
again by U.S. bombers and perhaps
ousted in a coup.
The secret plan was outlined in a
three-page memo sent to Reanan by
national security affairs adviser John
M. Poindexter. It called for "real and
illusionary events-through a disin-
formation program-with the basic
goal of making Gadhafi think that
there is a high degree of internal op-
position to him within Libya, that his
key trusted aides are disloyal, that
the U.S. is about to move against
him militarily."
Other administration officials said
yesterday t at t e plan was ap-
proved by Reagan in a secret a-
tiona ecurit ecision rective
that authorized the Central me -
igeiice Agency to spread alse in-
formation a ut a a abroad an
also ordered a series o mi i-
tary movements designed to fright-
en the Libyan lea er.
Secretary a State George P.
Shultz told reporters in New York
last night that he knew of "no de-
cision to have people go out and tell
lies to the media" but that "if there
are ways in which we can make
Gadhafi nervous, why shouldn't we?
"Frankly, I don't have any prob-
lems with a little psychological war-
fare against Gadhafi. It's very easy.
You people in the media enjoy not
allowing the United States to do
anything in secret, if you can help
it," he said.
Shultz no a Winston Churchill's
statement in World War II that "in
time of war the truth is so precious
it must be attended by a bodyguard
of lies," adding that "insofar as Gad-
hafi is concerned we don't have a
declaration of war but we have
something darn close to it."
Presidential spokesman Larry
S lees M_Vo-~Tiexter had o
_
him there was no effort byte U.S.
_goyrnment to sores ism orma-
tion in the American media.
Speakes said a reiwrt in e a
Street Journal about Libya last Au-
must included intelligence o
on on Gadhafi that was enerally
correct," although he sai the news-
paper me u i ammatory
stuff" in its report. After the journal
sto a ared Aug. , pea s
had n eb d it as au on a ive.
Speakes said yesterday that he
had no comment on whether the
administration had spread false in-
formation about Gadhafi outside the
United States.
Reagan, meeting with a group of
newspaper columnists and broad-
cast commentators at the White
House yesterday, at first said, "I
challenge the veracity of that entire
story" published in The Post yes-
terday. But he then said the admin-
istration had been paying close at-
tention to Gadhafi and "I can't deny"
that "here and there, they're going
to have something to hang it on."
Asked whether there were
memos describing a deliberate ef-
fort to mislead the American peo-
ple, Reagan said: "Those I chal-
lenge. They were not a part of any
meeting I've ever attended."
Pressed further about whether
the administration intentionally put
out false information, Reagan re-
called arguments about using nu-
clear weapons in Vietnam while he
was California governor.
"And I said at the time that, while
we knew that we were never going
to use nuclear weapons there, we
should never say that," he said. "We
should just let them go to bed every
night wondering whether we might
use those weapons. Well, the same
thing is true with someone like Gad-
hafi and with all the speculation that
was going on in the media through-
out the world about whether our
action would tempt him into further
acts or not.
"And constantly there were ques-
tions-aimed at me as to were we
planning anything else. My feeling
was, I wouldn't answer those ques-
tions. My feeling was just the same
thing-he should go to bed every
night wondering what we might do.
A senior administration official
closely involved with the Libya plan
took issue with The Post account in
a briefing for newspaper columnists
and broadcasters at the White
House. He described as "absolutely
false" the "implication that some-
how the U.S. government had ini-
tiated or that the president had au-
thorized a program of disinforma-
tion for the American media." He
added, "You must distinguish be-
tween the audiences, you must dis-
tinguish between deception and dis-
information."
The Post account said that begin-
ning with the Aug. 25 Wall Street
Journal report, the-American news
media reported as fact much of the
false information generated by the
Poindexter plan. Published articles
described renewed Libyan backing
for terrorism and a looming, new
U.S.-Libya confrontation.
But the Poindexter memo said
U~_ me igence a actua v con
eluded m August that Gadhafi was
"quiescent" on the terrori t front
Yesterday, Speakes said some
facets of the Journal article were
correct, although "not necessarily
the conclusion or speculation." One
assertion that he said was correct
was that there was "growing evi-
dence" that U.S. air raids April 14
in Libya had not ended Libyan-spon-
sored terrorism.
A senior administration official,
speaking at the same White House
briefing, said that the evidence be-
gan coming in after July 15. This
included an "increasing number of
reports," he said, that Gadhafi was
shifting the people involved in ter-
rorist attacks from People's Bu-
reaus to Libyan Arab Airlines of-
fices.
:gl,'llr
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920018-9
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920018-9
Asked yesterday whether the
administration had a policy against
spreading disinformation, Speakes
said he was not aware of one but
that other government agencies
such as the U.S. Information Agen-
cy had policies barring it.
Meanwhile yesterday, adminis-
tration sources said the Justice De-
partment plans to ask the Federal
Bureau of Investigation to conduct
an inquiry into yesterday's Post sto-
ry. The probe would be referred to
a new unit in the FBI's Washington
Field Office that was set up under a
reorganization last spring to assign
veteran agents to pursue leaks of
classified information. An FBI
spokesman said such leaks are dif-
ficult to investigate and that hun-
dreds of such probes have resulted
in only one indictment.
Members of the Congressi~ l
intelligence committees r fused to
comment. Bernard McMahon staff Pr
director of the Senate Se ec Com-
nMttee on In_ t el_ In said the i..:
tj raj of some of the mein
hers has been curiosit . "I don't
know even the extent to which
there was such a Ian " he said. "We
ave asked for the got
We're taking a look at it. ~a~~J
e a minis ra ton pan drew
criticism yesterday.
"I think it was one of the most
important and depressing stories
I've read in a long time," said A.M.
Rosenthal, executive editor of The
New York Times. "The implications
that our government was sitting
around figuring out how to lie to the
press makes me rather ill. It makes
you ask a lot of questions. Who au-
thorized this kind of thing? Has it
happened before? Who's going to
believe these people againr
Staff writers David B. Ottawa,
Lena Sun and Howard Kurtz
contributed to this report.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402920018-9