ADMINISTRATION FRUSTRATED BY LEAKS EXPOSING FOREIGN POLICY DISCORDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100110009-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: May 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110009-0
WASHINGTON POST
18 May 1986
Administration Frustrated by Leaks
Exposing Foreign Po
licy Discords
Partisan Lower-Level Officials Seek to Influence Policy
NEWS
ANALYSIS
By John M. Goshko
Washington Post Staff Writer
The firing of two Reagan admin-
istration officials who allegedly
leaked classified information is a
sign not only of mounting tension
between government and the news
are conservatives who apparently adversaries. It recently caused Cen-
sought to influence debate over kC tral Intelligence Agency Director
controversial policies. Pillsbury, a William J. Casey to threaten to em-
long-time associate of Republican ploy a w orohibitintr disclo-
sure of communications intelligence
against five publications that re-
ported U.S. interception of Libyan
messages.
Secretary of State George P.
Shultz, frequently on the opposite
side from Casey in policy debates,
has become so upset at what he
termed a "gusher" of leaks that he
told reporters last week: "We've
got to find the people who are doing
it and fire them." To emphasize the
seriousness of his threat, Shultz
seized on the Warren case and had a
department spokesman take the
unprecedented step of announcing
at the Friday press briefing that an
official had been fired for leaking
classified material.
media. It also illus-
trates the administra-
tion's frustration at
having its own ideological divisions
over foreign policy exposed to pub-
lic view.
In both firings-of Defense De-
partment official Michael E. Pills-
bury last month and of State De-
partment speech writer Spencer C.
Warren on Friday-the alleged of-
fenses had no relationship to con-
servative charges that President
Reagan is the victim of liberal-lean-
ing career bureaucrats seeking to
thwart the policies of a conserva-
tive leader.
Instead, both ousted employes
conservatives who believe that ad-
ministration policy is dominated by
moderates, was suspected of leak-
ing information about aid to anti-
communist guerrillas in Angola and
Afghanistan; Warren, a lesser-
known figure, reportedly admitted
leaking a diplomatic cable charging
House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip)
O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) with attempt-
ing to undermine Reagan's policy of
pressure on Nicaragua.
Sensitivity about such disclosures
has increased at a time when Rea-
gan increasingly emphasizes covert
action and combating international
terrorism. Invariably, leaks about
these issues spill into the area of
intelligence activities that the ad-
ministration considers too sensitive
to disclose.
That is why concern about stem-
ming the flow of leaks has become
close to a fixation at the highest
levels and has created unanimity
among officials usually regarded as
Leaks to the news media have
been a source of White House ag-
gravation for at least two decades.
In the past, though, when they in-
volved the inner workings of gov-
ernment, they usually described
turf fights between competing of-
ficials-for example, Secretary of
State Cyrus R. Vance and national
security affairs adviser Zbigniew
Rrzezinski in the Carter years.
However, in the Reagan era, the
leaks have become a weapon in the
ongoing policy-making struggle be-
tween such officials as Shultz, who
generally follows a pragmatic ap-
proach to foreign policy while out-
spokenly advocating force to com-
bat terrorism, and Casey and De-
fense Secretary Caspar W. Wein-
berger, who advocate an unrelent-
ingly tough line on Central America
and arms control and other dealings
with the Soviet Union.
The leaks generally come from
partisan lower-level officials. Fre-
quently they can be traced to con-
servatives whose allegiance is to
ideology and believe that their
views have been frozen out of the
policy process.
Department officials, insisting
that Shultz does not want to cut off
the flow of "legitimate news" to the
media, said he considers leaks,
whether of intelligence matters or
dealings with other governments, a
threat to national security and is
determined to force his employes to
maintain confidentiality and resolve
disputes through internal channels.
Casey, speaking Thursday to the
American Jewish Congress "from
30 years of experience as a friend,
participant and supporter of the
media," insisted that "the media,
like everyone else, must adhere to
the law." And he stated: "I hasten to
add that the first line of defense and
the most effective way of prevent-
ing leaks is to increase discipline
within the government itself."
t/
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110009-0