CLOAK-AND-DAGGER RELICS

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000705910014-8
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 12, 2011
Sequence Number: 
14
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
November 14, 1985
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000705910014-8.pdf76.76 KB
Body: 
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910014-8 C ~~.. - -.,~ A ~3 ~ ~ - WASHINGTON POST 14 November 1985 ~' Daniel Schorr Cloak-and-Da er Relics gg If ~ mvestrgation ordered by Presi- York Times) at a time when it was a Libya's Muammar Qadda6 ~ bem dent Reagan were to identify as official subject of intense criticism by some the subject of a pceviotta kak, ~ Aug- of the executive branch as having dis- members of Congress, ust 1981. Newsweek reported that op- ckued information about the anti-Qad- In 1975. the CIA's support of the position had developed is the House day operation to The Washington Poet. anticommunist of-'ico'n in Angola (also intelligence committee that person could be prosecuted for es- a Kissinger project) was disclosed ing on a plan to destabi>iae~tlteg Qaddttti panage. This is the result of the pre- after it became an issue in the House regime. The Reagan administration cedent set when Samuel Loring Mori- Foreign Affairs Committee. The late denied the diateaee of any aueh~ . son, former Navy intelligence analyst. Rep. Leo Rysn, a member of that There folloaved a scare aver reported was convicted under the 1917 Eapio- committee, told me in an interview at Libyan "hit sgwda" out to murder Wage Act for having Provided three clan- the time that he could condone such a Pretideat sifted satellite Photographs of a nuclear. leak if it was the only way to block an vials now behove' there ~ powered Soviet aircraft carrier to Jane's ill~onceived operation "hit squads..-that the whole thing Fighting Ships. ~ .Ryan was subsequently the author, was a hoax ateant to put Reagan on The Problem beoorr~ea stickier, how .with Sen. Harold Hughes. of legisla- notice that pkttting agt?oat a president ever, if tt turns out to be a congressional tiara that banned CIA involvement in could be a two-way street. t source. On one occasion. in 1975. the Angola. (That prom was recently That has t ~~. Justice Department threatened to with- repealed.) the Presider ~~' not ~ hold classified information from the To minimise damaging leaks, the more plan to uttdetatine ' House intelligence committee if the ma- congressional leadership eventually again the leak acetar+ed torts! was not protected from disclosure. agreed to restrict briefings on covert briefin ahocti~ ~ ~ But it has never been suggested that a operations to the Senate and House in- Bence c~ortumttee. ~' member of Congress could be disci- telGgertce committees. That did rat. By law, the aatioa ~.:. . plined other than by Congress itself. however, solve the problem. , This is relevant because (I don't In 1983, Sera, ~~ timely notcee ~ ~~? of D think that I am barin an fin' Goldwater, then for court operations. The ittteW~Oe g y 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 ClAorgan- posed to respect the intelligence operations is frequently a ized minis of Nicara Y ~ ~'~' form of congressional whistle-blowin . g k~ ~~ vnth formation. But, in an era molten coven ; g R a letter to CIA IbitECtor William Casey aid to Nicaraguan contras is oPmdY,de~. A leak often occurs when a clandestine objecting to~it a operation. (That letter bated, the old-style c>atd~ plan runs into substantial opposition became a prime exhibit in Nicara ?~~' during a briefing for congressional gm's tion may be a thing of the past.. . . committees. complantt to the International Court of It may be time to consign the cloak P lusticx.) Sen. Jesse Helms was charged and dagger to a museum. Anyway,. the For example, in 1974 the Nixon- with-but de:..~ -having revealed cloak. Kissinger plan to undermine Chile's IA covert to the election campaign President S l d All of ~ a va or ende leaked to ~~I 's President Jose Ya- the press (Seymour Hersh of The New . poleon Duarte. The writer is news analyst for National Public Radio. Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910014-8