BEHIND THE BIG SPY CRACKDOWN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403720057-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: July 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403720057-7
ARTICLE AP? EARED
ON PAGE ..._Z3_
NEW YORK POST
15 July 1985
INSIDE . ' WASHINGTON
I AOL BY NILES LATHEM
igehi*nd the
big
spy crackdown
THE Justice Dept. has 12 accused spies waiting
to go on trial for espionage - an all-time record.
With the Navy family spy team and the CIA
clerk and her Ghanian lover joining an FBI
counterintelligence agent, two Russian emigres,
and an Army intelligence agent in the slammer,
the public is seeing the impressive results of a
clear change in strategy by the Reagan admin-
istration from the way espionage cases were
handled in the 1960s and '70s, say the experts.
Bell won spy battles with
the CIA over the prosecu.
tion of Vietnamese agent
David Troung and others.
But at the same time the
government's ability to
prosecute spies - pouring
into the nation under dip-
lomatic cover as a result
of the government's policy
of opening its doors to the
Soviet Union - was se.
verely damaged.
The picture changed
when President Reagan
came Into office in 1981
and redirected the force of
the law so that it was
aimed only at the traitors
- not those trying to put
them behind bars.
With the firm support of
CIA Director William
Casey and Defense Secre.
tary Caspar Weinberger,
his Justice Dept. made
fighting Soviet intelli-
gence operations a major
priority. He approved
beefing up the counterin-
telligence sections as well
as modifying some of the
laws imposed during the
1970s that had restricted
the ability of counter-intel.
ligence to operate.
Although law enforce.
ment and intelligence ex-
perts say they have a long
way to go before they will
be able to restrict Soviet
Intelligence operations ef.
fectively in this country,
the number of spectacular
cases made in the past two
years should come as no
suprise to anyone.
Intelligence experts note
that they have learned a
considerable am mount
about how the KGB and its
sister services operate in
this country from investi-
gating the 12 spies - as
well as from two recent
Soviet bloc defectors.
The conclusion of the ex-
perts is that there is just
as much to gain from
prosecuting intelligence
agents as there is from
playing games with dou-
ble and triple agents. And
the propoganda value of
the recent cases is an
additional and unexpected
prize.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403720057-7
During J. Edgar Hoov-
er's heyday in the 1960s -
when the CIA also had a
major say in domestic in-
vestigations - people like
CIA clerk Sharon Scrange
or retired naval communi-
cations man John Walker
would never have seen
their names in headlines
- much less be awaiting
public trial.
In those days, they prob-
ably would have been
taken to a "safe house"
somewhere in rural Vir-
ginia for a less than peace-
ful debriefing session and
then "turned" into work-
ing for the U.S. as double
agents - feeding their
Soviet or Ghanian controls
carefully selected infor.
mation sprinkled with a
bit of disinformation.
But such clever decep.
tion is really the stuff of
spy novels these days and
rarely happens In actual
practice.
Although somewhere in
the vast and murky intelli-
gence underworld, double
agents still operate, that
kind of chess game
largely vanished during
the spy scandals of the
1970s - when the old coun-
ter-intelligence blood-
hounds like the CIA's
James Angleton were
purged after the discovery
that these units had gone
out of control.
The Justice Dept., start.
ing with Jimmy Carter's
Attorney General Griffin
Bell, responded to the spy
scandals by reining in the
counter-intelligence units
and using the law against
both hunters and hunted.