CONGRESS IS CRIPPLING THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000600190009-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2005
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: November 1, 1986
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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ON PAGE READERS DIGEST
November 1986
Congress
Is Crippling
the CIA
ROWLAND EVANS AND ROBERT NOVAK
Charged with "overseeing"
U.S. intelligence, too
many lawmakers, with
too many political axes to
grind, are leaking too
many vital secrets.
It's time to plug the holes
T 5 A.M. ON OCTOBER I I, 1985, a
stretch limousine carrying
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.)
pulled up to CIA headquarters in
Langley, Va. Vice chairman of the
powerful Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence, Leahy had asked
for a full briefing on the Achille
Lauro hijacking. But why before
dawn?
Because Leahy had agreed to
appear on the CBS "Morning
News" at 7 a.m. to comment on the
interception by U.S. pilots of the
hijackers' plane. Following his
meeting, Leahy, who now pos-
sessed every secret in the case, was
driven directly to CBS studios in
Washington. "It's a major triumph
for the United States," reported
Leahy. Then he made an extraordi-
nary disclosure: "When (Egyptian
President Hosni) Mubarak went on
the news yesterday and said the
hijackers had left Egypt, we knew
that wasn't so. Our intelligence was
very, very good."
Leahy had inadvertently tipped
intelligence specialists from Cairo
to Moscow that the United States
had intercepted Mubarak's phone
calls and heard that the Achilk
Laura hijackers were still in Egypt.
The conversations had been "read"
by communications intelligence and
flashed to computers in Fort Meade,
Md., where the National Security
Agency daily monitors thousands of
intercepted voice signals.
The disclosure would bri
Egyptian countermeasures to sa
guard subsequent telephone ca
Every government in the world t
note, and reacted by tightening se
city on communications. Leahy
sisted to an incensed CIA direr
William Casey that Administrat
officials had publicly disclosed
hijackers' whereabouts the day
fore he went on TV.
This incident is one of m
showing that the current era
Congressional oversight of the
is simply not working. Instead,
Senate and House Intelligence Co
mittees have become conduits
classified information. CIA efforts to
thwart international terrorist actions
or to lend support to anti-communist
guerrillas are difficult enough, but
keeping those operations secret has
become nearly impossible. And vital
intelligence-sharing by U.S. allies has
been severely hampered by concerns
in foreign capitals over the leakage of
information passed to Washington.
Pattern of Leaks. Under the
present oversight syst m, the 31
members of the House and Senate
committees, plus more than 6o staff
members, are informed ? of pro-
posed covert operations. "Any one
of these people who does not be-
lieve in an operation can appoint
himself or herself to stop it," says
Rep. Michael DeWine (R., Ohio).
"All they need to do is call a report-
er." Thus, the ability to make or
break government policy is widely
dispersed.
Congressional leaks concern
Rep. Henry Hyde (R., I11.), a mem-
ber of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence. He has
bluntly scolded colleagues, remind-
ing them that with Congress's "need
to know" for oversight purposes
"goes the overriding responsibility
to keep much of that information
secret."
The impact on U.S. relations
with allies has been severe. Casey
has testified that leaks "do more
damage than anything else" to U.S.
intelligence and to "our reputation
and reliability" among allies. In
fact, concern about American leak-
age has spread across the world,
often disrupting U.S. policy. For
operations of the U-2 spy plane.
Until 1974, a small group of
senior members of Congress
worked with floor leaders of both
parties as an informal oversight
panel. They were briefed by the
CIA director himself, usually with-
out Congressional staff present.
But questionable domestic sur-
veillance activities, assassination
plans, and other abuses by the CIA
in the 1970S led to the branding of
the agency as a "rogue elephant,"
transforming that collegial atmos-
phere. A rapid politicization of
intelligence marked the new era of
CIA oversight. In 1982, for exam-
ple, the Democratic-controlled
House Intelligence Committee re-
leased a staff report asserting that
the Administration was cooking in-
telligence to gain support for its
policy in Central America. Accord-
ing to the committee's own intelli-
gence consultant, former deputy
director of the CIA Adm. Bobby
Inman, the report was "filled with
biases," and in fact had been pre-
pared at the specific request ofcom-
mittee members with a partisan ax
to grind. Furious that he had not
been consulted, Inman resigned.
