CLOAK, DAGGER...AND NOTEBOOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100110046-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: April 17, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100110046-8
BALTIMORE NEWS-A.' RICAN
17 APRIL 1980
The director of the Central Intelligence curate picture of the world ought to feel he has
Agency, Admiral Stansfield Turner, sees noth- some guarantee that the go-betweens aren't
ing wrong withusing journalists as undercover . . paid operatives of the Central Intelligence
agents. He reserves the right, he told an audi- Agency anymore than they're shills of Gener-
ence of newspapereditors last week, to enlist al Motors: Reporters can't be anything less
reporters for secret missions abroad: And he than the seekers of facts that they present
.was rather surprised when the editors reacted themselves to be, or their credibility vanishes.
with shock and dismayf ~~ . ; :.. If a foreign nation comes to look upon ev-
He should. knows better Newspaper and try reporter as aspook, which thanks to Ad;ni.
television reporters;,?at home. as well as over- ral Turnerit very well might, what happens to
seas, must be perceived as. operating. com- a journalist's ability to inquire? Does the ad-
pletely.independently- ,of.;their government... miral think 'a news source, say an official of
How, for example, would Americans be able .to ..the French government, would give frank' an-
'
get any news of what
s happening in Iran if the..
reporters working there were suspected of be,
ing CIA? agents? 'Admiral Turner's remarks
could give the Iranians justification for arrest-
ing orevicting every American correspondent
working in the country, and.the same would be
no less true in other parts of- the world. % We aremindful that the American press, in
"recent years ;especially-,: may have worn out
the public's patience in asserting its special
privileges - the rather extraordinary protec-
tions which the First Amendment and a demo-
cratic society affords the working journalist.
The vehement professional objection to the use
of journalists as spies may strike some people
as yet another example of the same tendency:
But what's at stake here is more than pro-
'tection for the. reporter. Anyone who relies on
;newspapers or television for a reasonably ac-
swers? How can a reporter find out what's go-
ing on so he or she can accurately interpret
and present the facts? And what happens to a
reporter's very safety in a foreign country?
Admiral Turner evidently hasn't asked
himself such questions. He doesn't seem to un-
derstand and maybe doesn't see the value to
the American people (and for that matter to
their government) of unfettered inquiry. He
doesn't appreciate that credibility is one of the
most important tools a journalist has. That's
bad enough. What makes it worse is that the
CIA, in trouble in recent years because of its
disregard for American values and frequently
its laws, doesn't seem to have learned very
much. And what makes it even worse than that
is Jimmy Carter's answer to a question about
his Naval Academy classmate's position Does
he agree with it? Yes, he said, I do.r
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100110046-8