FBI CHECKS LEAK OF REPORT ON AID TO ISRAEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030081-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: July 13, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030081-9
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
13 July 1983
WASHINGTON
FBI CHECKS LEAK OF REPORT ON AID TO ISRAEL
BY JIM ANDERSON
The FBI is looking into a massive leak to news organizations of a classified
report on U.S. aid to Israel.
The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of
Congress, was published in an unclassified version June 24 with much of the.
information deleted, but another version of the report has been circulating in
Washington.
A retyped version, with the deletions restored, was given to some news
organizations, including United Press International, by the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee.
The ADC later offered its version of the report to anybody who wrote and
asked for it.
Originally, Knight-Ridder newspapers and UPI had access to a draft photocopy
of the GAO Israeli aid report which was marked ''Secret'' and ''No Foreign
Distribution." There were no deletions in the 93-page draft report except for
six missing pages of a Central Intelligence Agency assessment of the
military balance in the Middle East.
The GAO issued a statement late Monday saying it has ''referred the document
(put out by the Arab-American group) and the circumstances in question to the
Department of Justice for appropriate action.'' Officials said Tuesday the
Justice Department has opened a probe.
The GAO has never before asked the FBI to investigate an unauthorized leak of
its documents. One official said, ''There have been GAO leaks before, but never
this blatant."
The Arab-American group said it distributed the report because, " It is a
subterfuge of the highest order to say that this report should be classified,
then suppressed for nearly seven months, just because of its damning political
indictment of both the United States and Israel.''
It did not say where it got its copy of the classified version.
The report, while concluding U.S. financial aid and military sales to Israel
have had a generally positive effect and are necessary, also said the aid has
contributed to the spiraling arms race in the Middle East.
It also said-Israel probably will ask for more U.S. financial aid, if only to
start paying back some of the past loans now coming due, which may total $1
billion in payments due next year.
It also said there were numerous irregularities in the manner of giving aid
which -- while not illegal -- cost U.S. taxpayers money because of fiscal
shortcuts and because those procedures set precedents for other countries.
CONZ721'IW
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030081-9