U.S. HEADS OFF THE HIJACKERS: HOW THE OPERATION UNFOLDED

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CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3
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51
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December 22, 2016
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December 11, 2009
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3
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October 12, 1985
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 - ARTICLEAPE NEW YORK TIMES ON PAGE fr I 12 October 1985 As, the President ordered the inter- U.S. Heads Off the Hijackers: czkvhat':ifiratat:saillial=stirn unusually high quality of intelligence How the Operation Unfolded By FRANCIS X. CLINES nodal co Ms Now York Time WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 ? Shortly after woo Thursday, Eastera daylight pings directed at United Statescitizens time, President Reagan conferred in a in private office at a cake factory near " vr?did this all by our unnal"..'" CNC**, and, after weighing die risks, Mr. ajn and rather Prendir. His decided to try to intercept an Egyptian advimerVconcinTed, exultantly describ- civilian jet with United States fighter ing the seizure of the terrorists as a ein- aircraft. guiar success for American InteUI- Mr. Reagan was told that Weill- Pace and military Plannen4 and as race experts expected that the plane tribute to the President's quiet deci- would soon be fly' siveness.ng from Cairo with the four hijackers of the Italian cruise At tbe President's skis in Minnie ship Achille Laura, and the President monitoring the word from adr? was decided to try and force them away his national security adviser. Robert C. from a safe haven and into a court of McFarlane' a saft4Pakan madiat vet- justice. His order was racing through eran who said today that Mr- Reagan Pentagon channels by 1:30 P.M. had expressed "very prudent regard" The bold plan for an airborne opera- for the risks and had several times tion to sews some initiative from inter- asked "what If' questions as he went national terrorists was conceived and over nnal details of the plan during a presented to the President early Thurs. break on his tour of the Sara Lee Kite& day morning, according to White ens cake fantorY In Deerfield, 111. House officiali. "It never reached the point where the risks exceeded the potential gains," No Hint of the Operadon Mr. McFarlane said. After he gave initial approval ,by midday in Illinois, F-14 fighter planes were scrambled from the American aircraft carrier Saratoga and were flying in place over the Mediterranean at 2:13 P.M. Eastern time ? it was al- ready evening in Europe ? to await his final order. At 4:37 P.M., as he returned to Wash- ington on Air Force One after his visit to the Chicago area, the President re- ceived confirmation that the Egyptian plane had taken off 22 minutes earlier, and he issued his final instruction to have the armed fighters carry out the Interception plan. Mr. Reagan gave no hint of the risky operation as he traveled from Wash. ington to Chicago on Thursday morning for a speech on tax reform. He told jokes to Representatives Henry J. Hyde and Lynn Martin, Republicans of Illinois, as they flew west aboard Air Force One. But the attractiveness of the plan al- ready was clear to him, according to aides, and he summarized that today In explaining his decision to proceed de- spite the attendant risks. "Here was a clear-cut case where we could lay our hands on the terrorists," he said, after five years of frustration over a series of bombinp and kidnap- Memory of Failed Medal But as the time approached for the President's final order, various offi- cials knew of the operation and could appreoia. te the risks, recalling the failed attempt by President Jimmy Carter to use military force to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1960. "Thosefoar people will be brought to justice," a cryptic but unusually confi- dent Senator Dave Durenberger', Re. publican of Minnesota, told reporters Thursday at 4 P.M., shortly after he was briefed about the plan. "Qr whoever is still living at the time they can be brought to justice," Mr. Durenberger, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, radde since the plan was still fraY d, from certain success. When the cruise ship hijacking began on Monday, the Administration put into effect standing plans to have a military assault force prepare for a possible boarding action. But Weftmthy was the earliest opportunity for the night- time raid ? too late to capture the ter- rorists, who had by then surrendered to Egyptian authorities and been prom- ised safe passage from Cairo. While the boarding raid was a known option of the Administration's anti- terrorist contingency plans, the idea of Intercepting the Egyptian airliner was not. Even as he was ordering the inter- ception plan, the President was telling a Chicago crowd of his "gorge" of frus- tration at the incident, in iblch an in- valid passenger from New York report- edly was shot in the head by the terror- ists and thrown overboard. . - GI& e . not e a . te, a. Administration officials hinted there might have been sources who had the Egyptian plane, a Boeing 737, under visual surveillance as the takeoff was awaited. In contrast to the joke-telling session on the trip to Chicago, Mr. Reagan did not visit his guests on the return trip aboard Air Force One, after he had issued his initial order and details were being received about the scrambling of the F-14's. "He was quieter, less ebul- lient," a Presidential aide recalled the flight back to Washington. The aircraft that took oft from the Saratoga included four F-14 fighters that had rehearsed their close-winged approach to the civilian jetliner, as well as three additional F-14's, an E-2C radar intelligence plane, and tanker planes to refuel the force during its hours of action. It we, being closely tracked by a team of Administration officials working in the Situation Room In the White House basement under the direction of Mr. McFariane'S deputy, Vice Mm. John M. Poindexter. The Saratoga had been cruising at night near the Peloponnesus when the President's initial order arrived had to come about into the wind for aircraft launch. In formation above Mediterranean, the planes were or- dered to operate "in total darkness, in total silence," according to Navy Sec- retary John F. Lehman Jr. After waiting more than three hours, the planes, aided by extensive radar formation, spotted the Egyptian 737 visually at 5:30 P.M. Eastern time at 34.25 degrees north latitude and 25 grass east longitude. This was 80 miles south of Crete. They trailed it without themselves, and the jetliner gave no dication that it was aware of the sur- veillance, according to Pentagon offi- cials. Order to Intercept Is Given The F-14 force monitored radio transmissions as the jetliner sought and was denied permission to land at Tunis, then Athens. Finally, the order was passed to the fighters to turn on their running lights and confront the jetliner by radio and shepherd it to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization base at Sigonella in Sicily. One crucial question that Adminis- tration officials would not answer definitively today was whether planes had been prepared to fire on the jetliner if the order were resisted. "That's for them to go to bed ev night wondering," Mr. Reagan said day, speaking of the incident as a les- son for any potential future terrorists. The jetliner and its escort landed at, the Sicllx base at 6:45 P.M. Eastern-1 time. It fres instantly surrounded by troops from the base, which is near the city of Catania. CantMed Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 A period of confusion followed involv- ing American and Italian officials, ac- cording to Administration officials. Heavy air cover could be seen, with planes circling the field, according to one officer on duty at the time, and from time to time the jetliner was towed from one point to another, as if to protect against potentially unfriendly interlopers. Shortly after 11 P.M. Thursday in Washington, the White House con- firmed the mission and said it had achieved the President's goal: to see the terrorists brought to custody in or- der to face charges for the hijacking of the cruise ship. Larry Speakes, the President's spokesman, summarized the mission and Mr. Reagan's role in it. "He ap- proved the escalation of it as events warranted," Mr. Spes kes said. "It was Just the right apphLation of U.S. force." ?meg mi=1;=;milmen Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 NEW YORK TIMES 11 October 1985 ARTICLE APPEARED - ? ON PAGE I -70c OFFICIALS SAY C.I.A. DID NOT TELL F.B.I. ? OF SPY CASE MOVES The following-chiell is based on re porting by Stephen Engelberg and Joel Brinkley and was written by Mr. Brink- ley. SWAIN to The New Yak Thom WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 ? The Cen- tralintelligpoce Agency failed to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation after it learned more than a year ago that Edward L. Howard was considee. ing becoming a Soviet spy, Govern- ment officials said today. . According to court records, Mr. How- ? *rd told two agency employees in Sep- tember 1984 that he was thinking of dis- dosing classified information to the Soviet Union. Soviet. Defector Was the Key ? The bureau has sole respcosibility for domestic espionage hrveatigations and, under Federal law, the intelli- gence agency and all other Govern- ment agencies are supposed to report suspected espionage to the F.B.I. It is illegal for the C.I.A. or any other Fed- eral agency to carry out surveillance or othec actions within the United States to stop potential vim. Mr. Howard, 33 years old, a former Intelligence agency officer who is now a fugitive, has been charged with espio- ? nage, accused of giving Soviet officials details of American intelligence opera- tions in Moscow. Federal officials have called the disclosures serious and dam. - aging. . 'Bad Mistake,' Senator Says Federal officials said the C.I.A. told the F.B.I. nothing about Mr. Howard until after the bureau began an investi- gation this fall based on information from a Soviet defector, Windy Yur- chenko, who had been a senior official of the K.G.B., the Soviet in agency, The bureau began surveillance of Mr. Howard last month, but be slipped out of his home at night and is believed to have fled the country. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Ver- I mont Democrat who is vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelli- gence, said today: "If the C.I.A. did not give the F.B.I. adequate information about this person, that's a bad mistake. It shows very, very serious problems within the C.I.A." In tile last few weeks the C.I.A. transferred the thief of its office of so curity, William Kotapish, to a new job ata level of equivalent seniority, but an official said the move had been planned "for some time" and was not related to the Howard case. Mr. Howard worked for the agency , from 1981 to 1963. Hewes told of dust, fled American intelligence operations In Moscow because the agency was planning to assign him there, officials have said. According to a criminal complaint on file in Federal District Court in, Albu- querque, N.M., Mr. Howard 'told two current employees of the intelligence agency a year ago last month that be had "spent hours in the vicinity of the Soviet Embassy trying to decide whether to enter the embassy and dis- close classified information.". An F.B.I. affidavit says the conver- sation was held Sept. 24, 1964. Four ' days before that. the Government cow tends, Mr. Howard gave his .infornia- don to Soviet officials in St. Anton, Aus- tria. CLIKI-Lriajesmal said t a atrhat con- versation "action was taken" within the agency "and it seemed to be rea- sonar!** action at the time." He would not say what the action was, although an official said the m*.y kept in con- tact with Mr. Howard after his conver- sation with the two C.I.A. operatives. Mr. Howard lived in New Mexico at the time. ; 'A Few Blatant Cases' The Senate and House intelligence committees are investigating the han- dling of the Howard case. A key issue in the study, committee members said, , will be how the C.I.A. and other agen- cies deal with employees who leave Government service with detailed, classified knowledge about sensitive Another: element of the investiga- tions will be several recent espionage cases in which Government officials . failed to heed warning signs that a cur- rent or former employee was planning to spy or was spying, committee mem- bers said. "We've had a few blatant cases where we just didn't follow through, even with alarm bells going off," said Representative Dave McCurdy, Demo- crat of Oklahoma, chairman of the House committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Evaluaton. In the Howard case, a senior F.B.I. official said We. Howard's conversa- tion with the two C.I.A. officers would have been sufficient to warrant an in- vestigation. "Anytime we get information that someone has considered such an act, we would take some action," said Phil- lip A. Parker, deputy assistant director of the bureau's intelligence division. I An intelligence official said the I C.I.A.'s decision to handle the matter Internally rather than report it to the F.B.I. was "a judgment call," adding, "If you reported every fantasy that people have, you'd have everyone under surveillance." Law Bars C.I.A. Moves in U.S. The C.I.A would not say whether it undertook any form of inquiry after Mr. Howard told the tWo C.I.A. em- ployees he had considered becoming a Soviet spy. But Federal .law and a Presidential executive order prohibit the agency from taking any steps in- side the United States to investigate possible cases of espionage. Mr. Howard was one of tens of thou- sands of people who retire from Gov- ernment or industry each year after holding positions that gave them ac- cess to classified materials. More than 4.3 Wilier people in government and Industry associated with government now have clearances to use classified Information. Asked what procedures the Central Intelligence Agency uses to monitor former employees who have imcrwl- edge of classified programs, Mr. Laud- er, the agency spokesman. said: "We haven't got, any procedures. Once a person leaves here, he is John Q. Citk zen, just like you and me. We don't keep a string on them. It's strictly an F.B.I. ngatter. " DIM Durenberger, the Minnesota Republican who is chairman of the Sea, ate Intelligence Committee, said his panel would also examine the problem presented by military officers who re- tire with lmowledge of classified ma- Most people with security clearances work for the Pentagon. At the Defense Department, L. Britt Snider, director of counterintellxience and security policy, said: "We don't have any juris- diction of any kind over former em- ployees, whether or not they had clear- ance'. It's strictly the F.B.I." At the F.B.I., Mr. Parker said, "We are not concerned about Americans who have had clearances. We don't look at these people unless we detect en Individual involved in espionage." Ex-Intelligence Chief's Moves Senator Leahy said: "I don't think anyone expects the F.B.I. to maintain surveillance on the several hundred thousand people who leave the Govern- ment each year with security cleat- ances. But there are a certain number of people in extremely sensitive posi- tions, a handful of them, that we ought to do more with." Mr. Leahy said Mr. Howard "cer- lainly would have been one of those" because he held highly sensitive infor- mation and was being dismissedfolloW- ing a polygraph examination that indi- cated drug use and petty thievery, at,- cording, to Federal officials. Continued Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 1 tIN. When Adm. Stansfield M. Turn* was Director of Central Intelligence in the Carter Administration, he diX- missed, transferred or forced to retire nearly 200 C.I.A. officers who hels: highly sensitive positions. In an interview this week, he se.14:1 that others in the agency had warned. him that "we ran the risk of some 'of them selling their information' to the other side." He said he had disagreed when it was suggested that some should be given other jobs, and Pr* ceeded with his original plans. - ? But he said of Mr. Howard: "1 dosi't think my rule should be totally rigid. if this guy had just been briefed, I'd AY let's stick him in the DOMilliCall Repub. , lic or someplace like that for a couple of years, until the Information isn't . . valuable anymore," Senator Leahy said: "We may new" some sort of turkey farm for some of these former employees. Make then translate cables or something like that for a couple of years." Admiral Turner said he thought C.I.A. officers ought to be req T.0 agree when they are hired that "fox three years or so after they leave, they, will be subject to the same rules of in. I trusion as applied when they were In I government. Make them come back fon random polygraph examinations. Tbg would give them one more ins to worry about before they turn.' v : A q.I.A. official said "it's concei, ,v4 able" that that idea would work, aid. ing that finding solutions to the prop? lem "is certainly something we'is thinking about now. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 LEVEL 1 - 3 OF 41 STORIES Proprietary to the United Press International 1985 October 11, 1985, Friday, BC cycle SECTION: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: Minnesota LENGTH: 128 words DATELINE: FAIRMONT, Minn. KEYWORD: Durenberger BODy: Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., said today the capture of the Palestinian sea pirates by the United States shows the Reagan administration Policy toward terrorism is working. Durenberger, the chairman the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the capacity of the United States to work counter terrorism and counter intelligence "Is much stronger than the country's political mistakes." Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 WASHINGTON TIMES 9 October 1985 Probe set by Senate on agent who fled By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Senate Intelligence Commit- tee yesterday launched an investiga- tion into the case of former CIA operative Edward Howard, a sus- pected Soviet agent who disap- peared two weeks ago and is believed to have fled the United States. "The apparent defection of for- mer CIA employee Edward Howard raises serious questions about man- agement, personnel and security procedures at the Central Intelli- gence Agency and the FBI," Intel- ligence Committee chairman Dave Durenberger, Minnesota Republi- can, and vice chairman Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said in a statement. Howard two weeks ago eluded an FBI surveillance net around his house outside Santa Fe, N.M. An arrest warrant was issued by the FBI last Wednesday charging How- ard with passing U.S. defense secrets to a foreign power, believed to be the Soviet Union. Howard reportedly met with offi- cials of the Soviet KGB intelligence service in Vienna last year and is suspected of selling secret CIA operational data to the KGB. The staff inquiry will examine the agency's decision to hire Howard, his assignment and activities in the CIA, his dismissal and his actions from the time he left the agency in June 1983 until his disappearance in New Mexico Sept. 21, the statement said. A committee spokesman said the probe was limited to the Howard case and would not examine another reported case of a former CIA employee suspected of spying for the Soviets. Both Howard and the unidentified former CIA official are believed to have been identified as Soviet agents by former senior KGB official Vitaly Yuchenko, who defected in Rome Aug. 1. The committee leaders said the investigation was ordered under the authority of the Intelligence Com- mittee's oversight function and would not "prejudge" the case or jeopardize the FBI investigation into the suspected espionage activities of the two former CIA operations offi- cers. Intelligence sources said How- ard, who was convicted of aggravated battery last year follow- ing a shooting incident in New Mexico, was fired by the CIA in June 1983 after it was alleged he had used illegal drugs and stolen agency funds. He reportedly turned to the Sovi- ets with details of CIA operations as a means of taking revenge against the CIA and is believed to have helped the Soviets uncover a Mos- cow agent who worked for the CIA. An FBI affidavit said Howard left behind a note in New Mexico that hinted that he planned to turn over CIA secrets to the Soviets during his flight. Officials believe Howard may have fled to Europe or Mexico. Intelligence Committee spokesman Dave Holiday said the investigation would begin immedi- ately and might lead to hearings. He said the inquiry grew out of questions about how Howard was hired by the CIA in the first place. Mr. Holiday also said the commit- tee had completed a staff report on reorganizing the U.S. intelligence community's counterspying cap- abilities and would hold closed hear- ings on the subject this month. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 LEVEL 1 - 5 OF 28 STORIES Proprietary to the United Press International 1985 October 9, 1965, Wednesday, PM cycle SECTION: Washington News LENGTH: 289 words DATELINE: WASHINGTON KEYWORD= Cia BODY: Intelligence committees of the Senate and House, expressing concern about procedures at the CIA and FBI, have begun inquiries about a former agent who may have provided secret Information to the Soviets. The probe was launched following the disappearance of Edward Howard, who was forced to resign from the CIA In 1983, and who recently disappeared. Howard was Identified as a Soviet agent by Vitaly Yurchenko, a senior KGB official who recently defected to the West, reports said. Officials say Howard Proprietary to the United Press International, October 9, 1985 may have fled to the Soviet Union after he was questioned by the FBI last month. A statement issued by Sens. David Durenberger, R-Minn., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman and vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the apparent defection "raises serious questions about management, personnel and security procedures" at the CIA and the FBI. They said the committee was "Initiating an inquiry into the circumstances of the hiring of Mr. Howard, his assignments while an employee of the CIA, his activities while an employee, the reasons for and manner of his separation from the agency, and, In so far as they can be determined, hls actions and those of the appropriate agencies from the time of his separation until his disappearance." "We will listen to anything, anyone in or out of government has to tell us relative to this incident," Durenberger and Leahy said. Rep. Dave McCurdy, D-Okla., chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on oversight and investigation, said earlier this week his panel also was looking into the case. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 (11 SIX3N Si)77 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 The Associated Press, October 8, 1985 SECTION: Washington Dateline LENGTH: 295 words HEADLINE: Senate Panel Probes CIA Security Breach DATELINE: WASHINGTON gEYWORD: CIA-Defector BODY: The Senate Intelligence Committee today launched an inquiry into the CIA's handling of a former employee who allegedly passed information to the Soviet Union. "The committee feels that the apparent defection of former CIA employee Edward Howard raises serious questions about management, personnel and security procedures at the Central Intelligence Agency and the federal Bureau of Investigation," said Sens. David Durenberger, R-Minn., the chairman, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the vice chairman. The Associated Press, October 8, 1985 According to government sources, Howard, 33, was identified by a high-level Soviet defector as having sold sensitive information on U.S. intelligence gathering In the Soviet Union to the KGB. Howard, who was forced to resign from the CIA in 1983 after failing a polygraph exam, is believed to have fled the United States while under FBI surveillance. In a statement released by the intelligence committee, Durenberger and Leahy said the review would focus on: The circumstances of Howard's hiring. His assignments while a CIA employee. The reason and manner of his dismissal from the agency. His actions after leaving the CIA in 1983. "We are not prejudging any aspect of the case and intend to do nothing to Jeopardize or prejudge either the ongoing investigation or any subsequent adjudication that may follow," the two senators said. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 SINN Slre.47 C3N SIN37 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE AMAKD ON PAGE iq - WASHINGTON POST 5 October 1985 Affidavit Says Ex-CIA Agent Met High-Level KGB Officers By Patrick E. Tyler %Minato. Pom Staff Writer Fugitive former CIA officer Ed- ward Lee Howard met with senior Soviet intelligence officers a year ago in Austria and agreed to pro- vide them with classified inform .- tion about sources and methods of U.S. intelligence operatives, ac- cording to an FBI affidavit based on information from a high-level Soviet defector. The affidavit, unsealed yesterday in Albuquerque, said Howard re- ceived an undisclosed amount of money, and it provides the first de- tails about his alleged spying activ- ity. Howard, fired from his Central Intelligence Agency post in the clandestine service in June 1983, is believed to have fled the country Sept. 21, the day after FBI agents confronted him with allegations of spying for the Soviets. He eluded FBI surveillance of his home outside Sante Fe, and an ar- rest warrant charging him with es- pionage was issued Sept. 23. CBS News, quoting unnamed sources, reported last night that, based on information given to the Soviets by Howard,- a "high-lever Soviet official was executed. No time or place was mentioned in the CBS report. CBS said that the executed offi- cial had provided information to U.S. intelligence and that several other persons providing the United States with Soviet intelligence in- EDWARD LEE HOWARD ... believed to have fled the country formation have not been heard from. Neither the CIA nor Sen. David F. Durenberger (R-Minn.), chair- man of the Senate Select Commit- tee on Intelligence, would comment on the CBS report. The Albuquerque affidavit said Howard met with two current CIA employes on Sept. 24, 1984, also in Austria, and told them that he had considered providing information to the Soviets after the CIA fired him. Howard told the CIA officials that, in October 1983, he "spent hours in the vicinity of the Soviet Embassy [in Washington] trying to decide whether to enter the embas- sy and disclose classified informa- tion." He told the two that he de- cided against entering. After meeting with the two, Howard met clandestinely with the high-level KGB officials and made his espionage pact, according to the affidavit. Last July, Howard re- turned to Europe, met again with Soviet intelligence officials and sold additional information, the affidavit said, citing as its authority a con- fidential informant interviewed by the FBI a week ago Thursday. The document also said Howard apparently alluded to espionage ac- tivity in his resignation letter to his boss ?at the Legislative Finance Committee of New Mexico's state Legislature when he wrote: "Well, , I'm going, and maybe I'll give them what they think I already gave them.' Before Howard fled his home in Santa Fe, he left a note for his wife, Mary, instructing her to "sell the house, Jeep, etc. and move [in] with, one of our parents and be happy." He asked his wife to tell their 2- year-old son goodbye, adding, "I think of him and you each day until I die.' The FBI said its affidavit was based largely on "a confidential source with intimate knowledge of Soviet intelligence matters." A Senate intelligence panel spokesman said it is safe to assume that the confidential source is Vitaly Yurchenko, whom U.S. officials have identified as one of the most senior officers of the Soviet Com- mittee for State Security, common- ly referred to as the KGB. Yurchenko defected to the West in early August and is undergoing debriefing by CIA officials at an un- disclosed location near Washington. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 NEW YORK TIMES AR'TICLE APPEAREI ON PAGE i, 4 October 1985 Suspect Is Believed to Have Told Soviet of U.S. Spying in Moscow By STEPHEN ENGELBERG Special to The Nem York Times WASHINGTON, Oct. 3? Edward Howard, a former Central Intelligence ? Agency officer, is believed to have given the Soviet Union significant Se- cret information about the methods the United States uses to gather intelli- gence in Moscow, Congressional ' sources said tonight. The sources said Mr. Howard, who is being sought, had been trained in the secret techniques as he was prepared ? to be sent to Moscow as an operational ? officer for the C.I.A. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said Mr. Howard, who is 33 years old, served in the C.I.A. from January 1981 to June 1983, One official said to- day that he left the agency after failing to pass a routine polygraph, or lie-de- - tector, test and had not served in Mos- cow. The official would not characterize the type of problem found by the poly- graph but indicated that it apparently was not related to espionage. Another official said a test result suggesting es- pionage by an employee would have started a a wide-ranging criminal in- vestigation. Senator Expresses Concern CBS News tonight quoted Senator Dave Durenberger, chairman of the Se- lect Committee on Intelligence, as say- ing that the security breach caused by Mr. Howard could be as "serious as anything this country has seen in the past. Mr. Durenberger said that the I suspect might have provided details of how .he United States got sensitive in- formaiion from the Soviet Union. The intelligence committee has been briefed on the potential damage said to have been caused by Mr. Howard. Offi- cials say he is one of two American in- telligence officers identified as Soviet recruits by a Soviet defector, Vitaly, Yurchenko, a senior member of the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence agency. Government officials said today that the second suspect had been identified in the course of investigating the defec- tor's statements. National Security Role Hinted The officials would not say what agency of the Government had em- ployed the second suspect. although one intelligence source indicated it was the National Security Agency, which deals with this nation's most secret codes and communications. One intelligence source said the sec- ond suspect had access to details about secret United States electronic and satellite surveillance of communica- tions. "Let's just say 'ne was part of the intelligence community," that source said. The C.I.A. refused to say whether it had ever employed the individual in question. Officials have said Mr. Howard fled the country sometime on the weekend of Sept. 21, ehortly after his friends and co-workers had been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Yurchenko is being questioned at an undisclosed location in the United States. Only Americans Under Scrutiny One official said Mr. Howard and the second former intelligence employee were the only Americans under investi- gation as a result of information pro- vided by Mr. Yurchenko, who defected to the West in July while he was in Italy. Officials said Mr. Howard worked in the clandestine service of the C.I.A. He was charged on Sept. 23 with conspir- ing to provide national defense infor- mation to a foreign power. Officials have said Mr. Howard eluded the Federal authorities and fled his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He had been employed by the New Mexico Legislature since 1983 as an economic analyst. An intelligence source said Mr. How- ard, "a disgruntled employee," ap- proached the Russians with an offer to provide secret information. Various of- ficials offered conflicting accounts on whether Mr. Howard began working with Soviet intelligence agents before or after he left the C.I.A. Denial by State Department A Reagan Administration official said Mr. Howard left the agency after he was assigned to a post in Moscow. The State Department, denying pub- lished reports, said today that Mr. Howard had never served in the Amer- ican Embassy in Moscow. The Agencyl for International Development, which, administers foreign aid abroad, hired him as an intern in Washington in Sep- tember 1976. He was later assigned to Peru as an assistant project develop- ment officer and resigned from the agency in March 1979. In mid-August, the Italian press pub- lished brief articles reporting that Mr. Yurchenko had disappeared and that inquiries were being made by the. Soviet Embassy. But it was not until Aug., 30 that the Milan newspaper Cor- riere Della Sera reported that he was a defector. One former C.I.A. officer said it would be unusual to assign an inexperi- enced officer like Mr. Howard to Mos- cow, one of the agency's most demand- ing posts. But he added that that Mr. Howard's supposed role as a member of the State Department might have been more convincing to the Russians because he had not served in jobs usu- ally associated with the Central Intelli- gence Agency. A Congressional source said Mr. Howard he held an "opera- tional" job in the intelligence agency. The former C.I.A. officer said this would mean that Mr. Howard had been responsible for coordinating informa- tion-gathering clandestinely. He would thus have access, the former officer went on, to a limited number of names t of agents as well as the location of other sources of information such as elec- tronic listening posts ? but an agent in an operational job would not know about the networks of agents run by others in similar posts. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 WASHINGTON POST 4 October 1985 Ex-CIA Agent Suspected of Spying Seemed Unexceptional to Associates Young New Mexico Economist Lived Quietly, Conventionally By T.R. Reid Washiseso Past SUN Writer SANTE FE, N.M., Oct.3?To friends and colleagues here, Ed- ward Lee Howard seemed a stan- dard Santa Fe-style yuppie: a re- pected $32,000-a-year economic analyst with the state government ixho commuted in a bright red Jeep to his brown adobe house in a mid- dle-income development south of , tom. Neighbors said he was a dutiful ? husband to his wife, Mary, a dental assistant in Santa Fe, and a devoted father to his 2-year-old son. He enjoyed flying radio-con- trolled model aircraft and target- shooting at a local gun club?hardly remarkable pastimes for a young , professional in the Southwest. "He did good work," said Steven ; Arias, clerk of the New Mexico Legislature, where Howard was employed as a natural-resources economist with the Legislative Fi- nance Committee. He did good work through the afternoon of Sept. 20, when he briefed legislators at a budget-anal- ysis meeting in the state capitol, then slipped quietly away and van- ished. In Washington today, a Senate staff official described Howard as a low-level officer in the CIA's clan- destine service who was fired by -de agency in 1983 for undisclosed reasons and apparently took sen- sitive material with him, perhaps to sell it to Soviet intelligence agents. David Holliday of the Senate Se- lect Committee on Intelligence also said that, based on briefings re- ceived by the panel, he "would not discourage" speculation that high- level Soviet intelligence defector Vitaly Yurchenko had identified Howard as a spy. ? Yurchenko, a former Tanking member of the KGB who defected two months ago, is being debriefed by the Central Intelligence Agency at an undisclosed location near Washington. Holliday said he could not identify what Howard may have taken when he left the agency. But a warrant used here to search Howard's home and car indicated that federal offi- cials were seeking coding materials, transmitting and recording equip- ment, and business cards carrying microdots. A second former CIA employe is reportedly under surveillance as a possible Soviet agent, apparently also based on information from Yur- chenko, a federal official said today in Washington. Two days after. Howard slipped away, a passenger listed as "Ed- ward Howard" took an American Airlines flight from Albuquerque to Dallas. The next morning, Sept. 23, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an arrest warrant for the fugitive analyst but, by then, he was gone. News that this quiet, generally mild-mannered young economist might have been a U.S. agent work- ing for the KGB stunned and elec- trified his coworkers here. Equally surprised, evidently, was Howard's wife. Philip Baca, Howard's boss in the state government, said he came into his office on the night of Sept. 22 and found a letter of resignation from Howard. In it, Howard asked coworkers to clean out his desk and said he hoped "some day to be able to explain this to you and the rest of the staff." Baca said he immediately called Howard's home and reached Mary Howard. He said she expressed as- tonishment that her husband had quit his job and seemed to have no idea of his whereabouts. Federal officials here declined to discuss how long they had been watching Howard and why he was able to leave Santa Fe before an arrest warrant was issued. Coworkers and neighbors said FBI agents were in Santa Fe asking questions about Howard in the days before he fled. They said he must have known this by the day he left work early and disappeared. Federal law enforcement officials say Howard fled Sept._ 21. He was able to escape, a federal official in Washington said, because the FBI maintained a limited surveillance until an arrest warrant was issued. Federal agents have staked out Howard's home and begun 'trailing his wife on her daily commute from home to the orthodontist's office where she works. Howard was born in Alamagordo, N.M., in 1951, son of a career Air Force sergeant. The family moved frequently during his boyhood, and he acquired a proficiency in Spanish and German. After graduating from the Uni- versity of Texas in 1972, he spent most of the next four years with the Peace Corps in South America and the United States. From 1976 to 1979, he worked in Peru for the Agency for International Develop- ment, according to the State De- partment. After earning a master's degree in business administration from American University, he went to work for the CIA, where he was employed from 1981 until spring 1983. Seid Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 iv Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 In June 1983, he moved to Santa Fe. His coworkers said they did not know what prompted the move. He applied for a job as an analyst with the state Legislative Finance Committee, a joint budget-planning body serving both chambers of the legislature. He told his bosses that he had been employed by the State Department but left State because he and his wife did not want to ac- cept an imminent posting to Mos- cow. It is fairly common for CIA co- vert operatives to work under dip- lomatic cover for the State Depart- ment. As an analyst in the Capitol build- ing here, Howard seemed to co- workers to be a solid, serious young man. The only stain on his record here came in February 1984 when he was arrested for brandishing a .44- cal. pistol at three men in down- town Santa Fe. He told police that he had been distraught after a fam- ily argument and had too many drinks at a bar. In a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to an assault charge and was sentenced to probation. As part of the bargain, Howard obtained letters of support from several government officials here and in Washington. All described him as a reliable, serious individual. "He is a dedicated, honest and truthful individual," wrote then- state Sen. Frank Papen, chairman of the committee for which Howard worked. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE ON PAGEiilk WASHINGTON POST 13 September 1985 Windfall Seen for Western encies Soviet Defector Might Expose KGB Identities and Operations By Don Oberdorfer Washington Post Stsff Writer The defection of the chief of So- viet KGB intelligence in Britain could provide valuable assistance to counterspies in the United States and other countries by revealing Soviet techniques and possibly agents in many countries, according to Sen. David r. Durenberger (K- Minn.), chairman of the Senate Se- lect Committee on Intelligence. Durenberger, briefed about 10 days ago on the defection of Oleg A. Gordievski, the KGB chief in the. Soviet Embassy in London, called it "a very good thing" for the West. Deskiite a report from Denmark indicating that Gordievski may have been a double agent since the 1970s, Durenberger said his infor- mation is that the defector has "no past relationship" with western in- telligence. The motive for the defection, ac- cording to the senator, was de- scribed by U.S. officials as the at- traction of "Western values." Gor- dievski "got tired: he couldn't live the facade any more," Durenberger said.- A variety of Western intelligence _gencies, including those ot the United States, may obtain valuable information on KGB operational methods and possibly identities of other espionage agents from the senior defector, according to Du- renberger. ?77?mer Cenatral Intelligence Agency director Stansfield Turner 'called the development "a very nice coup for British intelligence." He added, "It should do a great deal to dampen spying against Great Britain" because of the like- lihood "it could disrupt the whole system" there. "We can assume they [British authorities] have the names of traitors there. Some might be Americans," Turner said. Benefits for the United States from the defection include the pos- sibility that "it could help us under- stand techniques" used in Soviet espionage, especially if the latest sophisticated methods are in use in Britain, he said. It is also possible, he said, that Gordievski could provide informa- tion on "vulnerabilities," including personal weaknesses, of KGB agents with whom he had worked in other countries. But Turner said that, due ta "compartmentalization" of informaZ tion practiced by Soviet and other; intelligence agencies, it is unlikely that Gordievski would have current information on Soviet espionage ac- tivities outside of his field of direct responsibility. ? Even "small pieces of the puzzle" can prove to be valuable when fitted into information already known or suspected, Turner said. Ray Cline, a former CIA deputy director and former head of the State Department Bureau of Intel- ligence and Research, called the de- fection "a great break" for the west and "one of the rare breakdowns in the elaborate Soviet system of in- ternational espionage in democratic countries." "Most people don't realize how valuable it is when we get a defec- tion like this . . . . He can tell you things about how the system works that confirm other data and re- search and analysis" which are done without certain knowledge, Cline said. According to a State Department report issued last January, at least 230 Soviet nationals were expelled in 1981-84 for "inappropriate ac- tivities," mostly spying, from coun- tries around the world. One of the largest expulsions was of 47 Soviet diplomats, journalists and others from France in 1983. But the British seem to have set the record for espionage expulsions in 1971 when 90 Soviet citizens were expelled and 15 others prevented from returning to Britain after de- fection of a KGB official in London. A State Department official said it is unlikely that the new develop- ments will affect "the fall agenda" of East-West arms talks and summit meetings. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE ON PAGE WASHINGTON POST 6 September 1985 2 Senators Briefed on Contra Links By Charles R. Babcock Washington Post Staff Wnter * Leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said yes- terday that national security affairs adviser Robert C. McFarlane as- sured them that members of his staff did not violate a congressional ban by giving military and fund-rais- ing advice to Nicaraguan insur- gents. ov. s. Dvid F. Durenberger (12- Minn.) and Patricc I. Leahy" (D-Vt.), sitter an hour-loni briefing by McFarlanet told President Reagan ha White House staff _? y with the so-called Boland gmegdmegt cutting off Central Intelligence Apncy aid to the insurgents. Contacts between White House officials and the insurgents, known as contras, were limited to "what they felt was a normal moralization effort, if you will, to keep up the spirits of the opposition," Durenber- ger said. This included "encouraging them to take their case to a broader pub- lic, to travel more, to make speeches," he said. But the senators said they will look further into press reports that Lt. Col. Oliver North of the Nation- al Security Council staff also ad- vised insurgent leaders on military tactics and steered contributors to them. A key fund-raiser for the con- tras, retired Army major general John K. Singlaub, has said he fre- quently talked to North about his fundraising efforts. Leahy said he and Durenberger told McFarlane they would consider fund solicitation by an NSC official a violation of the letter and spirit of SY JAMES K.W. ATHERTON?THE WASHINGTON POST Sens. Durenberger and Leahy tell news conference about McFarlane meeting. the congressional ban. McFarlane assured them North had done noth- ing beyond directing callers to the public offices of the contras. "You can say that Bud McFarlane told us the truth as he understands it," Durenberger said. "I can't be 100 percent confident that that's all that really went on. . . . We're con- tinuing an inquiry." 'The senators also said they want to know more about the future re- lationship between the NSC and CIA and the contras now that Con- gress has approved $27 million in humanitarian aid for the troops fighting the Sandinista government 9f Nicaragua. "We're not satisfied we know the ground rules under which the CIA will operate" whenever the ban ends. Durenberger said. "We need to know what are the rules the CIA's going to live by. Are they going to go out there talking to the Singlaubs and so forth, and if so under what circumstances?" he added. "And what is the role of the NSC going to be?" Durenberger said the Senate committee was starting out. "a little more suspicious than maybe we ought to be, but appropriately so because at various places in the ad- ministration, policy has been imple- mented on an individual basis rather than on some kind of institutional basis." Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPMD ON PAGE NEW YORK TIMES 6 September 1985 McFarlane Denies Illegal Ties to Contras By JONATHAN .FUERBRINGER Special to The New Vett Time WASHINGTON, Sept. 5? President Reagan's nationaliecurity adviser told the leaders of the Senate intelligence committee today that no one on the Na- tional Security Council had violated the law by assisting anti-Government rebels in Nicaragua. But the chairman and deputy chair- man of the committee said they still had serious concerns about the coun- cil's involvement and were not fully satisfied with the Administration ex- planation. The two Senators would not say, however, that the Administration had violated the law. The chairman, Senator Dave Dunn. burger, Republican of Minnesota, said he saw no need now for hearings on the matter. The chairman of the House in- telligence committee has scheduled hearings to begin Sept. 17. Senator Durenburger and Senator Patrick J. Leahy. Democrat of Ver- mont and the deputy chairman of the Senate committee, both said Robert C. McFarlane, the national security ad- viser, had agreed with them that any effort to solicit or help raise private funds for the Nicaraguan rebels would violate the so-called Boland amend- ment, which prohibited such activity. 'You Can't Be Satisfied' "So we came away from the meeting feeling that from Bud McFarlane we're geting what he believes to be the situa- tion with regard to his staff," Mr. Durenberger said. "Are we satisfied that this sort of concludes the matter and that no one was in any way inv- loved in directing the effort? No, you can't be satisfied. "You can be satisfied with Bud McFarlane telling you the truth as be perceives it," he added. "But you can't be satisfied that you know all the fac- tors," Administration officials have ac- knowledged that a ranking member of the National Security Canaan, Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North, helped raise pri- vate funds for the rebels and had been involved in some rebel activities dur- ing the time the Boland amendment was in effect. An Administration official who is familiar with Colonel North's activities said in a recent interview that the colo- nel had never on his own solicited money for the rebels. But when people asked him about helping them, as hap- pened often, he would tell then where they might want to go and with whom they should talk. Another official said Colonel North had made many speeches and given briefings on the rebels and would, when asked, tell peo- ple how they could help them. " When asked in a separate interview about an official's giving speeches and uttering advice on how to help the , rebels when asked, Mr. Durenberger ; said that if this was a "pattern" it would be a solicitation and would vio- late the law. "I would be really both- ered by that," he said. But the committee chairmen said that in the hourlong meeting with Mr. McFarlane, the security adviser did not give the impression that Colonel North had followed such a pattern. "An isolated phone call here and there," Mr. Durenberger said, "that's the sort of impression I got from' McFarlane that was going. on." Then he added, referring to ColOpel North and his speeches, "I didn't get the sense that he told McFarlane that's what he was doing." "I'm satisfied that Mr. McFarlane told us what he had been told," Mr. Leahy said. "I am also satisfied that if theTlaw has been broken either in spirit or in fact, it will come out." The chairman of the House intelli- ence committee Representative Lee : ? o)o I 0,.1 I Wednesda that Colonel North t MTISIL471.77:711171E13.-,?? - IP -4 I 7.17: or s travels on Boland amendment's prohibition an the expenditure of funds bran intelli- gene a: ? directl OT ?trala MUM slat). tAti_o. .11 it -..% operations" o the rebels in Nicaragua. Since the first reports of Colonel North's activities, the President and senior Administration officials have said that Colonel North neither broke the laiv nor violated the spirit of the law. ? The Boland amemdment, which was approved last fall, was effective for fis- cal year 1985, which ends Sept. 30. There is some doubt if it is still in effect because Congress has approved and the President has signed a bill for $27 I million of nonmilitary aid to the rebels. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 WASHINGTON TIMES 6 September 1985 ARTICLE APPEARED DNM 7A Senate panel drops NSC Contra role inqufry By Thomas D Brandt ME WASHINGTON TIMES " 'Avo leaders of the Senate Intel- ligence Committee yesterday said trey haven't been told everything about the National Security Coun- cil's involvement in aiding groups seeking to overthrow the Nicara- guan government, but they won't pursue the matter further. Sen. David F. Durenberger, R-Minn., chairman of the panel, said he was convinced after meeting with National SeCurity Advisor Robert C. McFarlane at the White House that he was "telling the truth as he sees it." "Are we satisfied this concludes the matter, that no one was involved in directing this matter? No, we can't be satisfied," Mr. Durenberger said. Mr. Durenberger and Sen. Patrick S. Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Demo- crat on the committee, said they were uncertain if all the facts are known about the role of U. Col. Oli- ver North, who is on the NSC staff, though they plan no further action on the issue. A main accomplishment of the meeting, according to Mr. Leahy, was that they and the White House now "all understand what the ground rules are" on assisting pri- vate groups. The House and Senate intelli- gence committees are responsible for oversight of the CIA and other government agencies involved in intelligence gathering and covert 9ctisns. The allegations against Mr. Nor?fh?were that he violated a law prohibiting any "direct or indirect aid" to the rebels. Mr Durenberger said his panel will begin a review of what guidelines should be applied in the future since Congress has approved $27 million in non-lethal assistance for the rebels and the restrictions in the Boland Amendment will expire Sept. 30. Mr. Durenberger said he expects to hear soon from CIA Director Wil- Win Casey on what the CIA plans to 4-0 in Nicaragua after expiration or the Boland Amtpdment, which applies to U.S. intelligence agencies. The United States should not sup- ply direct tactical assistance or intelligence to the rebels, Mr. Duren- berger said, bet should provide aid only to the unified political arms of the rebel factions. The House intelligence panel plans to review the allegations about Mr. North while the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the West- ern Hemisphere plans a hearing. Yesterday's meeting with the Sen- ate Intelligence Committee leaders was requested by Mr McFarlane, according to the committee, but also came after the lobbying group Com- mon Cause asked the panel to inves- tigate press accounts that Mr. North had helped private groups in the United States raise funds for the reb- els, and also provided them with military advice. An intelligence committee press release quoted Mr. McFarlane as saying that, "No NSC staff member either personally assisted the resis- tance or solicited outside assistance on their behalf. At no time did any- one act as a go-between or focal point for such aid." The next paragraph said, "Never- theless, the senators [Durenberger and Leahy) stated that they continue to have concern about the potential for the NSC to fill the gap when Con- gress had prohibited a different branch of government from a spe- cific activity" ? The press accounts of Mr. North's activities involving private groups raising funds for the rebels, known as "Contras" or counterrevolution- aries, alleged that his activities may have violated the Boland Amendment, which bans "direct or indirect" U.S. support. The amendment, added to the fis- cal 1985 authorization bill for the Ot et' WIRD ? - cies take effect until Oct_i, 1984 and officially expires Sept. 30. "You can certainly ao your best to keep I up) the morale of our friends ? the Nicaraguan opposition ? until we can change the position of the Congress," Mr. Durenberger said in explaining the administration's posi- tion. He added that Col. North "did not deny responding to phone calls (from people who) would call and say, 'I'd like to. . . help these guys out, and he would say, in effect, 'You know who they are, but we can't tell you what to do." This summer, Congress continued a ban on lethal military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels but approved $27 million in nonlethal aid and egreed to permit the CIA to share intelli- gence information with the rebels. Prior to the latest appropriation, the United States provided more than $80 million to the rebels who are operating out of bases in Hondu- ras and Costa Rica. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved forRelease2009/12/11 : CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 September 1985 ALE ONLY NICARAGUA-WHITE HOUSE BY ROBERT PARRY WASHINGTON President Reagan's national security adviser Thursday assured two key senators that White House officials neither gave military advice to Nicaraguan rebels nor solicited private aid after last year's congressional ban on "direct or indirect" U.S. support. Sens. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the panel's vice chairman, said they received that assurance from national security adviser Robert McFarlane during a one-hour meeting. McFarlane was responding to published reports that Lt. Col. Oliver North, a staff aide to Reagan's National Security Council, had helped the Nicaraguan rebels raise money from outside sources and provided some military advice. In a statement, the two senators quoted McFarlane as saying: "No MSC staff member either personally assisted the (Nicaraguan) resistance or solicited outside assistance on their behalf. "At no time did anyone act as a go-between or focal point for such aid," they quoted him as saying. Durenberger and Leahy, however, said the intelligence committee would conduct a review of the issue and voiced "concern about the potential for the NSC to fill the gap when Congress had prohibited a different branch of government from a specific activity." The House Intelligence Committee and a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee are also conducting reviews. The Associated Press reported last June that White House officials, including North, advised private groups that were trying in the spring of 1984 to set up fund-raising efforts to support the rebels fighting to oust Nicaragua's leftist government. Howevera. the strict ban against "direct or indirect" aid to the rebels from the CIA or other U.S. agencies involved in intelligence did not take effect until Oct. 1, 1984 and officially expires on Sept. 30. Other published reports have claimed that North has been involved in some rebel activities and assisted in some private fund raising, but administration officials have consistently denied any violation of the congressional ban. Durenberger and Leahy said McFarlane agreed that the congressional ban would have applied to the NSC staff. But the NSC adviser said Reagan had specifically directed the White House staff to comply with the prohibition, the senators said. "We were assured there was no intent to circumvent restrictions Congress placed on aid to the Nicaraguan resistance," the senators said. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Durenberger added that McFarlane had said that "neither he nor anyone else had in any way initiated the collecting of funds, the collecting of arms or had helped to channel any of these things in any specific direction." But Durenberger said North did maintain contacts with Americans who wished to assist the rebels and with the rebels themselves. "You can certainly do your best to keep (up) the morale of our friends the Nicaraguan opposition-until we can change the position of the Congress," the senator said, explainig the administration's position. Durenberger said North "did not deny responding to phone calls (from people who) would call and say, 'I'd like to ... help these guys out, and he would say, In effect, 'You know who they are, but we can't tell you what to do."' This summer, Congress continued a ban on lethal military aid to the Ilicaraguan rebels but approved $27 million in non-lethal aid and agreed to permit the CIA to share intelligence information with the rebels. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE At:E_+fED ON PAGE WASHINGTON TIMES ? 23 August 1985 U.S. wants no dust on Geneva talks By Dave Doubrava THE NMSMINGTON TIMES The administration said yester- day it hopes the Soviet Union's use of chemical agents against U.S. diplo- matic personnel won't scuttle the November summit meeting or rou- tine U.S.-Soviet bilateral relations. ft denied Soviet charges that the disclosure that the Soviets have used potentially dangerous chemical sub- stances to track American diplo- mats was timed to fuel "a propaganda war before the summit." White House spokesman Larry Speakes, in California with the vaca- tioning president, said the Soviet charges are "not true." "Our first objective is to stop the Soviets from using this chemical _inst U.S. personnel. We expect it will stop," he said. The Soviet Union yesterday called the disclosures "absurd allegations' intended to sabotage upcoming high- level U.S.-Soviet talks. In a protest note to the State Department, published yesterday lh the official Soviet news agency 'Pass, the Soviet Union denied ever using such substances and called the accu- sations "totally unacceptable." The administration stuck by its charges. "Everything we said [Wednesday] is perfectly true," State Department deputy spokesman Charles E. Red- man said. "The evidence is there. Everything we described, hap- pened." The department charged it has evidence a powder was used by the KGB to dust doorknobs and other objects to trace movements and con- tacts of American diplomats and pri- vate citizens based in Moscow. The powder was described as a mutagen. potentially capable of causing cancer, although that has yet to be proven by medical tests. Mr. Redman said that, to his knowledge, no other foreign govern- ments have notified the United States that they have found similar substances used against their per- sonnel. Mr. Redman and White House spokesman Larry Speakes have said that because of the matter's serious- ness, it likely would be raised by President Reagan and Secretary of State George P Shultz when they meet their Soviet counterparts in Washington and Geneva this fall. But Mr. Redman suggested yes- terday that because of the impor- tance of the superpower summit meeting and regular bilateral talks, the chemical tracking case should not be allowed to sour East-West relations. He noted that Agriculture Secre- tary John Block, with White House approval, will leave today for Mos- cow for scheduled talks on grain sales. " We have sought to increase mutu- ally beneficial cooperation with the Soviets in a number of areas," he said. "Those contacts, that ? cooperation, is important. We sim- ply hope the Soviets won't jeopar- dize that cooperation." Mr. Redman faced stiff questioning from reporters on the disclosure's timing. Asked whether he was denying it was intended to counter an expected Soviet propa- ganda blitz before the Nov. 23 sum- mit meeting in Geneva between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Mr. Redman said, "I am, categorically" "The timing of the whole thing was driven by the humanitarian health concern for our personnel in Moscow:' he said. In a formal protest note from the Soviet Embassy in Washington to the State Department, the Soviets said they deny "the absurd inventions that some chemical agents are used on the staff of U.S. agencies in the U.S.S.R." "It is outrageous that the American side has decided it is pos- sible to use such a gross falsehood, which pursues ends far removed from the interests of improving rela- tions," the note said. The note denied that Soviet authorities were using, or had ever used, chemicals to track American diplomats in Moscow. Several key legislators, mean- while. called for retaliation__ either closing the US. Embassy in Moscow or exbeAling Soviet diplomats and intelligence agents from this coun- ta Sen. David Durenberger. R-Minn. chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the U.S. protest an "insufficient expreasian of the seri- ousness with winch the Americap people view this direct and official Soviet attack on our ci ? !ri.s." lfe called for i?Jion of all Soviet citizens " td with ." 3-1. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the administration should immediately implement legislation to reduce the Soviet diplomatic contingent here "even if it means the State Depart- ment has to expel some KGB agents who are masquerading as Russian diplomats." Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., said, "I would go so far as to say if they are going to put chemicals on our people over there, subject them to cancer, that we close the embassy entirely if necessary" He called the action inhuman and barbarous, and said he will raise the issue with Mr. Gorbachev when he and seven other senators visit Mos- cow at the end of the month. Malcolm Toon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, today called Mr. Thurmond's sugges- tion to close the embassy "totally irresponsible." "I think no matter how badly the Soviets misbehave and no matter how much distaste we have for their leadership... we've got to maintain a relationship with Moscow," Mr. lbon said in an interview on the NBC "lbday" show. Rep. Dave McCurdy, D-Okla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee's subcommittee on over- sight, said, "This is one more exam- ple of Soviet paranoia and harassment of American diplomats. It is time for the United States to re-evaluate its attitude toward Soviet citizens in the United States." Conunued Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Rep. James A. Courter. R-N.J., asked the president yesterday to order Mr. Shultz to stop hiring Soviet citizens to work in U.S. diplomatic posts in the Soviet Union. "Protection of our personnel is impossible to achieve ... when we employ over 200 Soviet citizens as service and maintenance employees in our Moscow embassy and the Len- ingrad consulate," Mr. Courter said in a letter to the president. The congressman noted that an amendment to the State Department authorization bill he sponsored would have barred hiring of Soviet citizens in such jobs. The amendment passed the House, but was dropped from the bill in a con- ference committee. "I respectfully suggest that you direct the Secretary of State to stop the employment of Soviets in our diplomatic posts within one year." Mr Courter told the president. "This may not solve the entire problem, but it is clearly impossible to solve it without taking this necessary step." The State Department had no comment on the calls for action against the Soviets. 2. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 A7771.; C4PPEAIE1j NEW YORK TIMES 23 August 1985 ON PAGE otik 71 U.S. Asserts Its Protest Is Not Aimed At Talks By STEPHEN ENGELEERG WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 ? The United States said today that its protest over the &mist Union's purported use of a possibly hanudous chemical to deck the movements of Americans lb Moscow was not intended to "gab?. tap" the summit meeting scheduled in November between Presided Reagan aitumallkhail S. Gorbachrv. they made the accusation on WednonleY, United States officials said there is a poesibility that the chemical could came cancer. The sub- stenos is nitripbenyipentadienal, a lit- tle-Mown substance also referred to as NPPD. Roman Administration officials as- serted today that the accusation about the yellow powder was not deliberately timed to coincide with the ace. mast this week of American plans to test an anti-satellite weapon. The Soviet Union, according to the Soviet pr agency Tess, handed the State Department a protest that dis- missed the charges se a ploy to further undermine United States-Soviet Tele- thons. Pire lined to Proceed' Charles Redman, a State Depart- ment spokesman. said "there is abso- lutely no United States attempt in any way to sabotage prospects for the Geneva meeting." "We intend to proceed with that meeting," be said. "We intend to ad- dress the serious and far-nsaching Issues that exist between us and the Soviet Union." The Soviet Union denied that it had used chemical agents on the staff of American agencies in the Soviet Union. It said the charge had been made as parrot a plan for "poisoning the &anom- ie Mations between our coun- State Department official United States would be moa- t? assure that use of the powder been discontinued. The official said t was unclear Mather the substance d been used in Leningrad as well as cecow. He said American diplomats both cities had bean briefed on its ble dangers. ? ,Spedal to The NeurYat nose 'Orehestriabir Is railed A State Department official who re- the accusations today said there link between the dming of the announomments this weet things were proceeding along different tracks at the same "be said. "There's a sensitivity t the Admitdstration is putting as boxing gloves when that isn't the Were not really capable of fa- des something like this." The media of statements. on Soviet began Monday in a speech by C. McFarlane, the President's security adviser, to civic In Santa Barbara, Calif. He the Soviet Union's argonaut, arms control a "masterpiece of " and said warmer relationa not be possible without major In Moscow's policies. The next day, the United States said would proceed with the first Amer. teat of an end-satellite weapon an 'object in space, a move to ch the Soviet Union objects. - Pretest ea Powder 1?? Wednesday, the Reagan Adminis- said it was protesting the use of "In strongest terms." and described the substance as one that hs been found to cause genetic change and that therefore might be capable $ causing cancer. Today Mr. Redman reasserted th charge that the Russians have bee using the substance, saying: "The ev dance is there. We have absolutely n doubts in our minds that what we hay described as happening has been hat pining." But he said that "mutually benefi cial" cooperation between the United States and Soviet Union was continuing and noted that John Block, the Agricul- ture Secretary, will leave Friday for a one-week trip to the Soviet Union. A spokesman for Mr. Block said the trip will involve talks about grain sales. Malcolm Toon, the American Am- bassador to the Soviet Union from 1976 to 1979, said today that during his ten- ure he had not been told of the use of the powder. Senator David Durenberger, a Minnesota Republican who is chair- man of the Senate Intethgence Com- mittee, said Wednesday that the United States has !mown of the powder since leni but bed only recently learned of the possible health hazards from It. Mr. Toon said that American offi- cials had promised while he was Am- baseador that, he would be notified if there were any change in the "environ- ment" surroundinn the embassy. , During his tenure, he said, the Soviet Union bathed the American Embassy in microwaves in an apparent attempt to eavesdrop on carnirsations. "I felt strongly that as Ambessador, I had to know everything that was going on," he said. "If this was going on and they didn't tell me, then I'm pretty mad about it." A former official of the Central Intel- ligence Agency, George Carver, said that the Russians' use of the powder could have helped them track meetings of Americans with dissidents or agents. But be said that in the late 1970's, the powder was considered of less concern than the microwave radiation. "When a guy's beating you over the bead with a shovel, you haven't got time to worry about being stuck with a needle," he said. Dissidents Cited Mr. Carver said the use of the pow- der could have reduced the number of people the Russians needed to maintain surveillance over American personnel in Russia. "We have a lot of evidence of har- rassing of dissidents," he said, adding that "It could well be some of them were packed off because of evidence they had engaged in meetings with Americans they had been told to stay away from." Lite this afternoon. the American Foreign Service Association, the labor union that represents career Foreign Service employees in the State Depart- ment and the Agency for International Development, sent a letter to the State Department asking that the hardship pay for those serving in Moscow and Leningrad be raised to the highest level available. Diplomats in Leningrad and Moscow presently receive a hardship-pay sup- plenient equivalent to 20 percent of their normal pay. The supplement can be be as high as 25 percent. