CONGRESS TARGETS CIA NAME-DROPPERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201080030-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: September 3, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201080030-9
ARTIai,E APP , NATIONAL GUARDIAN (N.Y. )
ON PAGE _a_ ,
3 sEPT~~ lg8o
STAT
Chafee declared at a committee meeting in late July. " .,7:
rights subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee;
want to nail him. voted'to weaken this provision. The subcommittee was,
The target o? this unusually blunt outburst was Louis reviewing the legislation because it creates anew criminal--..
Wolf, a. coeditor of CovertAction Information Bulletin.**:,, statute. While the panel's decision. was hailed by
He has 'enraged.. Chafee and almost everyother`:,i' opponents of the legislation; most expect the rule to be
lawmaker on Capitol Hill because he is the author of a ?:.restored by the full Judiciary Committee.wheri it ni.eets
Sen. John Chafee (R-R.L) was -visibly angry and.:..,.; gence-or-foreign intelligence investigations.
struggling to control himself. "I want to put him away, On. Aug. 26, members of the civil and con?titutional
;:The key feature in the measure sets a 3-year jail term "naming names" several years ago. Previous ?versions
and/or 515,000 maximum fine for a private citizen who went nowhere, however,` because the obvious damage"'.
exposes the identity of a covert U.S: intelligence agent. they wduld wreck on the First Amendment seemed to
The penalty can be assessed,.'the bill states, even if many lawmakers to outweight the advantages. But these
strictly unclassified, publicly available sources were used misgivings were cast. aside following two incidents in:."
in naming the operative .. Not ,only employes and paid Jamaica last month
hands of the CIA are .protected by the bill. ..It also Wolf held a Dress conference In Kingston at which be~
houses are expected to pass the legislation without major': Legislation of this sort has, been - rattling around.,'difFculty." Congress ever since former CIA agent Philip Agee began
next week.
Civil liberties groups point out that the legislation':;
could be used to jail a reporter who reveals the name of a
CIA agent during the course of his or her research on the - I
libertarians regard , as , an assault.. on.,-the;,.First. __ activities of U.S. citizens in a country such as Chile. ,The.,
Amendment. ?:~ y bill could also have "been used`against?journallsts;and
The legislation has' 'aiready ibeen"approved by the ': publications that. identified members of the. Watergate}
intelligence committees in both'the' House and Senate break-in. team as CIA' employes. And, the. watchdog
"We've been assured by the leadership that this bill will -organizations add, the "get Wolf" initiative, poses: a
be acted on in this Congress," says Rep. Edward Boland', direct threat to any political group That exposes one of it?
lists 'the names of persons. who allegedly .work: for the..
CIA. Under the guise of an all-out. effort to "get Wolf,"'
Congress is now rushing to pass a bill that civil
regular column in the.Washington-based Bulletin which
renamed 15 officials in the U.S. embassy there.''hom he`
said were CIA agents. The same 15 people had been so
identified last year in CovertAction Information Bulletin,',
but Wolf said that he wanted to 'emphasize their presence
:,because of :indications -- that the ' CIA` is; engaged = in a
:: destabilization campaign `against ; the'elected,,;-anti
imperialist; government. of Prime= Minister': Michael,.]
Manley. Shortly after the news conference, the house of
=:?the man.-identified by Wolf as' CIA- station. chief in
Jamaica was . fired ' on by `unknown persons.
-.Armed' 'guards outside the home of another official on Wolf's list'
were also shot at soon afterward: No one was injured
Wolf says thaf he suspects the CIA was behind both
attacks although he cannot prove it. He argues that the'
hootings may well. have been stage-managed: by:~the,.
agency to create exactly the kind 6th'
sterical climate on.
Rep: Boland' fore xample, calls i olf's disclosures "a