PRESIDENT ORDERS INVESTIGATION OF LEAK OF LEBANON RECOMMENDATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030018-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 22, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-0
0561 R000100030018-9
WASHINGTON
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PRESIDENT ORDERS INVESTIGATION OF LEAK OF LEBANON RECOMMENDATIONS
BY JAMES GERSTENZANG
President Reagan has ordered the Justice Department to investigate the
disclosure of recommendations made in a National Security Council meeting two
months ago that the United States begin shelling Moslem positions in, Lebanon, a
government source said Tuesday night.
One source suggested that the president's special Mideast envoy believed the
leak put his life in danger.
Officials at the White-House and the Justice Department refused to comment
and would not say whether such an investigation was taking place. "We don't
comment on investigations," said Justice Department spokesman Tom DeCair.
The source, who spoke on condition that he not be further identified, said
the fact that an investigation was under way was considered to be classified
information. Other officials at several levels of government who normally are
helpful on sensitive questions were unusually reluctant to discuss the question
Tuesday night.
This source said the FBI had been questioning White House and foreign policy
officials since shortly after the information from the National Security Council
meeting was published in newspapers.
Another source, also insisting on anonymity, said stories appeared involving
a meeting of the National Security Council during the weekend of Sept. 10-11 at
which recommendations made by Robert C. McFarlane were considered.
McFarlane, then the president's special envoy to the Middle East and now his
national security adviser, was said to have recommended increasing the U.S.
military profile in Lebanon in the wake of attacks that had killed several
members of the U.S. Marine contingent of the multi-national peacekeeping force.
This 'was six weeks before a suicide bomb attack killed 239 Marines in their
Beirut headquarters.
According to this source, McFarlane had asked that U.S. artillery on shore
and naval guns be allowed to shell militia positions of the Druse Moslem sect
suspected of firing on the Marines.
McFarlane was in the Middle East at the time.
Shortly after his recommendations were made public, he was said to have
complained that the disclosure of them endangered his life by clearly
identifying him as the official responsible for any stepped-up U.S. military
activity.
The source said disclosure of the council discussion was raised in White
House staff meetings shortly after it appeared and prompted immediate concern.
The government source said the investigation began soon afterward.
C01'\7 NLTED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030018-9