ON KEEPING SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020144-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 144
• Publication Date: February 6, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020144-0
01. LVULJ rVJl-L1JYa'111.n ~P1VJ
6 February 1984
On Keeping Secrets
Given that the Reagan administration
has made something of a fetish of secrecy,
what do you suppose its reaction would be
to reports that included the following
information?
- The Central Intelligence Agency has
government forces in Afghanistan and
Kampuchea (and possibly Angola).
These and other tidbits of the U.S:
government's -covert activities were
recently reported in The Wall Street
Journal. But if there have been no cries that
the report compromised national security
or otherwise violated a need for secrecy,
there is a reason: The information came
from an interview with an "authoritative
government source" who agreed to be
quoted on "the condition he would not be
identified."
None of this should be construed, of
course, as an indication that the Reagan
administration is any less interested in
cracking down on leakers and on journalists
who print leaked material. Some leakers'
are better than others. Or putting it another
way, when it comes to secrecy, the Reagan
administration likes it both ways.
been bolstered by more than 1,200
employees since 1980, including 800 added
to its covert action arm.
- Both the CIA and the Pentagon have
set up special a1SE~i-Terrorist teams and the
former has established a new terrorist
evaluation center which, among other
things, relies on information exchanges
with agents from both Israel and Israel's
,enemy, Jordan.
- The CIA is actively supporting 12,000
to 15,000 Nicaraguan rebels (with slightly
more than 20 people rather than the 500 as
has been reported).
- The. U.S. is also helping anti-
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R600100020144-0