European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 10, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday september 10, 1978 the stars and stripes William Safire Page 15 questions go unasked about major stories with the world s eyes fixed on thet i s Camp David Summit questions go unasked Sej Jabout three of the biggest stories of the year it i 1. The escalation of the communist drive Ely Sto take Over e j a possibility exists that a surface to air missile brought Down a rhodesian Airliner. That is True who armed the terrorists leaded by Joshua Nkomo with missiles when the soviets tried to Arm Cuba with missiles capable of hitting the ., we the readily went to the Brink of War. If it should my turn out that the soviets Are supplying mis ours Les to terrorists in Africa and that is no yet proven should we not at least Stop try de ing to undermine the internal Settle fitment what would we do if palestinian and terrorists were supplied with missiles or puerto rican nationalists Lys 2. The biggest Money stealing scandal Ina Rethe history of the american government. No on july 26, there being evidence of wide spread corruption president Carter Autho Riec sized the Justice department to enter the in the Yesti gation of the general services admin Fijoj is ration. On july 27, he authorized theme 3. Oner Ord Epe e be column Sand comments firing of Robert t. Griffin a tip o Neill crony who had been with the Agency for 35rs and had been its acting head during the 76- 77 the time we were told the Griffin Dis Missal was just a matter of bureaucratic in compatibility tip s Man just could t get of along with the new Agency chief. But Why should the president risk a major blowup with his much needed House speaker Over simple patronage matter what was the real reason for forcing tip s Man out we have been assured that Griffin is a Man of High moral character and personal integrity if so Why was Hent left in place to help ferret out the graft censers in the Agency he knew better than any a Inbody if on the other hand Griffin was seen to be personally honest but Likely to protect his old pals or to drag a foot if the investigation Ubhi reached congressmen who May have Cut a juju few deals then Why was tip s crony Given a $50,000 sinecure in the Carter White House that s quite a place to put somebody you do not trust.3. The theft of vital National Security in Ric formation about our super secret bigbird satellite. We have a dozen photographic recon Nai Sance satellites sensitive enough to read the licence plates on the cars of Kremlin officials. This big Bird is the source of Intelli gence we have to verify soviet Salt compliance. Three weeks ago a 23-year-old clerk named William Kampiles who had worked for the Cia eight months last year was arrested for stealing the manual of this Ultra Ecret satellite and Selling it to the soviets. Inquiring senators have been told that Junly three numbered copies of this Docu ment were at Cia Headquarters. Stansfield Turner s Ashen faced aides have been Fum Ibling for answers to questions like these How was it possible for a new Young clerk to be in Possession of the most Sensi Jive information we possess a what kind of Security system does the i Jocia have that permits a clerk to take Home a document too Large to fold and what in credible laxity permits one of three copies \ of our closest held manual to be missing fori 10 months with nobody noticing what kind of intelligence show is running that picks up signs that the soviets were making significant changes in countering our big Bird without setting off alarms throughout the Agency a profoundly experienced intelligence operative tells me that this May be the most dangerous penetration of our Intelli gence since Tolje soviets put a Man in the National Security Agency in the late 50s." this concern goes deeper than the loss Ozone great secret and beyond the need to tighten Security procedures. It rejects the notion that any Young Man can get himself hired by the Cia be Given immediate a Cess to the most intimate secrets of a nation s Arsenal and be Able to walk out on sunny Day with the single secret that the so Viets want most. The concern of intelligence professional Sis that this episode May indicate the pres ence of a soviet agent in place High up inthe Cia. The possibility of an american Philby always draws great chuckles from our leaders but put on the Eye glasses of the legendary Edward Jay Epstein or novelist Graham Greene and ask along with me who at Cia recruited this Young Man who would know to what place to direct him for the manual who knew of previous soviet espionage probes aimed at this kind of reconnaissance information was this defector burned deliberately turned in to protect the agent in place the Cia might try to Brush these questions off As fanciful contending instead that the recent theft was the work of one Man trying to make some Money but More than one senator of the select intelligence committee is working on the Assumption that our intelligence Agency has been infiltrated. E new York times William f. Buckley for the one thousand nine Hundred and seventy eighth time i repeat. Mcgovey s startling propose the electrical charge of the Pas few weeks came from sen. George Mcgovern. He wanted to know he said at a meet ing of the Senate foreign relations com Mittee whether anyone had Given an thought to organizing a military unit to go into Cambodia and topple those murder ers engaged there in the most massive venture in population control in the history of the world. If Andrew Young had proposed an expeditionary Force to South Africa to help administer apartheid there would not have been greater commotion in the chamber concerning All of which a few observations 1. The witness being heard by the com Mittee is a scholar of great ability who has worked for the United states information Agency for Many years making Southern Asia his beat. Douglas Pike throughout the Vietnam War was a quiet Hawk both be cause he believed that geopolitical reality. Justified resisting aggression from North Vietnam and because he believed the criticisms of the Thieu government were unrealistic. But on this occasion he replied to Mcgovern that it would be useless to attempt to take Power by simply marching on phenom penh. He would need to control All the hamlets he said thus sounding Sud Denly like one of the old critics of the Endeavours in Vietnam who suggested that what we faced there was not a War of aggression from the North but a civil plot thickens. 2. Earlier on a television program shared with Leo Cherne president of the International Rescue committee i asked the featured guest in Vin whether he would Welcome an expeditionary Force from Vietnam with the Mission of throwing out the pol pot government. Now in Vin Isno Ordinary cambodian. Though that in t entirely Correct there is a sense in which he is an Ordinary cambodian because most cambodians have suffered As Muchas he has though he is unusual in that he has survived escaping the country after 60grueling Days of flight. No he smiled looking like a Cherub that would not do at under no circumstances would he want his country Tobe overrun by the vietnamese. Under standing this to Spring from ideological and historical hostility to the vietnamese i asked confidently whether he would be glad to see a liberating army from thai land come in if Only for the purpose of Dis posing of pol ," he smiled once again no. No thais i was talking to a Man who had see nine members of his immediate family killed who left at the pleading of his wife even As she and their two Little children were being carted off to execution. It is Asif an Escapee from Auschwitz had said he would not Welcome French feet on German soil. 3. There is great difficulty in under standing a nationalism that is carried to such lengths. It is utterly alien to the West Ern experience. And it reminds us How in ept is our failure to encourage the strength of that impulse in Eastern Europe and in the territories held together by soviet arms. What in Vin believes about the Sanctity of Cambodia soil the typical ukrainian feels about his own. If we acknowledge then that the Only Force that could conceive of liberating Cambodia would have to be one of overwhelming Mil itary might we can see that the likelihood of liberating Cambodia is slight. What the do we do 4. There used to be Leo Cherne Rumi nates a thing called the Cia. This is the kind of problem which Covert operations of the Cia engages. It is difficult to under stand the moral objections to a Cia mov ing within a country with the purpose of saving some three or four Hundred thou Sand lives which is the going yearly rate of consumption under pol pot. But such operations need to be taken covertly. The Only thing George Kennan has said with which i entirely agree is that if some kinds of operations can t be done covertly they can t be done at All and should not be that leaves us with the Church committee in full Flower and dead cambodians. 5. Will anything happen in cambodia9well, yes. Probably the vietnamese will press through to military Victory. And retroactively this will cause George Mcgovern to be consistent after All. He has never been an opponent of North vietnamese successes. C Washington Star Syndicate
