'DISINFORMATION' VERSUS LIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730016-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: October 6, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730016-9
ARTICLE A 0 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
6 October 1986
T HE NEW YORK Herald Tribune,
of beloved memory. used to
distribute throughout North
America news articles written by a
Soviet spy. He was H.A.R. (Kim) Philby,
currently retired in Moscow, but in the
early 1960s posing as the correspondent
in Beirut of The Observer of London.
If the paper you were reading in
those days carried Red Smith and Wal-
ter Lippman. chances are it also had
Philby. He was part of the same pack-
age of news features.
This Soviet "disinformation" pro-
gram-planting propaganda in the for-
eign press-is partly what President
Reagan had in mind when he said on
Jan. 29, 1961. that the Soviets "reserve
unto themselves the right to commit
any crime; to lie; to cheat" to accompl-
ish their goals.
Reagan added: "We operate on a
different set of standards."
No, we do not, Adm. John Poindex-
ter. director of the National Security
Council, says. Poindexter authorized a
campaign of "disinformation" aimed at
Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy,
against whom, apparently, all crimes
are permissible.
In a briefing IM week, Poindexter
justified the use of lim so long as the
lies were not told to Americans: "You
must distinguish between the audi-
ences," Poindexter said. "You must dis-
tinguish between deception and
disinformation."
Both of these distinctions are false,
There is no difference ese s be-
tween soreaudience an an Amer-
news reports to ne interested.
The U.S. , m
once community is
permitted, by Executive Order 12333, to
plant lies overseas so long as "the role
of the U.S. government is not apparent
or traceable" but such lies "are not
intended to influence the U.S. political
Process, public opinion, policies or
media."
Fat chance. Secretary of State Alex-
ander Haig came into office firmly
believing that the KGB's Fifth Direc-
torate was the mastermind behind all
the world's terrorist groups, from the
Irish Republican Army to Abu Nidal.
The State Department and CIA told him.
a n that run amok and filtered
back to American authors.
Perhaps what Poindexter had in
mind by "deception" was the lie he
ordered when reporters inquired about
an imminent U.S. invasion of Grenada.
"Preposterous," he said to White House
spokesman Larry Speakes. "Preposter-
ous," Speakes told the press-in good
faith. Then the troops landed.
That kind of operational lie is under.
standable. In war, you do lie to protect
your forces. But to this day, even
Speakes no longer takes Poindexter at
his word. "You also learned very early
to be careful of what Poindexter told
you," a reporter said to Speakes last
week. "That's true," Speakes said. "And
I am."
The lies that Poindexter says he
intended for a foreign audience never
made it into Pravda. They were reported
instead in The Wall Street Journal and
The Washington Post and The New
York Times. They said that Khadafy was
plotting new acts of terror against
Americans.
This is the same kind of lie the Nazis
used in 1938, when they indignantly told
the German people that Czech ruffians
were beating up innocent Sudeten Ger-
mans-or in 1909 when the Polish Army
started World War II by "attacking" a
German radio station.
Secretary of State Shultz believes
this lying is a perfectly suitable way to
battle Khadafy. "If there are ways to
make Khadafy nervous, why shouldn't
we?" he asked.
So we fight Khadafy by telling lies to
The Wall Street Journal-as we once
"fought" Fidel Castro with plots to put
itching powder in his beard and explo-
sives in his cigar. What a sorry way for a
superpower to behave.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730016-9