The Nation : Wright Denies Breaking House Rules

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) formally denied to the Ethics Committee that he broke House rules by talking openly about a secret CIA operation aimed at undermining Nicaragua’s leftist government. Wright, in a letter to ethics chairman Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), said his Sept. 20 criticism of the CIA’s purported secret efforts to provoke civil disturbances in Nicaragua was based on publicly available information. It is against House rules to publicly disclose classified information given to the Intelligence Committee. The intelligence panel voted unanimously to grant limited access to its files and personnel for the ethics probe--access that could enable investigators to determine whether Wright could have based his comments on material disclosed in classified intelligence briefings.