A clear breach of secrecy oc-
curred. in September 1984 with
press reports of a CIA briefing of
the Senate Intelligence Committee
that revealed our knowledge of a
top-secret Indian proposal to make
a preemptive strike against Paki-
stan's nuclear facility. Realizing its
security had been compromised,
the Indian government launched
an investigation. The probe broke
up a French intelligence ring that
WNW
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WASHINGTON POST
27 November 1986
Justice Dept. Launches Criminal Probe
Of Iran Arms Fund Transfer to Contras
CIA Tied to Unauthorized Shipment
By Walter Pincus
and .John M. Goshko
Waehmgton Post Staff Writers
In November 1985, the Central
Intelligence Agency helped arrange
what turned out to be a clandestine
shipment of arms from Israel to
Iran, two months before President
Reagan signed a secret authoriza-
tion for such operations, well-placed
sources said yesterday.
A month after the shipment, John
N. McMahon, who was then the
CIA deputy director, insisted that
the agency obtain formal presiden-
tial permission if it was to become
further involved in the shipping of
arms to Iran, according to admin-
istration and congressional sources.
Sen. David F. Durenberger (R-
Minn.), chairman of the Senate Se-
lect Committee on Intelligence, told
Duluth, Minn., radio station WEBC
yesterday that the CIA arranged a
plane in November 1985 for what it
thought were oil-drilling parts for
[ran that turned out to include
weapons.
Durenberger said CIA officials
had told him that "they didn't know
they were being asked ... for their
help in shipping arms" and that they
were "under the understanding at
the time" that the plane was carry-
ing oil-drilling parts.
That request for the CIA's help
came from Lt. Col. Oliver L. North,
the National Security Council staff
member who was fired Tuesday by
President Reagan, sources said.
CIA Director William J. Casey, who
was on a trip to China at the time,
gave permission for the agency ac-
tion, sources said.
ABC television last night identi-
fied the CIA-chartered company
that carried Hawk antiaircraft and
TOW antitank missiles from Israel
to Iran as Southern Air Transport
Inc., which has previously been tied
to the Iranian operation and to re-
supply flights to the contra rebels
fighting the government of Nicara-
gua.
The November 1985 involve-
ment by the CIA appears likely to
intensify congressional demands for
an administration explanation about
whether federal laws were violated.
Attorney General Edwin Meese
III said in his Tuesday news confer-
ence that there was a November
1985 shipment of arms to Iran that
was later returned but that it had
been arranged by Israelis without
any notification or explicit authorization from the Unit-
ed States. Meese said the United States did not learn of
that shipment until last February. The shipment of
Hawk missiles reportedly was returned by Iran because
the munitions were obsolete.
In response to National Security Council pressure in
late 1985 to send arms to Iran, State Department of-
ficials arranged for a White House meeting last Dec. 6
so that Secretary of State George P. Shultz and De-
fense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger could tell Pres-
ident Reagan of their objections to such a program.
Ten days after a second White House meeting last
Jan. 7, Reagan, signed a secret "finding," which author-
ized CIA participation in such arms shipments. The
finding was lucked in the safe of Vice Adm. John M.
Poindexter, the national security adviser who resigned
Tuesday.
Last Friday, the House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence told Casey to produce a full accounting
of funds from the sale of U.S. arms to [ran. The demand
hastened the weekend inquiry by Meese and the elec-
trifying disclosure on Tuesday that money was diverted
to support the contras, according to congressional
sources.
Casey told the committee that the CIA had set up "a
sanitized Swiss bank account to receive money from the
Iranian sale," according to one member. But the CIA
director said he did not know who made the decision to
set it up, who determined what money went into and
out of the account, or whether commissions were paid
to middlemen, according to another member.
"Casey seemed to be deliberately ambiguous" and
was told the committee insisted on a detailed account-
ing, one senior member said. He added that he thought
the CIA director was "pretty nervous" during the ques-
tioning about money distributed from the arms sale
"and went back to Meese to say they had a problem."
Meese said this week that he had launched his inquiry
after talking to Reagan on noon Friday.
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last Thursday that there were intercepted radio mes- Casey told the ouse committee, as a did the Sep-
ate intelligence committee later the same day, that the
sages that raised questions about the discrepancy be- CIA supplied one of its retired officers, George Cave, to
tween the large sums paid by Iran for the U.S. arms and the White House-run project because he had served as
the much lower value placed on them by the Defense station chief in Iran and was fluent in Farsi. Along with
Department, according to informed sources. setting up the Swiss bank account, agency personnel
In his Tuesday news conference, Meese said that his also handled the four 1986 arms transfers from t
inquiry was touched off by "a thorough review of a num- Pentagon to the individuals who took over when t
ber of intercepts, and other materials." U.S. officials weapons were shipped to Israel, sources said.
usually do not talk publicly about intercepts resulting Overall, Casey told the legislators that the agent
from electronic intelligence operations, which are con- made "a relatively minimal contribution" with a tot
ducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) from cost to CIA of $40,000 to $50,000, sources said.
bases with listening equipment around the world and Throughout his testimony, legislators said, Case
from satellites in space. repeatedly said he didn't know much about the detail.
