FBI WARNED OF MANIPULATION ON NUCLEAR ISSUE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130064-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: November 19, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130064-6
ARTI GIE APPELM '
ON PAGE / -.k
FBI warned
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
19 NOVEMBER 1982
"It is particularly unseemly for the - "and we haven'-violated any of our
FBI to appear -to be taking sides by guidelines."
providing secret file information to In his letter, Edwards recalled how
one side of the (nuclear=freeze] de. President Lyndon B. Johnson, con-
of manipulation bate." especially when the '- 1 b l
on nuclear issue
By Aaron Epstein
Inquirer waounpon Burt=
e to t fronted with widespread public dis
ity of the faceless, nameless inform. . sent over the Vietnam War- in -the
ers providing the information" is 1960s. used the FBI, to investigate
unknown, wrote Edwards, a Demo- , communist influence in the anti-war
crat from California. ;,movement.
He urged Webster either to admit a "We know 'now how
zerg,
mistake or to explain the FBI'
s role . -the FBI's statements-. and
actions
WASHINGTON - Rep. Don Ed- to the public or to the House Judicia.. "were- with respect to'both-the'eivil
wards, a former FBI agent whose , ry Committee's subcommittee on civ- rights and anti-war movements,"?.Ed-
subcommittee oversees the agency, it and constitutional. rights, which. wards wrote: Let us learn_from`bis.
warned yesterday that the FBI was is Edwards heads. Cory and not ret, our danger of being manipulated by the Webster said earlier this week that In' an interview, he added: a i~.
White House for political purposes. the FBI had furnished secret infor. "I'm sure Marxists Sand Socialists
Edwards contended in a letter to mation on foreign influence.in the Lare in the-peace movement; but. ft's
FBI Director William H. Webster that nuclear-freeze movement to the Na- ' nonsense to say It's 'manipulated.- is
the FBI already has aligned itself ? tional Security Council and to the - :bigger- than -that."
improperly with the Reagan.admin-' House 'Select Committee on -Intelli- Referring to 'the 'denuncIatio. of
istration's opposition to a freeze on gence, In an interview Wednesday, nuclear war being drafted by the
the production of nuclear weapons. Young said the information had --:nation's Roman Catb$1ic?B1sDo,'Ed:
The congressman noted that one been .requested by someone-working wards remarked: "They're (Soviet
day after President Reagan -told a for the council and had been sent to agents) not at* the .downtown Hilton
news conference last week that Sovi? the White House in earl
O
t
b
y
c
o
er. m
,anipulating those 'bis
et agents were manipulating the U.S, 'The FBI director said earlier this you.' etl
nuclear-freeze movement, a top FBI week that "the Soviets have engaged ? Edwards suggested' 'that ..p1ble-
official said publicly that the FBI had in what is called 'active measures'
by-
furnished such information to the which they seek to bring about a' bpoonticcl's targ criticism s of it the'itie -free mfree ze mstve.
ove.
White House. Psychological effect on various ment could be Democratic
The official, Roger Young, assis- movements that are consistent with_ tial candidates who 'favor aapt f yea'
tant director of the FBI for-congre- itheirl overall world objectives and-. especially Sen. Edward'M.` Kennedy
sional and public affairs, said-Reags
`strategies - and this tthe nuclear- ` (D., Mass.) and former Vice,Pre s-
had been "accurate" in describing freeze movement) is no exception. dent Walter F. Mondale.
n
"That should sot
"
h
S
t
e
oviet attempts to influence the
peace movement."
"We are not casting aspersions on
the peace movement," Young said,
"but we know the Soviets have tar-
geted it as the place to exert influ-
ence, not just in the United States,
but in other parts of the world."
to any way cast s - - - n--- -
reflection upon the sincere,'dedicat=
ed and informed citizens who f&'
other reasons are supporting this or.
any other movement in the exercise ?
of their First Amendment rights."
An FBI official said all of the infor.
mation furnished to the administra.
tion and Congress came from FBI
By making such a public state- counterintelligence, not from str'
ment, Edwards contended, the FBI surveillance of domestic grorfs
had broken its own guidelines re-
quiring that investigations be kept
secret until criminal charges are
filed so that both the investigations
and the reputations of innocent peo-
ple are protected. :. _.:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130064-6