TWO SENATORS DECRY LEAKS BY ADMINISTRATION SOURCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100010032-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: April 26, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010032-5
_ Y e v.. i.'vi'JAN rVJ1
26 April 1986
Two Senators Decry Leaks
By Administration Sources
United Press International
The two top members of the Sen-
ate Select Committee on Intelli-
gence said yesterday that leaks of
sensitive material to the news me-
dia by the administration are "out of
hand" and have created a national
security crisis.
Sens. David F. Durenberger (R-
Minn.), the chairman, and Patrick J.
Leahy (D-Vt.), the vice chairman,
cited as the most recent instance a
report in The Washington Post yes-
terday about a Central Intelligence
Agency officer who was abducted
and tortured by Ethiopian security
police while helping to run a covert
CIA propaganda campaign against
the Marxist government in Addis
Ababa.
Durenberger and Leahy said they
would "neither confirm nor deny the
existence of any covert program in
Ethiopia, not we will comment on
any of the alleged facts in the sto-
ry"
"The point is that this story was
clearly leaked by knowledgeable
officials in the administration for
purely political purposes," they said.
"If the facts are true, a sensitive
program has been compromised and
the lives of CIA personnel and their
agents endangered.
"But even if the entire story is a
fabrication or exaggeration, it is
still likely to be believed and have
the same net effect," they said. The
story "is clearly traceable to admin-
istration officials and reflects an
almost total lack of discipline, in
speaking to the press."
The Post reported in the article
that the CIA officer was abducted
Dec. 20, 1983, at the home of Ethi-
opian dissidents. The officer was
tortured and interrogated and re-
leased on Feb. 4. 1984, after he had
signed a confession that he worked
for the CIA.
Upon the officer's release, the
Ethiopian government expelled
three other CIA officers working
under diplomatic cover at the U.S..
embassy in Addis Ababa and report-
edly arrested a number of other -
dissidents In the months following
the incident.
The U.S. government retaliated
by expelling two Ethiopian diplo-
mats.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010032-5