Sources said yesterday that the NSA is now review- He did say that some commissions may have been paid
ing much of the radio traffic from Iran and other rele- to arms brokers and that $350,000 may have been left
vant areas which it automatically had recorded but does over in the CIA account.
not usually translate and review without special cause. Overall, the total value of the U.S. arms shipped to
In the wake of Meese's revelations Tuesday at a Iran was $12 million. Three of the four 1986 ship-
White House briefing for congressional leaders and ments-in February, August and late October-carried
Casey's appearance last Friday in closed sessions he- TOW antitank missiles: 500 on two of the flights and
fore the House panel, the roles played by the director 1,000 aboard the third.
and his agency remain "blurred," according to one leg- The May 28 flight to Tehran, which carried former
islator who sat in on these sessions.
national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane, North,
Meese told his news conference that' the CIA was Cave and reportedly an Israeli general, included a pallet
"the agent for the United States government" in han- of spare parts for Hawk antiaircraft missiles, the CIA
dling the money from the arms sales but that there was told the House panel, according to sources.
"no indication whatsoever, to the best of our knowl-
edge," that anyone in the CIA knew about the Swiss
bank accounts through which $10 million to $30 million
from the arms sales was funneled to the Nicaraguan
rebels.
Meese and Casey both said that the U.S. value put in
the four shipments of American arms made to Iran via
Israel this year was $12 million. Neither official, how-
ever, could say how much the Iranians paid for the
weapons.
Meese told the congressional leaders that hypothet-
ically one shipment, valued at $3 million to $4 million
by the Pentagon, was sold to the Iranians for $19 mil-
lion. The United States was repaid its costs, and the
remaining funds were divided with $12 million going
into the contra account and $3 million going to middle-
men and arms brokers.
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WASHINGTON POST
3 October 1986
President Says He Intends
To Keep Gacihafi.Off Bal ance
Reagan Denies Domestic Disinformation
By David Hoffman
Washington Pn,t Staff Writer
President Reagan said yesterday
that he wants to make Libyan lead-
er Moammar Gadhafi "go to bed
every night wondering what we
might do" to deter terrorism, but he
denied that a plan he approved in
August involved the spread of "dis-
information" through the American
news media.
Reagan was responding to a re-
port yesterday in The Washington
Post that the administration
launched a secret effort of decep-
tion aimed at convincing Gadhafi
that he was about to be attacked
again by U.S. bombers and perhaps
ousted in a coup.
The secret plan was outlined in a
three-page memo sent to Reagan by
national security affairs adviser John
M. Poindexter. It called for "real and
illusionary events-through a disin-
formation program-with the basic
goal of making Gadhafi think that
there is a high degree of internal op-
position to him within Libya, that his
key trusted aides are disloyal, that
the U.S. is about to move against
him militarily."
Other administration officials said
yesterday t at t e pan wasa
prove( y eagan in a secret Na-
tiona ecurtt ecision irectjve
that authorized t e entr rite -
igence Agency to spread false in-
formation a out a a j a roa an
also ordered a series o mi j-
tary movements designed to-fright.-
en the Libyan lea er.
Secretary Mate George P.
Shultz told reporters in New York
last night that he knew of "no de-
cision to have people go out and tell
lies to the media" but that "if there
are ways in which we can make
Gadhafi nervous, why shouldn't we?
"Frankly, I don't have any prob.
lems with a little psychological war-
fare against Gadhafl. It's very easy.
You people in the media enjoy not
allowing the United States to do
Shultz n tie Winston Churchill's
statement in World War II that "in
time of war the truth is so precious
it must be attended by a bodyguard
of lies," adding that "insofar as Gad-
hafi is concerned we don't have a
declaration of war but we have
something darn close to it."
Presidential spokesman Larry
S kes sal oin exter had told
him there was no effort y t e U. .
government to sprea ism orma-
tion in the American media.
