TURNER APPEALED TO JUDGE IN BID TO PROTECT SOURCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180092-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 92
• Publication Date: August 10, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180092-4
ARTICLE APFE z'
ON PAGE_)C ---r
THE WASHINGTON POST
10 August 1979
Turner Appealed to Jud
Protect Soiu'cesj
In did to'
By Timothy S. Robinson erdorfer with the way the CIA uses
wa;hin?ton Post Staf- Writer the term, and pointed out that "it in-
Central Intelligence Agency Direc- eludes more than simply those indi-
tor Stansfield Turner made a rare viduals directly involved in collecting ;
personal bid in a court case here re and reporting foreign intelligence op-
cently to convince a federal judge erations "
that the CIA should be able to define Turner said that, in addition to the
the term "intelligence sources" so "classic figure of a secret agent re-
broadly that it could keep all such porting from abroad," there are
sources secret. "other less obvious, but equally im-
U.S. District Court Judge Louis F. portant," persons who secretly help-
Oberdorfer rejected the bid- earlier the CIA:
this week, ruling that the term may - ? A "safehouse keeper who must
not be applied to institutions and re- provide a safe haven and secure meet-
searchers who worked both wittingly ing place."
and unwittingly on CIA drug experi- ? "The courier whose functions is to-
ments known as Project .MK-ULTRA. securely transport -material - even
However, persons familiar with- the " though the. contents may_ be unknown
intelligence community's- attempts to, .. to him.
protect its methods and sources.of in- ? Access agents,...who introduce. a
formation said yesterday the ruling, if " person who may then be recruited as
applied in other cases, could make it an intelligence source.
difficult to keep spy sources secret in ? "Cut-outs," or people who serve as
the future. "facades, concealing the fact that the
The CIA reportedly had felt the ultimate recipient of information is
MK-ULTRA case was an unusually American intelligence'
important one in which to test its abil- The plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking
ity to promise confidentiality to peo the names of institutions and re
ple who provide information to the searchers who worked on the CIA
agency. drug project said that under Turner's
Turner said in an affidavit filed definition, the tiirginia Electric and
,vith-Oberdorfer in May that the term Power Co. could be classified i as an
"intelligence sources" is a- "phrase of `*intelligence source" because it sup-
art" that the court apparently did not plies electricity to the agency. Turner
understand because, as used by the denied that, saying the term was not
CIA, the term goes beyond the dic- "so vague or imprecise as to shroud
tionary definition of "source." whatever the CIA may wish to con-
Turner filed the affidavit after Ob- ceal."
erdorfer had issued an earlier ruling Turner said the CIA has to prove"
in the case questioning the invocation again to the world that it can keep se-
va the term by the CIA
American univer- pri- crets because "too many events over
sate i nhat reeved Amean .fom the past. several years have planted
the ies that received CIA funds: from -seeds of doubt around the- world
the unner gave project
some examples of "in- about the agency's, ability to maintain:
Turner gave
a confidence." -
telligence sources" to familiarize Ob
:, . .. = Although Oberdorfer rejected Turn-
er's bid as espousing an`"overbroad-
interpretation".of the-term, he indi-?
cated he was sympathetic to Turner's:
general outline of the.problem.
He- gave the CL-k until Oct. 1 to see
if the names should-be classified un-
der another section of the Freedom of
information Act, and possibly could
be kept secret. under that provision 4
STAT
STAT
Approved For Release 2007/06/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100180092-4