WHITE HOUSE TAPING SYSTEM DISCLOSED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580002-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

'.\ Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580002-5
- A?'EARED '
t''E,SHINGTON POST
19 D~cernber 198
White House Taping System Disclosed
Computer and Audio Recordings May Contain Data on Iran Deal
By Bob Woodward
., .nnivc ni !^ .r ., nr Wi' r
A sophisticated White House
communications system that can
record some telephone calls and
meetings and preserve messages
and documents written on National
Security Council computer termi-
nals may contain information on the
secret Iran arms affair, informed
sources said yesterday.
'rhe high-quality taping system in
the White [louse Situation Room
was used to record some of Pres-
ident Reagan's key foreign policy
meetings, according to one source
with firsthand knowledge. This
source, however, (lid not know if
any meetings relating to the Iran
arms deals were taped.
:Another official said the Situation
Room taping system has been used
by the president for telephone con-
versttions with heads of state when
there might be problems in the
translation of foreign languages.
White House spokesman Daniel
Howard said last night that the
president's phone calls with foreign
i?'aders occasionally were recorded.
H,r.vard also said that the only audio
r:'cording system in the basement
Situation Room is part of a video
vstem connected with the Defense
I)t'partment that has only been used
inn tests,
Several of the key presidential
meetings on the secret Iran initi-
ative were held in the Situation
Room, including a Jan. 7 meeting of
the president's National Securuv
Planning Group (luring which Sec-
retary of State George P. Shultz
said he argued against a proposal to
sell arms directly to [ran, the
sources said.
The White House electronics sys-
tem includes a computer network
used for interoffice communications
by members of the National Secu-
rity Council, including Lt. Col. Ol-
iver L. North, who was tired from
the NSC staff last month tor his role
in the [ran arms-contra aid affair.
North u,ect the computer ,vstein
extensively, according to ources.
Sources said the White House
decision to modernize and install
taping systems followed the March
30, 1981, assassination attempt on
Reagan. At the time, there was con.
fusion over what various senior of.
ficials, particularly then-Secretary
of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., said
and did in the Situation Room. Sen-
ior members of the White House
staff realized the need to have a
verbatim record during a crisis,
sources said.
North, who is central to the in.
vestigation into secret arms sales to
[ran and the diversion of proceeds
to aid the Nicaraguan rebels, fre-
quently worked out of the Situation
Room. One ,ource who worked
with him -aid that North used the
Situation Room as a kind of second
office. The room has secure com-
nuniicanons that North and others
used during terrorist incidents.
Though ,mall, the Situation
Room is ettectively the White
House crisis management center,
and senior officials tend to gravitate
there during a crisis, as they did
immediately after the president was
shot in 1981.
In the last part of Reagan's first
term, sources said, Richard S. Beal,
the senior director of crisis man-
agement support and planning for
the NSC, supervised a moderniza-
tion of communications equipment
in the White House. It included a
secure computer system use ex-
tensively by NSC staff aides to com-
municate with each other and with
U.S. intelligence agencies. The sys-
tem stores and can compartmen-
talize sensitive information, the
sources said.
"[t was technology gone hon-
kers," said one source. "Electron-
ically everything was hooked into
everything else." Beal, who died of
a heart condition in 1984 at the age
of 38, also oversaw installation of a
tape recording system for room
conversations and telephone calls in
the large ciisis management center
in Room 208 of the Old Executive
Office Building next to the White
House, the sources said.
Beal also did communications
work forte Central Intelligence
gency, the sources said.
uring the Watergate scandal of
1972-74, the revelation that tape
recordings were made of conver-
sations in the Oval Office led to a
legal battle over access to the
tapes. The conflict was finally re-
solved by the Supreme Court, and
ultimately led to the downfall of
President Richard M. Nixon.
Nixon's system was "voice-
activated," meaning the tape re-
corders were automatically turned
on whenever someone spoke or a
sound was made. Sources said the
current system in the Situation
Room has to be turned on manually
each time it is used.
The NSC computer system's cen-
tral memory, sources said, might
provide investigators with informa.
tion on NSC operations, and possi-
bly the [ran-arms and contra-aid
affair even though information was
kept within a small group in the
NSC.
It could not be determined yes-
terday what kind of system the NSC
used to preserve information within
the computer network, or whether
the technical capabilities would al-
low investigators to retrieve data
that once may have existed in the
system.
One source said NSC staff mem-
bers had great confidence in the
,ecurity of.the computer system,
and internal NSC messages called
"PROFS" and other documents
could be restricted to those granted
access to special operations.
Officials said that it is common to
have a taping system in an opera-
tions or crisis management center,
and that similar systems are em-
ployed by the Pentagon, other mil-
itary commands and some intelli-
gence agency operations centers.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580002-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580002-5
"You may have to play back
something to check," one official
said, "or a military order may have
to be given, or there may not be
time to execute the proper docu-
ment."
The spring 1986 issue of The
Washington Quarterly published a
series of articles entitled "What
Hath the Computer Wrought?" in
which Beal was quoted on his work
at the White House: "When I ar-
rived, the White House had a great
big corner office without technol-
ogy .... We spend billions and bil-
lions of dollars to collect informa-
tion to get it from the field to an
analyst in the bowels of the bureau-
cracy .... We spend virtually noth-
ing on direct support to a senior-
level policymaker."
White House spokesman How-
ard's statement last night said:
"There is a set procedure for
presidential telephone calls with
heads of state. The procedure in-
volves initial contacts by staff mem-
bers on both sides for the arrange.
ment of the proper day and time for
such a call. Once the call is initiated,
the appropriate NSC staff member
responsible for the geographic re-
gion of the call usually sits in on the
call with the president's knowledge
and that of the other party in order
to produce a written record of the
conversation. In addition, at times a
translator may be present on the
call to handle language problems.
"There is a fail-safe procedure
using a recorder which has been
used to monitor the conversation on
a few occasions when a staffer and-
or translator was not available.
This, or a similar recording system,
has been in place since the creation
of the Situation Room in the early
1960s. There is also a, secure video
link-up between the Situation Room
proper and the National Military
Command Center. This system is to
be used only in national emergen.
cies. It has never been used oper-
ationally. It has been used only in
testing exercises since its installa-
tion about 10 years ago."
Staff researcher Barbara Feinman
contributed to this report.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580002-5