Lion s said a report in he a
Street Journal about Libya last Au-
gust included intelligence in orma-
-_tion on Gadhafi that was generally
correct," although he sal t e news-
paper a me u mamma ory
stuff" in its report. After the Journal
shtiod r appear ug. pea es
described it as aut ors alafive."
Speakes said yesterday that he
had no comment on whether the
administration had spread false in-
formation about Gadhafi outside the
United States.
Reagan, meeting with a group of
newspaper columnists and broad-
cast commentators at the White
House yesterday, at first said, "I
challenge the veracity of that entire
story" published in The Post yes-
terday. But he then said the admin-
istration had been paying close at-
tention to Gadhafi and "I can't deny"
that "here and there, they're going
to have something to hang it on."
Asked whether there were
memos describing a deliberate ef-
fort to mislead the American peo-
ple, Reagan said: "Those I chal-
lenge. They were not a part of any
meeting I've ever attended."
Pressed further about whether
the administration intentionally put
out false information, Reagan re-
called arguments about using nu-
clear weapons in Vietnam while he
was California governor.
"And I said at the time that, while
we knew that we were never going
to use nuclear weapons there, we
should ne th " h ' `4
Ve
t
d
W
should just let them go to bed every
night wondering whether we might
use those weapons. Well, the same
thing is true with someone like Gad-
hafi and with all the speculation that
was going on in the media through-
out the world about whether our
action would tempt him into further
acts or not.
"And constantly there were ques-
tions-aimed at me as to were we
planning anything else. My feeling
was, I wouldn't answer those ques-
tions. My feeling was just the same
thing-he should go to bed every
night wondering what we might do.
A senior administration official
closely involved with the Libya plan
took issue with The Post account in
a briefing for newspaper columnists
and broadcasters at the White
House. He described as "absolutely
false" the "implication that some-
how the U.S. government had ini-
tiated or that the president had au-
thorized a program of disinforma-
tion for the American media." He
added, "You must distinguish be-
tween the audiences, you must dis-
tinguish between deception and dis-
information."
The Post account said that begin-
ning with the Aug. 25 Wall Street
Journal report, the American news
media reported as fact much of the
false information generated by the
Poindexter plan. Published articles
described renewed Libyan backing
for terrorism and a looming, new
U.S.-Libya confrontation.
But the Poindexter memo said
U. . rote igence a actually con--
clad in Au ust that Gadhafi was
"quie cent" on the terrori t ront
Yesterday, Speakes said some
facets of the Journal article were
correct, although "not necessarily
the conclusion or speculation." One
assertion that he said was correct
was that there was "growing evi-
dence" that U.S. air raids April 14
in Libya had not ended Libyan-spon-
sored terrorism.
A senior administration official,
speaking at the same White House
briefing, said that the evidence be-
gan coming in after July 15. This
included an "increasing number of
reports," he said, that Gadhafi was
shifting the people involved in ter-
rorist attacks from People's Bu-
reaus to Libyan Arab Airlines of-
fices.
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Asked yesterday whether the
administration had a policy against
spreading disinformation, Speakes
said he was not aware of one but
that other government agencies
such as the U.S. Information Agen-
cy had policies barring it.
Meanwhile yesterday, adminis-
tration sources said the Justice De-
partment plans to ask the Federal
Bureau of Investigation to conduct
an inquiry into yesterday's Post sto-
ry. The probe would be referred to
a new unit in the FBI's Washington
Field Office that was set up under a
reorganization last spring to assign
veteran agents to pursue leaks of
classified information. An FBI
spokesman said such leaks are dif-
ficult to investigate and that hun-
dreds of such probes have resulted
in only one indictment.
Members of the congressional
intelligence committees refused to
comment. Bernard McMahon. staff
director of the Senate Select Com-
mittee on Intelligence. said the ini-
tial reaction of some of the mem-
bers has been curiosity. "I don't
know even the extent to which
there was such a plan," he said "We
have asked for the details ....
We're taking a look at it."
The administration pan drew
criticism yesterday.
"I think it was one of the most
important and depressing stories
I've read in a long time," said A.M.
Rosenthal, executive editor of The
New York Times. "The implications
that our government was sitting
around figuring out how to lie to the
press makes me rather ill. It makes
you ask a lot of questions. Who au-
thorized this kind of thing? Has it
happened before? Who's going to
believe these people again?"
Staff writers David B. Ottaway,
Lena Sun and Howard Kurtz
contributed to this report.
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":* rr.n
~"" "' ~'3 '-~? WASHINGTON POST
6 August 1986
Talking Points
CIA Tip ...
