THE LEAK MANIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100010023-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 7, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010023-5
'aE THE NATION
ON PAGE 7 June 1986
EDITORIALS. ReaW has di ovei the years by a number of
Po
T7lhl ~Y damaging leaks for which he has criticized his
disloyal associates and the irresponsible media. His prob-
e Ieak Mania lems with budget director David Stockman
Interior Sec-
ow that the rehabilitation of Richard Nixon is Mary James Watt, Environmental Protection Agency ad-
under way, according to a recent Newsweek ministrator Anne Burford and Secretary of State Alexander
Haig were laid to the press. Lately, the leaks have had a na-
cover story, it makes sense that a White House security cast, which annoys Casey. He accused NBC
Ncommittee would seek to revive the plumbers of aiding the enemy by interviewing Abu Abbas recently unit, the leak-stopping operation that figured so prominent- for broadcasting an item on U.S. submarine surveillance f
ly in the former President's political obituary. Seventies
Soviet ports that figured in the spy trial of Ronald Pelton.
revival and Watergate retro are coming into fashion. High- The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek
level officials regularly attack the press, Administration in- and other publications were threatened because they re-
siders are under investigation and covert action is no longer ported on intercepted Libyan messages after the bombing of
a dirty word. Washington corruption has overtaken Miami the Berlin disco.
vice as a model for criminal chic: at last count, 111 senior The media have responded that the leaks were of no par-
Administration officials have been accused of illegal or ticular value to the Russians or the Libyans, that the mate-
unethical conduct since January 1981, and many have been rial was public knowledge in an
Rea-
convicted and sentenced or are awaiting trial. How long can g y case and that President gan was the biggest leaker when he
it be before President Reagan comes on television to of the Libyan messages when he
talked about them on nationwide television. But national se-
reassure a worried nation, "I am not a crook"? curity is obviously not the
Nixon's fixation on news leakage was his undoing. The
Primarily concerned with point a Casey s campaign. He is
exposure of E. Howard Hunt's White House shop, as a policy in itself and as a
plumbing p, method of governance. Leaks loom large when policy fails.
after its third-rate burglary attempt at the Watergate apart- The U.S. intelligence establishment has been stung by
ments fourteen years ago this week, began the investigative series of crimes and blunders that cry out for a sca a
process that unraveled the web of chicanery and cover-ups The foreign affairs establishment is st
ymted the pe Middle
and led to the famous final days. Things are nowhere near East, in Central America, in the great East-West encounter.
that point chez Reagan, but the White House is again The raid on Libya, far from a foreign policy victory, repre-
involved in a furious campaign against the leakers and sents an open admission of failure; Sn kdiplomats oen
publishers of embarrassing information. Director of Central doors good open
Intelligence William Casey has threatened five major pub- d rather than close them.
lictions and NBC News under a 1950 espionage law (never Reagan and Casey want to stonewall in their towers of
before used power and rule by handout, which is a tempting form of
against the press) for divulging items told to news management and political control in a troubled time.
them by government officials, gleaned from public doc- But the Watergate revival works against them. We are still
uments and statements, or whispered by Casey's own col- too close to the
leagues in one or another security agency. Secretary days of Woodward and Bernstein,
etary of State Sam Ervin and John Sirica to forget that an Administration
George Shultz, White House chief of staff Donald Re
an l
g
oses everything when it destroys its credibility.
and the President have all railed against the news passers
and their wide receivers in order to blame the failure or un-
popularity of their policies on those who spread the word.
And late last month a working group of Administration
security advisers delivered a secret memorandum to the
White House detailing a plan for stanching leaks which
would include lie-detector tests and other surveillance
methods eschewed by former chief of staff James Baker, on
Shultz's insistence, when the idea was broached three years
ago. As so often happens with secret memos, this one was
promptly leaked to the press.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010023-5