CIA SECRECY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000705910017-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: April 17, 1985
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910017-5
~ _ I
RADIO N REPORTS, ..
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 (301) 656-~
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~~~- All Things Considered sTArION WETA Radio
NPR Network
DATE April 17, 1985 5:45 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
CIA Secrecy
SUSAN STAMBERG: The Supreme Court has given the CIA
absolute power to keep sources of information secret even when
those sources aren't confidential. Commentator Daniel Schorr
thinks the decision may have gone too far.
DANIEL SCHORR: One can understand the tendency to defer
to the Executive in matters, like intelligence sources and
methods,.that seem to go to the heart of national security. But
-as congressional investigations have shown, sources and methods
can be used to cover a multitude of sins.
At issue before the Supreme Court was a project code-
named MK/ULTRA, a series of experiments that the CIA conducted
from 1953 until '66, and maybe longer, trying out various-drugs
on unsuspecting subjects in an effort to counter communist
brainwashing techniques. And so, when the CIA heard that the
Soviets were buying LSD, the agency began feeding LSD to un-
witting Americans, observing them through one-way mirrors to see
how they reacted.
Had the Supreme Court ruling been in effect when
Congress investigated in the 1970s, we might not have known about
Frank Olsen, a civilian employee of the Army who jumped out of a
window to his death after being fed an after-dinner liqueur laced
with LSD.
The blanket protection for sources and methods would
have covered Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the head of the CIA's Technical
Services Division, which not only ran the drug experiments, but
also stored deadly toxins that President Nixon, under inter-
national treaty, had ordered destroyed.
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910017-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910017-5
The CIA scientists behind the protection of sources and
methods also hatched abortive plans to poison foreign adver-
saries, like Fidel Castro and the Congo's Patrice Lumumba.
The need to protect sources and methods is laid down in
the 1947 law that created the CIA. It is invoked to protect
everything from the identity of spies to spy satellites, both
human and technical intelligence. Over the years, the phrase has
been stretched to include the intelligence product if that could
lead to deducing the source. And it has extended far beyond the
boundaries of intelligence gathering to anyone working with the
agency, at times even organized crime figures, like Sam Giancana
and John Roselli, who were recruited in the efforts to assa-
ssinate Castro.
The Supreme Court made no exception for improper, or
even illegal, activities. Chief Justice Burger's opinion simply
said, "Intelligence sources should have an assurance of confi-
dentiality that is as absolute as possible."
That takes us a long step back to pre-Watergate days,
when the hands wielding the dagger felt secur behind the cloak.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 :CIA-RDP90-009658000705910017-5