Washington journal

By PAUL DE LA GARZA, JOHN BALZ and BILL ADAIR

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 8, 2000

To Secretary Cohen's dismay, Pentagon news leaks common

Throughout his political career, Defense Secretary William Cohen has understandably waged war against spies. His thinking was fashioned out of the Cold War.

Cohen first came to Washington as a congressman from Maine in 1973, on the fringe of the Vietnam War, a time when the threat of a nuclear holocaust between the United States and the former Soviet Union was a constant fear. American intelligence fretted about KGB agents, or Soviet spies, everywhere.

After Cohen was elected to the Senate in 1979, he served on the Armed Services Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. He helped sponsor legislation designed to overhaul U.S. counterintelligence and to defend against foreign political and industrial espionage.

But Cohen never imagined he'd have to watch his back with his own people when he arrived at the Pentagon, a sprawling place where security is so tight, visitors have to be escorted everywhere.

In a speech on the future of the military at the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently, Cohen cited his biggest disappointment since becoming defense secretary in January 1997.

He didn't cite war or famine or disease.

"What is most surprising to me," Cohen said, "is the amount of highly classified information that I read on the front pages of the local newspapers.

"I find not only highly classified material, I find internal memos that have just been typed that go to the media before they even come to me.

"I think," he said, "it's something that should be of concern."

Nader coming to town

After drawing big crowds in northern cities, Ralph Nader is bringing his presidential campaign to St. Petersburg this week.

Nader has attracted more than 10,000 to events in Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland -- the biggest paid crowds for any candidate, the Green Party nominee says.

On Thursday evening at 8:30, he's tentatively scheduled to speak at the Mahaffey Theater. The event is free.

Nader campaign staffers are so confident they'll draw a big crowd that they're considering a bigger venue than the 2,000-seat theater.

But even if the speech moves to a bigger location, don't expect to see Nader's big-name opening acts, which have included Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, filmmaker Michael Moore and retired talk show host Phil Donahue. He saves the big names for the giant rallies.

- Washington staff writers Paul de la Garza, John Balz and Bill Adair contributed to this report.

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