PROTESTERS LEAK THEIR OWN SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300340053-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2001
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: January 18, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

KSHINGTON POST
Approved For Release 2t1 ,4 O WZCIA-RDP80-
STATINTL
The Washington 1ierry-Go-Round
By Jack Anderson I nation reserved ? for the dar-
kest of the CIA's secrets.
The planners in the White
;House basement, who howled Alsop's 'Proof'
In pain over our disclosure of Alsop told us he never read
their India-Pakistan secrets, the CIA reports himself. lie
have slipped fragments from had no way of knowing, there-
the same secret documents to fore, that his sources gave him
their friends in the press. only part of the story.
This illustrates how the These CIA digests, true
White House uses official se enough, raised the possiblit.y
Crecy to control the flow of of an Indian attempt to crush
news to the public. Favorable ;*est Pakistan. But the same
facts are leaked out; unfavora- diggests also suggested India
ble news is suppressed. (Iwould accept an early cease-
' The official leakers are now fire.
spreading the word that Presi- Here is a typical excerpt:
dent Nixon's pro-Pakistan pot- "There have been reports that
icy was not the disaster it ap- (Indian Prime Minister) Gan-
peared but really saved West dhi would accept a cease-fire
Pakistan from dismember- and international mediation as
ment. soon as East Bengal had been
As evidence, the boys in the liberated ... On the other
basement leaked a few selec- hand, we have 'had several re-
tive secrets to our column. cent reports that India now in-
writing colleague; Joseph tends not only to liberate East
Alsop, who has excellent con- Bengal but also to straighten
tarts at the highest levels of its borders in Kashmir and to
government. - destroy West Pakistan's air
thority" that the U.S. govern-
ment had "conclusive proof"
of India's intention to crush
the main body of the Pakistan
army in West Pakistan. This
positive proof, he wrote, was
"the centerpiece of every one
of the CIA's daily reports to
the White House during the
crisis period.".
We have read the CIA's
!daily reports to the White
(House during the India-Paki-
stan war. They are stamped
I"Top Secret Umbra," a desig-
was sent to tile White Housel dispatched Deputy Foreign
on December 10. "According I Minister Vasily Kuznestsov to
to a source who has access tot New Delhi on December 12 to
information on activities in
Prime. Minister Gandhi's of-
fice, declared the report, "as
soon as the situation in East
Pakistan is settled, Indian
forces will launch a major of-
fensive against West Paki.
stan."
But the CIA also took note
of repeated Indian assurances
Keating that India has no ter-
ritorial ambitions and wished
only to end the conflict with
the least possible bloodshed.
Dubious `Proof'
It is clear from the secret
documents in our possession
viet Union ...," according to
the CIA, 11Kuznestsov has told
Indian officials that the Soviet
Union is not prepared to rec-
ognize Bangladesh until Dacca
falls and until the Indian
army successfully liberates
Bangladesh from Pakistani
that the CIA had no "conclu-1 forces."
sive proof" of an Indian plan
to dismember west Pakistan.
The CIA had received a num-
ber of reports that a major In-
dian offensive might be immi-
nent on the western front. But
The question of an Indian
offensive against West Paid-
stan was brought up the next
day by Soviet Ambassador Ni-
kolai Pegov. Reported the
CIA:
'?Pegov pointed out that
the State and Defense Depart i India has achieved a marvel-
ments. ous military victory. Pakistan
Only Henry Kissinger, the; is no longer a military force,
President's foreign policy czar,land it is therefore unneces-
seemed eager to believe the! sary for India to launch an of-
worst. i fensive into West Pakistan to
Alsop's sources also told crush a military machine that
him that President Nixon in- no longer exists.
tervened with the Kremlin, "If India should decide to
threatening "an ugly show- take Kashmir, Pegov added;
down," to stop Mrs. Gandhi's the Soviet Union would not -in-
army from carving up West terfere, but India would have
Pakistan. to accomplish this objective
tell Mrs. Gandhi not to attack
West Pakistan.
The secret CIA report on
his mission, however, doesn't
mention any ultimatum
against attacking West Paki-
stan.
"Vasily Kuznestsov arrived
in India on 12 December to
discuss the political recogni-
to American Ambassador Ken Ition of Bangladesh by the So-
time.'
Joseph Alsop is an enter-
prising and conscientious col-
umnist. He acknowledged to
us that "it is possible to be
lied to on the very highest
level." .13ut he assured us his
source had "never lied be-
fore.".
The evidence in our posses-
sion, however, suggests that
the White House is playing
peekaboo with CIA secrets to
distort the truth.
Bell-McClure Syndicate
Approved For-Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R000300340053-7'