HELMS, AIDE PROBED ON SECURITY LEAK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870019-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: August 5, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870019-1
P.PWARZED
WASHINGTON POST
5 August 1986
Helms, Aide Probed on Security Leak
Intelligence Panel Sought FBI Inquiry; Senator Denies Charge
By Joanne Omang
Washington Post Staff Writer
The FBI, at th ?the
Senate a ect Committee on Intel-
ligences is investigating "a patontiA
violation" of national security se-
crets by either an aide to Sen. Jesse
Helms (R-N. .) or the senator him-
self regarding U.S. intelli ence-
atherm capability in Chile. com-
mittee officials-said yesterday. .
A State Department spokesman
quoted Elliott Abrams, assistant
secretary of state for inter-Amer-
ican affairs, as saying there was "no
indication Helms was personally
responsible for any breach of secu-
rity, or even that he was aware of
it, but that's why you investigate."
Two sources close to the probe
said it has focused principally on
Christopher Manion, Helms' aide on
the Foreign Relations Committee.
The sources added that Helms had
not been ruled out as a suspect.
Helms heatedly denied the
charge, telling reorters it was "a
smear campaign by the State De-
partment and the Central me i-
ence Agency. e accu rams
o "a deliberate falsehood" in spark-
ing the probe. Manion, the brother
of Daniel A. Manion, recently con-
firmed as a federal appeals court
judge, could not be reached for
comment last night.
In a formal statement, Sens. Da-
vid R. Durenberger (R-Minn.) and
Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), respec-
tively chairman and vice chairman
of the intelligence committee, said
the committee had "received infor-
mation that there had been a poten-
tial violation" of the law that bars
disclosure of classified information
held by a senator or Senate em-
ploye or officer.
Abrams' spokesman said Abrams
had "mentioned" the alleged- secu-
rity violation to Durenberger dur-
ing "a chance encounter at a social
event."
Without mentioning Helms or
Chile, the statement said the com-
mittee had asked the Justice De-
partment to investigate and that the
results would be turned over to the
Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
The Justice Department refused to
comment.
An intelligence committee
spokesman said the statement had
been issued in response to a report
in Sunday's New York Times about
a probe involving Helms and Chile.
Sources close to the investigation
said the alleged security leak in-
volved a U.S. ability to monitor in-
ternal communications of the
Chilean armed forces, through
which officials had reportedly
learned unreported details of the
July 6 burning death of a Washing-
ton resident, Rodrigo Rojas, 19, in
an antigovernment demonstration.
Government troops have been ac-
cused of Rojas' murder.
The technology had also allowed
unspecified contact with the grow-
ing opposition to President Augusto
Pinochet within the Chilean armed
forces, the sources said. The FBI
began its inquiry July 18, the
sources added.
Helms visited Chile and met with
Pinochet the week after Rojas'
death, taking along his wife and per-
sonal aides Deborah DeMoss,
James Lucier and Clifford A.
Kiracofe Jr. Manion, who was not
on the trip, has traveled to Chile
many times in the past. One staff
member said the five-day visit was
financed by the Chilean National
Agriculture Society and not by U.S.
taxpayers.
"None of us [on the trip], includ-
ing the senator, had access to any
classified information on Chile.
There was no hearing, no briefing,
no documents, no nothing. We had
nothing to leak, period," the staff
member said.
Helms made a surprise visit to
the Senate press gallery yesterday
to deny he had leaked anything to
the Chileans. "It was Elliott Ab-
rams" who started the probe,
Helms said. "He crept up here in
the dead of night and made those
charges .... I am saying Elliott
Abrams committed a deliberate
falsehood, knowing it to be a lie."
Abrams' spokesman said Abrams
had neither lied nor leaked anything
to the news media.
Helms said the State Department
and the CIA a"want t o si Bence me
they want to intimidate me, they
want to crass me it s not o-
ing to work." He has long c aim
that i e fi
n fact-finding mis-
sions whim and his sta rave ro-
duced better information t an ip-
lomats or agents norms o tarn,
and that the feel threatened y His
criticisms theirr performance.
"Is a smear campaign. Of
course it is. If they can't beat you
into the ground, they smear you
into the ground," Helms said. "I
don't know anything about any co-
vert mission and Elliott Abrams
knows that."
Intelligence sources said CIA Di-
rector William asey been
an ered the re ort security
breac ut i not want to c as
directly with Helms by ordering his
own investigation.
They said Secretary of State
George P. Shultz had been "furious"
when Helms praised Pinochet's
government during his visit there
and criticized U.S. Ambassador
Harry G. Barnes Jr. for attending
Rojas' funeral.
Abrams told a House subcommit-
tee hearing that Helms' remarks
were "indefensible" and said later
that Helms was "completely iso-
lated" in his defense of Pinochet. He
had previously criticized Helms'
charges that the governments of
Mexico and Panama are involved in
corruption and drug traffic.
Staff writers Mary Thornton and
Patrick E Tyler contributed to this
report.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870019-1