SENATE ACTS TO PLUG SECURITY LEAKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020101-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 101
• Publication Date: May 18, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ARTICLE APPEARED CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ON PAGE 4. Sec. 1
18. may 1984
enate acts to plug
By ;Terry Atlas ?' CASEY IS KNOWN to regard the'.
vtn sinvo fnr canro4a On OC-
'security leaks
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THIS EFFORT to improve rata- who tion in won El Salvador. Subsequently committee members themselves
tions between Capitol Hill and the the administration acknowledge leaked so much previously.
spy agency resembles a covert oper- that the CIA had indirectly funneled "It's clearly a political trick" his
ate . itself, with staff members money, reportedly $2 million, to aide said, pointing to Moynihan 's
tight-lipped about what the watchdog moderate Salvadoran political par-. role in the New York Committee au-
and committee is doing to police itself ties and other groups. Elect Jim Hunt. Moynihan
and safeguard CIA secrets. thorized use. of his name on fund-
In general, though, "there is a real SOME INTELLIGENCE Commit- raising letters for the group, a Moy-
effort-by the senators to stop leaks ( tee Democrats were described as nihan staffer confirmed
-
,by. themselves and their staffs," an I annoyed that a conservative Republi
can was publicly raising such a sen-
WASHINGTON-1n an effort to M. Tea S
severely strained relationship details of its re , the House
ki 8 Y and senate intelligence committees
'1th the CIA, the Senate Select Com-" b y to identify the sources of the
rnittee on Intelligence has begun a tceks.
c#aotdown on leaks of classified in- As part of the committee effort to ,.
-formation concerning Central Amen reassure the CIA about committee+
ca Senate sources said Wednesday. ; discretion, the classified letter itself
ti rtators have promised to police was leaked and .portrayed as a re-,
their..staffs and themselves m an buke to Sen. Jesse Helms [R., N.C.),'J
effort to put a stopp to a series of who isn't even a member of the
leaks that began when the CIA be-
came significantly involved in the committee.
pproblems of Central America. Those Baker declined to discuss the letter
1ealc '.confirm' CIA fears that Con- Wednesday, but one Republican aide
gr~a5 cannot keep a secret at a time . said his understanding was that
wl.]~eeh , the lawmakers want more Helms was mentioned by name only
credibility with the CIA. when Moynihan and Goldwater deliv-
The committee, which a month ago ered the letter. And it was unclear
was Jn an roar, about not being why the letter itself which apP
full. informea -of U.S. covert active- ` ly contains no classified information,
ties-in Central America, has prom- was classified by the committee.
ised to keep a tighter rein on itself if Helms last week charged on the
CIA Director William Casey will be Senate floor that the CIA had used
more forthcoming with details of covert measures to aid the campaign
covert activities. of Jose Napoleon Duarte, a moderate
-
ff rdential elec
`
House and Senate deteriorated when
sources believed close to the com-
mittee leaked several major antiad-
ministration stories about CIA activi-
ties in Central America including
details of the CIA-directed mining of
Nicaragua's harbors.
As one step in that process, Senate
sources confirmed, committee Chair-
,man Barry Goldwater [R., Ariz.)
and Vice Chairman Daniel Moynihan
![D., N.Y.) delivered a classified
handwritten note to the Senate
leadership, asking Republican leader
Howard Baker Tenn.) and Demo-
crat Robert Byrd (W.Va.) to remind
all senators that disclosure of classi-
fied information is a violation of
Senate rules and subject to disci-
plinary action.
The relationship between the CIA
and intelligence committees of the
sitive matter at a time when they
had agreed to keep their disagree-
ments over controversial CIA
.matters behind closed doors.
And the Reagan administration
was angered that Helms who sup-
ported right-wig Salvadoran can-
didate Roberto d'Aubuisson,
damaged the credibility of the Salva-
doran election by charging "the
State Department and the CIA
bought the election for Duarte."
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020101-7
Helms Wdneday -strongly denied
using classified information and said
Senate Democrats were trying to
make him an issue in order to aid his
Democratic rival in the hotly con-
tested North Carolina Senate race,
Gov. James Hunt.
A Helms aide, who spoke on condi-
tion she not be. named, said the
senator got his information from
public sources in the U.S. and El
Salvador, and she said he did not
break any rules governing classified
information.
"He rejects and he resents the
allegation, which is absolutely
false," the aide said. "He has never
in his life leaked any classified infor-
mation and did not in this case.
Nothing he said on the Senate floor
came from a classified briefing from
either the Senate Intelligence Com-'
mittee or from the CIA or from any
classified source."
Helms said he hasn't seen the let-
ter, and it is "appalling" that the
Intelligence Committee apparently is
making an example of him after
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020101-7