CIA PROTECTION BILL WOULD HIDE PUBLIC INFO, EDITOR SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160040-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: May 31, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160040-6
CONTRA COSTA TIMES (CA)
31 May 1981
-TO e. 1011
Ifle. Pllhlir. ln-fm
By MY1ICHAEL SINGER
Times Staff Writer
~:.
SAN FRANCISCO - When you
meet Lou Wolf, co-editor`of the
Washington D.C.-based magazine
Covert Action Inform ation--Bulle
tin, it's hard to identify this schol-
arly and reasonable sounding man
as the one who : has > thrown the
United States intelligence commu-
Pity into a turmoil, or as the man
who has become a favorite target
of angry denunciations in the halls
of Congress..,:
Wolf sprang to national "atten-
tion in 1978 when his magazine be-
gan
publishing the names and as-
signments of hundreds of CIA
operatives. The articles. were
based on information available to
anyone who wanted to take the
'trouble to sort through public doc-
uments in the Library of Con-
gress. He also edited two massive
volumes documenting CIA activity
in Europe and Africa,. called
"Dirty Tricks" 1 and 2.
Wolf is traveling the country
trying to alert people "who care
about the First Amendment to
the dangers of a new bill authored
by Rep..Edward P..-Boland,. D-.,
Mass., that's now before-the Sen-
ate Subcommittees on -Terrorism
`.and Security. ~~ ss? Mz ,y ? _ ;~~
The Intelligence Identities"Pro-
tection Act;'as it-is known; would,-
make Wolf or any other journalist
liable to fines and ,,jail sentences
for revealing the names of any in-
telligence agent who works for the
government, even if. the informa-
tion comes from., public- docu
ments..
Wolf was in- the,' Bay. Area re'-'
cently speaking to?'newspaper.
groups on the proposed legislation.,
"If such a law had. been. passed ,
in 1972, Americans ?; would : never.:
have known about, Watergate.
Woodward and Bernstein. could
have gone to jail for revealing the'
identities of Howard Hunt and the'
Cubans he hired to break into the
Watergate apartments because,
-they were CIA'-- employees:: Think'.
about that : for -a-- minute; ': Wolf
said.
"The Contra Costa - Times and -
the New York Times would be vul-
nerable to criminal prosecution if
this bill passes.- The `Washington
Post printed a story about CIA..
paymentsto; theISing.of, Jordan
last year.. They might be prosecut-
ed for such -a story,under:this
Wolf. said many'Americans
have - the ' impression that the. CIA-
only gathers intelligence, but he
said its major activity is interven-
tion into the internal affairs of oth
?'er countries which is outside the:
agency's legal mandate.:
, In-a well-publicized incident,
members of the Covert Action,
staff traveled to Kingston, -Jama
cia, in 1980 to monitor CIA activi--
ties on the island.
"When we got there, we found
out the CIA had 15 agents on this,
little island and we got very cur
ious. Jamacia had a democratical
ly elected, socialist-president
named Michael Manley who- was
similar in his political approach to
Salvadore Allende in Chile..
"We found out CIA. agents were
trying to destabilize Jamacia the
same way they did it in Chile, to
"get rid of Manley..So we had a
press conference and named the
agents. Days later it'was reported
that one of the agent's houses was -
fired on,: said Wolf `hfost Jama
ican journalists knew - who all the
agents were before we ever got to
the island." ;=
Various government'officalsand
congressmen who are--sympathetic
.to the CIA.. and other- American in-
telligence agencies-have. used that
incident;: among others, ' to 'claim
that the work. of journalists like
Wolf his a threat to: America's na-
t
tional Jelin i
y ; ~yw :?:,r~.:t?.+7:?.
t? Y,`l- c
Covert Action Inforination Bulle-
. tin and other magazines and news-
papers have published the names of
more-than 2,000 CIA. operatives -over
,the last five years, according to .
Wolf and "very. few of them. have.,.
been moved from their posts which'
leads us to believe the CIA does not
really., fear for their safety. They-
just want to silence us," he said.
Covert Action Information Bulle-
tin, which comes out six or seven
times a year, will continue to. pub-:
lish names, Wolf said, "because we
believe the CIA must be held ac
countable for what. their employees
do just like you and I must be held
accountable for what we do. The
CIA should not be above the law.
Wolf says the wording of the In
telligence.Identities Protection Act
is so vague that it would also pro-
tect agents working for the FBI and
those of 16 other government agen-
cies -~ .- .
"It is possible that if you found
an agent planted in your school,
union or church group, and you ex-
posed his or her identity, you could
be prosecuted under this proposed
law and the penalties include fines
and jail sentences," Wolf said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160040-6