Aviation Week and Space Technol-
ogy reports this week that former
Central Intelligence Agency deputy
director John N, McMahon will
soon become an executive vice
president of Lockheed Corp.
McMahon, a career CIA employe
who retired March 29, will manage
programs at the company's missiles
and space electronic systems divi-
sion, the magazine said.
-Marjorie Williams
Based on stiff reports and news services
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APTKLEAPP ED AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY
ON PAGE P1 4 August 1986
Roundup
may not have anything to do with Lockheed's classified document problems, but watch for an
announcement this week that a deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John N.
McMahon, will join the firm, becoming an executive vice president of Lockheed Missiles and
Space Electronic Systems Group, taking charge of programs. The incumbent executive vice
president, Jack Freeman, will concentrate on administration. McMahon is a career CIA
executive, rising in the Langley hierarchy from his work in science and technology.
We
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MIAMI HERALD ,N`LLY1
12 May 1986
U.S. backing rebels in 4 co
J- By ALFONSO C'H J DY
Her aching' ton Bureau
WASHINGTON - A year after quietly
adopting a policy of support for anti-Commu-
nist insurgencies worldwide, President Reagan
has embraced the causes of four rebel
movements from Afghanistan to Nicaragua in a
new strategy to loosen Soviet influence in the
Third World.
Under the Reagan Doctrine, as the policy is
generically known, U.S.-backed rebel armies
are fighting Soviet-backed regimes in Afghani-
stan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua.
Reagan's rebels include 150,000 Afghan muja-
hadeen, 25,000 Angolan guerrilheiros, 20,000
Cambodian maquisards and 15,000 Nicaraguan
contras.
The number of guerrillas supported - about
210,000 - is the largest in U.S. history and the
first to be assisted since the Central Intelli-
gence Agency trained 80,000 Laotian and
Vietnamese rebels during the Vietnam War.
As in the past, the CIA again is playing a
central role. To implement the Reagan Doc-
trine, the spy agency is undertaking new
covert operations at a budgeted cost of about
half a billion dollars, according to administra-
tion officials briefed on the CIA programs.
They said that the immediate goal is to
erode Soviet interests in the Third World, but
that the ultimate objective is to deal a strategic
blow against Moscow without using atomic
weapons.
The strategy, recommended by CIA Director
r' William Casey and approved by President
Reagan fi January 1985, rests on the premise
that the superpowers are already engaged in a
World War III of sorts involving proxy armies,
the officials said.
From that perspective, the United States is
trying to roll back Moscow's gains by aiding
pro-Western rebels in those nations.
"The way to hurt Moscow is through the
colonies, not in a frontal war which could end
the world," said one official, quoting from
briefings at which Casey's views have been
outlined.
He said Casey believes the United States is
justified in aiding foreign rebels because the
Rus-
sians fired the first shot back in
the 1960s when then-Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev pledged to aid
Third World "wars of national
liberation."
The CIA declined comment. But
when queried on the subject, it
released a copy of a little-publi-
cized May 1, 1985, Casey speech to
the Metropolitan Club of New
York.
Casey then accused the Soviet
Union and its partners of waging a
"subversive war ... against the
United States and its interests
around the world for a quarter of
"This campaign of aggressive
subversion has nibbled away at
friendly governments and our vital
Interests until today our national
security is impaired In our Imme-
diate neighborhood as well as in
Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin
America."
Primary targets
Casey noted that Moscow's
backing of leftist rebels occurred
at strategic locations aimed at
three primary targets vital to U.S.
security: Middle East oil fields, the
Panama Canal and Mexico.
As a result, U.S. Officials said,
the CIA has become a virtual
"freedom fighters" bureau and
Casey a veritable vicar of the
Reagan Doctrine of exporting
anti-Soviet revolution.
The Re gan'sodecis ohad n six its genesis
weeks after
taking office Jan. 20, 1981, to sign
a secret finding, or report, to the
congressional intelligence commit.
tees authorizing the CIA to spend
$19.5 million to organize the first
contingent of Nicaraguan contra
rebels.
At that time Reagan also in-
creased from $100 million to $250
million the annual CIA funding for
mujahudeen rebels.
But the Afghan and Nicaraguan
programs were uncoordinated.
The Idea of a comprehensive
policy can be traced to anti-Com-
munist adventurer Jack Wheeler,
known as the Indiana Jones of the
right, who last year helped the
pro-Reagan Citizens for America
lobbying group organize the first
summit of anti-Soviet insurgents
in rebel-held Angolan territory.
