SPILLING THE NID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100130011-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: May 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100130011-5
PAS Xl!+ NtW ryKK l iMtS
_ ___ 12 2 May 1986
ESSAY William Safire
Spilling the NID
missiles in the arms of freedom fight.
Select Committee on, Intelligence,
whose heavily publicized midlife
crisis makes him seem, in my opin-
ion, eager to show he has not become
a blabbermouth.
Let me put forward my own Na-
tional Estimate of the crackbrained
crackdown.
John McMahon, until two months
ago the C.I.A.'s Deputy Director, was
the product of its intelligence-gather-
ing side, and resisted Director Casey's
policy (with which I agree) of putting
WASHINGTON
illiam Casey, Director of
Central Intelligence, ap-
pears to be getting nervous
in the service on the subject of leaks.
Having been made the laughingstock
of world apookery by this mishandling
of the defector Yurchanko, he is now
threatening journalists with jail
terms for leaked from the top.
than those
He is joined in this always-popular
pastime of intimidation by David
Durenberger, chairman of the Senate
A scapegoat was needed to send a
warning to the Wt, and to justify the He
detector "experiment" within the Pen.
Evans anAfter a d Novak column about using j
Zaire as the distributor of mhsiles to
the Savimbi insurgents in Angola _j&
formation that may have been in the
NID - Michael a
official, was fluttered bound
"Mike the Pill" was expendable: as
a Senate aide in the bard-line "Mai-
sat Group" during the Carter era, Mr.
Pillsbury was a valued Casey-Wdaber.
ger ally; but now the Jesse Helms
crowd is losing its clout and the flrhy
of Mike the Pill could serve as a warn.
ing to others. Moreover, a bead ad a
platter was needed -for Zaire.
Then Bill Casey -on a bridge too
far. I scare the press, he went to 7U
Washington Post to say that if a qar-
tain Bob Woodward story was pun
tished, he would recommend proaccb
tion under some untested statsue.
"I'm not threatening, but..."
The Justice Department, how.,..,
while willing to go after leakers in Gas-
The C.I.A.
tries to spook
the press
formation, is the evaluated product of ernment, is unwilling to join Mr. Casey
the intelligence community. The dr. in chilling the leakeee in the prem..
culation is limited to about 200 offs- One reason is that law enforcement
cials whose lowest clearance is "top officials have long been aware of, and
secret," and who enjoy the thrill of in- are discreetly curious about, meet-
sidership six mornings a week. (On ings held in Mr. Casey's home, alone,
Sundays they have to rely on the between the Director and reporter
newspapers, and can catch up on Woodward, who is writing a book
what is happening.) about the C.I.A.
Do not confuse the NID with the I would never ask Bob Woodward
P.D.B. - the President's Daily Brief- about that, because a man's sources
ing, in the white cover - which goes or non-sources are nobody's business
to only a handful of people, and which but his own. But a few months back I
I presume contains poop from the put the question buzzing around Jun.
human group as well as from satel- tice directly to my old friend Casey.' -
lites and big ears. (I used to confuse "I haven't seen Woodward for IS
the NID with the New International months," was the gruff reply. No brills.
Dictionary, Merriam-Webster's Un- at all to the obvious F.B.I. wonderment
abridged, and found it difficult to un- if Mr. Casey was the source of the ste?
derstand why spooks were concerned ries he most complains about. He does
that "the NID is leaking.") readily admit seeing Mr. Woodward
action, and his pride and joy has been
the National Intelligence Daily.
This "NID," with its blue card-
board cover and 10 or 12 pages of in-
ere willing to shoot them at oppressors
in Afghanistan, Africa and Nicaragua.
He was booted out and replaced by
Robert Gates, who came up through
the evaluation rather than gathering
branch. Mr. Gates is thus more a
driver of spies than a spy by trade; he
is comfortable with the Casey covert
the freedoms we hired him to protect: Central Intelligence has ever been the
source of a knownthe . But Government Rather der if secrets are
coming out of C.I.A. or N.S.A. (No politicians on background $eek to lien
Such Agency), where fooling the poly. Journalists to advance polio,, Mr.
graph is child's play, the blame is Casey and even higher officials ar-
being placed on the consumers of intel. "sources." They will find their our-
ligence: the 200 NID subscribers, a lets turn user-unfriendly when their
third of whom are in the Pentagon. carrots become sticks. b'
S
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100130011-5