CLOAK, DAGGER...AND NOTEBOOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200090-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2007
• Sequence Number: 90
• Publication Date: April 17, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200090-3
BALTIMORE NEWS-AMERICAN
17 APRIL 1980
The. director of the Central Intelligence
Agency, Admiral Stansfield Turner, sees noth-
ingwrong withusing journalists as undercover
agents. He reserves the right, he told an audi-
ence of newspaper,-editors last week, to enlist
reporters for secret missions abroad: And he
was rather surprised when-the editors reacted
with shock and dismayA ;> .
He should, know.. better:; Newspaper and
television reportersrat home. as well as over-
seas, must be perceived as. operating. com-
pletely _independently of.,their.government__
How, for example, would Americans be able.to
get any news of what's happening in Iran if the
reporters working there were suspected of be-
ing CIA.: agents? 'Admiral Turner's remarks
could give the Iranians justification for arrest-
ing orevicting every American correspondent
.working in the country,and.the same would be
no less true in other. parts of the world.
We are mindful that the American press, in
recent years especially;: may have worn out
the public's patience in asserting its special
privileges - the rather extraordinary protec-
tions which the First Amendment and a demo-
cratic society affords the working journalist.
The vehement professional objection to the use
of journalists as spies may strike some people
as yet another example of the same tendency
But what's at stake here is more than pro-Ttection for the reporter. Anyone who relies on
newspapers or television for a reasonably ac-
curate picture of the world ought
to feel he has
some guarantee that the go-betweens aren't
paid operatives of the Central Intelligence
Agency any more than they're shills of Gener-
al Motors. Reporters can't be anything less
than the seekers of facts that they present
themselves to be, or their credibility vanishes.
If a foreign nation comes to look upon ev-
ery reporter as a spook, which thanks to Admi-
ral Turner.it very well might, what happens to
a journalist's ability to inquire? Does the ad-
miral think `a news source, say an official of
the French government, would give frank an-
swers? How can a reporter find out what's go-
ing on so he or she can accurately interpret
and present the facts? And what happens to a
reporter's very safety in a foreign country?
Admiral Turner evidently hasn't asked
himself such questions. He doesn't seem to un-
derstand and maybe doesn't see the value to
the American people (and for that matter to
their government) of unfettered inquiry. He
doesn't appreciate that credibility is one of the
most important tools a journalist has. That's
bad enough. What makes it worse is that the
CIA, in trouble in recent years because of its
disregard for American values and frequently..
its laws, doesn't seem to have learned very ;
much. And what makes it even worse than that
is Jimmy Carter's answer to a question about
his Naval Academy classmate's position. Does
he agree with it? Yes, he said, I do.
J
Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200090-3