Daily Nebraskan
Monday, December 1, 1986
News Digest
By The Associated Press
Page 2
Spy defense
Reagan orders counterintelligence overhaul
WASHINGTON President Reagan is secretly imple
menting a sweeping overhaul of the nation's defenses
against foreign spjes that calls for more than 100 security
changes from the doors of defense plants to communica
tions satellites in space, White House and congressional
officials say.
The changes will affect people as well as hardware. The
4.2 million Americans with access to secret data will face
tougher and more frequent background investigations. New
restrictions may be placed on the ability of Soviet bloc
diplomats to buy computers and telecommunications
equipment on the open market in this country.
Most of the changes are described in a 50-page, secret
report sent earlier this month to the House and Senate
intelligence committees.
The White House official said the report outlines 40 new
proposals and improvements or increases in more than 60
other areas. Some have been implemented; others soon will
be; a few require legislation.
"The president's plan is an unprecedented blueprint for
broad-based reform of U.S. efforts to counter the Soviet bloc
intelligence threat. It is a classic example of how the
National Security Council process ought to work in the
national interest," a Senate Intelligence Committee spokes
man said.
The White House official said that among the principal
moves outlined in the report or under consideration in the
administration were:
A promised executive order next year establishing
the first government-wide minimum standards for back
ground investigations of federal and contractor employees
before they. are cleared to see classified information.
O A directive to the Defense Department to implement
to the full extent possible proposals to station Defense
Investigative Service agents permanently inside large
defense plants and to provide monetary or administrative
penalties for contractors with security lapses and bonuses
for those with tight programs.
O More spending for communications security, "which
is from the Walker case directly," because that ring allowed
the Soviets to decode a million Navy messages.
O Additional research on technical ways to safeguard
secrets stored in computers. Computer experts also are
targeted for more stringent security investigations "because
sooner or later we'll come across a spy case involving
computer theft of secrets."
O Legislation to provide the death penalty for espion
age and provide special secrecy for technical information
with space applicat ions, like that now accorded to nuclear
information. That proposal comes as the administration
steps up research on a space-based missile defense plan.
O Development of a plan to regulate authorized leaks
by government officials, known as background briefings in
which officials speak to reporters, sometimes about classi
fied data, on condition they not be named. "Backgrounders
are a fact of life." the White House officials said. "We need a
policy on them, but we are not trying to create a chilling
effect on discussion of policy debates in t he government."
m debate continues
Senate leaders want panel
to probe weapons deal
WASHINGTON Senate Republican leader Bob Dole
on Sunday urged President Reagan to convene a special
session of Congress to appoint a Watergate-style commit
tee to investigate secret White House arms sales to Iran
and money transfers to Nicaraguan rebels.
Dole, R-Kan., said he wants the president to "call a
special session of Congress next week and form this select
committee."
Sen. Robert Byrd, the Democratic leader of the Senate
who will assume Dole's post as majority leader when the
new Senate comes in next year, also called for a select
joint committee, but he said it "would have to wait until
Congress reconvened" in January.
One senior Justice Department official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said Sunday he believes "the
weight of the arguments now favor moving to an inde
pendent counsel." But he did not believe that a decision
had been made to take the probe out of the hands of
Attorney General Edwin Meese III and other Justice
officials.
Byrd and Dole said they had discussed the proposal to
name a special panel, which the Democratic leader said
must be done by the full Congress "so that the committee
would have all the powers of subpoena . . . which the two
leaders themselves cannot give it."
Dole, interviewed on ABC's "This
Week with David Brinkley," said Con
gress "ought to be called back to town
next week," rather than waiting until it
reconvenes with new members in Jan
uary White House spokesman Dan How
ard calkd Dole's proposal "a novel
idea," but declined direct comment on
it.
"We simply haven't had the time to
consider it," he said. "No one is more
interested in getting to the bottom of
this than the president, and he wants
to do so quickly."
Although Republicans will retain
control of the Senate until the 100th
Congress meets in January, Dole said a
Democrat would probably be appointed
to head any select committee.
