SECRECY AND THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100060059-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: February 22, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

S7 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100060059-1
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
22 February 1980
Secrecy and the (I
Every American should be shocked become privy to the so-called secret. In
and outraged over the disclosure that such circumstances leaks are virtually,
the Central Intelligence Agency has automatic, and in the Afghanistan case
been supplying weapons to rebels fight- rumors of the CIA operation were circu-
ing the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan. lating in the capital as early as Decem-)
ot, however, because the C.IA is doing - ber. Apparently it was decided that as-
it. We should be outraged because it
was made public.
CIA assistance to the.rebels is a prop-
er activity, and in the circumstances it
seems wise. It \v S cleared by the prop-
er authorities, including oiir representa-
sisting the bard-pressed rebels was im
portant enough to go ahead even in they
certainty that the- world would soon
know of it.
This episode should convince Congress,
that legislation to protect the secrecy off
tives in Congress, and was carried out proper'covert,actions is urgently need-:
with vigor and good sense [the agency ' ed. There are bills now before the House
took care to give the rebels Soviet small and Senate that would limit knowledge
arms and anti-tank weapons rather than
American ones].
But secret operations should be kept
secret because secrecy can be essential
to their success. In the Afghanistan op-
eration the leak lends a degree of cre-
dence to Soviet claims that their troops
were sent to Afghanistan to counter CIA
subversion. -
The leak was'probably inevitable, giv-
en the ludicrous regulations governing
covert operations by the agency. Before
such an operation can be launched, it
must be reported to a half-dozen con-
mittees of the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives. Literally hundreds of per-
sons, from 'senators to stenographers,
of such operations; to single oversight
committees of each house. Such limited.:
access would protect the public's right
to control the CIA through its elected
representatives without making every:.
operation, however laudable, the subject.
of Georgetown. gossip,
Meanwhile aid to the rebels can, and
must, go ahead. The guerrillas are fight-
ing tenaciously and they are hurting the-
Russians badly. They deserve all the!
help they can get, and it should he a:
mater of pride that the U. S. is supply-
ing some of it. It would be a matter of
greater pride still if somebody in Wash-;
ington had not blabbed about how it
reached them.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100060059-1