U.S. WEIGHS PUBLIC ROLE IN REPORTING ESPIONAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310009-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310009-5
NEW YORK TIMES
ARTICLE APPEAR 24 August 1985
ON PAGE 7 r
U.S. Weighs Public Role
In Reporting Espionage.
By BILL KELLER
Special to T ho New York Timr
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 - Senior
American intelligences officials, wor-
ried by the apparent ease with which
spies penetrated American security,
have been debating the establishment
of an anonymous hot line and reward
system to encourage public reports of
suspicious activities, the Army's chief
of counterintelligence said today.
The counterintelligence official, Col.
Anthony J. Gallo Jr., said in an inter-
view that the hot line proposal was part
of an "unparalleled" resurgence of
copcern about security provoked by a
spying case involving ,former members
of the Navy.
He said the proposals had been dis-
to review the igea to see
w r re werebarriers.
" Hunk fliere is amaority of its in
this business who feel it's something
worth pursuing, looking into, if it's
legal and proper," Colonel Gallo said.
Proposals 'Kicked Around'
John Russell, a spokesman for the
Justice Department, confirmed that
the proposals were "kicked around
within the last month" by the commit-
tee of senior intelligence representa-
tives. He said the Justice Department
had reported to Mr. Casey that setting
up a reward system would require an
act of Congress.
Colonel Gallo is the Army's top-rank-
ing counterintelligence official and liai-
son representative to the Navy on its in-
vestigation of what Federal prosecu-
tors charge was a spy ring operated by
John A. Walker Jr., a former Navy
communications specialist. Mr.
Walker has pleaded not guilty to espio-
nage charges. His brother. Arthur J.
Walker, was convicted this month of
spying for the Soviet Union. Two other
men, Mr. Walker's son, Michael L.
Walker, and Jerry A. Whitworth, have
pleaded not guilty to espionage
charges.
In the interview, Colonel Gallo also
said some Army communications and
intelligence sources may have been
compromised by the breaches of Navy
security in the spy case.
These breaches resulted primarily
from the fact that some Army com-
munications travel over Navy chan-
nels, he said.
In response to the possible security
leaks, Colonel Gallo said, the Army
made sweeping changes in how it oper-
ates its communications networks, In-
cluding how coded communications
systems are set up and the number of
operators allowed to use various
sytems.
Colonel Gallo said he was convinced
that the leaks of Army information had
been limited because the Army and
Navy operate their communications
systems somewhat differently.
"We don't feel there's been any
major breach in Army security as a re-
sult of the Walker case," he said. "For-
tunately for us, our communications
patterns are much less vulnerable. The
way we establish our nets, the size of
our nets, the type of traffic we pass,
we're different.
:.And of course the 'key cards' are a
different," he said, referring to crypto-i
graphic equipment. He declined to!
elaborate.
Colonel Gallo said the Army was con-
tinuing to study possible breaches from
the Navy case, but the military can
never be fully confident it knows the
complete damage unless John Walker,
whom prosecutors say organized and
led the spy ring, breaks his silence. Mr.
Walker has repeatedly denied any es-
pionage activities.
"We'll never be able to come fully to
grips with this thing unless that man
comes forward and makes a clean slate
of it: he said.
Walker's Daughter Investigated
Colonel Gallo also said the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Army
had investigated John Walker's daugh-
ter, Laura Walker Snyder, who served
as an Army commu:ications specialist
in 1978 and 1979. He said the investiga-
tion had confirmed her statements that
she did not engage in any spying activi-
ties.
"We have looked into Laura Walker
and we believe we have evidence that
indicates that she was not involved in
any conspiracy," Colonel Gallo said.
Mr. Walker's daughter has said she
was asked by her father to sell informa-
tion, but declined.
Colonel Gallo said the hot-line and re-
ward proposals were among several
ideas raised at meetings of the security
committee, to which he is the Army's
representative, since the arrests in the
spy case.
He said the hot line could be used by
any citizen to report a neighbor or ac-
quaintance seen engaging in suspicious
activities.
With a hot line, he said, "I imagine
you'd have to weed h a lot of
cranks and kooks and al ," but he!
added, "Who's to say if we had a sys-?
ten like that and it was well adver-
tised, one of Johnny Walker's friends
might not have come forward?" '
Colonel Gallo said the only good to
come out of the Navy spy case had been
a spreading awareness of the threat of
spies and the need to improve counter-
intelligence activities.
you can't go.to any echelon in the
Government right sow, be it the na-
tional level all the way down, thati
there's not sui none actively engaged'
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310009-5