AMNESTY FOR SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100640001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/10: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100640001-2
ART1! LE APPEARED
ON PAGE -!?
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
7 October 1985
Amnesty for spies
There's ample evidence Soviet-paid spies are operating in
the U.S.: The former CIA man who abruptly vanished. The
FBI agent on trial for spying in California The Walker family
espionage ring.
Authorities are searching for new and better ways to
improve national security. There's particular emphasis on
American citizens engaged in. espionage, as opposed to
foreigners operating under diplomatic cover.
A former intelligence official, Alexander Jason, has a
new and promising idea. It's so novel it just might work. In
any event, it's worthy of consideration.
Jason proposes that the U.S. declare, and then actively
advertise, a 90-day amnesty period for spies. Spies would be
promised forward and telling authorities prosecution they are, just coming
they've done, and, importantly, with whom they worked.
Members of the Walker ring considered turning themselves
in but were, for obvious reasons, afraid to do so. If not for the
anger of John Walker's estranged wife, that ring might still
be operating.
An amnesty would give individual spies a way out. It
would also cause them to think about turning themselves in
before being fingered by a confederate. Confessed spies
would lead authorities to others. The Soviets would be cast
into considerable. confusion, knowing that some of their
agents had gone over the wall but not sure who.
There would, of course, be one obvious drawback. The
U.S. government would be allowing citizens guilty of one of
the most serious crimes imaginable to get off scot free. But
even now some spies are caught but deliberately not
prosecuted to keep Moscow from knowing that an agent has
been compromised.
The national security benefits of a public amnesty-for-
spies program could outweigh the offense to justice. The
Justice Department and the FBI would do well to give JasoA's
unusual propo> .y - , us,thought.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/10: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100640001-2