CLOAK-AND-DAGGER RELICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000705910014-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: November 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910014-8
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WASHINGTON POST
14 November 1985
~' Daniel Schorr
Cloak-and-Da er Relics
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If ~ mvestrgation ordered by Presi- York Times) at a time when it was a Libya's Muammar Qadda6 ~ bem
dent Reagan were to identify as official subject of intense criticism by some the subject of a pceviotta kak, ~ Aug-
of the executive branch as having dis- members of Congress, ust 1981. Newsweek reported that op-
ckued information about the anti-Qad- In 1975. the CIA's support of the position had developed is the House
day operation to The Washington Poet. anticommunist of-'ico'n in Angola (also intelligence committee
that person could be prosecuted for es- a Kissinger project) was disclosed ing on a plan to destabi>iae~tlteg Qaddttti
panage. This is the result of the pre- after it became an issue in the House regime. The Reagan administration
cedent set when Samuel Loring Mori- Foreign Affairs Committee. The late denied the diateaee of any aueh~ .
son, former Navy intelligence analyst. Rep. Leo Rysn, a member of that There folloaved a scare aver reported
was convicted under the 1917 Eapio- committee, told me in an interview at Libyan "hit sgwda" out to murder
Wage Act for having Provided three clan- the time that he could condone such a Pretideat
sifted satellite Photographs of a nuclear. leak if it was the only way to block an vials now behove' there ~
powered Soviet aircraft carrier to Jane's ill~onceived operation "hit squads..-that the whole thing
Fighting Ships. ~ .Ryan was subsequently the author, was a hoax ateant to put Reagan on
The Problem beoorr~ea stickier, how .with Sen. Harold Hughes. of legisla- notice that pkttting agt?oat a president
ever, if tt turns out to be a congressional tiara that banned CIA involvement in could be a two-way street. t
source. On one occasion. in 1975. the Angola. (That prom was recently That has t ~~.
Justice Department threatened to with- repealed.) the Presider ~~' not ~
hold classified information from the To minimise damaging leaks, the more plan to uttdetatine '
House intelligence committee if the ma- congressional leadership eventually again the leak acetar+ed
torts! was not protected from disclosure. agreed to restrict briefings on covert briefin ahocti~ ~ ~
But it has never been suggested that a operations to the Senate and House in- Bence c~ortumttee. ~'
member of Congress could be disci- telGgertce committees. That did rat. By law, the aatioa ~.:. .
plined other than by Congress itself. however, solve the problem. ,
This is relevant because (I don't In 1983, Sera, ~~ timely notcee ~ ~~? of D
think that I am barin an fin' Goldwater, then for court operations. The ittteW~Oe
g y great jour- chairman of the intelligence committee. committees and their staffs are sup-
nalistic secrets) the exposure of covert put on the public record the ClAorgan- posed to respect the
intelligence operations is frequently a ized minis of Nicara Y ~ ~'~'
form of congressional whistle-blowin . g k~ ~~ vnth formation. But, in an era molten coven ;
g R a letter to CIA IbitECtor William Casey aid to Nicaraguan contras is oPmdY,de~.
A leak often occurs when a clandestine objecting to~it a operation. (That letter bated, the old-style c>atd~
plan runs into substantial opposition became a prime exhibit in Nicara ?~~'
during a briefing for congressional gm's tion may be a thing of the past.. . .
committees. complantt to the International Court of It may be time to consign the cloak
P lusticx.) Sen. Jesse Helms was charged and dagger to a museum. Anyway,. the
For example, in 1974 the Nixon- with-but de:..~ -having revealed cloak.
Kissinger plan to undermine Chile's IA covert to the election campaign
President S
l
d
All
of
~
a
va
or
ende leaked to
~~I
's President Jose Ya-
the press (Seymour Hersh of The New . poleon Duarte.
The writer is news analyst for National
Public Radio.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910014-8