PENTAGON DEPUTY OUSTED IN DISPUTE ON DISCLOSURE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100130016-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100130016-0
IICW 1 unn 11f'IL3
ON PAGE 30 April 1986
Pentagon Deputy Ousted in Dispute on Disclosure
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG
Special to The New York T1mr
WASHINGTON, April 29 - Ttg
tense Department has dismissed a sen.
for official on the ground that he pro-
vide secret in ormation for a news ar-
tiAmerican covert inte111-
gence program. Government o is Ts
said today.
The officials said department the missed Michael E. Pillsbury. Assistant
Under Secretary for Policy planning.
They said part of the evidence against
Mr. Pillsbury was his failure to pass a
polygraph, or lie-detector, test about
published reports that Stinger missiles
were being provided to the rebels in An-
gola and Afghanistan.
The dismissal comes at a time when
members of the Congress have been ac.
cusing the Reagan Administration of a
"lack of discipline" in handling secret
information. It marks one of the rare
stances in which an investigation of a
disclosure to the news media has re-
sulted in any action.
Robert Sims, the chief Pentagon
spokesman, said today that the Penta-
gon would have no comment on the
case because it involved a personnel
matter. He said, however, "I can con-
firm that this is Dr. Pillsbury's last day
here."
A Political Appointee
Other Government officials said that
Mr. Pillsbury was given the polygraph
test earlier this month and was told
Monday that he would be dismissed. He
is a political appointee, which means
he can be dismissed without civil serv-
ice proceedings.
Calls to Mr. Pillsbury's office in the
Pentagon were not returned.
Mr. Pillsbury was an aide to Fred .
Ikle the Under Secretary for 1 . In
his post he ha access to detailed in niation u e m strat on s cov-
ert m operations in Angola,
Afghanistan and elsewhere.
t was not clear whether Mr. Pills.
bury faced any further legal proceed-
ings. The Administration has said on
several occasions that it would con-
sider bringing criminal action against
people who made unauthorized disclo,
sures of confidential information. Last
year a Navy analyst, Samuel Loring
Morison, was convicted on espionage
charges after he was accused of selling
a secret satellite photograph to a mili-
tary publication. The conviction is
being appealed.
Irritation Over Libya
Officials said that senior policymak-
ers had become increasingly irritated
by the appearance of information in the
press about Libya and a large variety
of the Administration's covert pro-
grams.
Earlier this month, this anger in.
rebels inol
wou receive the Am
mican-lbodp
Stinger m ss e. a decision, a manor
leve
peop e, according to Gove
CT-
a? s am ar with the case.
The article was first Printed by The
Washington Pond a second article
the next day. written by the colummniists
Rowland Robert Novak J~k
cluded a detailed account sa3dng that
William J. Case the Director o
Cen-
tral Intelligence, a traveled to Afri
to e arrange the covert ration to
SUVPIY the An o an insurgents.
The columnists reported that the
'missiles would be transported through
;Zaire, a disclosure that was damaging
to the Administration's plans because
the Government of Zaire had been
nervous about playing a role in helping
Jonas Savimbi, the Angolan rebel lead-
er. There had been disclosures much
earlier about similar shipments of aid
through Zaire to Savimbi forces.
Dr. Pillsbury, a former analyst at the
Rand Corporation, has twice before
been dismissed from Government jobs.
In 1978 he was dismissed from a job
with the Senate Budget Committee
after a trip to Japan in which he criti-
cized Ambassador Mike Mansfield in
conversations with Japanese officials.
An embassy escort was present at the
conversations.
Shortly afterward, the dismissal was
the subject of an Evans and Novak col-
umn.
Mr. Pillsbury was also dismissed in
1981, when he was working as Acting
Director of the Arms Control and Dis-
armament Agency at the State Depart-
ment. The action came 10 days-after an
Evans and Novak column quoting a let-
ter to Senator Jesse Helms, Republican
of North Carolina, in which Mr. Pills-
bury said he could not assure the Sena.
for that conformance with treaties on
limiting nuclear arms was verifiable.
In recent months members of Con-
gress have repeatedly charged that the
disclosures of sensitive information
were,coming from inside the executive
branch.
Senat Pam J. Leahy, a Vermont
Democ-rat, wwho chairman of the Se-
e information come from the
executive branch. This tendency to
conduct nolicydebate or a vane
ical interests c assi-
fled information a ord
and Carter Administrations. But in m
nearly in Congress. have
never seen it on the e Pract v
Government officials under the present
Adm trat on.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100130016-0