Administration Security Leaks Criticized

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), escalating a long-running feud with CIA Director William J. Casey, charged Friday that leaks of classified information by the Reagan Administration are jeopardizing U.S. intelligence gathering.

“This kind of unauthorized disclosure of highly classified information . . . is sapping the strength of our national leaders,” Durenberger said in a speech delivered to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, a text of which was released in Washington.

“It is hurting our credibility with our allies. It is unnecessarily complicating relations with our adversaries. And it is harming the morale and effectiveness of the dedicated men and women in our intelligence agencies.”

Charges Exchanged

His speech was the latest in a series of charges and countercharges between the senator and Casey, whose agency is overseen by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Casey frequently has blamed the committee for disclosing secrets and last November accused Durenberger of conducting oversight “off the cuff.”

Durenberger asserted that “those who malign the committee for overt or covert release of classified information are more often than not seeking to destroy the credibility of the oversight process.”

The senator, who frequently criticizes Reagan, appeared also to be responding to suggestions by officials in the “intelligence community” who were quoted recently in the Washington Times as saying that his oversight role might have been compromised by turbulence in the senator’s personal life, caused primarily by a divorce.

Durenberger insisted that his committee scrupulously protects U.S. secrets.

He charged that the Reagan Administration has been responsible for more unauthorized disclosures of classified information than any previous Administration and cited examples of several “dangerous leaks” that “have jeopardized intelligence sources and methods.”

Lie Detector Tests

Durenberger said also that his committee would consider legislation to cure the problem--by imposing criminal penalties on those who leak secrets, curbing unnecessary classification and perhaps authorizing a long-range Defense Department program of lie detector tests for employees with access to classified information.

The senator said that President Reagan disclosed classified information recently when he remarked that he favored covert support of the anti-communist rebels in Angola--just as he did in 1983 with his first public statement supporting covert aid to the rebels in Nicaragua, known as contras.

“Some critics have charged that the phrase ‘Senate intelligence’ is an oxymoron (combining of contrary ideas),” Durenberger said. “I would make the same assertion with respect to publicly discussed ‘covert aid.’ ”

Durenberger cited also recent Administration leaks on CIA covert action against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and sensitive intelligence on Nicaraguan plans for lobbying Congress on the issue of contra aid.

In addition, Durenberger noted, three low-level Nicaraguan officials were arrested and charged with cooperation with the CIA recently, only two weeks after the Washington Times printed a story, based on leaks, saying that the U.S. had a “mole” in the Sandinista government.

Playing Fast and Loose

“When the White House offers to release classified intelligence reports in order to sway votes in Congress,” he said, “the lack of concern for sources and methods sends just the wrong message to subordinates in the Administration, namely: ‘You too may play fast and loose with security.’ ”

He was particularly critical of arms control opponents within the Administration who have leaked information to columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, among others, on U.S. difficulties in monitoring Soviet compliance with arms control agreements.

“The frequency with which columns by these two writers are peppered with sensitive national security information has led to the rumor in Washington that the Administration has two hot lines--one to the Kremlin and the other to Evans and Novak,” he said.

Durenberger added that the news media must share some of the blame for “this kind of prostitution of national secrets,” because the media are eager for such disclosures.

He likewise criticized Reagan Administration officials who provide classified information to reporters in exchange for a promise of anonymity. “The practice of non-attributed background statements, often drawing on classified information, is pervasive,” he said.

The chairman noted that no member of his committee staff is permitted to talk to the press without being fully on the record or forwarding the inquiry to a press officer. “As far as we can tell,” he said, “the executive branch does not have or enforce this kind of system.”

Discussions on Security

Durenberger disclosed that his committee has held some discussions with White House officials in an effort to strengthen security of sensitive information. So far, he said, the Administration opposes the committee’s recommendations for extensive reform of the system, which would reduce the number of documents that are marked “classified.”

Although favoring stricter penalties against those who disclose classified material, he said that the law “must provide room for public discussion of intelligence community failures.” Congress in recent years has been highly critical of CIA activities under Casey, particularly the covert mining of a Nicaraguan harbor in 1983.