WHITE HOUSE SHUNS CASEY'S PROPOSAL TO PROSECUTE PRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860001-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 9, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860001-1
Z
WASHIN.iTON TIMES
9 May 1986
White House shuns
Casey's proposal
to prosecute press
By Jeremiah O'Leary
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The White House yesterday put considerable dis-
tance between President Reagan and any attempt to
prosecute the press for printing leaks.
"I basically just know what I read in the paper, and
we're not involved in it;' said White House spokesman
Larry Speakes. He said the president has not discussed
the matter with Mr. Casey.
Mr. Speakes said if a violation has occurred or will
occur, and the CIA director makes a recommendation
to the Justice Department, then the Justice Depart-
ment, not the White House, would decide whether to
prosecute.
Mr. Casey carried his complaints against The Wash-
ington Times and The Washington Post, Newsweek and
Time magazines - and by some accounts, The New
York Times - to a meeting last week with Deputy
Attorney General D. Lowell Jensen, who oversees the
Justice Department's criminal division.
Although Justice Department sources remain of-
ficially silent, one source said the department was
acting "like a dog trying to shake itself loose from a
swarm of fleas."
Mr. Speakes said Mr. Casey had a private conversa-
tion with Benjamin C. Bradlee, executive editor of the
Post, and Leonard Downie, Jr., the managing editor,
parts of which were printed Wednesday in The Post.
The CIA director was said to be angry that The Post
printed U.S. intelligence intercepts of Libyan commu-
nications about terrorist acts between Tripoli and Eu-
ropean embassies.
Mr. Casey was said to have threatened to take action
against The Post if it published material relating to the
Ronald Pelton spy case.
Mr. Speakes said the president knew nothing of the
matter until he returned to Washington on Wednesday
from Japan.
He reminded reporters "that a gentleman at the
Defense Department ended his service there rather
abruptly here about three or four days ago."
The reference was to Michael E. Pillsbury, former
assistant undersecretary of Defense for policy plan-
ning, who was fired after failing a polygraph test. The
government was in search of the source of a leak to the
Post about a U.S. decision to supply Stinger anti-
aircraft missiles to Angolan rebels.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860001-1