"We'd probably have to pattern it after the so-called
Watergate commission," Dole said, referring to the con
gressional panel whose televised hearings played a criti
cal role in forcing the resignation of President Richard
Nixon in 1974.
No president has summoned a special session of Con
gress since Harry Truman called lawmakers back to
Washington in 1948 to deal with labor disputes, said Dole.
Bryd said a special counsel should be appointed to
investigate disclosures that a White House aide, Lt. Col.
Oliver North, arranged for up to $30 million in proceeds
from the secret sale of arms to Iran to be channeled to
help Cont ra rebels fighting Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista
government.
The revelations announced by Meese last week forced
the removal of North and resignation of national security
adviser Vice. Adm. John Poindexter.
Both the Senate and House intelligence committees
have already started their own investigations of the Iran
and Nicaraguan transactions, and lawmakers are calling
for judiciary, armed services and foreign affairs commit
tees to follow suit, creating the prospect of more than a
dozen congressional investigations on Capitol Hill.
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Official says Iran profits
used for Contra air force
WASHINGTON A fired White House aide apparently
used profits from Iranian arms sales to build a small,
American-manned air force that delivered weapons to
Nicaraguan Contra rebels this year, according to U.S.
government officials and documents from the operation.
Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, fired last week for his role in
diverting as much as $30 million through Swiss bank
accounts, had managed a broader Contra aid network for
two years with President Reagan's approval despite a
congressional ban on U.S. military aid to the rebels, White
House officials have said.
Although that assistance enabled the Contras to con
tinue fighting, the rebels still had trouble resupplying
troops operating inside Nicaragua. One government source
said Sunday that problems may have led North to create
an air resupply wing for the Contras and turn to money
from the Iranian arms sales to pay for it.
In explaining North's firing from the National Security
Council staff last Tuesday, Attorney General Edwin Meese
III said only North "knew precisely" about the Iran-Contra
connection and his boss, national security adviser John
Poindexter, who resigned, "did know that something of
this nature was occurring."
But congressional investigators have
begun examining how an operation as
large as the Contra air resupply mis
sion, based at El Salvador's Ilopango
mililtary airport in clear view of U.S.
military advisers, could have been
funded from Iranian arms sales without
Reagan and other top officials knowing.
U.S. government officials, familiar
with the North operation but insisting
on anonymity, said that although the
Iranian-Contra link was a closely held
secret inside the White House, North's
management of the air operation was
known to officials in the State Depart
ment, Pentagon, CIA and the NSC.
"Everyone knew something was going
on down there and that Ollie (North)
was doing it," one official said.
The air operation came to light Oct. 5 when an
American-manned C-l 23K cargo plane was shot down over
southern Nicaragua while flying guns to the Contras.
Documents recovered from the plane and interviews
with principals show that the Ilopango operation was a
major resupply effort, involving more than 100 flights
dating back to early 1986. Reagan secretly authorized U.S.
arms sales to Iran in January.
Another key figure in both the Iranian arms sales and
the Contra resupply opertion was retired Air Force Major
Gen. Richard V. Secord, a former top Pentagon offical on
the Middle East.
One administration offical said Secord served as
North's "right hand man" in handling the Contra and
Iranian operations.
Salvadoran telephone records from the safe houses
used by the Air Technology Trading Corp., a Vienna, Va.,
firm run by Secord, and to North's private lines at the
White House.
Secord has denied involvement with the air resupply
network, but neither he nor his attorney could be reached
for comment Sunday.
In Brief
Byrd wants SALT II treaty enforced
WASHINGTON Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd suggested
Sunday that Congress could force President Reagan to comply with the
unratified SALT II treaty by voting to drydock and dismantle a Poseidon
submarine.
Byrd, interviewed on CBS-TV's "Face the Nation," said, however, he
hoped Reagan would take the action himself and said he opposed a move
that might make it appear Congress was trying to approve the treaty
without the required two-thirds vote.
The United States on Friday violated the 1979 nuclear arms agreement
with the Soviets when the 13 1st Air Force B-52 bomber capable of carrying
atomic-tipped cruise missiles went into operation.