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPEAREQA INIR ON PAGE ___ NEW YORK TIMES 22 August 1985 11.31 ASSERTS SOVIET rrnsst1172:1""ng"07ttuaeby ?Mcialitixi=latt 4711:82 been discovered. will' an alarm wee IS USING CHEMICAL; tbel ai s dale na:ri2:2411:11:11: IP174( TO MONITOR ALIENS Sy SHIRLEY CHRISTIAN Spiabal le The Ns, Yost Than WASHINGTON, AI., 21 ? The United States accused the Soviet vow today of Aping a myeterises powdery substance as an aid In traddng the movements of Americans mad possibly other foreigners in Maaarat. ? "We have prodded the practice in stringed term and dummied that it be terminated isoneedately." a State Officials said the United Rates was more concerned about a possible health risk from the substance than about plows@ questions. hdermaden Is U.S. Is Classified - A State Department spokes...Charies Redman, raised the possibthty that the chemical inlet have the potential to cause cancer. He said one agent, apparently developed by the Russians for traddng purposes. was ? mutagen known as nitropineyipsnta- dismal. A mutagen is ? substance that is known to cause genetic damage. !RA The chemical is so little known that X does not appear in standard chemical reference books. Interviews with chemists disclosed that nearly every- thing !mown about the substance in the United States was secret. [Nip AS.] In Moscow, the 300 American neap dents were informed about the situa- tion in unusual briefings at the red- dance of the United States Am dor. were tolirffat plairder was the Soviet internal security aping, aq keep track of the movements of for. Avers. [Page Al.] U.S. Dow of Pelidw Sim U/74 berVallig2118altWall.the chairmen of the Intentional Connnit- tin sadluaimuammoLmw=the Rued= tracked either by 11,t tamales off their dodos or by lthithet them sank* traviolet light, making them He said des United &Ms bed known of the powder MKS 19711 bid did int know of its potentiel health dangers until recently. "When we had the scientific concha- aims in hand." he said. "We had to tell the embassy staff." ousiy examined since the United States Embassy had been aware or them fir several years. Officials said it was "entirely possi- ble" that President Reagan would raise the issue when hs meets with MI- khail S. Gorbachev in Geneva on Nov. I 19-30. 1 In Santa Barbara. Calif., the White House spokesman, Larry Speakes, ! "We will certainly discuss, in various -,forums. the serious dangers to therein-' vtionship caused by the actions of the *Soviet military and security services, 'which seem to act as if they were under no control by the political authorities." ' He said President Reagan was In. ,formed of the situation on Monday and .bad directed the American response. ? The American accusation is the la- ? test in a series of pointed gestures to. ward the Soviet Union this week. On f Monday, the White House said the Soviet Union was hampering arms con- Iral talks, and the following day, the United States announced that it would proceed with a test of an anti-satellite weapon against an object in space. Not Necessarily a Carcinogen . In the State Department, Mr Red- . man, in discussing the possibility that, . the chemical tracking agent could ,cause cancer, said "mutagens can be, abut are not always, carcinogens in human beings." He added that the United States had no proof that the substance is absorbed into the blood. Extensive testing will be necessary, he said, to determine ? whether it poses a cancer threat or any other kind of health hazard. He said no one had fallen ill as a result of expo- 'sure, which he described as very low A special task force under the Na- tional Institutes of Health and the Envi- , romnental Protection Agency will go to 'Moscow and conduct an investigation. 'Mr. Redman said. ? Use of Substance Described ? An Administration official who de- clined to be identified said the sub- stance was believed to have been de- posited in places that embassy person- nel frequently touch. "on your car seat, steering wheel, door knobs, literally ? anywhere." "The embassy employee comes in contact with it," he coatinued. "It is a very persistent agent so that it does not disappear from him wherever he hap- -pens to have touched it He then, in theory, transfers this substance to any- thing he may come in contact with." The official would not say how the Russians traced the deposits left by the substances, saying that he could not talk about the "operational aspect." "We have known of the general use or existence of such sorts of chemical _tracking agencies since the 1970's," he said. "Their use, however, was very . sporadic, infrequent, to the best that we could determine. In fact, we be- lieved that the Soviets had terminated ? using such agents, even in these limited amounts that we had detected, in 1982. We simply did not detect any use be- tween I92 and the resurgence of more widespread appearances in the spring and summer of this year." Potential Harm Found is 111114 Last year, a laboratory test known as the Ames Test found that the substance might be harmful, he said,, and this spring and summer the United States found evidence that its use was more widespread than previously thought. He said the United States regularly "runs all kinds of tests for various kinds of activities which may be mounted against us." The United States has found during various periods since 1978 that the Soviet Union has beamed microwave signals at the American Embassy in Moscow Officials said it was for the purpose of activating bugging devices inside the nine-story building or to in- terfere with the United States' own sur- veillance devices on the roof. The last such use of microwaves was reported in late 1983 by Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman. The official who discussed the track- ing substance said a study on micro- waves conducted at Johns Hopkins Uni- versity in the 1970's had concluded that the "level of signals did not ?resent a health hazard." He said the State De- partment believed the microwaves were no longer being used. The official said the United States did not use tracking substances to monitor the movements of foreigners, but he did not rule out the use of nonchemical agents to track criminal activities. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPEARED ON PAGE Soviets Said To Imperil Diplomats 'Potentially Harmful' Tracking Chemical Used, U.S. Charges By Don Oberdorfer Washington Post Staff Wnter The United States charged yes- terday that Soviet secret police have employed "potentially harm- ful" chemical dust to track the movements and contacts of U.S. diplomats in Moscow and Lenin- grad, and demanded that the prac- tice be stopped. The surprise disclosure, in White House and State Department news briefings and U.S. Embassy ses- sions in Moscow for diplomats. their families and other Americans who might have been exposed, brought to the fore a new, bizarre and emotion-laden problem in U.S.- Soviet relations just three months before the scheduled summit meet- ing of President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Official sources said the chemical dust?said to be odorless, colorless and with no visible residue when properly sprayed?was placed on steering wheels of diplomatic cars and other places where U.S. atta- ches would come into contact with it. The diplomats unknowingly would then leave tiny amounts of the long-lasting chemical on the hands, clothing or possessions of Soviet citizens with whom they met?telltale traces that could be identified by the KGB, or secret police. A few reports of use of such "tracking chemicals"?fewer than 10 in a decade?are said to have been in the files of the U.S. Enibas- sy in Moscow before 1982, when their use was believed to have been stopped. No announcement of these "very sporadic" incidents was made, officials said. WASHINGTON POST 22 August 1985 Two new elements brought the problem to high level of concern, according to State Department ac- counts. One was the result of a biological screening test applied in a U.S. lab- oratory for the first time last year to samples of the obscure com- pound. The Ames test, named for a professor at the University of Cal- ifornia at Berkeley, determined that the most extensively used tradcing chemical, which the State Depart- ment Wcntified as NPPD, produced mutations in genes. Substances that cause such mutations can, but do , not always, cause cancers, the de- partment said. Additional "extensive testing will be necessary to determine whether NPPD and other compounds used by the Soviets pose a threat to health, as well as to determine the extent of the embassy community's exposure to these chemicals," the department's announcement said. "Any danger is far from proved," Dr. Charles Brodine of the State Department told Americans in Mos- cow at an embassy briefing last night, according to Washington Post correspondent Celestine Boh- len. Brodine added that initial tests. "all argue that the level of risk is fairly low." The other new element was in- formation that Soviet use of the tracking chemicals had resumed this spring and summer on a "much more widespread basis," a depart- ment official said. Official sources said an incident in which an appar- ent "overdose" of the chemical left a highly visible powder, which was noticed by a U.S. aide, alerted of- ficials to the extensiveness of the problem. Tracking chemicals were also used once by the Soviets in the United States, said a State Depart- ment official, who would give no details. Following heavy press question- ing about the timing of the an- nouncement, the third U.S. state- ment this week likely to bring a harsh reaction from Moscow, a State Department official said that "only in the last several weeks" had the internal investigation produced "conclusive" results about use of the tracking chemicals. A U.S. plan for diplomatic action, for approval in a detailed paper Monday, officials said. The department said the United States "protested the practice in the strongest terms" in diplomatic exchanges with the Soviet Union here Monday and in Moscow early Tuesday, "and demanded that it be terminated immediately." There was no immediate com- ment from the Soviet Union, whose press organs continued to give heavy play to attacks on the White House announcement Tuesday of an impending U.S. antisatellite test against a target in space. In Santa Barbara, Calif., White House spokesman Larry Speakes said it is "entirely possible' that Reagan will raise the chemical-dust issue when he meets with Gorba- chev in Geneva Nov. 19 and 20. "We will certainly discuss in var- ious quarters the serious danger to the [U.S.-Soviet] relationship caused by the actions of the Soviet military and security services, which seem to act as if they are under no control by the political authorities," Speakes said. It is "entirely possible" that tracking chemicals were used against U.S. diplomats without the knowledge of Soviet political lead- ers, Speakes said. He added, though, that "whatever the KGB has done, certainly the political leadership is responsible for the conduct of their security services." Members of Congress who were reached for comment called for strong U.S. action. The chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sens. David F. Duren- berger (R-Minn.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), called in separate statements for expulsion of KGB agents under diplomatic cover from the United States. Durenberger, who described himself as "still mad" 24 hours after being informed of the U.S. charges, said he had rec- ommended that all KGB agents or suspected agents be expelled within 48 hours. internal briefings and public an- Staff writers David Hoffman and nouncements was drawn up Friday Joanne Omang contributed to this and presented to President Reagan report. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPEARED . ON PAGE U.S. klieges KGB lice of By.Grery SWAN ? Nearer Ilkohilinen Nam WASKINGTON ? The KGB haser years used a chemical tracking agent to monitor the movements of U.S., diplomats in the Soviet Mos, ADA the . cliendad has the prnaldpl caul* lanais mutation and Foible cum the State Department said yesterday. State Department spokesman Char have. con which he said might have been picked up from doorknobs. slenring wheels or seats dusted with the sub- stance. Soviet intelligence agents could learn who had had contact with U.S. Embassy employees by testing people for traces of the chemical, which could be nmed along in a hand- shake, said another State Depart- ment spokesman, who asked not to be identified. Over the last several years, U.S. agents have occasionally detected the tracking chemical, known as ni- tro phenyl pentadiene aldehyde, or NPPD, but its use greatly increased this spring and summer, according to the spokesman. He said recent biological tests showed that NPPD is a ?mutagen, which means it can in- crease the occurrence of mutation in offspring. Some mutagens cause can- cer in humans. "The United States deplores the Soviet Union's use of chemical sub- stances against its diplomatic repre- sentatives in the U.S.S.R.," Redman told reporters. "We have protested the practice in the strongest terms and demanded that its Use be termi- nated immediately." In California, where President Rea- gan is on vacation. Whits House spokesman Larry Speaks@ said yester- day that Reagan might raise the is- sue at his summit meeting with So- viet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in November, or at a preliminary meet- ing with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze in Septem- ber. ? PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER 22 August 1985 ? Spokes added that while it is poM- ble that the KGB conducted in. chemical surveillance without the knowledge of Kremlin leaders, 'whatever the 1CGD nes donecer- tainly the political leadership of the Soviet Union is responsible for the conduct of its security services." Speaxes denied that yeeterders disclosure was calculated to under- United States as the t su- perpower portray at the Geneva arms talks. The chairman of the Senate intelli- gence committee, Sen. David Duren- "41suspewctehovilanninet that an saws lied from the II and he- ? men dignity or our aipiomatic ? fteresadvIsc 118 MK In a pro. Ttrowriturmond (R.. the Senate's president pro tea and chairman of the Judiciary Commit- tee, said the U.S. Embeasy in Moscow should be shut down if necessary. "I would go so far as to say if they are going to put chemicals on our people over there, subject them to cancer, that we close the embassy entirely, if necessary," Thurmond said. "It's inhuman, it's barbarous, it's unreal and in my opinion a step Americans cannot accept under any circumstances." The controversy injected a sudden note of drama yesterday into the relatively placid summer existence of the American community in Moe- _ cow. In the course of the day, every embassy staffer as well as all Amen- can correspondents and business representatives in the Soviet capital were contacted and told to come with their spouses to Speso House, the ambassadorial residence, for what turned out to be briefings on the potential hazard Of NPPD. ? While stressing that nothing defin- itive could be said until further study is done, the officials conduct- ing the briefings sought to minimize ? the health risk. Even if carcinogenic, they said, the substance was being used in relatively small amounts and appeared to break down into some- thing less harmful when absorbed through the skin. ? "There is certainly no immediate cause for alarm." Richard E. Combs Jr., the American charge d'affaires In Moscow, said at the briefing for non-embassy personneL - `One correspondent's wife asked whether the risk was such that she should consider leaving Moscow with her young child. Dr. Charles Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA Brodine, an official with the State Department's Office of Medical Serv- ices, told her that "based on what I know, if I were living in Moscow right now and I had a wife and chil- dren, I would not have great con- cern." Combs said the embassy did not know at this point how widely NPPD had been used and whether news correspondents, who also attract con siderable KGB attention, also were targets. He said a task force of specialists from the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Pro- tection Agency is due to arrive in Moscow in about 10 days to do de- tailed research into the matter. The only advice Combs or Brodine had for those who might have con- tact with NPPD was to wash with alcohol as well as soap. Combs said the State Department had known about Soviet use of NPPD for years but became increasingly concerned in recent months that the substance was being used far more widely than before. But he acknowledged that he first learned of the problem in a late- night phone call last weekend. Bro- dine said that he, too, only learned of NPPD over the weekend.and that he needed a twoday crash course to prepare for the briefings. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the chemical had been detected in Moscow, Leningrad and once in the United States at a location he did not disclose. He said the chemical was formulated specifi- cally for surveillance, and had no other known purpose. Rep. Daniel A. Mica (D., Fla.), a member of the HOUSE intelligence committee, said yesterday that the committee was briefed last year on a 'chemical with properties similiar to those attributed to NPPD. He said that chemical was visible under in- frared light and would not wash off in normal bathing- Redman said some of the U.S. test- ing, in which animals will be ex- posed to the chemical, could take years to complete. This is not the first time the United States has protested Soviet surveil- lance of its personnel in Moscow. In 1983 the U.S. government said the Soviets were beaming low-level mi- crowave signals at the embassy that, according to press accounts, could Interfere or intercept embassy com- munications. The transmissions stopped after the protest, and a Johns Hopkins University medical study concluded that the signals were not harmful. Inquirer staff writer Donald Kini;a- man in Moscow contributed to this ? -? -RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPEARED 011"!1F. LOS ANGELES TIMES 22 August 1985 Soviets Accused of Chemical Spying U.S. Says Potentially Dangerous Dust Is Used to Determine Envoys' Contacts By NORMAN 10EMPSTER, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON?The U.S. government accused the Soviet secret police Wednesday of planting a potentially cancer-causing chemical dust on American diplomats in Moscow to help track their movements and discover their contacts among Soviet citizens. State Department spokesman The prime targets for the chant- Charles Redman said the United cal espionage apparently are Soviet States "protested the practice in dissidents and other who meet the strongest terms" to Soviet clandestinely with US. diplomats. authorities, describing it as a bla- The Soviet secret police, known as tent violation of diplomatic practice the KGB, presumably could consid- and a potential danger to the health er the presence of the chernic,a1 on of US. personnel. the person or property of a Soviet In Santa Barbara, White House citizen to be evidence of a secret spokesman Larry Speakes said that contact with a U.S. diplomat. Those "it's entirely possible" President found to bear traces of the chemi- Reagan will raise the issue when he cal, which experts said could be meets Soviet leader Mikhail S. fluorescent, could then be interro- Gorbachev in Geneva in Novem- gated. bet. But Speakes said the meeting should not be disrupted as a result of the incidents. Nevertheless, the dispute cer- tainly will chill the atmosphere of the meeting, the first between a U.S. President and a Soviet Com- munist Party general secretary since President Jimmy Carter met President Leonid I. Brezhnev in Vienna in 1979. Speakes said that Reagan was informed of the inci- dents Monday. laeroaoad Usage The Soviets have used chemical tracking techniques at least since the mid-1970s in Moscow and else- where, including at least one inci- dent in the United States, a State Department official said. He said Washington decided to protest the practice now, instead of 10 years ago, because the use of the chemi- cal was increased sharply this spring. ? U.S. officials said they first learned of the potential health risks of the chemical, identified as nitro- phenylpentadiene. or NPPD, with- in the last few weeks. Dissidoata Clatekoll The State Department would not say how suspects are chosen to be examined for traces of the chemi- cal. However, observers here said all dissidents taken into custody for whatever reason might be routine- ly checked for its presence. The State Department official said that the chemical is dusted on doorknobs, auto steering wheels and other places U.S. diplomats are likely to touch. Once a person is contaminated with the chemical, it is difficult to remove completely, he added, and KGB chemical tests can detect very small amounts of the substance. The official said Washington "assumes" that the chemical also has been used against private American citizens, including jour- nalists, and against other Western diplomats. However, proof has Coatieu been obta - ? use against U.S. Em ? He sal. concern implicat. about th he made it clear that Washington decided to go - only after learning of the aspects. Presumably, the States kept quiet at first to letting the KGB know what ited States knew about the hnique. The off speculate on why t chemi- cal's use c d Gorbach- ev's selection as top Soviet leader and added that the timing of Wednesday's announcement was not related to the November sum- mit. Not a Co States is e political racking and lth risks. But * La Spe " ed that the U. neuncenient was not part of eal*Wfalijohz counterat- tack againstEl-soiriet prepaganda, blitz before the summit. The usual relaxation of tensions that precedes summits had been notably missing even before the chemical dusting case broke be- cause of a dispute over testing of anti-satellite and nuclear weapons. The Soviets called for a moratori - urn on testing but the Reagan Administration refused, arguing that the Soviets were ahead in both areas. The United States an- nounced new anti-satellite and nu- clear tests this week. Speakes also said that Wednes- day's announcement was not timed to detract from the announcement of the coming anti-satellite weapon test. "No connection whatsoever." he declared. "You're reading more into it than exists. We simply, once we got the facts in hand, felt that it was important that we proceed with protecting our personnel and fsoifold Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 informing them of the exposure." Redman said that NPPD "has been determined through biologi- cal testing" to cause mutations, or genetic changes. Chemicals that cause mutations in any organism often?but not always?cause can- cer in humans. Redman said exten- sive tests, possibly lasting years, would be necessary to determine if the chemical is a carcinogen. Could Cause Cancer The State Department official said that NPPD is a "designer" chemical produced by the KGB especially for its use as a tracking agent. He added that there were no available testing data until U.S. scientists duplicated the agent to provide enough of it to be tested. In Moscow, on Wednesday a State Department doctor briefed American Embassy staff members and U.S. citizens on the potential hazards of the chemical. Although Congress is in recess, key lawmakers reacted angrily to the Soviet activity. