Reagan Names Group To Stop Information Leaks

WASHINGTON--President Reagan, acting on acting on intelligence reports that the Soviet Union and other nations are picking up sensitive information about the space shuttle and other U.S. programs through eavesdropping, has set up a Cabinet-level group to try to stem for flow, officials said yesterday.

"There's a problem," said J.C. Sharp, deputy chief of information policy at the National Security Agency. "There is so much information out there on the air waves being picked up and used to the detriment of the United States."

The directive, signed by Reagan on Sept. 17, seeks to reduce the loss of both government and private industry information. One of the solutions under consideration is installing some 500,000 special telephones with safeguards against electronic surveillance.

Sharp said telephone interceptions and microwave and satellite transmissions were the two primary concerns. "The proposal is to provide an inexpensive and user-friendly secure telephone instrument that would provide privacy between the sender and the recipient,: he said.

The $10 billion space shuttle program, designed for scientific, military and satellite-delivery uses, involves hundreds of manufacturers across the country. Communication between the government and private industry is extensive.

"A gathering of all those kinds of conversations provide an adversary with relief from spending billions of dollars of research and development," Sharp said.

The Soviets frequently have denounced the shuttle program as military in concept.

The shuttle Challenger ended an eight-day Earth observation mission Saturday. During its 132 orbits, mission control in Houston commanded a radar camera, able to look beneath land and ocean surfaces.

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine said in its current edition that the Challenger astronauts used their Large Format camera to photograph the area of Sverdlovsk, where a major nuclear accident is believed to have occurred in the winter of 1957-58.

Reagan's directive establishes a steering group drawn from the State, Treasury and Defense departments, the attorney general's office, the Office of Management and Budget and the Central Intelligence Agency, the White House official said.

Among its jobs are to review communication security proposals and to set overall policy on eavesdropping. The National Security Agency, which is recommending the installation of some 500,000 special telephones, is the nation's largest intelligence organization. Among its missions is to protect sensitive U.S. communications.

The Carter Administration also studied Soviet eavesdropping and reportedly planned to add 150 special telephones to the 100 understood to then be in use by the government.