The newspaper Haaretz said today that Premier Golda Meir ordered the security services in 1970 to place members of her cabinet under surveillance in order to trace the source of leaks of classified information to the press. According to Haaretz political correspondent, Dan Margalit, the order was rescinded after a protest by Gahal leader Menachem Beigin who was a member of Mrs. Meir’s coalition government at the time.
The newspaper said that the Premier was disturbed by a series of leaks to the press in 1970 which included material sent by the Cabinet secretariat to various ministers. Mrs. Meir ordered an investigation and interrogation of her ministers. Most of them cooperated with the security services.
But Beigin raised the matter at a Cabinet meeting and managed to convince justice Minister Yaacov Shim?hon Shapiro of his point of view. Beigin insisted that the security services were answerable to the Cabinet, not the other way around, and Mrs. Meir’s initiative was dropped. Margalit wrote. His article alleged similarities between the 1970 incident and the current Watergate scandal in Washington. Haaretz recently accused the authorities of tapping telephone calls by its military correspondent.
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