CLOAK-AND-DAGGER RELICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620018-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620018-1
Daniel Schorr
WASHINGTON POST
14 November 1985
Cloak-and-Dagger Relics
If the investigation ordered by Presi-
dent Reagan were to identify an official
of the executive branch as having dis-
closed information about the anti-Qad-
dafi operation to The Washington Post,
that person could be prosecuted for es-
pionage. This is the result of the pre-
cedent set when Samuel Loring Mori-
son, former Navy intelligence analyst,
was convicted under the 1917 Eapio-
nage Act for having provided three clas-
sified satellite photographs of a nuclear-
powered Soviet aircraft carrier to lane's
Fighting Ships.
The problem becomes stickier, how-
ever, if it turns out to be a congressional
source. On one occasion, in 1975, the
Justice Department threatened to with-
hold classified information from the
House intelligence committee if the ma-
terial was not protected from disclosure.
But it has never been suggested that a
member of Congress could be disci-
plined other than by Congress itself.
This is relevant because (I don't
think that I am baring any great jour-
nalistic secrets) the exposure of covert
form of congressional whistle-blowini
A leak often occurs when a clandestin
plan runs into substantial opposition
during a briefing for congressiona
Kissinger plan to undermine Chile's
President Salvador Allende leaked to
the press (Seymour Hersh of The New .
York Times) at a time when it was a
subject of intense criticism by some
members of Congress.
In 1975, the CIA's support of the
anticommunist S Trion in Angola (also
a Kissinger project) was disclosed
after it became an issue in the House
Foreign Affairs Committee. The late
Rep. Leo Ryan, a member of that
committee, told me in an interview at
the time that he could condone such a
leak if it was the only way to block an
ill-conceived operation.
Ryan was subsequently the author,
'with Sen. Harold Hughes, of legisla-
tion that banned CIA involvement in
Angola. (That pro-ViMin was recently
repealed.)
To minimize damaging leaks, the
congressional leadership eventually
agreed to restrict briefings on covert
operations to the Senate and House in-
telligence committees. That did not.
however, solve the problem.
In 1983, Sen. Barry Goldwater, then
chairman of the intelligence committee,
put on the public record the ClAorgan-
letter to CIA Director William Casey
bjecting toit a operation. (That letter
ecan'le a prime exhibit in Nicaragua's
mplaint to the International Court of
istice.) Sen. Jesse Helms was charged
Oth-but denied-having revealed
IA covert to the election campaign
of vador's President Jose Na-
poleon Duarte.
Libya's Muammar Qaddafi has been
the subject of a previous ), In Aug_
ust 1981, Newsweek reported that op-
position had developed in the House
intelligence committee during a brief-
ing on a plan to destabilize the QaddaS
regime. The Reagan administration
denied the existence of any suehpiia
There followed a scare over reported
Libyan "hit squads" out to murder
President Reagan. Intelligence of-
cials now believe there were no such
"hit squads"-that the whole thing
was a hoax meant to put Reagan on
notice that plotting against a president
could be a two-way street. , t .-_.
That has apparently not deterred
the president from approving qne
more plan to undermine Qaddaf; o" ,
again the leak occurred shortly aftas,
briefings in the congressional grtalii~ ,
gence committee.
By law, the administration give timely notice to Congress eras of place
for covert operations. The intetgence
committees and their staffs are sup-
posed to respect the secrecy of the'in.
formation. But, in an era when covert :
aid to Nicaraguan contras is openly de?
bated, the old-style clandestine operao ,
tion may be a thing of the past. .
It may be time to consign the cloak
and dagger to a museum. Anyway,. the
cloak.
The writer is news analyst for Vational
Public Radio.
STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620018-1