Wheeler says he got the idea
during a tour of battlefields in
Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia
and Nicaragua in 1983. Returning
to the United States, Wheeler
briefed Casey. Secretary of State
George Shultz, then-United Na-
dons Ambassador Jeane Kirkpat-
rick and Marine Lt. Col. Oliver
North of the National Security
Council, who today serves as the
chief White House contact with
the contras.
"Now it's our turn," Wheeler
told a reporter in January during a
gala dinner at the Washington
Hilton hotel honoring visiting An-
golan rebel chief Jonas Savimbi.
"In the , we had this en ess
succession of Marxist guerrilla
heroes: Mao Tse Tung, Fidel
Castro, Che Guevara; all the Che
posters on all the college dorm
walls In the 1960s. Now there are
anti-Marxist guerrilla heroes."
Dreams made policy
In late 1984, the White House
translated Wheeler's dreams into
policy.
According to officials, the secret
Restricted Inter-Agency Policy
Ur up, made up of NSC, CIA,
Pentagon and State Department
representatives and known as the
208 Co cause it meets in
room 8 of the Old Executive
Office Building, met and recom-
mended a coordinated policy of
supplying lethal and "humanitari-
an" aid to four insurgencies.
They are:
? The Islamic Unity of Afghan
Mujahadeen made up of seven
rebel factions in Afghanistan.
? The National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola, led
by Savimbi.
? A coalition of Cambodian
Noro-
rebel ihanouk led b that also
dom S includes
Poi Pot's murderous Khmer
Rouge. U.S. Officials say, however,
that no American money reaches
the Khmer Rouge.
? The United Nicaraguan Op.
position headed by Adolfo Calero,
Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robelo.
In early 1985, Reagan endorsed
the committee's proposal.
Shortly after, Congress handed
Reagan a major victory that
greatly advanced his freedom
fighters' program, lifting a 1975
ban on aid to the Angolan rebels.
Congress also approved assistance
to the Cambodians.
The only glitch was that Con-
gress refused to renew military aid
to the Nicaraguans, approving
instead $30.1 million in nonlethal
assistance, communications gear
and CIA aid to finance contra
expenses and projects.
This year, the 208 Committee
upgraded the Reagan Doctrine by
escalating CIA operations in Af-
ghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and
Nicaragua.
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 Approved For Release 2005/12/14: CIA-RDP91-00901R000600190009-6
According to congressional
sources with access to classified
data, Reagan approved committee
Proposals to provide sophisticated
portable anti-aircraft Stinger mis-
siles to the Afghan, Angolan and
Nicaraguan insurgents; compre-
hensive war plans to the Nicara.
guans and encrypted radios and
logistical aid to the Cambodians.
The sources said Reagan signed
secret findings in early 1986
authorizing the CIA and other
agencies to administer $523 mil-
lion in new assistance to the four
insurgencies.
According to the sources, the
breakdown includes:
? $400 million in military and
humanitarian aid to the Afghan
mujahadeen, including 150 Sting-
ers.
10 $100 Million in military and
logistical assistance to the Nicara-
guan contras, Including 50 Sting-
ers.
9 $15 nonlethal dllto Savimbi's~UNITand
A
in Angola, along with 50 Stingers.
? $8 million in nonlethal aid to
the Cambodians, including uni-
forms, medical supplies, food,
communications equipment and
intelligence data.
Plagued by Problems
Only the Angolan and Cambodi.
an programs are proceeding
smoothly. The Afghan and Nicara-
guan operations have been plagued
by logistical and political prob-
lems.
CIA officers delivered the first
12 Stingers to Afghan guerrillas in
April. But Andrew Elva of the
Federation for American-Afghan
Action, a Washington group that
lobbies for mujahadeen aid, said
11 Stingers fired by the rebels at
Soviet aircraft missed because of
"training mismanagement."
As for the Nicaraguans, the
Stingers intended for them were
never delivered because of the
continued resistance in Congress
to approve their aid program. The
administration has since decided
not to supply Stingers to the
contras.
Dissension within the adminis-
tration also has been rdported.
In a Feb. 24 letter to Reagan,
CIA deputy director John MMcMa-
h9A_ resigned, citing persolSAT
reasons. However, intelligence
sources said McMahon quit to
protest the 208 Committee's rec-
ommendation for stepped-up co-
vert actions on behalf of the
foreign rebels. McMahon has de-
nied that assertion.