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), the Senate's senior Republican member. said: "I would go so far as to say if they are going to put chemicals on our people over there, subject them to cancer, that we close the embassy entirely if nec- essary. It's inhuman, it's barbarous, it's unreal." Soviet Expulsions Urged And Sen. David Durenberger ( R- Minn. ), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged ex- pulsion from the United States of all Soviet citizens "affiliated with intelligence." "It is a step too far in the point-counterpoint between intel- ligence and counterintelligence ac- tivity," Durenberger said. "It re- flects a cynical disregard of acceptable civilized behavior." Sen. Patrick Leahy ( D- Vt. ), the Intelligence Committee's vice chairman, called the Soviet use of the chemical "outrageous and to- tally unacceptable." He urged the State Department to retaliate by "expelling some KGB agents who are masquerading as Russian diplo- mats." Soviet 'Spy Dust' Called a Simple Compound From a Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON?The Soviet "spy dust" used to track American diplomats may sound like material from a James Bond movie, but the compound identified as nitrophen- ylpentadiene, or NPPD, actually is so simple that "you could have undergraduates prepare it in a high school lab," one national expert on such substances said Wednesday. Nicholas J. Turro, an organic photochemist at Columbia Univer- sity in New York City, said the chemical is a straightforward vari- ant of retenal, an organic chemical involved in human vision, with a chain of five carbon atoms attached to one end. The substance is very likely fluorescent, Turro said, and it almost certainly is a solid at room temperature. The carbon atoms also probably make the chemical stick to fat molecules in the skin, said Turro and Robert Michaels, a scientist with the Natural Resources De- fense Council in New York. "The same proteins that latch on to retenal to make it important in vision could react with this. . . to make it stick to you," Turro said. "You could put it on the bottom of someone's shoe, and as they walk around they'd leave a little bit of it. It's like Hansel and Gretel, but instead of throwing around bread crumbs. you throw around this chemical." Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 .'EARED AN PAGE WASHINGTON TIMES .8 August 1985 CIA and oversight groups reaching amicable terms The third in an occasional series on con- gressional oversight of intelligence activities. By Bill Gertz THE VASHINGTON TIMES Cooperation has improved between con- gressional oversight committees and the Central Intelligence Agency after a period of "tenuous relations" with CIA Director Wil- liam Casey over the issue of covert CIA sup- port for Nicaraguan resistance forces. Following press disclosures in the spring of 1982 about CIA-supported operations, the House of Representatives passed legislation prohibiting support for anyone trying to over- throw the Sandinista regime. Later disclo- sures caused congressional support for the operations to evaporate. Then, earlier this year Congress approved a $27 million non-military aid package, but the CIA and Pentagon were barred from dis- tributing the funds to the rebels. Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelli- gence, said the Nicaragua episode from roughly 1981 to 1984 disrupted a long period of improved relations between Congress and the CIA. Beginning in 1981, trust between the Senate oversight committee and the CIA soured after the disclosures about Nicara- guan covert operations. "That period of time was unfortunately characterized by the sort of tenuous relation- ship between the DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] and the Congress of the United States," Mr Durenberger said in an interview in his Senate office. He said the problem was that "Bill [Casey] was charged with running an overt, covert action and there was no way he could make a success of it." "He treated us like we didn't know what were doing and we treated him like he didn't know what he was doing ? it was not very good oversight," he added. Sen. Durenberger characterized Senate oversight of the CIA during the early 1980s as "bring us your findings, covert action, your budget and when you get in hot water we're gonna have you in here and beat up on you," he said during a recent interview in his Senate office. Since then, Mr. Casey and Sen. Durenber- ger have come to terms. After a series of conversations "about [Mr. Casey's] attitude, more than anything else, toward the process" of oversight, the Senate committee chairman feels a renewed "trust relationship" has been established. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., Sen. Durenber- ger's counterpart on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also agrees relations have improved since the public rev- elations of the Nicaraguan operations which he described as atypical of oversight. Mr. Hamilton said the CIA failed to inform the House committee of "a number of things," but did not charge the agency with "bad faith" or of trying to deceive the panel because its members have a responsibility to "ask the right questions." "If we don't ask the right questions, we don't get the right answers," he said. He also believes the problem surrounding poor relations with the CIA over the Nicara- guan case was "attitudinal." "The thing that frustrated the Nicaraguan problem so greatly was that we kept getting information from the media that we had not had from the Central Intelligence Agency" Rep. Hamilton said, recalling the rocky period of 1983 and 1984. After checking news reports with the CIA, the agency would confirm details of the leaks to the House committee, he said. "So," Rep. Hamilton said, "there developed a pattern of distrust, or a lack of confidence that they were in fact reporting to us all sig- nificant intelligence information." The CIA's role in supporting rebels who planted mines in Nicaraguan harbors was a case in point, he said. Under current US. law, the CIA is required to inform the two intelligence committees about all significant intelligence activity. Problems in the Nicaraguan affair arose over what was considered significant. "Does the mining of a harbor constitute a significant intelligence activity? Does the publication of a manual which runs contrary to American policy constitute it? It does in my view ? maybe it doesn't in somebody else's," Mr. Hamilton said. Sen. Durenberger also mentioned the min- ing of the Nicaragua's harbors as one problem that caused partisan divisions on the nor- mally non-partisan committee. "There are no politics on this committee, except when nobody is told we are going to mine harbors," the senator said. "Then its every senator for himself." The key to effective oversight is to develop a confident relationship between the CIA and Congress on the flow of information between the two entities, Mr. Hamilton said. Congress, for its part needs to back off the idea that everything the CIA does is "nefarious," while tY the agency must overcome its reluctance to report to Congress unless arms are twisted, he contended. Rep. Hamilton dispelled the notion that Mr. Casey created a "personality problem" blocking effective congressional oversight, as other congressmen have charged. "I personally have a good relationship with Bill Casey and I think he has tried to keep the committee and me well informed:' Mr. Ham- ilton said. Herb Romerstein, a House Intelligence Committee staff member during the contro- versy over Nicaraguan covert aid, said the leaks about Nicaragua resulted in "consider- able bad blood" between congressional over- sight staff members and CIA officers. One example is provided by Mr. Romerstein in a forthcoming paper on intelli- gence oversight. He writes that in 1983 the New York Times, quoting an unnamed Demo- crat on the House Intelligence Committee, falsely reported the CIA planned to march on the Nicaraguan capital and overthrow the Sandinista regime. The plot was allegedly revealed by Mr. Casey in a secret briefing. The Times reporter corrected the story a day later saying the revelation did not come out of a briefing, but was mentioned by Mr. Casey as he left a briefing. "This version was also false," Mr Romer- stein states. "This writer left the room behind Mr Casey and no such conversation took place," he writes in the forthcoming book "Intelligence Requirements for the 1980s: Intelligence and Policy" Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPS,/,RZD ON PAGE WASHINGTON TIMES 30 July 1985 Hill oversight of intelligence shifts focus to effectiveness This article is the second in an occasional series on intelligence oversight. By Bill Gertz IMMIMINGTON TIMES In 1978, a team of intelligence experts with the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board com- peted with the CIA in analyzing Soviet strategic capabilities. They came to the startling conclusion that the CIA had been underestimating Soviet nuclear capabilities for a dec- ade. Angelo Codevilla, an intelligence expert with the Senate Select Com- mittee on Intelligence until this year, said the committee's 1978 report on the competitive analysis, produced by the Subcommittee on Collection, Production and Quality, marked the beginning of a new period of con- gressional oversight. He believes the findings of this so-called "A Tharn-B learn" report were an important first step in reorienting the congressional over- sight process. Instead of attempting to uncover alleged abuses or place restrictions on intelligence- gathering activities, the oversight committees began to examine the quality of U.S. intelligence. Mr. Codevilla said in a recent interview that the findings of the president's "B-learn" showed that intelligence quality must be checked. He compared the question- ing of CIA estimates by outside experts with the congressional efforts to curb alleged abuses of the CIA in the mid-1970s. "The greatest abuse that could ever have been perpetrated on the American people is to have them wake up 10 years after an event that profoundly affects their likelihood of staying alive and find that they missed it," Mr. Codevilla said of the B-Tham findings of Soviet strategic capabilities. Mr. Codevilla and other present and former intelligence oversight experts remain divided on how best to improve U.S. intelligence cap- abilities. But interviews with congres- sional intelligence experts reveal that a fundamental shift in emphasis has taken place in the last 10 years that has led to modest improvements in American intelligence cap- abilities. Where congressional committees once sought to "legislate virtue" ? as one former intelligence official described oversight ? today's intel- ligence committee chairmen have begun to concentrate on improving the effectiveness of intelligence col- lection and anlaysis. In other words, instead of placing curbs on intelli- gence agencies, Congress today is more concerned with cost effective- ness. Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., believes the solution to getting the taxpayers' money's worth out of the untold billions of dollars spent each year on intelligence is to establish a long-range strategy for the intelli- gFice community A member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence since 1979, Sen. Durenberger was appointed chairman earlier this year. He does not agree with the pre- vailing philosophy of past years, which he characterized by the sim- ple formula of telling the intelli- gence community "make sure you don't screw up." "I think the best way to do over- sight is to agree with the executive branch (onl what intelligence is all about, and (say) this is our long- range plan to build the world's best intelligence organization," Sen. Durenberger said in a recent inter- view. Last week Sen. Durenberger's Intelligence Committee held closed- door hearings on what he refers to as long-range intelligence strategy. He hopes the hearings will lead the administration to target goals, objectives and resource investment for a 10-year or longer intelligence policy. lb improve intelligence oversight, Sen. Durenberger wants to prevent "shifting resources every time the political panic button gets hit [and] you shift billions of dollars in com- mitment from one part of the world to the other part of the world. That's ridiculous," he said. On the House side, Rep. Lee Ham- ilton, D-Ind., sees intelligence over- sight as the only mechanism available outside the executive branch to check the administration's use of an enormous intelligence bureaucracy which churns out vast quantities of data. Rep. Hamilton, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, does not view the oversight process as a means of cor- recting abuses. His prescription for improving intelligence is to strengthen the analysis and collec- tion components of intelligence and to do away with military and para- military covert operations. "I look upon it as a means of try- ing to -improve the intelliKence product and to provide the executive branch with another set of opinions, if you will, about intelligence oper- ations," Mr. Hamilton said in an interview. Mr. Hamilton believes one of the "major questions" of oversight is cost effectiveness. He is not satis- fied that the intelligence community has performed the best possible job for the amount invested. "We are spending a very large amount of money, on intelligence, [and] it is not just a question of are you getting the intelligence, but are you getting it to the right people at the right time?" Mr. Hamilton said. "That's really the critical point. It doesn't matter how much mass of intelligence data you produce. The key thing is the analysis of that data and getting it to the policymakers or decision-makers at the right times so that it's timely, in terms of the decision-making process. "I think we in the intelligence committees and in the intelligence community have to spend an awful lot more time on the question of cost effectiveness," he said. Regarding public perceptions of intelligence oversight, Mr. Hamilton said that "the media often mistakes oversight for oversight of covert action." "Oversight is much broader than that and, if you look at the intelli- gence budget, only a very, very small portion of it goes for covert action ? very small," he said. ramlW Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 2 The media, he said, tends to view all covert action as miltary and para- military operations, but "that repre- sents a very small Part of covert action." "I'm talking about ... genuine intelligence work, as apart from covert actions, which really are not intelligence in the strictest sense," Mr. Hamilton said. "If I were present at the creation, ? in [former Secretary of State Dean] Acheson's phrase, I'm not really sure where I would put covert actions," Mr. Hamilton said. He feels "uneasy" that covert actions are conducted by the CIA, "but I'd be uneasy if they were con- ducted by the Defense Department. I don't know where you put them." A widely respected intelligence expert, Mr. Codevilla believes the efforts of Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., along with Sen. Daniel P Moynihan, D-N.Y., and others on the intelligence committees, succeeded in initiating some reforms of the agencies' analytical methods and counterintelligence controls. "They developed an entirely dif- ferent approach, based on the empirical proposition that the United States does not have a surfeit of intelligence," Mr. Codevilla said in an interview. "We have a variety of shortfalls, and any reforms should meet these shortfalls," he said. Mr Codevilla said the congres- sional and press "attack" on U.S. intelligence agencies during the mid-1970s grew out of internecine bureaucratic conflict within the intelligence community on resource allocation. What was portrayed as a fight over civil liberties was really a struggle between proponents of . detente and cold warriors over the agencies' reliance on technical sys- tems ? as opposed to human agents ? for collecting and analyzing data. "We built up our entire arsenal of technical intelligence wholely mind- less that they are not working against nature, but against human beings:' Mr. Codevilla said. Mr. Codevilla described the con- flict within the intelligence agencies over the integrity of technical intel- ligence as the "primary issue" divid- ing factions competing for resources. "It has less than zero to do with civil liberties," Mr. Codevilla said. As result of the intelligence com- munity conflict, vast numbers of the most experienced Central Intelli- gence Agency personnel left the agency through voluntary and forced retirements in what Mr. Codevilla described as a purge of "old boys." "This transformation of American intelligence occurred between '74 and roughly '78 during which time an estimated three- quarters of all supergrades in the CIA turned over ? a huge turnover," Mr. Codevilla said. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 APT!' F ? WASHINGTON TIMES 25 July 1985 'Leaky' oversight committees frustrate foreign policy efforts This is the first of several articles on intelligence oversight. By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES In late 1981, President Reagan authorized covert assistance to the resistance forces in Nicaragua. Within months, the particulars leaked to US. newspapers, and a covert operation became overt. Congressional support evap- orated. The Marxist Sandinista gov- ernment in Managua suddenly was awash in sentiments of solace and goodwill from America and the West. The propaganda dividends are only just now diminishing. The leaks surrounding the Nica- ragua operation caused "serious divisiveness" between the CIA and the congressional oversight commit- tees, disrupting a period of relative harmony that followed the anti- intelligence hysteria of the mid-1970s. Gary Schmitt, who was minority staff director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence until this year, says the Nicaragua leak illus- trates the difficulty of conducting covert operations without a clear national consensus of what the nation wants its foreign policy to accomplish. In particular, Mr. Schmitt sees the Nicaragua case as one example where the congressional oversight of intelligence played a major role in influencing the conduct of foreign affairs. In essence, "only non- controversial findings remain covert," says Mr. Schmitt in a forthcoming paper on intelligence oversight. Once public, whether disclosed by the White House or the Congress, congressional support for covert operations inevitably unravels. Under congressional rules, con- gressmen cannot discuss intelli- gence matters and are thus left to posture against leaked operations as a means of defense. The president's freedom to maneuver with a variety of "special activities" ? beyond diplomacy but short of sending in the Marines ? is thus more limited. Covert operations that have been blown by leaks include the Nicara- gua operation, support for Afghan rebels through Egypt and China after 1979, support for political par- ties in El Salvador, support for Cam- bodian rebels after 1980, support of anti-Qaddafi forces in Libya and Chad, and support for anti-Khomeini exiles. Mr. Schmitt, a former aide to Sen. Daniel P Moynihan, D-N.Y., says that congressional oversight has, on the whole, been "uneven," and driven by events rather than policy and par- tisan. Recently, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic vice chair- man of the Senate Intelligence Com- mittee, announced that Democrats on the panel would conduct an inde- pendent investigation of stories of a CIA counter-terrorist training pro- gram in Lebanon among five other CIA operations. The Leahy announcment was made the day The Washington Post published a report from Lebanon linking the CIA to a "runaway mis- sion" by a Lebanese counter- terrorist unit that had bombed a building in a Beirut suburb. (The House Intelligence Committee later absolved the CIA of any links to ter- rorism in Lebanon.) A short time later, Sen. Leahy, after accusing the CIA of not fully informing Congress of its Lebanon program ? his suspicions presum- ably encouraged by the erroneous story in The Post ? backed away from what had taken on the appear- ance of an investigation motivated by partisan politics. Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., the chairman of the Senate Intelli- gence Committee, says the problem of partisanship in the oversight pro- cess only occurs "when covert . action becomes overt." "Pat fLeahy I had a camera in front of him and he had to say some- thing," Sen. Durenberger said in an interview of the vice-chairman's idea for a Democratic investigation. "He feels strongly about counter- terrorism, so he said it, and he backed off because he was in a little bit over his head." Mr. Schmitt notes that the anti- intelligence hysteria of the '60s was the inevitable result of a breakdown in the post-World War II foreign policy consensus ? a consensus dis- solved by the frustrations and disap- pointments of the Vietnam War and the public disgust with government institutions in the wake of Watergate. Many analysts trace the begin- ning of modern intelligence over- sight to late December 1974. In a series of front page articles in that month, The New York Times reported that the CIA had engaged in a "huge" domestic intelligence program in violation of CIA reg- ulations against conducting busi- ness inside the United States. The articles, citing "well-place government sources," touched off a firestorm of congressional investi- gations. Eight days after the first article appeared, President Gerald Ford signed into law the Hughes- Ryan Amendment, restricting the CIA from conducting any operations without presidential approval ? eliminating the reliable intellin- gence technique of "plausible denial." The intelligence agencies could no longer conduct covert oper- ations that, if unsuccessful, would be denied, leaving the president out of it. In addition, the law required the CIA to report to "all appropriate committees"? eventually eight leg- islative bodies. The law all but eliminated covert action operations through unauthorized press disclo- sures. Besides the foreign affairs, armed services and defense appropriations subcommittees of both houses, which excercised what Mr. Schmitt called "de minimus" oversight since 1947, the intelligence agencies would also report to the newly cre- ated intelligence oversight commit- tees, headed by Rep. Otis Pike and Sen. Frank Church, respectively. Continued Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 2 The Church and Pike committees, formed in January of 1975, spent a year and half investigating the CIA and found evidence of domestic sur- veillance operations of individuals tied to foreign powers, assassination plans (notably against Fidel Castro and Africa's Patrice Lumumba), mail intercepts from suspected for- eign agents, plans to infiltrate groups with foreign ties, and efforts to topple foreign governments. Sen. Church's widely reported remark that the CIA was "a rogue elephant" set the tone for congres- sional oversight. In 1976 the Church Committee became the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, with Sen. Church as chairman, and a year later the Pike Committee became the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Roy Godson, a professor of gov- ernment at Georgetown University and an expert on intelligence issues, called the oversight of the mid-1970s the anti-intelligence "hysteria period" and described the Church committee "incredibly biased." No intelligence service in the world has ever been subject to that kind of investigation, Mr. Godson said in an interview. "It had a crazy thesis ? that covert action controls the whole of the intelligence com- munity" Mr. Schmitt describes the concept that a representative body such as Congress would attempt to reflect and refine public opinion on intel- ligence as "revolutionary" "In fact this arrangement was not only revolutionary in the United States but the rest of the world as well; no other legislature had ever created such an entity" as congres- sional Oversight Committee, Mr. Schmitt said.. It wasn't until 1980 that the Intel- ligence Oversight Act reduced to two the number of committees the intelligence agencies were required to tell of their operations. But the lack of consensus on for- eign policy ? and subsequently on intelligence policy ? has left the oversight system "susceptible to sudden and sometimes disabling shocks," Mr Schmitt says. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00(443R000301230003-3 ASSOCIATED PRESs 13 July 1985 WEINBERGER, SET'IATE PANEL DISCUSS UNIFIED U.S. INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY BY TIM Al-TERM WASHINGTON Defense Secretar Cas ar Weinber er met Thursda with the Senate Intelli ence Committee to discuss eve opmen o a urn ie. I. . pa icy regar ing w a e called the much maligned but vital business of intelli ence gathering. After a 90-minute session behind closed doors Weinberger called the meeting constructive and useful. He added that "intelligence frequently has been considered to be the kind of an unmentionable topic that somehow is a dirty business. "Unfortunately, in the world in which we live it is a vital business," Weinberger said, "vital to our survival." Committee chairman David Durenberger, R-Minn., said Thursday was the first time the panel had met with a defense secretary in its nine-year history. One subject that did not come up was the current Navy spy case, in which four men have been charged with passing military secrets to the Soviet Union. Weinberger has described the case as causing serious damage to U.S. national security. Durenberger said the Walker case deliberately was not discussed. He said it would be addressed later as part of a separate review of counter-intelligence efforts aimed at blocking Soviet efforts to recruit U.S. spies. Durenberger has pressed the panel to come up with an overall intelligence strategy Which would end disputes among the various intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency. "A long-range strategy would have pinpointed the difficulties that we inherited in Central America," said Durenberger. "The shortfalls that we have experienced in our intelligence abilities in this vital section of the world might not have occurred in the first place or might have been anticipated and planned for." Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the panel's vice-chairman, said there had been "a great deal of concern expressed" by congressmen in recent years about "the quality of our intelligence (and) how we plan." The meeting came a day after the Democratic-controlled House reversed itself and voted to renew aid to U.S-backed Contras fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government. Undersecretary of State Michael Armacost also met with the panel, out his testimony was interrupted by a vote on the Senate floor and will continue at a later time. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Re_lease 2009/12711: CIA-RDP88B00443R00030123.0.0,02 ii-VMObecHAIMAN paxPirCK LEAHY vERMONT vICE CHAIRAIAN Senate Select Committee on Intelligence STAT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 13, 1985 WILLIAM v ROTH JP DELAWARE LLOYD BENTSEN TEXAS WILLIAM S COHEN. MAINE SAM NUNN GEORGIA rwomAs F sAGLrr000 TAissovar (AKIN HATCH. UTAH FRANK muKKowsKi ALASKA ERFFEST F HOLLINGS SOUTH CAROLINA ARLEN SPECTER PENNSYLVANIA DAVID L BOREN OKLAHOMA CHIC HECHT NEVADA BILL BRADLEY NEW JER$EY MITCH McCONNELL KENTUCKY ROBERT ofxt KANSAS EX OFFICIO ROBERT C BYRD WEST VIRGINIA EX OFFICIO BERNARD F McMAHON STAFF oimFerni Senate Intelligence Committee Hearings on National Intelligence Strategy Senator Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said today that had a long range national strategy for intelli- gence been in place at the proper time, past upheavals in the intelligence community could have been avoided. "If the true objectives of covert action had been thought through and articulated, the misunderstandings that have developed over this activity could have been avoided", Durenberger said. "Regionally, a long range strategy would have pinpointed the difficulties that we inherited in Central America. The shortfalls that we have experienced in our intelligence abilities in this vital section of the world might not have occurred in the first place or might have been anticipated and planned for," Durenberger continued. Durenberger also expressed concern that the lack of a long range national strategy could give rise to future difficulties. "Correctly handling the problems of terrorism, narcotics interdiction, and verification of future arms control agreements demands a well thought out, long range strategy if intelligence gaps are to be avoided and policy makers are to have the adequate and timely information their decisions require", Durenberger said. Durenberger's comment was contained in an opening statement delivered at a meeting of the Intelligence Committee which marked the beginning of a series of hearings by that committee designed to establish a national intelligence strategy. Durenberger went on to say that he believes the intelligence community itself will be far better able to make its case to a skeptical public and their representatives if it begins to articulate its plans in terms of an overall strategy, explicitly noting the relevance of plans and operations to national policy. "At a time when the resources we can devote to national security are being increasingly strained, and the potential requirements of policy appear to grow every day, the Congress and the public must have confidence that our overall security policy is based on a sense of priorities envisioned," Durenberger said. Durenberger said it was not possible to know today what conclusions the committee may reach at the end of these hearings. "We may find that the intelligence community is considering, and considering well, the kinds of questions about future investments that we begin to explore today," Durenberger said. Sanitized Copy Approved forRelease2009/12/11 : CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 071:13 111.04..M Anti-Terror Projects Face Two Inquiries Hill Actions Follow Beirut Bo-mb Report By Charles IL Babcock' r ? ? ? and Bob Woodward Washington Past Staff Writers The chairmen of both the Senate and House intelligence committees said yesterday that they will exam- ine the Reagan administration's counterterrorism program follow- ing reports that CIA-trained Leb- anese personnel instigated on their own a car bombing. in Beirut that killed at least 80 people. A CentiiE? Intelligence covert supoebeeration was? can- celed after the Reagan administra%. tion learned thiethe Lebanese had.. hired others tO.,liem5 the residence of a suspected terrorist leader, The t: Washington Post reported Sunday. ? - Rep. Lee H Hamilton: (D-Ind.),- chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee. on Intelligence, said in a telephone interview that: he started asking questions last week after a reporter contacted - him about the CIA's connection to the March 8 car bombing. "I asked'' for a report on these matters and I expect to receive a full report," he ? said. "When you have units you do not control, obviously risks arise."... Sen. David F. Durenberger (R- Minn.), chairman of- the Senate lect Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement yesterday that the counterterrorism issue is high on his committee'ragenda. - - "The.. committee already' has plans to take a detailed look 'at the intelligence community's policy and action on counterterrorism," Du- renberger said: He indicated that that study "will occur out of the limelight,* and onlY after the corn- WASHINGTON POST 14 May 1985 mittee finishes its review of intel- ligence budget matters. "Effective oversight of the intel- ligence agencies: is possible only when the committee operates qui- etly, in a unified manner and in re- sponse to its own agenda?an agen- da that is nonet by ?The Washing- ton Post or ani'cititer news organ- ization:* he said:1?-"",`_. . ? Sen. Patriclefteally (D-Vt.), the committee's chairman; said ' Sunday that Cotimuttee Democrats ' have started their inquiry into the CIA's counterterrorism program, the bombing incident and several other CIA operat,ions; which he de- clined to identify. . ? White House :spokesman Larry Speakes said yesterday: "That's our,. ' policy, of not commenting on any alleged intelligence matter; We _ point out that we do not undertake any activities?have not?that are inconsistent with .the law and 'we meet our obligafions under the law ? to report to Congress." . '? U.S. embassies were reported to. be On alert for feal:af anti-U.S. ac- tivity. , ? Administration'iiiin ces have e phasized that the CIA had no direct connection with the March 8 bomb- ing, and that when the Lebanese went off on their own, the counter- terrorist, support program was ended. The CIA issued a statement yesterday saying that the agency', "never conducted any training of Lebanese security forces related to the events described" in the story and that the CIA "had no foreknowl- edge of the Lebanese counterter- rorist action -mentioned" in the news account. The statement added that the agency. -"scrupulously ob- serves the requirements to keep all the congressional oversight com- mittees appropriately informed.":..: Islamic Jihad, 'a shadowy group that is believed to be an umbrella for radical Shiite MOslem terrorists based mostly in Lebanon, has issued statements claiming that it has con- ducted two attacks to avenge the March 8 car bombing, one against a restaurant near Madrid frequented by U.S. servicemen. The explosion-, killed 18 Spaniards and injured 15 Americans, one seriously. The oth- er attack is believed by some secu- rity experts to have been a blast on ::... March 29 in a Paris movie theater that was holding a Jewish film fes- tival, injuring 18. Several congressional sources have questioned whether the new heads of the intelligence commit- tees had been fully briefed on the counterterrorism, program and its cancellation. Leahy said Sunday he wanted to look at several CIA programs he did not feel fully informed about to pre- vent a recurrence of last year's con- troversy over the mining of harbors in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, . Reps...,; Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) and Don Ed- wards (D-Calif.); members of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over terrorism is- sues, introduced a resolution yes- , terday that would require the CIA to provide the House with "docu- ments and factual information" about. covert support for counter- r terrorist units in the Middle East. , i???=',. Edwards said,- . "The use of proxies to avoid executive order prohibitions against . assassinations , is fraught with problems. . . , Such groups are inherently uncontr011a-. ble. With a license to kill from the United, States government, they L serve only to escalate the problems of international terrorism and . ther tarnish our reputation abroad.", Hamilton said that he also was concerned about whether the CIA's reported role in the car-bombing incident violated the ban that pre- .vents the U.S._ government from either direct or indirect involve- ment in assassinations; and Whether the agency lost control of the sit-: uation by training foreigners' to ? make the preemptive strikes. -"These are major points that have to be looked at," he said. In Beirut, a cabinet minister said - he doubted that Lebanon would or- der an investigation into the re- ported car bombing. Education and Labor Minister Selim Hoss said the report will "soon be ignored" be- cause the truth about the attempted, assassination is not likely to come out.."We all know that such explo- sions are arranged by foreign ser- vices . . . because catastrophes benefit those who have an interest at stake," he said on Beirut radio. , Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 WASHINGTON POST 13 May 198S ARTICLI APPEARS) ON pLGE.A.:1____ Sen. Leahy Is Probing Some CIA Operations Counter-Terrorism Program Scrutinize The plan was rescinded after i members of the unit hired others to set off, without CIA approval, a car bomb that killed more than 80 per- sons on March 8, the sources said. The target, a suspected terrorist leader, escaped unharmed. ? "Things have fallen between the cracks," Leahy said. "I do not want my side to get caught on a Ni- caraguan-mining type problem. ? A CIA operation to plant mines in harbors in Nicaragua caused con- troversy last year because several members of the intelligence over- sight committees claimed CIA Di- rector William J. Casey had not told ? them enough about the operation. Leahy said he -feels Casey and By Bob Woodward and Charles R. Babcock Wasionoton Post Staff Writers Sen. Patrick J.- Leahy (D-Vt.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said yesterday that he has begun an in- dependent inquiry into a half-dozen CIA operations, including a counter- terrorism program that was can- celed after an unauthorized car- bomb' blast last March killed More'. than 80 persons in Beirut. - . ? Leahy said he' wanti to know more about several sensitive oper- ations and seeks more details on - others about: which ' he; feels; the ' committee' wasn't fully informed. E "We're. - gong i. . other agency officials are willing to L seven operations:lin.;:our: answer the committee's questions said. ? ' .;-' ? about any matter. But he said?noth- ' ing is volunteered if the questions' are not framed exactly right. Leahy said he told other commit- tee Democrats last week that the ? . ' Leahy said he did not know of the'- counter-terrorism plan in Lebanon, - but when asked about it last month, -- he Made inquiries "and found. out" about it on my own," He refused tO inquiry is needed because when he give ftirther details. ; _ ' became vice chairman in January, By law . and by agreement: ;with.: , i he found that he did not know suf- the Reagan: administration,- the ? ficient details of some of the CIA's . .,. chairmen and vice chaix:r.nen_of the__ most secret and potentially contro- Senate and House intellige_nce_coi:_ - ? - - 1 versial operations. mitteei are to be informed of all co- - He declined to identify the other vert CIA activities. An administra- tion source insisted that the corn- *,. operations. . . mittees had been fully informed, , Leahy said he told the Democrats both orally and in writing, of all co- -, he is committing his staff to the in- vert or otherwise sensitive opera- quiry and might ask them also to tion s.4..-. ' ' - ...-- ',-..".:' ;". .. ,,,, . ' provide staff assistance. The corn- .. 1 The Washington Post reported mittee assigns staff Members to yesterday that President Reagan dividual senators. approved the plan late last year di-. [.. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said yes- recting the Central Intelligence ?:terday that he was not able to at- Agency to train foreign teams to 'tend Leahy's meeting of Democrat; ' make preemptive strikes against H ic committee members, held last terrorists. Thursday. No staff members were present, Nunn said. He added that he would , have no comment about Leahy's ' plan or The Post story. Leah Y said he has good relations with the Senate intelligence com- mittee chairman, David F. Duren- berger (R-Minn.), but feels it is nec- essary to proceed with his own in- quiry. Another committee source said, however, that Leahy and Durenber- ger have basic disagreements about the use of staff resources and the direction of the committee. Durenberger could not be reached for comment yesterday. But he said in a recent interview that he hopes the committee will not have to spend much of its time dealing with controversial CIA op, erations. He said he wants to shift the oversight role "from putting out fire to fire prevention." Durenberger said that, in -the pia,' about 90 percent of the com- mittee's time has. been spent on in- telligence controversies and that he hopes to reduce that significantly. Administration spokesmen cone- tinued to decline to comment on The Post story. , Secretary of State George P, Shultz, in- Israel yesterday,- said of the story: "I haven't seen The Washington Post today. I do have a very strong view about terrorism, as is well-known. I also have the view that at this stage, actions will speak a lot louder than words, so I don't have anything to say about it." Shultz, who has made strong pub- lic statements about taking action against terrorists, said later that he has decided, for the time being, not to comment on the general subject of 'terrorism. While Shultz, was in Jerusalem,. several terrorist bombs exploded there and one was de- fused. . - Robert : Sims, _ deputy White House press secretary,' told United Press International, "We never dis- cuss intelligence matters." But -.he added that The Post story con: tained."a lot of speculation... imbued Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sources have said Reagan or- dered that only the chairmen and vice chairmen of the intelligence committees be notified of several covert operations undertaken late, last year, including the antiterrorist, training program in Lebanon.' There is some question whether alV the details filtered down when Du- ? renberger and Leahy assumed lead- ership of the Senate committee in January. - I- I Staff writer Don Oberdorfer , contributed to this report. Sanitized Copy Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Arr", Fr7rA I 1 ? . . F.* ro( .4.. ED WASHINGTON TIMES 16 April 1985 Hill panel seeks to pull plug on Sovi*.et spies. Mr. Reatanirer,eed1 45 Nationalwhic which Securityes est By Ted Agres THE WASmINGTON TIMES The Senate Intelligence Committee is attempting to fine out how to unplug the Soviet "vacuum cleaner" to protect U.S. scientific and technological secrets, the head of the Panel says. Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Washington Times inan interview that one study will seek to evaluate security issues involving information transmission in the United States. "We are sensitive to the fact that they [the Soviets] may have a greater cap- ability [to eavesdrop] than we give them credit for In terms of how we commu- nicate," Mr. Durenberger explained. The Soviets, he said, use the "vacuum cleaner" approach to collect U.S. secrets. Mr. Durenberger's comments follow closely a Realm, administration announcement ftt it was planning to eouip hundreds of thousands of govern- ment offices with new. bug-Proof "secure" terephones to counter elec- tronic espionage. Last month, the National Security Agency, which is responsible for, among other things, keeping U.S. government communications secure, announced that three U.S. firms had been chosen to build 7 the new generation computerized scrambler telephones. The three firms, RCA, AT&T and Motorola. reportedly will share a $44 mil- lion grant to develop the new phones. NSA said the new phones could be placed in up to half a million government and government contractor offices - within five years. The scramblers, which will be about the size of a standard multi- . , f? line office telephone, are expected to cost t- about $2,000 each. Government officials have said that U.S. secrets and sensitive information are being siphoned off by other govern- ments, especially the Soviet Union. If an eavesdropper should intercept a conver- sation between two secure telephones, he will hear only a scrambled signal. The situation with Soviet espionage has become so critical that last October ? President Reagan authorized the forma- tion of a Cabinet-level group to attempt to counter it. Decision 4 lished a Systems Security Steering Group to evaluate the problem and seek solutions. Members of the SSSG include tile secretaries of State. Treasury and Defense. the attorney general. director of tile Office of Management and Budget, and director of Central Intelligence. An unclassified version of NSDD 145 released afterward stated that, "the com- promise of fU.S-.) information. especially to hostile intelligence services, does seri- ous damage to the United States and its national security interests." "A comprehensive and coordinated approach must be taken to protect the government's telecommunications and automated information systems against i current and anticipated threats," the directive stated. "This approach must include mechanisms for formulating policy, for overseeing systems security resources programs and for coordinating and executing technical activities!! The Cabinet-level steering group will oversee activities of a newly created,' high-level Information Systems Security Committee, which is to focus on tele- .' - ? Phone and computer security as two top priorities. Later today, Senate investigators will hold hearings on the government's ability to conduct background security investi- gations for personnel cleared to handle sensitive information. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will look into the prob- lems that have arisen. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., a member of the panel, was quoted as saying, "the government is already plainly incapable of adequately investi- gating and reinvestigating all persons seeking security clearances." He added that the more than 4 million Americans who have security clearances are potential targets for the Soviet KGB. The potential for electronic eavesdropping was highlighted recently when it was revealed that the Soviets had hidden bugs in about a dozen IBM type- writers in the US. Embassy in Moscow The tiny devices apparently detected the striking of 'individual keys and transmitted signals to antennas hidden in the building's walls, where the informa- tion was relayed to Soviet receivers. A knowledgeable intelligence source in Washington told The Times that the incident highlights a horrible lack of ? security at the embassy. But, the source added, the information that was compro- mised was not among the most sensitive that the embassy deals with. High-level information is handled in special rooms designed to keep signals from leaking out, the source said. This technology of electronic containment is called "Tempest," and it involves placing copper shielding around typewriters, computer terminals or otherwise insulat- ing the room. Intelligence experts say that every communications device radiates weak electrical interference that can be picked up by sensitive electronic instruments called spectrum analyzers. The interference patterns can be stripped away by computer to reveal the content of the message being handled, they say. The NSA, which is based at Fort Meade, Md., about halfway between Bal- timore and Washington. is trying to insu- late its main operations building from electronic espionage. Late last month. the agency told a House subcommittee it was seeking 812.7 million to "Tempest-proof- its head- quarters with an "electromagnetic enve- lope" to prevent spying. In his interview with The Times, Mr. Durenberger also stated that the Senate Intelligence Committee will do a "long- term assessment of technology and, within that, a sense of technology secu- rity" He said that some technology is inher- ently costlier in terms of. security risks than other technology. He said that those factors haven't previously entered into the committee's long-range budget pro- cess. "This obviously has some political judgment. lb have a so-called security factor is important," he said. The Minnesota senator also said that a similar StliCv will be conducted regaro- ing human intelligence. or "hummt" as it is called. Were going to try to figure out why we are so weak in so many areas of humint," he said. "We already know that we don't help the intelligences' community tnini: longs- range in that regard: we don't educate and help them plan five years before there might be a proolem. or 10 years efore they are ever needed." he said. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL 14 May 1985 CIA DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN UNIT THAT RAN AMOK By ELIOT BRENNER WASHINGTON The CIA says it did not train a Lebanese squad that reportedly hired people to rig a car bomb in Beirut that killed mare than 80 people in March, but House members are asking for a review of the matter. In a cautiously phrased statement, the spy agency Monday denied it trained special Lebanese "security forces" to work in counterterrorism, as was reported in The Washington Post Sunday and The New York Times Monday. At the State Department, sources said U.S. diplomatic outposts have been warned to "be careful" about possible terrorist attacks because of the report, which said President Reagan had authorized a specific response to terrorist acts against the United States. The CIA's statement also rejected allegations that it had not briefed colgressional oversight committees on the connection with the Lebanese group. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday his panel "already has plans to take a detailed look at the intelligence community's policy and action on counterterrorism" when it finishes with the fiscal 1986 intelligence authorization. Reps. Patricia Schroeder, fl-Cola., and Don Edwards, D-Calif., asked the House to order the CIA to inform the chamber about the training and support of covert terrorist units so the legality of such operations can be determined. "What in the world are we doing using tax dollars to finance hit squads in the Middle East?" asked Schroeder. Schroeder and Edwards are members of the House Judiciary subcommittee with jurisdiction over terrorism issues. Rep. Sam Stratton, D-N.Y., said the allegations show, "What we were doing in that instance was to provide a form of retaliation and I think most of the citizens of the United States would feel that we should have retaliated." But, "To suggest this is somehow OK for the Moslems and not for the Americans seems to be a tragic simplification," Stratton said. The CIA's statement said it "never conducted any training of Lebanese security forces related to the events described" and it "had no foreknowledge of the Lebanese counterterrorist action mentioned in the article." The newspaper reports said a March 8 car bombing in the Lebanese capital that killed more than 80 people and wounded hundreds of others was carried out by people hired by a Lebanese counterterrorism unit that had been working with the CIA. Catinued Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 es The Post reported the bombing was directed at a militant Shiite Moslem leader who is "believed to be behind terrorist attacks on U.S. installations." The Post quoted sources as saying that after the mission, "immediate steps were taken" by the CIA and the administration "to cancel the entire covert operation." The bombing's apparent target, Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Shiite leader of the Party of God, escaped unharmed. U.S. intelligence reports have linked Fadlallah's group to attacks on U.S. Marines in Beirut in which more than 241 have been killed. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 P:RiiniE APPEARED .10?? rari?se".' ..7..P.11.011,141pg CHICAGO TRIBUNE 1 February 1985 Open CIA panels to public: Senator It's not all secret, he says By James O'Shea Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON?The new chairman of the supersecret Se- nate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that he was confident the committee could - hold a few public hearings to help "sow the seeds" of public understanding of the spy busi- ness. "Clearly, intelligence must operate with the greatest de- gree of secrecy possible to pre- serve the secrecy of sources ,and methods," said Sen. David Durenberger [R., Minn.) after his first meeting as chairman of the panel that rides herd on the Central Intelligence Agency's budget. "But there are some aspects , of the process which might usefully be discussed a bit more openly," he said. "I am confi- dent that, if handled with dis- cretion and with an absolute commitment to avoid making comment simply for the sake of comment, a few : public meetings of this committee. could' help sow the seeds.needed- for the growth of long-term pub- lic understanding." The committee deals with many sensitive subjects, and Durenberger didn't specify' what areas he would like to deal with in public hearings. But in a separate statement,. Sen. Patrick Leahy [D.,?,Vt.), the new vice chairman of the committee, said during the next year the committee would deal with issues ranging_ from the,: CIA's well-publicized "covert 'war" s in Nicaragua to such supersensitive areas as the-ade- quacy of procedures to verify Soviet compliance with arms- control agreements. "We will be expected to make a judgment for the Senate and ultimately for the entire govern- ment on the verifiability of--arry arms agreement. We _cannot- just wait until the President presents a treaty for ratifica- tion. The committee must fol- low the evolution of proposals at every step of the way, iniectiog its views at the time so the President can take them into account," Leahy said. The committee has held pub- lic hearings in the past but only on legislation that it was,- seeking, a committee source. said. It has not held hearings on.. intelligence matters, the source, said, and he didn't understand: what intelligence issues Duren-,. berger referred to in his . statement. "No matter what,".. he said, "classified information is classified information and: can't be disclosed in public." One issue that is expected to - be aired in public is any admin-,, istration request for funds to aid z the Nicaraguan contras?about2, 12,000 to 15,000 rebels trying to; topple the leftist Sandinista gov- ernment in Managua.' Both Durenberger and Leahy indicated after an organization- al meeting that the committee.. would try to dump the issue of **I Nicaragua, into the laps of; others.' In an interview, Durenberger ! said that so much has already* been made public about the:: CIA's aid to the contras that the-., "covert.. war" is no longer a secret. He said its status makes ' it a proper subject for foreign,1 policy, which could place they, issue before the Senate Foreigni-' Relations Committee. Leahy, too", said that Nicara-T gua no longer "fits into the:. normal mode" of the Intelli- gence Committee. "It has: become a major foreign policy,, issue for the Senate and the whole country," said Leahy, an, opponent of aid to the rebels. Both Durenberger and Leahy , said the Intelligence Com- f, mittee's first order of business? would be to deal with the ad?, ministration's intelligence bud- get. `.1 But Leahy said he and other Democrats on the committee are interested in several other , areas, such as terrorism, the hardships or dangers faced by intelligence agents and problems with special opera- C tions, such as the Green Berets. ' Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 I AFP.F.,ARED NEWSWEEK 2 6 28 January 1985. Confronting Congress Reagan's new team faces a fresh congressional lineup. For much of its first term, the Reagan administration provided a textbook lesson in congressional relations. Now?at a critical juncture for several major initiatives?the Reagan team will consist largely of new faces orold faces in new places. And Congress itself will have a different cast Some House and Senate veterans will assume new responsibil- ities at the helms of the key committees that will confront such complex issues as deficit reduction, tax reform, de- _ _ fense spending and "covert" operations in Nicaragua. Among the new leaders: Sen. David Durenberger The Minnesota Republican, now chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is soft- spoken, reflective and cautious. The outgo- ing chairman, Arizona Sen. Barry Gold- water, is brash, outspoken and caustic. So the most immediate change with Duren- berger at the helm will be stylistic. "Duren- berger will do what he doss quietly," says one Intelligence Committee staffer. What he will actually do is far more open to question. On the first major issue con- fronting his committee?the administra- tion proposal for continued aid to rebels opposing the Sandinista government in Nic- aragua?Durenberger's record provides few clues. Even he concedes that "it looks like I've been on all sides of this thing." And in fact he has, opposing the covert operation at first, but reversing himself in September 1983 to vote for the aid. Disclosure last year that the CIA had been involved in mining Nicaraguan harbors angered him: "Indis- criminate use of mining gives people around the world the opportunity to say Ronald Reagan is crazy," he said. The House has repeatedly rejected additional funds for the contras, and Durenberger appears ready to buck the White House, too. The aid, he says, is "helping to destroy the [congresiional] oversight process" by undermining public confidence in covert operations. At the very least, Durenberger intends to scrutinize CIA activities. He is no fan of William Casey, having described the CIA director in a recent Minneapolis Star Trib- une interview as a "2 on a scale of 19." Still, Durenberger says he has no intention of taking on Casey directly by seeking his resig- nation. "I told [Casey] I didn't hire him," he said. "I wasn't going to try to get him fired." Durenberger is anxious to concentrate on what he considers Intelligence's prime task: establishing control over U.S. intelligence activities. He is not enthusiastic about pro- posals that his committee investi- gate matters such as alleged atroc- ities by the contras in Nicaragua or reports that U.S. aid to rebels in Afghanistan is being misappro- priated. "The headline business . . . is not my idea of what the committee ought to be," Durenberger told The Washington Post. "If we spend the next two years investigating Af- ghanistan and the contras, we aren't going to get the job done that we are expected to do." EXCERPTED C. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 WASHINGTON TIMES 17 ,January 1935 Taren ierger iacks alit a ai By Thomas D. Brandt THE WASHINGTON TIMES Sen. David Durenberger, the new chairman of the Senate Intelligsnce Committee who has criticized the ' rSZUL2gram of covert aid to the rebelsfightingto over- throw the Marxist government of Nicaragua_ said ves- jerday that the United States should hely the rebels migy. Sen. Durenberger told The Washington Times in an interview that the Nicaraguan government is preparing an offensive this year to wipe out the Contra rebels. Regardless of the outcome of that effort, however, Sen. Durenberger agrees with the Reagan administration that it is in the U.S. national interest to continue pressur- ing the Nicaraguans. His disagreement with the White House is over the negative effects of CIA covert operations that now are well-known. While Mr. Durenberger's view supports U.S. goals in that region, it could shift the debate in Congress away from covert operations and toward ways to press for democratic reforms in other nations. The new chairman ? a Republican from Minnesota ? said he is eliminating all subcommittees, taking over all staff hiring, and taking the panel "back to basics" because nine of the 15 members are new this year. In Central America, however, he wants a greater U.S. investment in intelligence gathering to make up for years of neglect but a shift from "covert" to "overt" methods to achieve policy goals. "I expect that someplace during the course of '85 that the Sandinistas ? I mean they're already gearing up ? will gear up to try to get rid of the FDN," he said. FDN is the Spanish acronym for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the main body of anti-Sandinista rebels. "I expect that there will be some kind of an effort to try to move the FDN out:' he added, citing as one exam- ple the acquisition by the Sandinistas of Soviet heli- copter gunships. When asked to compare his support for overt aid to his moosition to the Reagan administration's covert aid to the Contras, he said, "I just said don't use the CIA to do it. I'm all for supporting the Contras ... overtly. "That's where we come up against the problem of how would you do it?" He said one problem is that under international law open support for a military operation can be tantamount to a declaration of war. Mr. Durenberger said he had no dollar amount in mind and that it was not his Position to recommend details for an overt program. But at one point, he referred to the effect of U.S. military maneuvers in Honduras. However, the CIA efforts have poisoned U.S. domestic support for Reagan administration programs in Nicara- gua, the senator said. The CIA program also stiffened anti-U.S. sentiment among Nicaraguans and weakened the standing of moderates in the Sandinista government competing for power with the Marxists, he added. He said that U.S. pressure was necessary to push the Nicaraguans into negotiations and democratic liberal- ization and that he would support an overt program with that goal even if the FDN were out of the picture. Mr. Durenberger, who met privately this week with, the Reagan administration's special envoy to Nicaragua, Harry Shlaudeman, said he did not know if the White kofise planned to change its strategy in Conaress_and ksk for an overt aid Program due ttl_reaistalla resumption of covert aid. "That, I wish I knew. I don't know," the senator said. I Last year, Congress voted a freeze on funds for the Contras, pending additional votes early this year, with many observers on Capitol Hill believing the measure has little chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled House in particular. lupte Mr. Durenberger, the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., is critical of the covert CIA program against Nicaragua that started in 1981. Sen. Durenberger said that whether the administration uses covert or overt pressure should be decided on the floor of the Senate and that he does not want to "politi- cize" his committee with hearings seeking to build a record against covert aid. Even if there were not a Sandin- ista push against the Contras, the senator added, "I would support it [an open aid program] just to sup- port the negotiations... I think they [the Sandinistas] still worry a lot about us. "Even eliminating ? if they were successful in eliminating the FDN ? it wouldn't relieve all their worries. Every time you move 3,000 [U.S.] Army National Guardsmen into Honduras, it will worry them sick. You always have some negotiating power there, but you need enough to push them into realistic negoti- ations, to deal with us or with the Contadora." The Contadora is a regional peace negotiation, led by Panama, Mexico, Venezuela and Columbia, that has Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 - -- sought accords for removing foreign I military forces from the region, I securing the sanctity of national borders and stopping the flow of arms across borders. "Every time something goes wrong down there, whether it's Teddy Kennedy and his atrocity line, or whatever it is. the American pub- lic confuses the policy with the CIA," Sen. Durenberger said. Although there are bilateral nego- tiations between Sandinista officials and Mr. Shlaudeman and efforts on t the Contadora process, "the front page news is something about atrocities, or something about man- uals," he said. Some senators have called for hearings on allegations of atrocities committed by the FDN within Nica- ragua. Another controversy erupted in Congress last fall over a CIA- produced manual fOr the Contras /hat some observers claimedadvo- cated political assassinations. Because of the anti-U.S. senti- ment built up over the CIA operations, Mr. Durenberger said the moderates in the Sandinista hier- archy "aren't calling the shots any- more. When it comes down to deciding who goes to the meetings and who gets to sign off on the pro- posal, or whatever it is, the Borge- Arce kind of faction is the strong one." He was referring to ibmas Borge Martinez, minister of the interior, and Bayardo Arce,,a member of the Sandinista directorate, both viewed as Marxist-Leninist hardliners. "All they needed was to put an Uncle Sam mask on their problems and they confused the people enough," Sen. Durenberger said. Photo by Richard Kozak The Washington Times Intelligence Committee Chairman David Durenberger 2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 nr.r- r: 77721a ".1 7.? -3L') WASHINGTON POST 18 January 1985 Panel Chairman to Fight Contra Aid Rep. Hamilton Backs Leadership on Covert Program By Charles R. Babcock Washington Post SUN Writer . Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), in his first public statement as new Olairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence, said yesterday he will stick with the House Democratic leadership's ef- fort to block covert CIA aid from anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua. He said in an interview that he will schedule a series of closed hearings on the Nicaraguan covert aid program, including an inquiry into reports that the Central Intel- ligence Agency is channeling aid to :the rebels through third countries, such as Honduras, El Salvador and Israel. Rep. Joseph P. Addabbo (D- N.Y.), chairman .of the House de- fense appropriations subcommittee, wrote Secretary of State George P. Shultz last week that such action would be "a rather devious contra- vention of the law." Hamilton said he didn't know if the reports were true. The hearings on Nicaragua also will cover alleged atrocities by the Nicaraguan "contras," reports that U.S. military equipment is being transferred by the CIA to Afghan- istan, and the possibility that the CIA evaded congressional spending limits, he said. "If they want to come back and make a fight, there'll be a fight," Hamilton said of Reagan adminis- tration plans to continue to push for $14 million in additional funding for the contras. Congress cut off the aid last year. If the administration asks for twice as much money, Hamilton said: "I'd oppose it, maybe doubly hard." The 20-year House veteran said he had heard reports that House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) was asking Democrats interested in serving on the com- mittee to promise to oppose the Nicaraguan covert aid. Eight of the 14 committee members are being replaced, and about 100 members are said to be interested. Sen. David F. Durenberger (R- Minn.), new chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has announced that he opposes con- tinuation of the covert aid program in Nicaragua. Durenberger has suggested that he would support some form of overt assistance to the rebels as a way of keeping pressure on the San- dinistas. Hamilton said yesterday that he is willing to listen to administration proposals for alternatives to the covert aid program. "I think the covert action type you have in Nicaragua, a paramil- itary action, diverts the entire in- telligence community so that it is not able to perform as well its func- tion of intelligence analysis," Ham- ilton said. "It becomes a divisive matter. The top leadership of the CIA diverts a disproportionate amount of time to covert action, and intelligence-gathering suffers." Hamilton said his agenda for the committee also includes an exam- ination of the nation's ability to ver- ify any arms control agreement with the Soviet Union, including President Reagan's "Star Wars" 1 space-defense proposal. Hamilton said he will work to re- ' pair the strained relations between the CIA and Congress, damaged last year by revelations of the agen- cy's mining of Nicaraguan harbors and preparation of "assassination" manuals for the guerrillas. While saying he has "a good re- lationship" with CIA Director Wil- liam J. Casey, Hamilton added that the job should be filled with an in- telligence professional rather than a ' political appointee. When asked whether he would tell President Reagan that he should replace Casey, Hamilton said, "I don't want to comment on that." He refused to comment on a Washington Post report that the CIA's secret aid to insurgents in Afghanistan has become the largest , item in its covert aid budget. But he said he plans to have the committee review all the CIA's covert action programs. In a related matter, Paul Rei- chler, an attorney representing Nic- aragua in its World Court case against the United States, said in an interview that an independent probe has obtained 200 signed af- fidavits from Nicaraguan victims or witnesses of human rights abuses by the contras. Reichler said the affidavits are "a devastating indictment not only of the contras but of U.S. policy there" and will be used to bolster Nicara- gua's suit seeking a World Court order against the contra program. Staff writer Joanne Omang contributed to this report. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPEARED ON PAGEAL-n2L. WASHINGTON PuST i2 January 198D Chairman Aims to Make Panel More Professional Probe of Atrocity Charges May Come Later He has repeatedly made clear his opposition to the Sandinista govern- ment, suggesting last monththat the administration consider ways to apply military pressure juan overt manner. Several members of Con- gress have said they may propose withdrawing diplomatic recognition from Nicaragua and passing a law to permit open backing for the resis- tance forces. "You have to draft a policy that implements U.S. law," Durenberger said. "If the administration doesn't give us any alternative to the CIA program, there will be serious prob- lems." Law prohibits the United States from seeking the overthrow, of any government with which it maintains diplomatic relations, and ?bans spending to overthrow the govern- ment of Nicaragua. Durenberger said that, contrary to rumor, he expects to retain most of the intelligence committee's staff and to permit each one to be the "designee" of a committee member. But he said some of the nine new senators will have to accept staff aides as their designees, because , "the staff is going to be much more ; professional and much less honed by the members than it has been." He said he will expect staff mem- bers to labor for the committee 90 percent of their time and keep their - senators informed on current issues ' the other 10 percent, devoting no time to speechwriting, casework or floor statements not related to in- telligence activities. ? He also said he opposes a pending I recommendation from a select com- mittee on Senate reorganization to consolidate the House and Senate intelligence committees. By Joanne Omang Washington Post Staff Wnter Investigations into charges that Nicaraguan rebels commit atroci- ties or that U.S. aid to rebels in Af- ghanistan is vanishing might come "later on," but the new Senate in- telligence committee will have sev- eral other things to do first, Chair- man David F. Durenberger (R- Minn.) said yesterday. Tops on his priority list is "pro- fessionalizing" the committee's nine new members and the staff so as to take them out of the newspapers and away from rehashing past mis- takes, and to put them into control- ling future acts of the intelligence community, Durenberger said. "If we spend the next two years investigating Afghanistan and the 'contras' [in Nicaragua] we aren't going to get .the job done that we are expected to do," Durenberger said in an interview. "These are on the list of things we'll explore later on . . . but the idea that all of us will be in the headline business overturning wrong is not my idea of what the committee ought to be." Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the panel's vice chairman, called last month for a probe of charges that rebels who have been fighting Nic- aragua's leftist Sandinista govern- ment with U.S. aid for three years have engaged in murder, rape, tor- ture and other atrocities against Nicaraguan civilians. Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey (R- N.H.) has set up an ad hoc task force of senators and House mem- bers to evaluate the way U.S. policy in Afghanistan is being imple- mented. Humphrey has expressed .concern about reports that as much as 90 percent of covert U.S. aid to rebels fighting the Soviet occupa- tion of Afghanistan disappears be- .fore it reaches the guerrillas. An aide said Humphrey had hoped that either the intelligence or Foreign Relations committees would look into those reports. He said as much as $400 million may be involved. "Since the com- mittees are reluctant, we will do it through the task force," the aide ' said. Hearings are planned later this month. Durenberger said he is hopeful that other intelligence committee Republicans will support his oppo- sition to .renewed Central .Intelli- gence Agency aid to the Nicaraguan "contras." "The program is helping to destroy the [congressional] over- sight process" by undermining pub- lic confidence in the legitimacy of covert operations, he said. "As long as that little poison remains, we're going to have troubles." However, Durenberger added, probing the rebels' behavior is an- other matters "I'm not real anxious to spend a lot of time being conned by a lot of Nicaragua propagandists" charging rebel atrocities "when I can't get at the human-rights vio- lations by the Sandinistas," he said. Durenberger added that docu- menting atrocities probably would be possible but would chart no new waters. "I deplore it, but I predicted it. three years ago when this pro- gram started," he said. . He acknowledged that Reagan administration officials have asked for alternative proposals for pres- suring the Sandinistas to make po- litical concessions. "I said to [for- mer national security affairs adviser William P.] Clark three years ago I wasn't hired to come up with the ideas?that's your responsibility," Durenberger said. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 "You wouldn't consider a joint ethics committee. That's like intel- ligence?they're both superspecial- ly nonpartisan; you bend over back- wards to take politics out," he said. Durenberger was quoted in a re- cent interview with the Minneapolis Star and Tribune as saying that CIA Director William J. Casey is a "2 on a scale of 10." But the chairman said yesterday he would not ask for ,Casey's resignation. "Nope. I told him I didn't hire him and I wasn't going to try to get him fired," Durenberger said. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 fl,RTIcL31,4r / WASHINGTON TIMES 10 January 1985 Senate intelligence panel a hurdle in move to aid Nicaraguan rebels By Thomas D Brandt THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Republican-controlled Sen- ate Intelligence Committee is draw- ing fire from conservatives who say it is a center of resistance to the Rea- gan administration's final push for congressional approval of aid for the rebels fighting Nicaragua's Marxist government. Conservative sources in Congress have told The Washington Times that under Sen. David Durenberger of Minnesota, the Republican chairman, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic vice chairman, they expect the intelli- gence committee to reorganize itself and also schedule hearings that will work against the president's pro- gram in Central America. The growing power over foreign affairs, and most recently affairs in Central America, has so raised the profile of the committee, once a con- gressional backwater that most members avoided because its mostly secret work had no home state impact, that 15 Republicans and 22 Democrats are said to have asked to be put on it this year. Conservative sources point to a number of developments that weaken their voice on the critical panel. Majority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., turned down the request of Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., and others who wanted a waiver of the panel's eight-year membership rule so they could continue to serve. A broad new study of Senate rules last month recommended such a waiver so the panel would not lose so much expertise at one time; nine of its 15 members are departing this year. Mr. Durenberger opposed that 'waiver which, had it been granted, would also have applied to Sen. John , Chafee, R-R.I., who by seniority j would have then assumed the ' chairmanship instead of Mr. Duren- berger. Both Mr. Durenberger and Mr. tegAll.Y.-12WrilkiZZLIIICSS,Laa Intelligence Agency's covert sup- port for the "Contras," the rebels fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. (This is also the view held by Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.) The intelligence committees over- see all U.S. intelligence operations, including the CIA, which has been supporting the Contras since 1981. Sometime after March 1 both houses will vote whether to contine that funding, which ran out last Septem- ber. This vote is the focus of White House lobbying. Administration figures are said to be preparing a report describing a Nicaraguan arms buildup and the nation's ties with Cuba and the Soviet Union as part of the adminis- tratien effort to persuade Congress that Nicaragua is reducing civil liberties and becoming a growing threat to its neighbors. Over the last two years the Senate panel has switched from support for the Contras to hostility because of a growing belief that the Contra pur- pose now exceeds U.S. policy objec- tives. A committee summary of its work in 1984, released this week, was highly critical of the CIA and said its "inadequate management and supervision" of the Contras contri- buted to the loss of support in Con- gress for the program. For his Dart. Sen, Durenberger has said he wants to continue pres- sure on the Sandinista government, but he svas CIA support for the Con- tras erodes rather than enhances Central American support of U.S. , policy there. Over the last few days, some con- servatives say, prospects have dimmed for Mr. Reagan's policies. Mr. Wallop believed he had Mr. Dole's commitment to the waiver that would have kept him on the com- mittee, and when he did not get it he wrote an angry letter to the leader. On the Senate floor last Thursday, Mr. Dole told Mr. Wallop it was diffi- cult to get an exception for him because work was under way on eliminating most exceptions. "Sen. Wallop was greatly upset over the means by which he was removed from the committee while being assured that such was not the case'," said one Republican senator who spoke only on the grounds that he not be identified. Mr. Wallop has said he was par- ticularly concerned that the corn- mittee was listening more and more to the CIA establishment that tends to favor technical information col- lection, while Mr. Wallop has called -for more agents, with better protec- tion, in world trouble spots. Other changes under consider- ation by Mr. Durenberger are equally vexing to conservatives, who support the Reagan administration's view that the Contras are crucial in putting the military pressure on the Sandinistas to force them to move toward democracy. Though no decisions have been made, according to a spokesman for Mr. Durenberger, he may eliminate the "designee system" whereby each committee member could appoint his or her own person to the committee's staff, which currently numbers about 41. Instead, the chairman may appoint a professional staffer to each of the areas under the committee's jurisdiction ? one for Nicaragua, another for arms control, terrorism and so forth ? according to an aide to the new chairman. Though Mr. Durenberger has asked for the ritual letter of resigna- tion from everyone on the staff, most will not be accepted and the chairman "does not envision a house cleaning," according to his office. However, conservatives see an anti-Reagan design because the pro- , posed changes would consolidate power over staff under Mr. Duren- berger and would make it more dif- ficult for the new conservatives coming on the panel ? such as Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Chic Hecht of Arizona and freshman Mitch McConnell of Ken- tucky ? to place men of women of their own choosing on the staff. However, some staff holdovers have already left, including staff director Robert Simmons and Angelo Codevilla, who was Sen. Wal lop's designee but by some accounts also the most effective and most forceful advocate of President Rea- gan's Central American policy. On Thesday, Mr. Codevilla was told Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 to have his desk cleaned out by 5 p.m.. he said. Another source on the committee said it appeared that Mr. Codevilla was removed quickly and with no notice so he could not appeal the decision to other conservatives on the committee. If a staff member leaves the com- mittee, he must obtain a new secu- rity clearance, which requires about 60 days time. "The real point is what Durenber- ger is doing in taking control of the committee is turning it into a batter- ing ram against the president's poli- cies, primarily in Central America," according to a committee source who is familiar with the maneuver- ing over the changes. Conservatives see their declining influence on the budget for the CA as another example of the erosion of ffieir power on the committee. Budget review of the CIA and other agencies in the intelligence community is a major responsibility of the committee, and this process is usually where the panel performs most of its "oversight" responsibil- While Durenberger spokesman said only that budget procedures are under review, several conservative sources say they believe he may eliminate the budget subcommittee so additional budget authority can be consolidated under the chaiman's office. And, finally, conservative sources said they expect Mr. Durenberger to hold hearings early this year to investigate charges of atrocities committed by the Contras. If these allegations are proved to public sat- isfaction, they say, the administra- tion's policy will be further undermined. Mr. Durenberger's office said that no hearings are scheduled. Roger Fontaine contributed to this article. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ARTICLE APPEARED IA FLU IA. By Steve Berg - Staff Correspondent MINNEAPOLIS STAR AND TRIBUNE (1g) 16 December 1984 - Durenberger claims CIA is in disarray, lacks public trust - Washington, DS... ? The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is "disintegrating" because the Reagan administration insists that the agency continue to run a secret war in Nicaragua that is not secret. Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., :aid last week. CIA Director William Casey "has no idea that his agency is going down the tubes," said Durenberger, who, unless he is out-maneuvered by? a curious mix of his fellow'senators; will inherit the chairmanship of the. Senate's Select.Committee on Intelli-*. gence when Congressnonvenes next month. He would be the first Minne- sotan to head a full congressional committee in 10 years. Durenberger's unflattering assess- ment refers more to poor morale within the spy agency than to its effectiveness, he said. The CIA's visi- ble hand in running the Contra fight- ers in Nicaragua has created "seri- ous morale problems" in an agency designed to operate under cover, Durenberger said. Only Casey, and perhaps his top dep- ,uty on covert action, are in favor of ; the CIA continuing to play a lead role in Nicaragua, he said. "The re- sponsible people in the agency don't want anything to do with it" The senator also warned that public trust in the CIA and other intelli- gence agencies is beginning to erode, , as it did in the mid 1970s after CIA figures became embroiled in Water- , ? gate, and after congressional investi- gators uncovered CIA plots to. assn.- F sinate world Jeaders.;7; . ? 7 . .! We're getting dose to a crisis:,: trusting Ronald Reagan and his al ministration in how they use (th 'CIA)," he said, citing the Lebano bombings, the harbor minings in.Nic aragua, and the issuance of a manua to Contras that suggested that gov? ernment figures be "neutralized." ? Durenberger blamed conservative . politicians ? including President Reagan's national security advisers ? for forcing the CIA Into the day- light in Nicaragua, thereby jeopar- dizing its morale and, to a lesser ? extent,. its effectiveness. The politi- cizing of the CIA began when Rea- gan took office and "thelright wing ; began undermining the entire intelli- gence process," he said. Durenberger avoided criticizing; Reagan directly. He agrees with Reagan's general policy that a Marx- ist regime in Nicaragua is intoler- able, but he disagrees with the CIA's role there. ;"I don't expect Itonald Reagan to go I ' to bed every night trying to figure this out. That's why he has advisers that should have been designing some alternative," he said. Troubles within the CIA have spilled 'over into Congress, 'Durenberger said. Oversight ? the process by which the secretive intelligence agencies are made accountable to the public ? has "broken down" into political bickering and is -dead in I the water," Durenberger said. "We started going after each others' ? throats ... now, we don't do any- thing." ' Durenberger's -remarks, in an inter- view, followed by two weeks his an- nouncement that be would oppose more money for the covert war in Nicaragua. That announcement was meant to warn the administration that it cannot again approach Con- gress seeking to "sell a disintegrating agency" as a vehicle for either con- taining or overthrowing the Sandinis- tas, he said. Instead, the administration must de- vise a more creative policy ? per- haps above-board military aid or a concerted military effort by other Central American countries. He -invites such an alternative, he said, one that would return the CIA to its primary function of covert in- telligence gathering. So far, the ad- ministration seems not to understandj that Congress will not continue to pay for a CIA-led war, he said. - ? If he becomes chairman, DurenbeN ger said, be and his two closest allies' on the committee ? Seas: _Bill Co- hen, R-Maine, and Pat Leahy, D-Vt. ? will set out to "get (the CIA and the committee) out Of politics and back to overseeing the quality of the- production and analysis, of intelli- gence." . _ . ? ' Before he can take -on- the secret world of the CIA, however, be must survive another clandestine and in- triguing struggle, this orie :with col- leagues in the privacy of the Senate. For complexity, its plot may be wor- thy of the best spy literature, the kind in which events:. are seldom- what they seem.. ' ? 4 In John LeCarre'S 'famous novel, "Smiley's People," for'example, an aging snoop reminds the hero, "It's not a shooting -war any more, George. It's grey. Half-angels fight- ing half-devils. No one knows where the lines are.". . . ? 4 In the oblique parlance of intelli- gence, 'Durenberger is searching for the lines these days. "It's a mess," said a Durenbeiger aide. "No one knows what's going oti-for sure." To begin with, there's a Senate rule. To ensure that senators don't get too chummy with the CIA, five of the 15 members of the intelligence commit- , tee must rotate off the panel every two years. Moreover, no senator can serve more: than eight CORSeCtItive years. The rotation:: has ?never been en-7 forced. But, since the committee is now .eight years old, the question arises whether.to enforce the eight- year service limit. Enforcing it would push many of seasoned mem- bers oft the panel at a time when, arguably, the intelligence communi- ty is poised on the edge of a crisis in public confidence. Continued ? Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/12/11: CIA-RDP88B00443R000301230003-3 ? ?.- - - If the rule is enforced, Durenberger, as the senior remaining Republican,' rises to the chair. U it is not, Seal John Chafee, R-R.I., becomes- chair-I man.. ? 'Although a liberarRePublican, Cha- fee has been friendlier toward the CIA's efforts in Nicaragua. He wants' a permanent committee or, at least, an extension of the eight-year Hifi% Rob Simmons, the, eonunittee's.staff .director, Ls. a Chalet any. He agrees 'that inexperienced new members 'would be a ' Mistake. -The 7rotation rule "will -.degrade: the '..oversight IRFoeess," he sai517 'Durenberger- said 'b - vrill* -replace , 'Simmons if he assumes the chair."-t.;" ,? ? . rrd pitPoSal 1)dayle, R-Ind., to dump the current' _committee and form a joint intelli-; _gence committee with the House,4;"' sin all this, Durenberger and Chalet. each have unlikely allies. Some of the Senate's most conservative mem.- hers may back Durenberger because: they want seats that would open uP", on the committee. Entrenched mem; bars, notably Sen. Daniel, P. Moyni- han of New York, the ranking Demo- ' crat, may back Chalet. If the matter goes to the Senate -floor, Durenberger may have to rely :on Democratic votes; thus, perhaps, his hard-line .stand against the Rea- gan. administration's use of the CIA. Last week the Democratic caucus supported the rule.:_- ` -'? ? "' 'r* may not get that far, however. Incoming Majority :Leader Robert Dole may simply decide whether to :keep the rule and, thus, who will be chairman. Both Durenberger and rChafee backed .him for leader. So far, Dole has not tipped his hand. - ? Neither has the administration, which has given Durenberger no clue as to whether. because-of -his criticism, it will., oppose his: irspira- LticTs- _ ? . Although ultra-conservatives. within the administration Oppose him, oth- ers may have concluded that the CIA *.war in Nicaragua is a -dead horse." . Durenberger said, adding that he , doubts the administration will play a strong role in the matter:' ? "I suspect it has already been decid- ed by realities," Durenberger ,said. "We've got more important things to argue about." -; -t ?- - ? T kr ? *f.:77.- ? Dole promised nothing in ex- change, for his 'support for majority 1eader,; Durenberger said, but he "clearly left me-with the impression pat he was more inclined to let the !ruleaperate." - If Durenberger does-take charge of ..the committee, he proposes to install a "more professional" staff and to steep new memberiin a more schol- arly approachto.the historic, 'cultur- al 'and religious biagrounds-of the !regions most closely watched-. !He' that : be ? Can "work /Around" the; ankno.sitysthat has de- .veloped between many, senators and 'Cliey. Sin.' Harry -Goldwater; ;Ariz.; the*.outgoing:Ichairman,-twice F izalled for 'Casers resignation.' And !Durenberger called Casey a "two on ; a scale of 10." _ [? ? ? .?? . Said Allan Goodman, a foreign at- fairs specialist at Georgetown Uni- lyersity, "Oversight is as good as the personal 'relationship between the (-committee and the director of C.en-, tral Intelligence.." -On other agenda Iteins Durenberger'ald I ????? ? -- ? . , He favore'preemptive strikes: against terrorists based on informa- tion supplied by US. and allied intel- ligence agencies, CIA agents, howev- ',Or, should not be the killers, he said. Secretary oiState'George Shultz has recently proposed such preemptive: strips. The agencies are on a thin line, hoping not to!be "pushed over Into being a Messed (the Israeli in-. telligence agency); where they are actually going out to do the killings In advance," Durenberger said. They 'don't want to be the killers .- They don't want to get dragged into; that old stuff again. Their job is inte172 ligence gathering." he said. In many regions, the Untied Stittei! may have to rely on shared inteW-!; gence and a multinational anti-ter- rorist strike force, he said.:The. CIA may lack the "talent" to penetrate terrorist groups headquartered in. the Bekaa ? valley of Lebanon, for ezample. 1"They, are...much like the Mafia and it's hard to penetrate that kind of a 'family,'-' ? be said. 4 He favors retribution against ter- rorists after their attacks, either by American or allied agents.- - ? - Referring to the hijackers who re- cently diverted a Kuwaiti plane to Iran, he said, "They ought to know that the minute-they-Itici-off the airplane, they're marked people. Even if they make it off-in Iran, that they may not live out the year, that somebody's going to get them. They *now that with the Israelis. But not the Americans. Every one of those Idiots (terrorists) has ? got to know that they don't have4C:1icense -to kill," he said. _ ?? ? . ' It's clear that the:United -States ;is strong in its electronic surveillance of the Soviet Union but needs to 'place much more emphasis on: old-, lashliMed 'humlin7..eipio in the Third World. he saidi...to?-;?-?",' That ne'S unsiirairMither.tbinsist1 ghar,ilie CIA -retracijta'airialysia rof- the attempted asia'ssiiiitticin of. pope.. !John Paul. In light4ifiLieeent *evi- ' ;cience- that the Soir1a(13nion -may have been involved'_;11.:;the'plot;:soma. :Observers havebeeoMe alarmed that, the CIA was quidclOgfee with the Soviet KGB that It liadaio part in the 'attempt; ? That although he lavniti(poliiical solution in Nicaragua,': those hopes seem to be dimming ? and. military .action by surroundinith?countries against the Sandinistiti may be inev- jtablet:...-. .; ' -* ? , ? - : "El Salvador; . Honduras, ',Panama, ?Costa Rica and Guatemala-cannot live with a Cuba Stick' in their midst," he said. "Anclit's a question, :of time and meitai-'bifore. they do, something about ? 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