CASEY SHIFTING CIA LEAK BLAME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100100069-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: May 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100100069-5
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TV networks become
I3y Douglas Frantz
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
22 May 1986
Casey shifting
CIA leak blame
nd James O'Shea
hicago Tribune
WASHINGTON-CIA Director
illiam Casey ignored a broadcast
t November on the Ronald Pel-
cal in content to one that he rec-
ommended Monday be the basis for
a criminal espionage prosecution.
Last Nov. 27, following a pretrial
hearing in'the Pelton case, NBC-TV
broadcast a story that said Pelton
may have given the Soviet Union
information about the ability of
American submarines to eavesdrop
on Soviet harbors through a classi-
fied project known as Ivy Bells.
An NBC official said privately
that neither the CIA nor any other
government agency raised an objec-
tion after the November report on
the government's prosecution of
Pelton, a former communications
specialist for the National Security
Agency.
Monday morning, as jury selec-
tion opened for the trial in Balti-
more, NBC broadcast a second re-
port, again noting that Pelton was
suspected of providing the Soviets
with key details of the submarine
eavesdropping program known as
Ivy Bells.
Within hours of the second
broadcast, Casey accused NBC of
violating secrecy laws and asked the
Justice Department to consider
bringing criminal charges against
the network.
This inconsistency and others
have left many within the adminis-
tration and in Congress confused
about whether Casey's objective is
to protect national security data or
establish a court case that could
deter news organizations from pub-
lishing what he believes is `secret in-
formation.
His decision to formally. recom-
mend prosecution, moreover, is re-
garded as a major escalation of the
concern in Washington over news
leaks.
Washington Post chairwoman
Katharine Graham received a tele-
phone call from President Reagan
on May 10 urging the Post not to
publish espionage details of the Pei-
ton case.
main target
In a lengthy article about the case
in Wednesday's editions, the Post
quoted its executive editor, Ben-
jamin C. Bradlee, as saying that be-
cause the paper was "unable fully to
judge the validity of the national se-
curity objections of senior officials,
and because of Post lawyers' con-
cerns, the paper decided to print
this article without a description of
the technology Pelton allegedly be-
trayed."
Casey had threatened to prosecute
the Post if the newspaper published
certain information about the Pel-
ton case. He has also said that the
Post and four other publications
could have been prosecuted for
printing classified information about
communications between Libyan
agencies that were intercepted by
U.S. intelligence sources.
Yet information about the Libyan
intercepts was leaked by high ad-
ministration officials as part of a
carefully orchestrated campaign to
build public support for the deci-
sion to bomb Libya, according to a
senior official involved in the dis-
cussions.
The official said the decision was
made to leak the Libyan informa-
tion at the highest levels of the ad-
ministration despite knowledge that
the disclosures would jeopardize
some U.S. intelligence capabilities.
He said the administration decided
that the chance to rally public sup-
port outweighed the potential losses.
Leaks, or selective disclosure of
information to newsmen, are com-
mon in the nation's capital and
have been used by Democrats and
Republicans alike to influence poli-
cy and public opinion.
It is also not unusual for officials
to criticize news organizations for
stories they publish or broadcast.
NBC was criticized strongly by the
State Department earlier this month
after airing an interview with Abul
Abbas, a Palestinian terrorist who
mastermined the hijacking of the
Achille Lauro cruise ship.
Administration officials have not
said why Casey is so upset about
the Monday broadcast by NBC,
which dealt with information alleg-
edly passed to the Soviet Union six
years ago by Pelton.
Kathy Pherson, a press aide for
the CIA, refused to say why the
agency took no action in Novem-
ber. She would not say whether the
CIA or Casey saw the earlier NBC
report, although the agency routine-
ly monitors news reports.
But Casey has gone public in re-
cent weeks with strong criticisms of
the press for publishing information
that he claims has damaged nation-
al security. In a speech last week,
Casey said he would not pursue
earlier cases, but he vowed to rec-
ommend the prosecution of any fu-
ture disclosures that he feels violate
the law.
In a statement on the NBC story
onday, Casey , said: "We believe
hat the assertions, if true, made by
ames Polk on the NBC `Today
now Is morning violate the
prohibitions ... against publishing
any classified information concern-
ing the communications intelligence
activities of the United States."
In a report by Polk that was aired
on Nov.. 27, NBC said, the
codename Ivy Bells had been re-
vealed in court by Pelton's defense
attorney. But no details of the pro-
gram were disclosed in court.
Polk's report said: "There are in-
dications Ivy Bells refers to a Navy
eavesdropping operation. The Navy
is known to have submarines out-
side Soviet harbors listening to what
the Russians say."
The New York Times mentioned
Ivy Bells last November in a story
about the Pelton trial, and The
Tribune referred to Ivy Bells in its
Sunday editions.
Polk's report Monday said: "Pel-
ton apparently gave away one of
the NSA's most sensitive secrets, a
project with the code name "Ivy
Bells," believed to be a top secret
underwater eavesdropping operation
by American submarines inside
Russian harbors."
Casey has refused to elaborate on
why he feels the second report vio-
lated secrecy laws. The Justice De-
partment, which is considering
Casey's request, has declined to
comment on the NBC matter.
Intelligence experts inside and
outside the government have said
that it is no secret to the Soviets
that American submarines have
been eavesdropping on' them for 25
years.
In 1975, the New York Times
published detailed articles about a
U.S. intelligence-gathering pro ect
that used submarines that
penetrated Soviet harbor security
and photographed the bottom of
Soviet submarines.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100100069-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100100069-5
Intelligence experts said simply
identifying Ivy Bell as an eavesdrop-
ping project would not appear to
damage national security. They said
that divulging the existence of the
eavesdropping program would clear-
ly not have been news to the
Soviets, since Pelton is accused of
providing them with detailed infor-
mation about it in January, 1980.
The experts, who spoke on the
condition that they not be named,
said that any potential damage
would require publication or broad-
cast of specific details about the
project.
The law cited by Casey has never
been used against a news organiza-
tion, but several spies have been
convicted under its provisions.
Jerry Berman, chief legislative
counsel for the American Civil Lib-
erties Union here, said the law was
enacted to deal with government
employees, not the press. Berman
said Casey's threats appear to be
part of an attempt by some Reagan
administration officials to restrict
the press.
Berman said there was "a body of
thinking inside the administration
that no stone should be left un-
turned in an attempt to manage the
news in the national security area."
Concern over the disclosure of
classified information is not restrict-
ed to the CIA. Last week, Secretary
of. State George Shultz fired Spen-
cer Warren, a department speech
writer, for providing a reporter with
a copy of a classified cable. Michael
Pillsbury, a Pentagon official, was
fired last month after he failed to
pass a polygraph test involving the
disclosure of information about the
shipment of missiles to Angola.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100100069-5