MOYNIHAN SAYS U.S. KILLED HIS ANTISPY MEASURE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504500003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504500003-8
't { V.1
GN ii r' ARED 11 September 1985
PAG
Moynihan Says U.S. Killed His Antispv M
By IRVIN MOLOTSKY
Special to The New York Times
tee on Intelligence, wrote to Senator
Lugar and Senator Pe11 that he opposed
Senator Moynihan's measure because
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 - or it was unnecessary and could lead to
Daniel Patrick Mo hanDemocrat Of disclosing "sensitive intelligence
Yew York charged today that the Cen- sources."
tra Intelligence enc and the State Senator Moynihan said the C.I.A. and
Department a aersua ded on the State Department had used their in-
to kill a measure he introduced fluence to persuade Senator Duren-
aimed at 'ing American c ttzens burger to move against the bill.
from avin t eir tee one conversa- The Senator's bill would have made
do intercepted by foreign agents to the interception of private non-Govern-
this country. ment telephone calls by foreign agents
The telephones of Government agen- illegal and would have provided for the
cies are being protected with expensive expulsion of agents found taking part in
electronic devices against intercep- such activity.
tion, Senator Moynihan said, but he as- Patti Vou , a spokesman for the Cen-
serted that widening eavesdropping of-I tral Intelligence Agency said the
forts, particularly by the Russians,
were putting the conversations on non-
Government telephones at risk.
"There is an extraordinary, very un-
seemly, nervous-making attitude in
Washington," Senator Moynihan said,
that if the Government is protected, it
doesn't matter if the Soviets are listen-
ing to The New York Times, to a sena-
tor talking to a contributor, to a lawyer
talking to his client, to a person talking
to a stock broker, to liaisons that might
not be entirely proper."
Measure Dropped in Conference
Senator Moynihan's measure, which
would have provided for action aganist
foreign agents caught eavesdropping
on non-Government telephone calls,
was included in legislation approved
June 11 by the Senate. But it was I
dropped the next month when mem-
bers of the House and the Senate met to
resolve differences in their bills.
Senator Moynihan said his measure
had been agreed to by the chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Commit-
tee, Richard G. Lugar, Republican of
Indiana, and the ranking Democratic
member, Claiborne Pell of Rhode Is-
land.
The defeat Lame after Senator David
Durenburger. Republican of Minneso-
ta, the chairman of the Select Commit-
agency wo have no omment on
Senator o ans assertion t it
had a role in vita; D e-
feated. An o ct o state eenatt-
ment said he was unable to respond to
the Senator's assertion but did confirm
that the department had not supported
his measure. He said the department
felt that Government already had ade-
quate laws for the protection of eaves-
dropping by foreign agents on non-Gov-
ernment telephones.
Senator Moynihan has expressed
concern in the past over the possibility
of foreign agents' intercepting tele-
phone calls of American citizens. In his
current newsletter to his constituents
and in an interview in his Senate office
today, Mr. Moynihan said he was
trying to call attention to the matteri
anew because construction was near-
ing completion on the Soviet Embas-
sy's new compound on a relatively high
hill in Washington.
Senator Moynihan said this com-
pound promised to be filled with elec-
tronic communications-intercepting
gear of the kind that the Soviet Union
has used in New York, at its United Na-
tion Mission on East 67th Street in Man-
hattan, at its 22-story building in the
Riverdale section of the Bronx and at
its Long Island retreat in Glen Cove.
In the Past, Administrations have
generally maintained that Soviet
agents were not interested in the pri-
vate conversations of Americans who
were not in Government.
Senator Moynihan disputed this, as-
serting that a new law was needed. He
was asked today how such a law could
be enforced against Soviet officials-
with diplomatic immunity. He an-
swered, "You expel people, you expel
people and you expel people."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504500003-8