-Caveat Lector- Clinton Security Secrets Disclosed By JOHN DIAMOND .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- Classified documents of the kind that normally take decades to come to light are there for all to see in the back of a new book on Clinton administration security policy. The documents describe how North Korea's leader crushed a 1995 coup attempt and President Clinton assured Boris Yeltsin that U.S. policy would have a ``positive impact'' on the Russian leader's re-election. The documents also detail how China, under a deal with the U.S. communications company Motorola, developed a launcher to deploy commercial satellites into space. An intelligence estimate said this technology could be converted easily into multiple nuclear warhead launchers. Though the government is prone to leaks, the unauthorized publication of classified documents that in most cases are just a year or two old is rare. It has touched off widespread concern in the intelligence community. U.S. officials interviewed Thursday confirmed the authenticity of the documents and voiced concern about their publication in the book ``Betrayal'' by journalist Bill Gertz. One senior administration official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the White House didn't consider any of the published information embarrassing but was concerned about risk to intelligence sources and methods. For several years, the FBI has been trying to identify Gertz's sources, U.S. officials said. ``This is the kind of material that people file lawsuits to obtain after it's 30 years old,'' said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington group that follows intelligence issues. ``These documents carry some of the highest classifications in the U.S. government, and it's absolutely astonishing that they would be published in this way,'' Aftergood said. In his book, Gertz, a reporter for The Washington Times, presents a critical account of Clinton administration security policy that tracks closely to stories he has written over the past several years. The original articles, however, did not include reprints of the classified documents. Gertz, in a telephone interview, declined to discuss his sources. The book criticizes the Clinton administration for being too soft in its policies regarding Russia, China, North Korea and Iraq, among other nations. The author tries to underscore the threat that these countries pose by pointing to documents that describe emerging or potential security threats in these and other countries. The Clinton administration, according to Gertz, carried out a policy of appeasement of real or potential U.S. enemies that ``so angered some intelligence, defense and foreign policy officials that they responded in the only way they knew how: by disclosing to the press some of the nation's most secret intelligence.'' Gertz wrote that his sources were ``unsung heroes'' who ``jeopardized their careers to expose wrongdoing.'' CIA Director George Tenet has complained about a ``hemorrhaging'' of classified information. Tenet has not blamed the news media, focusing instead on ``people who believe they derive some power from leaking classified information.'' The book's appendix reprints all or part of 23 documents from the Clinton administration -- some as recent as last year -- ranging in classification from confidential to top secret. Several are marked ``umbra'' or ``gamma,'' code words for information derived from electronic intercepts. A 1996 U.S. intelligence report disclosed that the North Korean government had detailed three cases of cannibalism stemming from famine. It was classified at the ``code word'' level, among the highest levels of classification. A secret dispatch written last August by Larry Robinson, a State Department official in Seoul, raised questions about leader Kim Jong-Il's hold on power. ``There is extensive evidence of a major coup attempt by elements of the VI Corps in 1995, which appears to have been crushed only with some difficulty,'' the dispatch said. A March 1996 State Department memorandum, marked ``confidential,'' summarized Clinton's meeting with Yeltsin at a terrorism summit in Egypt. Clinton told Yeltsin he ``wanted to make sure that everything the United States did would have a positive impact and nothing should have a negative impact'' on Yeltsin's upcoming re-election, the memo said. The memo added that the United States wanted an upcoming summit with the Russian leader to be successful to ``reinforce everything that Yeltsin had done.'' A December 1996 report by the Air Force National Air Intelligence Center described how the Chinese, under a contract with Motorola, designed a launcher to send communications satellites into Earth orbit. But the Air Force analysis called these satellite launchers a ``technology bridge'' to launchers for multiple-warhead missiles. The secret report also noted that ``the Chinese have expressed an interest in developing'' such technology, ``however, no known testing of such a system has occurred.'' And a 1997 CIA report, based in part on electronic intercepts and spy satellite imagery, indicated Russia was building a bunker and subway line for use in evacuating leaders in a military emergency. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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