BRADLEE TELLS SECRETS STORY, BUT CAN'T ALLAY THE DOUBTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403430002-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 30, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/30 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403430002-9
~' ARTICLE A ~~'~""~
ON ~A6 /~~ "'`- LOS ANGELES TIP4ES
15 June 1986
~-radlee Tells Secrets Stn rv
But Can't Allay the Doubts
By ~AMES j. KILPATRICK
This past Sunday, The Washington Poat
ca
ri
? a to iec b 't
n
e
Meanwhile, CIA Director William Casey,
Odom and the President himself had been
putting pressure on the Poat to kill the
story. In an exceptionally stupid act, Casey
implicitly threatened to prosecute the Poet
under espionage statutes. For a smart man,
Casey can be remarkably dumb.
Further pause: It is impossible to under-
stand how The Washington Post, given
Bradlee'e eloquent defense of the paper's
patriotism and responsibility, could have
even prepared a version that included
'wiring diagram details." I have been in
the news business even longer than Brad-
lee, and I never heard of the idea that the
people have any right to know the "wiring
diagram details" of "the highest national
security secret." This ie nonsense. Indefen-
sible nonsense. '
In his last paragraph, Bradlee set forth a
principle that all journalists accept: "The
press must continue its mission of publish-
ing information that it-and it alone-de-
termines to be in the public interest, in a
useful, timely and responsible manner-
servingsociety, not government."
Did the Post "serve society" in its
handling of the story? I doubt it. As Bradlee
acknowledged, the Post's editors "were not
1,000% convinced that the Soviets knew
every single detail of the Post's story."The
intelligence game is a game of jigsaw
puzzles in which pieces are forever miss-
ing. What pieces, unknown to Woodward,
were in Woodward's several versions?
What about Bob Woodward? He came to
sudden fame through the leaks he and Carl
Bernstein developed in the days of Water-
gate. In the past several years it has
become evident that Woodward has access
to some of the most sensitive secrets in
American intelligence. He has a mole deep
in the CIA or the NSA. Woodward will not
identify his source; that is his obligation ae
a newspaperman. What ie his obligation as
a citizen? Here is a government employee
with access to "the highest national securi-
ty secret," and he is leaking "wiring
diagram details" to a Post reporter.
All of ua want to tell Bill Casey how to do
his job, beginning with a warning to him
not to tell us how to do our job. But if one
word of advice to Casey is acutely justified
it is this: Find Woodward'e mole and take
him to trial for treason.
;
~
g p
s
y ~ executive editor,
Bea Bradlee, detailing and justifying the
PgB'q?dandling of what we know as the
"Pelton story." He dealt with matters of
cot~inuing concern to both the government
a~tfirpresa. Forgive me a little shoptalk.
-A a word about Bradlee. In the fever
awarr~e of the yahoo right, Bradlee may be
the moat hated editor in the nation. Among
professional journalists, he is greatly re-
spected. At 69 he has been a working
nev~paperman for 90 years. Since 1968 he
had''II@~n the top editor of the country's
moei influential newspaper. Let me quote
froth his account:
me time in September, 1985, reporter
Bob' oodward came into my office, shut
th~+~ltior, and in almost a whisper laid out
anamazingtop-secret intelligence capabil-
ity that emerged in bits and pieces eight
mo~~1~$ later in the trial of Ronald Pelton.
Woodward described in great detail how
the" Ct?tnmunication intercept had worked,
where the communications were intercept-
ed, eV~ry detail except Pelton's name."
A,t, that time Woodward did not have
Peltorr's name. The Post "had no knowl-
edge that every detail of our story was
already known to the Russians." Wood-
ward and Bradlee recognized "the highest
national security secret any of us had ever
heandl' Bradlee voiced his concern to
publisher Donald Graham that truly impor-
tant national-security information "was
floating around town."
Fmise: To this day, no one except the
convicted spy and the Soviets know "every
detail" of what Pelton divulged. This was a
key point in the prosecution's careful
preparation for trial. It u entirely possible
that Woodward had picked up details that
Pelton did not know or did not sell.
Bradlee talked with Gen. William Odom,
head of the National Security Agency.
Bradlee said confidently that the Russians
had Woodward's information "and we
asked why it should be kept from the
American people." Odom was dismayed:
"He said the information was still extreme-
ly sensitive. We didn't know exactly what
the Russians knew, he said." Nevertheless,
Woodward proceeded to write several
drafts of his story. The final version
removed all the wiring diagram' details of
the intelligence system." On May 28,
"without the wiring diagram details," the
Post ran the piece.
James J. Riipatriek writes a syndicated
column.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/30 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403430002-9