4
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 ARTICLE
ON PAGE
Approve
ESSAY
NEW YORK TIMES
005/1~~/1 YC
William Safire
Spilling the NID
in the service on the subject of leaks.
Having been made the laughingstock
WASHINGTON
llliam Casey, Director of
VT Central intelligence, ap-
pears to be getting nervous
of world spookery by his mishandling
of the defector Yurchenko, he is now
threatening journalists with jail
terms for publishing secrets other
than those leaked from the top.
He is joined in this always-popular
pastime' of intimidation by David
Durenberger, chairman of the Senate
Select Committee on' Intelligence,
whose heavily publicized midlife
crisis makes him seem, In my opin-
ion, eager to show he has not become
a blabbermouth.
Let me put forward my own Na-
tional Estimate of the crackbrained
crackdown.
John McMahon, until two months
ago the C.I.A.'s Deputy Director, was
the product of its intelligence-gather.
ing side, and resisted Director Casey's
policy (with which I agree) of putting
missiles in the arms of freedom fight-
ers willing to shoot them at oppressors
in Afghanistan, Africa and Nicaragua.
He was booted out and replaced by
Robert Gates, who came up through
the evaluation rather than gathering
branch. Mr. Gates is thus more a
driver of spies than a spy by trade; he
is comfortable with the Casey covert
action, and his pride and joy has been
the National Intelligence Daily.
This "NID," with its blue card.
board cover and 10 or 12 pages of in-
formation, is the evaluated product of
the intelligence community. The cir-
culation is limited to about 200 offi-
cials whose lowest clearance is "top
secret," and who enjoy the thrill of in-
sidership six mornings a week. (On
Sundays they have to rely on the
newspapers, and can catch up on
what is happening.)
Do not confuse the NID with the
P.D.B. - the President's Daily Brief-
ing, in the white cover - which goes
to only a handful of people, and which
I presume contains poop from the
human group as well as from satel-
lites and big ears. (I used to confuse
A scapegoat was needed to send a
warning to the list, and to justify the lie
detector "experiment" within the Pen.
tagon. After a story appeared in the
Evans and Novak column about using
Zaire as the distributor of missiles to
the Savimbi insurgents in Angola - in.
formation that may have been in the
NID - Michael Pillsbury, a Defense
official, was fluttered and bounced.
"Mike the Pill" was expendable; as
a Senate aide in the hard-line "Madi.
son Group" during the Carter em, Mr.
Pillsbury was a valued Casey.Weinber.
ger ally; but now the Jesse Helms
crowd is losing its clout and the firing
of Mike the Pill could serve as a warn-
ing to others. Moreover, a head od a
platter was needed for Zaire. ,?
Then Bill Casey went a bridge too.
far. To scare the press, he went to The
_rJ
taro Bob Ward y that if a ub. -
lished, he would recommend p was
rnsedb
tion under some untested statute.
"ITfn nolt sot threatening, but ...
whileewl Depaftrtaermentool,kershoweinGavver,
lngticeto go-
The C.I.A.
tries to spook
the press
ernment, is unwilling to join Mr. Casey
in chilling the leakees in the press., .
One reason is that law enforcement
officials have long been aware of, and
are discreetly curious about, meet-
ings held in Mr. Casey's home, alone,
between the Director and reporter
Woodward, who is writing a book
about the C.I.A.
I would never ask Bob Woodward
about that, because a man's sources
or non-sources are nobody's business
but his own. But a few months back I
put the question buzzing around Jus-
tice directly to my old friend Casey.-
"I haven't seen Woodward for -18
months
" was the
ruff
l
,
g
rep
y No baser
..
Dictionary, Merriam-Webster's Un- at all to the obvious F.B.I. wonderment
abridged, and found it difficult to un- if Mr. Casey was the source of the ste.
derstand why spooks were concerned ries he most Complains about. He does
that "the NID is leaking.") readily admit seeing Mr. Woodward
That's it. That's the reason Mr. (as he did me) long ago.
