CHENEY CHIDES JOURNALISTS FOR LINKING CIA TO TERRORIST INVOLVED IN BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580062-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 62
• Publication Date: June 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580062-9 STAT
CASPER STAR TRIBUNE (WY)
20 June 1985
By PAUL KRZA only in general terms, he said.
Star-Tribune staff writer Prior disclosure of plans
WASHINGTON - American
journalists should nothave
reportedegations of CIA in-
volvement in the training of ter-
rorists who recently exploded a car
bomb in a Beirut suburb, Wyo-
ming Congressman Dick Cheney
said Wednesday.
Chene , a member of the House
Select Committee on Intelligence,
sat~uc reporting of government
intelligence efforts is "irresponsi-
ble."
Shiite terrorists
TWA airliner last
who hijacked a
week in Athens
later killed an American ser-
viceman and said they did so in
retaliation for the alleged U.S.
involvement in the Beir el-Abed
bombing in Lebanon that killed 50
people.
Earlier press reports indicated
the CIA trained the people who
exploded the Beir el-Abed bomb.
The CIA has denied any involve-
ment in the bombing.
Cheney said he was not sug-
gesting that the press disclosures
were to blame for the murder of
23-year-old Navy frogman Robert
Stethem. Stethem was one of the
passengers on the hijacked
Athens-to-Rome TWA flight.
"1 could not link the two (but)
... the terrorists had linked
(them)," he said. "It was a claim
by the terrorists."
He said "disclosures of those
kinds of activities obviously can
have consequences."
"I am suggesting there ought to
be a greater sense of responsibility
on the part of the press before they
print things that are classified,"
Cheney said.
Specific government plans to use
violence to counter terrorist activi-
ties should not be debated public-
ly, Cheney said. Instead, such
plans should be debated openly
Cheney chides journalists for linking
CIA to terrorists involved in bombing
counterterrorist attacks or
for
of
training and tactics under con-
sideration effectively forecloses
those options, he said.
Instead, decisions on tactics and
what might be considered ap-
propriate actions - even if they
involve violence and death -
ought to be left up to government
officials, Cheney said.
"I would argue that we elect
people and give them certain
responsibilities," he said.
--We ought to have enough con-
fidence and trust to allow them to
operate without making it im-
possible (by publicly disclosing
secret plans)."
The hijackers' claim of U.S.
involvement in the recent bombing
illustrates why the media needs to
be less "irresponsible" in printing
intelligence information, Cheney
said.
The news media should also ex-
ercise more self-censorship in not
disclosing possible tactics or op-
tions that the U.S. could or might
use, even if they involve counter-
terrorist activities or violence, he
said.
"There are occasions when you
have to resort to force," Cheney
said. "We live in such an era
now."
Public debate about the merits
of using violence, such as a "pre-
emptive strike" against terrorists,
is best avoided or should be carried
on only in general terms, he said.
"If, for example, you would
have known that this hostage crisis
was planned ... (that) a group
planned to capture an American
airliner ... wouldn't you be
justified in using a pre-emptive at-
tack?" Cheney asked.
"I think we would have been."
Cheney said he is not about to
suggest that new sanctions be
legislated to keep the media from
disclosing secret information. But,
he said, "the media can do a better
job_ of policing (itself)" and resist
the.. "drive to beat others to the
punch" by printing information
that needs to be kept secret.
"There are some legitimate
reasons ... for keeping certain ac-
tivities of the U.S. government
secret," he said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580062-9