STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL TO LET STAFF TALK TO TIMES CORRESPONDENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020046-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: March 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020046-9
_ _ rrr= NEW YORK TINES
r.1 N arch, 1955
State Dept. Official to Let Staff Talk to
Times correspondent
the plans had been dnviiiged to Press re- had been taken down.
ports there and had become the subject General's Statement
of sharp public debate in Canada and
Speaa! to The Ne" York Times the nation's security.
WASHINGTON, March 4 - The di. Mr. Gelb was director of the bureau
rector of the State Department's Bu. !from 1977 to 1979. After the article ap-
reau of Politico-Military Affairs said l peared, General Chain took down a
today that he had decided to lift an or. 1 framed photograph of Mr. Gelb that
der forbidding members of his bureau was hanging in the office with the
to talk to a correspondent for The New photographs of other previous direc-
York Times. tors of the bureau.
A sign was put in place of the photo-
The correspondent, Leslie H. Gelb, graph saying that the picture had been
wrote an article concerning the disclo- "removed for cause" because Mr. Gelb
sure in Canada, Iceland, Bermuda and "did willingly, and knowingly, publish
Puerto Rico of American contingency in 1995, classified information, the re-
plans for "emergency" deployment of lease of which is harmful and damag-
nuclear depth charges in those loca- ing to the country."
tionLs. The article, saying the Govern- As of late today, Mr. Gelb's picture
me. 'its that were to be hosts under the had not been returned to the wall. In-
plan had not been informed, said that stead, the frame containing the sign
After the article was published in
The Times on r eb.13. the bureau direc-
tor Lieut. (ien. John Chain -Jr.. or-
dered his staff not to speak to Mr. Ge b,
assertin that the rter had know-
ingly published c assi h ea in ormation
the release o whi was barm1ul to na-
tional security.
On Saturday, a senior White House
official said that President Reagan's
national security adviser, Robert C.
McFarlane, had authorized a State De-
partment official to assist Mr. Gelb in
researching the article. The White
House official said Mr. McFarlane had
taken the action in an attempt to mini-
mize potential national security
breaches. Mr. Gelb had proposed at the
outset to limit the scope of the article to
information already published in news-
papers abroad, even though he had
more sensitive information.
After Mr. Gelb began gathering in-
formation for the article, Secretary of
State George P. Shultz asked The
Times not to publish it.
Information Already Published
said: "Hav n accom lish enor-
mously more than ever expected to in
focusin attention on the quest On of
leaks o c assi i ., ormation in the
cials have made clear, The Times and
Mr. Gelb went to great lengths, in con-
sultation with State Department offi-,
cials, to report on sensitive matters in
a responsible manner and in fulfill-
went of the need to keep the American
public fully informed," he continued.
"As a Government official, General
Chain has an obligation to set the
record straight," Mr. Topping said.
vernmen ano s
this bureau's time and attention dam
the important substantive issues for
which it is resDonsiDle today have re-
scinoed the ban o rom 's
bureau an have remov the sign
l
which expresses my strong persona
and ccntinum? conviction t at his act
of publishing classified information
damag our nation's security.
"wing s, would like to make
clear: (1) I have not been asked or told
to do this. (2) I did what I did, more in
sorrow than in anger. (3) I am a strong
believer in a free press. (4) 1 believe
the American people deserve a higher
set of standards than they sometimes
get from a few people concerning na-
tional security issues. (5) The substan-
five issue of leaks of classifi m orma- I
tion which damages national securi
remains nat we need is for the press
to help us solve it."
'Unwarranted Charge'
Today, Seymour Topping, managing
editor of The Times, expressed concern
that General Chain "continues to ex-
press a personal opinion that Mr. Gelb
was responsible for publishing classi-
fied information damaging to the se-
curity of the United States."
"This is an unwarranted charge
against The Times, which published
the article, and an unfair, unsubstanti-
ated attack on the professional reputa-
tion of Mr. Gelb," Mr. Topping said.
"As statements by White House offi-
A. M. Rosenthal, the executive editor
of The Times, said last week that Gen-
eral Chain must have known that the
article "contained no information that
had not already been published and de-
bated in the countries named in the
story.,,
Today, in a statement issued by the
State Department's press office, Gen-
eral Chain continued to maintain that
publication of the article had damaged
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020046-9