U.S. Confirms Anti-Kadafi Plot, Denies Fooling Press

The White House confirmed Thursday that President Reagan approved a secret plan in August to undermine the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi by planting false information abroad but denied that the plan involved feeding deceptive reports to the American press.

“The President discussed the plan and approved the plan,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said, but he insisted that the new policy did not include spreading false information in this country. U.S. intelligence regulations forbid the government from planting false information inside the United States but do not prohibit such “disinformation” efforts abroad.

Steps designed to apply new pressure to Kadafi were described in a memo written in August by the President’s national security adviser, John M. Poindexter, and disclosed Thursday by the Washington Post. The memo discussed using “disinformation” and diplomatic and military pressure against the Libyan leader.

“One of the key elements” of the plan, the Post quoted the memo as saying, “is that it combines real and illusionary events--through a disinformation program--with the basic goal of making Kadafi think that there is a high degree of internal opposition to him within Libya, that his key trusted aides are disloyal, that the U.S. is about to move against him militarily.”

Less than two weeks after the President approved the new policy, stories attributed to Administration officials began to appear in this country suggesting the possibility of renewed Libyan terrorism and another confrontation with the United States.

Stung by disclosure of the Poindexter memo, and indications that at least some U.S. officials were involved in misleading reports in August of a looming new confrontation with Kadafi, the Reagan Administration mounted an elaborate but sometimes tangled defense:

--The President declared that he had read the Post story with “deep shock” and challenged its veracity.

--Poindexter was reported uncertain about whether he had in fact written the memo attributed to him by the Post. “We have an analysis going on comparing memos that we have with the story to find out exactly what memo it is,” a senior Administration official quoted him as saying.

--Speakes confirmed that Poindexter had written a memo proposing new pressure on Kadafi and said that Reagan had approved a new policy but would not discuss what the Poindexter memo or the new policy contained.

--And Secretary of State George P. Shultz, while agreeing with Reagan and other officials that no policy of deceiving the American public had been approved, confirmed that a campaign of psychological warfare was being waged against Kadafi. Defending it, he quoted approvingly a World War II remark by Winston Churchill that in wartime, truth is so precious it must be protected by “a bodyguard of lies.”

‘Pretty Darn Close’

“I think insofar as Kadafi is concerned, we didn’t have a declaration of war, but we have something pretty darn close to it,” Shultz said.

While the use of disinformation, propaganda and psychological pressure against foreign foes is common in American history, such tactics have often threatened the government’s credibility. And it now seems clear that the Reagan policy created a host of difficulties for the Administration.

Some allies, for example, became so concerned about news reports of possible U.S. military action against Libya that a special envoy, U.N. Ambassador Vernon A. Walters, had to be dispatched from Washington to--among other things--reassure them that no armed clash was at hand.

Also, Pentagon and other officials who did not know about the White House plan denied to reporters in August that any such pressure was being applied. Like Reagan and Speakes, however, Shultz said no program had been approved for deception at home.

Indication of Sensitivity

Speakes fielded questions from reporters in two briefings Thursday that totaled almost three hours, an indication of the sensitivity surrounding the disclosure of the disinformation campaign.

Speakes said that Reagan met with his foreign policy advisers in Washington on Aug. 14 and approved the plan that they put before him for dealing with Kadafi. Although Speakes would not discuss details of that plan, it apparently adopted Poindexter’s recommendation that the Administration use disinformation and other tactics to step up pressure on Kadafi.

In confirming the existence of a memo by Poindexter, Speakes was careful to say that he had not read the document himself and that he was relying on Poindexter’s interpretation.

He said Poindexter told him that a disclosure to the Wall Street Journal that seemed to reflect the approach advocated in the memo was not authorized by the U.S. government and “that there was no attempt to provide disinformation to the U.S. media.”

Reagan, meeting with a group of journalists at the White House on Thursday to discuss the Iceland summit, challenged the accuracy of the Post story but said that, with many memos going back and forth, he could not deny there was “something to hang it on.”

The White House, a senior official said, is also trying to determine who leaked the memo to Bob Woodward, the reporter who wrote the story in the Post.

On Aug. 25, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report that the Administration had intelligence information indicating that Kadafi was about to embark on a new wave of terror and saying that the Administration was gearing up a three-pronged response of economic, diplomatic and military pressure--possibly including a repeat of its April 15 air attack on Tripoli and Benghazi.

At the time, Speakes called the Journal story “authoritative,” and the article sparked a wave of news reports that left the impression that a new U.S. clash with Libya might be looming.

On Aug. 26, the Los Angeles Times, quoting an Administration official, reported that Libya was “targeting U.S. facilities and officials overseas for possible terrorist attacks, and that the Reagan Administration has drafted new contingency plans--including possible military action--designed to ‘nip it in the bud.’ ” A similar report appeared that day in the New York Times.

The Post reported the same day that the Administration had warned Libya it was prepared to take “direct military action, including bombing raids,” if Kadafi’s terrorist campaign was renewed. The report was attributed to Administration officials.

In contrast to the activities of Administration officials who were encouraging the idea of a possible new confrontation with Kadafi, some Pentagon officials at that time sought to play down the likelihood of a clash. These officials complained that senior members of the National Security Council staff, operating under Poindexter, initially “hyped” their accounts in unattributed reports.

‘Vivid Imaginations’

“Some people with vivid imaginations and power complexes began talking in elaborate and irresponsible terms,” said a senior official with access to intelligence reports. “This created an oncoming crisis atmosphere, and there was no basis for it.”

Reflecting Pentagon concern about the Poindexter approach, an informed source said that Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had expressed reservations about the plan at the Aug. 14 White House meeting, suggesting that it would be “counterproductive.”

Commenting on the controversy Thursday, Bernard F. McMahon, staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the panel plans to investigate the issue but added that he had seen no evidence of impermissible conduct.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, Norman Kempster and Doyle McManus.