LEAKS VS. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100130012-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: May 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP91-005618000100130012-4
ARTICLEAP NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 11 May 1986
Casey Squares Off Against the Press
Leaks Vs. Public Service
Announcements
WASHINGTON
ONALD REAGAN, Caspar W. Weinberger and
WWWn J. Casey sham a profound distaste for
lacks to t11a press. But, as demonstrated once
agaUt last week, the Ptssident, the Secretary of
Defense, sad the Dlrsrtor of Central Intelligence have
been ir~oonafatent to their approach.
For lnatanq, John P. Wallach of the Hearn Neva
Service got a tip severs! weeb ago from a colleague In
Landon and pucin calls to the Sua Department, the Pen-
tagon aM the White House. His questiaa: Had Prime
Mistister Margaret Thatdres reArsad to alloy the United
States to launch boenbeas from basal in Britain to strike
Libya. The drat two oftldals with wtwta he spoke said
they veers uMer a "tight Ud." The third Bald the tip was
wrong, adding, "tbe President has decWed to act." That
aide dedirted to deny a supwtian that Air Force F?111's
would be dispatched. thus oonflrming it. A tourttt otfidal
filled iA a few details.
Thus an Saturday, .April lZ, dearly T1 hours before
the attack agairut .Libya.' Mr. Wallach's story on the
front page of The Baltimore News American quoted "a
senior Administration atnaroe" as saytug the,British had
given psrmLafan for the F-111 atrlb. No protest was
made over the sur'r'eptitious dladosure of sensitive mili-
tary information. nor did the Administration start a~
search for the leakers.
But when The WaahingWn pat sad a nationally syn-
dicated column by Rowland Evans and Robert Novak
carried reports that Mr. Casey had gone to Angola to ar?
range for the covert shipment through Zaire of antiair-
craft missiles to insur
e
t
h
g
n
s, t
e response was different.
The suspected leaker was Michael E. Pillsbury, an
Assistant Under Secretary of Defense. Asked to take a
- polygraph, or lie detector, tat, which he failed, he was
promptly dismissed and may face legal action.
What made the difference?
The first leak was authorized, since putting out the
information conformed with Administration policy. Dur-
ing the week before the attack on Libya, the AdmWatra-
tion was trying to keep that country's leader, Col. Muam-
mar el-Qaddafi, off balance with public and private
warnings that the attack was coming. The leak ascribed
to Mr. Pillsbury, on the other hand, was unauthorized.
Especially damaging, in the Administration view, was
the mention of Zaire, the government of which has been
nervous about being linked to the Angolan rebels led by
Jonas Savimbi, who has been criticized in Africa because
he has received support from South Africa.
Last week, the prospective publication of informa~
tion that Administration otticiaL said included dassified
data on American intelligence provided to the Soviet
Union by Ronald W. Pelton, a former employee of the Na-
tional Security Agency who has been charged with espies
nags, brought Mr. Casey out,
Frustrated over the Administntian'a inability to
control its own officials, he threatened to take five news
organizations, Including The Never York Times, to court
for publishing unauthorized information, The Washing-
ton Post reported that during a meetie jiiiith the newspa-
per's editors Mr. Casey asserted, "vre'w got five abso-
lutely cold violations." Noting that The pat was plan.
ning to publish new information about intelligence actlvi-
ties, Mr. Casey was quoted as saying: "I'm not threaten-
ing you. But you've got to know that It you publish this, I
would recommend that you be prosecuted."
The evidence in such a prosecution would be interest-
ing. For Reagan Administration officials, like their
predecessors, have been primary sources of leaks. As the
chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Sena-
tor Dave Durenberger, Republican of Minnesota, put it
recently: "Every Administration has faced the problem
of leaks, but none so much as this one."
Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution. in a study
of Washington news coverage, has categorized leaks by
motive. The policy leak, he says, "is a straightforward
pitch for or against a proposal using some document or
insiders' information." The trial balloon leak reveals a
proposal "to assess its assets and liabilities."
Ego leplrs, which in Mr. Hews view are frequent,
provide information "primarily to satisfy a sense of self-
importance." Goodwill leaks. he says, are designed "to
accummulate credit with a reporter." In the animus
leak, Mr. Haas nays, "information is disdaed to ember.
ass another person." Wlth the whlstleblower leak, "going
to the.pt'ess may be the last resort of fnutrated dull ser-
vants who feel they cannot correct a perceived wrong
through regular Government cltartrtsls."
The .justice Department is said to be resbtirtg Mr.
Casey's suggestion that news organizations be prosecut-
ed. Larry Speaker, the White House spokesman, said it
would be the Justice Department's decision. On Capitol
Hill, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont,
said: "I think when you go after press orgatltzatiorts,
you're treating the symptom rather than the problem.
You should go after the persons doing the leaking."
"Anyone who violates the law should be praecut-
ed," Mr. Speaker.said at week's end, "whether it be a
publication or whether it be a member of the Administra-
tion who is leaking information."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP91-005618000100130012-4