WHY NOT PROBE THE INVESTIGATORS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706320001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 21, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
t Declassified in Part
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000706320001-6
ARTICLE
WASHINGTON TIMES
p P,- All ,
21 May 1987
JOSEPH SOBRAN
Why not probe
the investigators?
0 n the same newscast that
announced the death of
Rita Hayworth, and
maybe for related rea-
sons, the nation was apprised of a
bawdy and baseless rumor that
Fawn Hall, Oliver North's secretary,
had smuggled documents out of the
White House in her underwear. Cov-
erage of the Iran-Contra hearings
has sunk perilously near the Rona
Barrett level.
We are in for every detail, however
trivial, of administration miscon-
duct, however technical, with the
added proviso, the juicier the better.
Keeping perspective in such an at-
mosphere isn't easy. Whether the
Reagan administration violated the
Boland Amendment, while it was in
effect, is being focused on as if, in
isolation, it were a morally critical
fact.
But if you step back from these
proceedings and the histrionic in-
dignation that attends them, and
look at the profile of recent congres-
sional investigations, you are struck
by a remarkable pattern.
At one time it was customary to
investigate communist and pro-
communist activities. our
elected officials concentrate their
attention on anti-communist a tivi-
ties - whether by the CIA, the FBI
or t ~e Nations ecurity ounce e
referee our own side, while ignoring
infractions by the other side.
What is missing from the current
investigation is more than scrutiny
of overtly pro-communist forces,
however. We need some investigation
of the investigators themselves.
As Congress seeks links between
the Nicaraguan Contras and the
White House, it is pertinent to ask
about links between members of
Congress and the Sandinista govern-
ment. Some visits between con-
gressmen (including Democratic
Rep. Pat Schroeder of Colorado) and
the Sandinistas have been publi-
cized. Others have not. A few ques-
tions:
? Did two congressmen and a sen-
ator have amorous affairs with a
Sandinista diplomat in Washington?
The answer is more consequential
for the fate of this hemisphere than
the well-ventilated question of what
time Donna Rice left Gary Hart's
townhouse. Rumors about the
unnamed senator's alleged affair
briefly reached the papers a few
Years ago, allegations about the two
congressmen, if memory serves, did
not.
? Did Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
act on disinformation fed him by the
Sandinista government?
? Has Democratic Rep. Ronald
Dellums of California had close per-
sonal ties with Fidel Castro and the
former communist regime of Gre-
nada?
? Did Rep. Edward P Boland him-
self, the Massachusetts Democrat
who sponsored the amendment in
the headlines, conceal evidence of
some fellow Democrats' association
with a Soviet front organization?
The answer to all these questions
is yes, according to "The Revolution
Lobby," by Alan Brownfeld and J. Mi-
chael Waller. This booklet, published
in 1985 by the Council for Inter-
American Security, not only cites
chapter and verse for its charges,
but even includes reproductions of
some of the documents it quotes. Yet
Congress and the press have ignored
these charges and the evidence for
them.
Of course, it is understandable
that Congress should avoid con-
fronting possible derelictions and
misdeeds of its members. But an ad-
versary press, whose duty is to be
critical of the legislative as well as
the executive branch, of Democrats
as well as Republicans, and of the
left as well as the right, has no ex-
cuse for passing over them.
A strange ethos pervades the
press nowadays. Digging up scandal
about anti-communist forces is hon-
ored as "investigative journalism;
while finding scandal on the left is
scorned as "McCarthyism:' The re-
sult is that pro-communist groups,
some of them funded and directed
from abroad, may operate not only
with legal impunity, but also with ex-
emption from embarrassing public-
ity, even when they inveigle elected
officials into their doings.
I s it plausible that furtive misbe-
havior occurs exclusively on the
political right? On the contrary,
doesn't it stand to reason that coun-
tries with no opposition parties, no
independent judiciaries and no free
press would seize the present
chance to dispatch agents to subvert
the United States ("the enemy of hu-
manity," according to the Sandinista
national anthem) and, if possible, to
compromise some of our leaders?
If Mr. Boland is any indication,
Congress is not going to investigate
itself without some prodding. And
the communist countries are not go-
ing to investigate themselves. There
is no Kremlin Ethics Committee;
there are no crusading muckrakers
from Pravda.
If the Free World is going to get
the full picture it needs, the Amer-
ican press is going to have to do dou-
ble duty and start scrutinizing the
left along with the right.
Joseph Sobran, a senior editor of
"National Review," is a nationally
syndicated columnist.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000706320001-6