If the Navy had retired a Poseidon missile-firing submmarine, the
U.S.-Soviet agreement would not have been breached. The treaty permits
on 130 cruise-equipped bombers unless an atomic weapon is eliminated
from the U.S. arsenal for each additional bomber.
"I am sorry that they are breaking through the ceiling," Byrd said. "I
would urge the president still take compensatory action to keep the
country with the ceiling."
"Of course," he added, "Congress could take specific action to drydock
and dismantle an aging Poseidon submarine."
Byrd of West Virginia said, however, he would not support "blanket
action which could be construed as approving a treaty by a majority vote
when the Constitution says it has to be done by a two-thirds vote."
Although the treaty was never ratified by the Senate, the Reagan
administration until Friday had followed a policy of abiding by the treaty's
limits.
Reagan's action brought sharp criticism from Democrats in Congress,
from U.S. allies in Europe and from Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
Aquino: Marcos not the last
to pay for underestimating me
MANILA, Philippines President
Corazon Aquino said Sunday the men
who doubt her ability to govern are just
big talkers and called her predecessor,
Ferdinand E. Marcos, "not the last to
pay" for underestimating her.
Aquino told the women's club of the
Asian Development Bank, "It has often
been said that Marcos was the first
male chauvinsit to underestimate me.
He was not the last to pay for that
mistake."
She called others who have chal
lenged her in recent weeks "a crop of
garrulous men with better and brighter
ideas on how to run my government. . . .
I would like to think that I have man
aged to have the last word and the last
task of having to put things back in
order after these men were finished."
A week ago, Aquino demanded resig
nations from all Cabinet ministers
after word that a planned coup by
officers close to Defense Minister Juan
Ponce Enriie has been foiled. She
immediately replaced Enriie and has
accepted other resignations since then.
The meeting was closed to news
media, but the text of her speech was
made available to reporters.
In other developments:
OThe Communist Party said that
Gary Grant
dies of stroke
at 82
LOS ANGELES - Cary Grant, whose
masculine elegance and darkly hand
some features made him an unrivaled
star of both sophisticated comedy and
chilling intrigue for more than 30 years,
has died of a massive stroke at the age
of 82.
The debonair leading man with the
dimpled chin and clipped accent died
at 1 1:22 p.m. CST Saturday at St. Luke's
Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, where he
was to appear in a 90-minute program
that included a talk and clips from his
movies. His fifth wife, Barbara, was at
his side, hospital officials said.
"There was nothing that could be
done. There's no intervention when
something like this happens," said
James Gilson, a cardiologist who treated
him.
His body reportedly was returned
early Sunday to California. There was
no immediate word on funeral plans.
President Reagan, himself a former
movie actor, called Grant a longtime
friend. "He was one of the brightest
stars in Hollywood and his elegance,
wit and charm will endure forever on
film and in our hearts," the president
said.
1 I
despite a cease-fire agreement with the
government, "revolutionary armed strug
gle" remains its main goal, and the
armed forces chief called on his troops
to remain vigilant durng the truce.
Police stopped about 3,000 leftists
en route to the presidential palace to
demand justice in the slaying of their
leader, Rolando Olalia.
010,000 Aquino supporters rallied
to urge adoption of a proposed con
constitution. At Manila's Rizal Park, about 10,000
supporters of Aquino urged voters to
approve the new constitution in a Feb.
2 plebiscite. The constitution would
extend the president's term until 1992.
Nebraskan
Jell Korbelik
472-1766
Gene Gentrup
Tammy Kaup
Linda Hartmann
Kurt Eberhardt
James Rogers
Todd von Kampen
Scott Thien
Joan Rezac
Chuck Green
Scott Harrah
Andrea Hoy
Geoll Goodwin
Jeanne Bourne
Tom Lauder
Charles Lieurance
Daniel Shattil
Katherine Policky
Lesley Larson
Bryan Peterson
Kelly Wirges
Harrison Scliultz.
474-7660
Don Walton. 473-7301
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