WILLIAM COLBY/COVERT OPERATIONS AGAINST NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100110002-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2007
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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PROGRAM Braden and Ph i I I i ps
DATE March 10, 1982 5:20 AM CITY Washington, DC
SUBJECT William Colby/ Covert Operations Against Nicaragua
TOM BRADEN: Here we've got a story in the Washington
Post this morning -- it's the only paper in the United States
that carried this story -- and it says as follows: "President
Reagan has authorized covert operations against the Central
American nation of Nicaragua. According to informed officials,
the President has begun to build and fund a paramilitary force
of up to 500 Latin Americans, who are to operate out of com-
mando camps spread along the Nicaraguan-Honduran border."
Now, Bill Colby, former Director of the CIA and an
old-time war buddy of mine.
Bill, what do you think of that story?
WILLIAM COLBY: Well, I think it's outrageous that
it's published. You know, we have a system for careful consider-
ation of whether covert operations should be undertaken. The
President has to look at them carefully. He has to be advised
in writing by the Secretaries of State and Defense, and so forth.
They have to then be reported to the two Congressional Committees
on Intelligence to insure that the Congress thinks it's a good
idea. And with that, you have to try to conduct a covert oper-
ation, under our constitutional system.
Now, if every one of these things comes out in the
open -- and this wasn't the first one. We had last weekend in
the New York Times the one about the Afghanistans and so forth --
and you just can't conduct covert operations...
BRADEN: Well, Bill, in the old days, when I was in
the shop, it seems to me that the Director did not, at that time,
have to report. He did always say -- he'd call the committee
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chairman into the room, of the Armed Services Committee, and he
would brief him behind the door. But he didn't have to report
to an Intelligence Committee.
Don't you suppose that these leaks come from the fact
that we've now established this system where the Director has to
go through a committee of the Congress?
COLBY: Well, the story doesn't indicate where the
leaks come from.
BRADEN: No, of course not.
COLBY: And, in fact, I think the record for the last
several years has been that these committees have been at least
as controlled as the Executive Branch in their leaks. I suspect
that the leaks come out of the Executive Branch someplace, in the
wide coordination that has to exist in the Executive Branch.
BRADEN: When you take something to the President, you
used of take it in private to the President. Are we now taking
it to a lot of the staff?
COLBY: Well, apparently we have to take it to quite a
few people. We have to get the sign-off of the Attorney General
and the Secretaries of State and Defense, and so forth. And some
of those offices, which in the past were quite sealed and very,
very respectful of secrecy, apparently now leak.
Now, the leak could also come from the intelligence
agencies themselves.
HOWARD PHILLIPS: Mr. Colby, what can be done about it?
What can we do about this? How can we prevent it from happening?
COLBY: One thing we can do is pass this law that's
before the Congress right now that will give a signal around the
world that America's going to pull up its socks and keep a few
secrets, and punish people who leak them. There's a rule that
says that if people will reveal the names of our sources and
agents around the world, that they can be punished.
BRADEN: I agree with that, Bill. But certainly you
would agree that the story by Woodward and -- what's the other
fellow's name? -- Tyler in the Washington Post this morning would
not be covered by that bill.
COLBY: No, it wouldn't. No. But I think the passage
of the act would show a little intent by the United States to
really be a little more serious. We are in a shocking situation
of having no legislation to protect the most important secrets.
Even our journalists insist on protecting their sources. And
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we can't protect our national sources, under our legislation.
BRADEN: One more question, Bill Colby, former Director
of the CIA. Would you go so far -- and I know that, you know,
in your political persuasion you're no right-winger. But would
you go so far as to penalize a newspaper or the reporters who are
working for it for revealing an operation? Now, these people
didn't reveal names, but they certainly revealed -- if their
story is correct, and I assume it is. They certainly revealed
an operation.
COLBY: Well, I think that's pretty hard in America.
And I think you have to call upon the responsibility of the press
and the general climate of responsibility of the government peo-
ple. That's what we need to rebuild. And then the press will
follow it along.
The press used to keep secrets, for a long time, many
BRADEN: They did. Yes.
COLBY: They have been in this orgy of disclosure be-
cause the whole country is in this kind of a frame of mind. And
I think it's time we got over it and sobered up.
PHILLIPS: Of course, members of the press are citizens
of the United States, like everyone else. If they're endangering
the safety of their country and the lives of their countrymen,
why ought they not be subject to the same standards as people
who are not in the press?
BRADEN: Well, they are.
COLBY: Well, I think they should be. And there's no
question about that.
BRADEN: They are. But there's no law, Howard, that
would prevent anybody from saying what Woodward and Tyler said
this morning in the Washington Post. They didn't reveal the
names of any agents. They simply said, "Here's this operation.'`
And I agree with Colby. I think it says -- I think
what Colby says, right here, it's not to the credit of the Wash-
ington Post.
COLBY: I think we do need more responsibility. And
I think that's the climate we have to produce in this country
after a -- as I say, after -- when we sober up after our binge
of a few years ago.
PHILLIPS: I'm a little bit more conservative than Tom.
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and I believe that one of the ways to encourage more responsi-
bi I ity is to develop stringent penalties, laws which provide
stringent penalties for people who endanger the safety of their
country.
BRADEN: Yeah. Well, I'd rather see it go the way
Bill says, that it just be as it used to be, Howard. No news-
paper would think of printing that story.
Anyhow, Bill Colby, thanks for giving us your view.
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