VEIL OF SECRECY TOUGH TO PIERCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807360003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807360003-8
USA TODAY
12 March, 1985
Veil of secrecy
to pierce
By Richard Whitmire
and John Hanchette
USA TODAY
While the world waited Mon-
day for confirmation of Kon-
stantin Chernenko's death, So-
viet television led off its morn-
ing programs with a feature on
baking pumpernickel bread.
It was the usual frustration
with Soviet secrecy for Krem-
linologists - those who gather
information on the Soviet
Union - and many intelli-
gence experts say the veil is
more impenetrable than ever.
One reason, say critics of
U.S. intelligence: We're relying
too much on computers. The
CIA and DIA - the Defense In-
telligence Agency - have "lost
the sense of the classic analyst
with the green eyeshades and
soup on his tie," said Paul
Smith. chief editor of the U.S.
Information Agency's Prob-
lems of Communism.
Another possible reason:
"The time of governmental re-
searchers is almost completely
consumed with short-term de-
mands from Congress and vari-
ous administrative offices,"
says Oberlin College President
S. Frederick Starr.
The U.S. intelligence effort
also depends on hundreds of
university academics, ex-gov-
ernment researchers and pro-
fessional "think tankers" who
pore over obscure bits of infor-
mation for clues to Soviet life.
For the CIA and DIA, satel-
lites "can flag every new fac-
tory building, every new road,"
said Harry Rositzke, who from
1946 to 1970 worked for the
CIA.
"The old signals like who's
standing on the Kremlin Wall
are still valid," said Jerry
Hough of the Brookings Institu-
tion. "But there are lots of
newer ones you have to pay at-
tention to - who gets TV play,
which commentators are on
the most, which economists
are published - shadows on
the cave wall."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807360003-8