THE NEW LEAKERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100060047-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: May 7, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT '
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP91-0
ON,
THE WASHINGTON POST
7 May 1980
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.
;rs
The torrent of leaks by Carter admin-
istration officials that instantly fol-
lowed the aborted rescue mission is an
intelligence fiasco that may cost the
United States more dearly than the
fiasco in the desert itself.
Besides eopardizing the lives of U.S.
agents in Tehran; the massive spillage
of official secrets betrays to the world a
government out of control. "This crizni-
nal act. could not have taken place if
Jimmy Carter were in charge of his
own administration," one well-placed
specialist familiar with` covert opera-
tions told us. "There Is no one around
able to compel silence,"
Such comments in intelligence and
national security circles are the talk of
the town. While Soviet propaganda
seizes on the leaks to truruNt U.S. sul)-
version against Iran, senior bffidals in
Washington are dumbfounded and dis-
mayed at how secrets denied to Con-
gress are leaked to the news media. The
fragile intelligence system has suffered
a relapse, anti tarnished U.S. credibility
has been further undermines.
Who is leaking? Possibly military of-
ficers who never.thought the plan
-would work, trying to clear their skirts.
Possibly defenders of the mission who
believe that the more known about it,
the better it will look to critics. Senior
officials claim two things: first, Presi-
dent Carter has ordered silence; sec-
ond,, neither he, not they, know the
origin of the leaks.
Obviously,. this has endangered un-
dercover Americans exposed by leak as
having been assigned key roles in Teh-
ran for later stages of the three-phased
rescue attempt. But deeper implica-
tions stem from Moscow's eager use of
the leaks.
'Soviet commentators In -'Moscow,:
picking tip leaked secrets from the U.S.-
pres. s and television, have been sys
tematically spilling inside information..
about the U.S. rescue operation across
the pages of Pravda and Izvestia. "In-
ternal counterrevolutionary " forces".'
were targeted for, on-the-spot help to
the U.S. rescue team, Izvestia informed
its readers April29 ;
On May-1,. Pravda's top - political
writer, Yuriy Zhukov, backed up his l
charge that the United States was out'!
to destroy the. Islamic republic. He
cited evidence leaked in the United
States that there .vas a "fifth column'
of undercover Americans:allegedly oa
the ground in Tehran.
Such alleged revelations would be' ex-.
?pected. even if Soviet-opinion organs
were manufacturing them. .What
makes these Soviet reports so damag-
ing to the United States is that every in-
telligence service in the free world-
knows they were in fact picked up
from -.reasonably :..accurate -repor
leaked from within a Carter `adiriin=
istration helpless to prevent it.
'Warnings have been informally de=
livered to U.S. intelligence' agencies.
that allied foreign intelligence services
are going to stop cooperating.with_tlie
United States for a time. The reason:
the United States has proved once)
again, in even more humiliating fash=ll
ion than before, that it cannot protect
its intelligence methods.
This same charge was made during
the post-Watergate crisis of the Central
Intelligence Agency, when secrets were
sprayed around the world amidst'non-
stop congressional investigations '-of
supposed excesses. The new leakers are
:U.S. officials inside Jimmiy Carter.'s
own bureaucracy who feel so little re.,
strain t'from above that, whatever their
purposes, they have taken upon them'-
selves the intimate detailing of thena-
tion's disastrous failure.:::
Intelligence officials have drafted a
letter to Attorney. General Benjamin
C iviletti asking for an immediate FBI 1
e "'United States
proved once Cl,?~Cll i`l, im
even more humiliati
ashion, that it eannotti'
protect its intelligence
"
sr
methods. ...
investigation. The letter has been held.
up. Such FBI probes seldom discover,
anything. Worse, if anybody charged
with violating security laws goes., to
court, it becomes impossible to protect,
any secrets at all.
But the president may yet ortlerin
the FBL So far, he has been inclines;
against an investigation started in the
suspicious and supercharged political
atmosphere following the rescue ' fail..
ure. He could change his mind if the
steadily building resentment all Capitcl
Hill should explode.
That might happen soon. Senior Intel-
ligence officials are being called for un.
announced appearances before I con.
o essional committees. Their orders are;
clear: give no details of the aborted,
rescue effort. ,
? This will enrage members of. Con.
gfress who see TThe leaking bureaucrac+r
out of control, a symptom. of an admin-
istration losing its capacity to govern.
'T'hat raises again the question `o;!
whether a country that cannot keep a
secret, even at the risk of its own men':,
lives, can long control its destiny.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100060047-4