GOLDWATER: NO REBUKE OF HELMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020097-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 97
• Publication Date: May 19, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

3 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020097-3
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
19 May 1984
GOLDWATER: NO REBUKE OF HELMS
RALEIGH, NC
\1 V
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., says Sen.
Jesse Helms, R-N.C. apparently has not disclosed secret information from the
committee's files.
Goldwater told. the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer Friday he did not rebuke
Helms in a letter concering statements Helms made about covert United States
involvement in elections in El Salvador.
''Nobody has rebuked him,'' Goldwater said.
In a May 8 speech on the Senate floor, Helms said the Central
Intelligence Agency had secretly aided the presidential campaign of moderate
Jose Napoleon Duarte, who defeated rightist Roberto d'Aubuisson in El Salvador's
May 6 election.
Goldwater said he disagreed with some of Helms' criticism of U.S. covert
activities, but he did not believe Helms disclosed any classified information
from the intelligence committee's files.
An inquiry by the committee staff seems to support Helms' statements that
information for his allegations came from radio broadcasts in El Salvador and
from Helms' sources, Goldwater said.
''Some of the material he had, we didn't have,'' Goldwater said.
Asked if he initially thought Helms had released classified material,
Goldwater said, '' Let me put it this way: we wondered where the hell he got
it.''
Helms is not a member of the committee, but as a senator, he has access to
its secret files.
News stories published this week said Goldwater and Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan,
D-N.Y., the committee co-chairman, wrote a letter to Senate leaders reportedly
rebuking Helms for disclosing classified information in violation of Senate
rules.
Goldwater said the letter, which is classified, was an attempt to combat
recent public disclosures about intelligence operations in Central America.
''This whole area of Central America has been one long, continuous series of
leaks, he said.
The controversy over Helms' statements prompted Senate Republican leader
Howard Baker and Democratic leader Robert Byrd to write a letter advising
senators to keep intelligence information secret, regardless of the source.
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020097-3