Leaks to the Press Prompts Suggestion That Cabinet Ministers Be Required to Take Lie Detector Tests

Gideon Hausner suggested yesterday that all Cabinet ministers be required to take lie detector tests to find out once and for all who has been leaking classified information on Cabinet proceedings to the press. Hausner, a Minister-Without-Portfolio of the Independent Liberal Party, is one of Israel’s most prominent jurists. He prosecuted Adolf Eichmann in 1961.

Hausner made his proposal at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. He told newsmen afterwards that he was quite ready to submit to the polygraph and would even accept more stringent surveillance of Cabinet members in the interests of State security. Premier Yitzhak Rabin was unwilling to order his Cabinet colleagues placed under surveillance but urged every minister to take pains to keep Cabinet discussions absolutely confidential.

Hausner acknowledged that lie detector tests were an extreme form of surveillance but said it was vital to trace the source of Cabinet leaks. He said the leak of last week’s note from President Ford to Rabin urging Israel not to establish new settlements on the Golan Heights has damaged Israel’s relations with the U.S.

MEDIA CENSORSHIP SCORED

Meanwhile the influential Haaretz in its editorial today, came out strongly against the possibility of political news being made subject to censorship restrictions. This possibility has been mooted as one of the ways the government might stem the flood of leaks. Thus, for instance confidential messages between Rabin and other heads of government would be censorable–just as are military reports.

Haaretz said the damage caused by such restrictions to the freedom of Israeli society would be infinitely greater than any benefit. The paper called for the government to put its own house in order by tightening up on ministerial and other top echelon leaks before taking action against the media.