Casey is having fits, losing sight of I do not suggest that the Director of
the freedoms we hired him to protect: Central Intelligence has ever been the
the NID is leaking. source of a fact the Government does
Rather than consider if secrets are not want known. But to the extent
coming out of C.I.A. or N.S.A. (No politicians on background seek to use
Such Agency), where fooling the poly- journalists to advance policy, Mr:
graph is child's play, the blame is Casey and even higher officials grip
being placed on the consumers of intel- "sources." They will find their out-
ligence: the 200 NID subscribers, a lets turn user-unfrieidly when tbeff.
third of whom a
t...V n'-~~_~
re
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 `tAP~
WASHINGTON POST
T--' Approved For ReleWse 1121'F8:6CIA-RDP91-00901 RI
THE CIA IN TRANSITION
Casey Strengthens Role
Under `Reagan Doctrine'
By Patrick E. Tyler
and David B. Ottaway
WaahinQton Poet Staff Writers
When the Soviet Union shot
down a Korean Airlines plane in
September 1983, an angry Presi-
dent Reagan told CIA Director Wil-
liam J. Casey that the United States
should send U.S.-made antiaircraft
missiles to Afghanistan to help the
rebels shoot down a few Soviet mil-
itary aircraft in retaliation.
Casey was willing, but the plan
was never approved, in part be-
cause of a reluctant Central Intel-
ligence Agency bureaucracy, ac-
cording to one source. Some top
CIA officials argued that introduc-
ing U.S. weapons into that conflict
would escalate it dangerously, end
any possibility of "plausible denial"
of U.S. involvement for Washington
and alienate Pakistan, the main con-
duit for covert American aid to the
rebels.
Now, with the decision to begin
supplying U.S.-made Stinger anti-
aircraft missiles to the rebels in
Angola and Afghanistan, the Rea-
gan administration apparently has
dispensed with such cautionary di-
plomacy, In so doing it has thrust
the CIA into a far more public role
as the lead agency in carrying out
the United States' secret diploma.
cy.
This stepped-up commitment,
under what some administration
officials have called the "Reagan
Doctrine," is dedicated to the pres-
ident's vision of effectively support-
ing anticommunist "freedom fight-
ers" in their struggle against Sovi-
et-backed Marxist governments in
the Third World.
An earlier article in this occasion-
al series examined the evolution
and debate over the "Reagan Doc-
trine." This one focuses on the role
of the CIA in implementing that
doctrine and the agency's remark-
able growth during the tenure of
Casey, the former Reagan cam-
paign manager turned spymaster.
Casey's influence, both in rebuilding
the CIA and as a trusted counselor.
to the president, has made him a
critical and sometimes controver-
sial player in the administration.
During his five years as CIA di.
.rector, the intelligence budget has
grown faster than the defense bud-
get and the agency has rapidly re-
built its covert-action capabilities
with a goal of restoring the prestige
of the CIA's Directorate of Oper-
ations. The "DO," as it is called,
suffered a series of purges and in-
vestigations during the 1970s and
its image was smeared by disclo-
sures of past assassination plots,
use of mind-altering drugs and spy-
ing on U.S. citizens.
Since that time, a new generation
of senior managers has ascended to
the top of the CIA, and they in gen-
eral have been a more cautious
breed, eager to avoid risky opera-
tions that would, embarrass the
agency if disclosed
But Casey is not a prisoner of
that past. -
He is one of the anti-Soviet "ac-
. tivists" in the top echelon of an ad-
ministration that has promoted
stepped-up VS. involvement in the
struggle to "roll back" recent Soviet
gains in the Third World. While
supporting the CIA's more cautious
career bureaucracy, Casey also has
moved quietly-sometimes in his
political channels-to prepare his
agency for a more aggressive role
in countering Soviet influence in the
Third World.
goals in Nicaragua and elsewhere in
the Third World. More than once,
according to sources, Casey has
angrily rejected CIA analyses that
did not mesh with the anti-Soviet
pronouncements of White House
policy-makers and speech writers.
One key senator has said that
relations between Casey and the
committees are at an all-time low.
The penalty for Casey could come
in the next two months as the com-
mittees prepare to make the largest
cuts in the intelligence budget since
the Carter administration.
Some officials see Casey's most
formidable challenge in Reagan's
second term as facing severe bud-
get cuts mandated by the Gramm-
Rudman-Hollings deficit-reduction
act. This comes as the U.S. intel-
ligence community is projecting
multibillion-dollar outlays for a new
generation of high-technology spy
satellites that some officials say are
badly needed to guard U.S. inter.
ests until the end of the century.
Some critics charge that Casey is
40 years out of touch with intelli-
gence management and shows ob-
sessive interest in mounting covert
operations in the style of the World
War 11 Office of Strategic Services,
where he cut his teeth on clandes-
tine warfare under Gen. William J.
Donovan. His critics point out that
these were tactics of a bygone era.
The country was at war; the more
covert operations the better.
Wei
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