PREVENTING LEAKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100080061-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: March 10, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100080061-6
STAT
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10 March 1978
Preventing Leaks
There should be a lesson for the Carter administration secrets, an administration avowedly committed to mini-
in the shift in position by William E. Colby, former direc- mizing secrecy should not feel bound to ask for more. The
for of the Central Intelligence Agency, on how to protect long cover-up of intelligence abuses even under present
genuine intelligence secrets. Mr. Colby formerly favored laws should demonstrate to the Senate subcommittee, as
legislation to let the government go to court and get in- it seeks to draft new legislation, the undesirability of
junctions against any prospective leak of classified intel- writing a bill that would curb whistle-blowers. -
ligence information-an approach in conflict with the
First Amendment because of its threat of prior restraint
on the press. He also favored treating CIA employees'
secrecy agreements as enforceable "contracts" under
which employees could be barred from releasing virtual-
ly any information that the CIA wanted to keep secre-
t-an approach that also could both curb freedom of
expression and prevent the exposure of abuses.
Now Mr. Colby has told a Senate intelligence subcom-
mittee that legislation to prevent leaks should be narrow-
c=
ly drawn so as to protect only "secret intelligence sour
es and techniques" and to apply only to those people who
had specifically promised to keep them secret. Journal-
ists and other persons who had not taken secrecy pledges
would be exempt from prosecution and court subpoena.
The view of the former intelligence director is significant
in view of the administration's current breach-of-con-
tract suit against Frank Snepp, a former CIA analyst,
whose book, "Decent Interval," exposes CIA blunders in
the 1975 evacuation of Vietnam but does not, even accord-
ing to the government, reveal any secret intelligence
sources or methods.
If a former intelligence chief thinks a narrowly drawn
statute would be sufficient to protect genuine intelligence
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100080061-6 . -