CLOAK-AND-DAGGER RELICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505250033-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: November 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505250033-0
^T^~ r ~r?n~~ WASHINGTON POST
14 November 1985
Daniel Schorr
Cloak-and-Dagger Relics
If the investigation ordered by Presi- York Times) at a time when it was a
dent Reagan were to identify an official subject of intense criticism by some
of the executive branch as having dis- members of Congress.
closed information about the anti-Qad- In 1975, the CIA's support of the
daft operation to The Washington Post, anticommunist fa-ction in Angola (also
that person could be prosecuted for es- a Kissinger project) was disclosed
pionage. This is the result of the pre- after it became an issue in the House
cedent set when Samuel Loring Mori- Foreign Affairs Committee. The late
son, former Navy intelligence analyst, Rep. Leo Ryan, a member of that
was convicted under the 1917 Espio- committee, told me in an interview at
nage Act for having provided three clas- the time that he could condone such a
sified satellite photographs of a nuclear- leak if it was the only way to block an
powered Soviet aircraft carrier to Jane's ill-conceived operation.
Fighting Ships. - Ryan was subsequently the author,
The problem becomes stickier, how- with Sen. Harold Hughes, of legisla-
ever, if it turns out to be a congressional tion that banned CIA involvement in
source. On one occasion, in 1975, the Angola. (That proo~sin was recently
Justice Department threatened to with- repealed.)
hold classified information from the To minimize damaging leaks, the
House intelligence committee if the ma- congressional leadership eventually
terial was not protected from disclosure. agreed to restrict briefings on covert
But it has never been suggested that a operations to the Senate and House in-
member of Congress could be disci- telligence committees. That did not,
plined other than by Congress itself. however, solve the problem.
This is relevant because (I don't In 1983, Sen. Barry Goldwater, then
think that I am baring any great jour- chairman of the intelligence committee,
nalistic secrets) the exposure of covert put on the public record the CIA-organ-
intelligence operations is frequently a ized mining of Nicaraguan harWors with
form of congressional whistle-blowing. a letter to CIA Director William Casey
A leak often occurs when a clandestine objecting to-re operation. (That letter
plan runs into substantial opposition became a prime exhibit in Nicaragua's
during a briefing for congressional complaint to the International Court of
committees. Justice.) Sen. Jesse Helms was charged
For example, in 1974 the Nixon- with-but denied-having revealed
Kissinger plan to undermine Chile's CIA covert aid to the election campaign
President Salvador Allende leaked to of El vador's President Jose Na-
the press (Seymour Hersh of The New . poleon Duarte.
Libya's Muammar Qaddafi has been
the subject of a previous leak. In Aug-
ust 1981, Newsweek reported that op-
position had developed in the House
intelligence committee during a brief-
ing on a plan to destabilize the Qaddafi
regime. The Reagan administration
denied the existence of any sueh'pltm. -
There followed a scare over reported
Libyan "hit squads" out to murder
President Reagan. Intelligence offi-
cials now believe there were no such
"hit squads"-that the whole thing
was a hoax meant to put Reagan on
notice that plotting against a president
could be a two-way street. , t ,..~.
That has apparently not de''t rred
the president from approving ne
more plan to undermine Qaddaff;Oee `
again the leak occurred shortly 'after n
briefings in the congressional iTttta* ,
gence committee. ? ? ,
By law, the administration Vly$t )
give timely notice to Congress of plans .
for covert operations. The intelligence
committees and their staffs are sup-
posed to respect the secrecy of the'in
formation. But, in an era when covert
aid to Nicaraguan contras is openly.de-
bated, the old-style clandestine opera',
tion may be a thing of the past. .
It may be time to consign the cloak
and dagger to a museum. Anyway, the
cloak.
The writ is news analyst for National
Public Radio.
Approved For Release 2011/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505250033-0