NBC Nightly News Report on Suriname, June 1, 1983

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Financial Disclosure

Casey Mudd: The financial disclosure forms from the Reagan Cabinet were released this week, and all members appear either to have sold any holdings that would create a conflict of interest or have put their holdings in a blind trust. The one exception is CIA Director William Casey, who has retained his extensive stock portfolio. Economics correspondent Irving R. Levine reports the details of Casey’s disclosure form.

Levine: When Casey, who headed the Reagan election campaign, was confirmed by the Senate as CIA chief, he asked for and got unusual White House permission to continue to buy and sell stock himself, not through a blind trust, even though the CIA has access to secret economic information. Casey’s financial disclosure form shows him a heavy trader in the stock market last year, including in companies with holdings in foreign countries where the CIA gathers information. On August 26 alone, Casey bought stock in these companies (Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers, Harland, John H. Co., Johnson & Johnson, La Quinta Motor Inns, MCI Comm. Group, Scotty’s Inc., Sensormatic Elec. Corp.), purchases amounting to between $335,000 and $765,000. The disclosure form is no more specific than that. On September 20, purchases amounted to as much as $800,000 in these stocks (Bristol-Myers, Digital Equipment, Johnson & Johnson, MCI Comm. Corp., Paradyne Corp., Scotty’s, Inc.). Most have gone up considerably in price. In all, Casey bought stock last year worth as much as $4.5 million and sold stock for up to $2.1 million. A Casey predecessor at the CIA, Admiral Stansfield Turner, was required to put his holdings in a blind trust, but Turner doesn’t believe CIA information necessarily would help in stock trading.

Admiral Stansfield Turner (Former CIA Director): I don’t recall any situation where I learned something that would have been useful in a personal financial sense. I think the issue here is one of appearance as much as it is a fact.

Reagan/Suriname Mudd:

The CIA refused today to comment on a report that Director Casey, with the President’s approval, had planned a covert operation to overthrow the government of the small South American country of Suriname, but congressional sources confirmed the plot and said Casey backed away only when Congress balked at the idea of using a paramilitary force of Surinamese exiles to depose the government, which Casey felt was coming under Cuban influence. Suriname was a Dutch colony until it got independence in 1975.

Levine: Administration officials point out that Casey’s stock trading is periodically reviewed for any conflict of interest, but that review is done by Casey’s subordinates at the CIA.

Irving R. Levine, NBC News, Washington.

Date:
June 1, 1983
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