ATTEMPTS TO SHIELD CIA MAY BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000200030018-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 5, 2007
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: October 6, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approvted...FQ.r,Release 2007/04106 ,;_ CIA-RDP99-,00498R000,fl8OO3
OAK RIDGE OAK RIDGER (TN)
6 October 1982
Attempts to shield CIA may be
unconstitutional
By BOB MITROVICH
Medill News Service
-WASHINGTON - The Reagan
administration's attempt to
shield the CIA from public intru-
sion has extended to what may
be an unconstitution area.
:Congress recently passed an
administration proposal to pro-
hibit publicizing the identity of
an American intelligence agent.
finder Public Law 200, a jour-.
nalist could be convicted for
publishing the name of a CIA
agent, even if it was obtained
from unclassified material.
P.unishment for violation of the
law is up to 18 years in prison
and a S90.000 fine.
:The effort to criminalize the
transfer of unclassified material
is "absolutely unprecedented
and terribly dangerous," con-
stitutional Jaw expert Floyd
Abrams, attorney for the New
York Times, told the Senate In-
telligence Committee.
Had this statute been on the
books in 1960. Abrams testified
in a 1980 hearing, those who
published Francis Gary Powers'
name as the CIA pilot downed bye
a Soviet plane during the U-2
crisis would have been subject to-
criminal prosecution until the
president publicly acknowledg-
ed he was an intelligence agent.
The rationale for the identities
protection centers on the,
systematic effort of Philip Agee
and the co-editors of the Covert
Action Information Bulletin to
disclose the names of in-
telligence agents.
In a six-year period, Agee's
works "Dirty Work: The CIA
in Western Europe." and "Dirty
Work 2: The CIA in Africa," plus
the "Naming Names" column in
the Covert Action Information
Bulletin - have revealed the
names of more than 2000 CIA of-
ficials and agents.
A 1981? staff report by the
Senate Select Committee on In-
telligence called this "a
systematic effort to destroy the
ability of our intelligence agents
to operate clandestinely.
The report attributed the 1975
murder of Athens Station Chief
Richard S. Welch and a 1980
assassination attempt on
Jamaica Station Chief Richard
Kinsman to the publication.
"Less than 48 hours before the
second attack, Louis Wolf had
publicly alleged that Richard
Kinsman and 14 other U.S. Em-
bassy officials in Jamaica were
working for the CIA," the report
said.
"That statement is a lie," said
Louis Wolf, co-editor- of the
Bulletin. Wolf insisted that
Welch's identity "had been
revealed by other publications at
least 10 years -prior to his
death."
Nor does Wolf believe. he had
any influence on the alleged at-
tempt to kill Kinsman.
"We believe the Kinsman
assassination attempt was made
up to discredit us. He had been
named by us not 48 hours in ad-
vance but nine months in ad-
vance."
Wolf also charged that no
evidence of an assassination at-
tempt was revealed.
Wolf said the government in-
tends to use Public Law 200 to
produce a chilling effect on the
nation's newspapers.
"This is intended to do more
than stop our column." he said.
,,It is intended to stop anyone
from contemplating doing the
same thing. The government is
trying to protect its illegal
covert operations not only from
us, but from the establishment
press as well."
The committee report said on-
ly that individuals whose "inten-
tional well-evidenced course of
conduct involves a pattern of ac-
tivities intended to identify
covert agents in order to impede
U.S. foreign intelligence ac-
tivities" would be prosecuted
under the law.
"This law does not permit a
newspaper man to be prosecuted
for naming one intelligence
agent in the course of 'J story."
said former CIA Director
Stansf field Turner.
In a recent interview. Turner
said the government had to show
a "pattern of activities and a
deliberate intent to disclose the
names of agents in order to foil
American intelligence efforts." .
The former CIA director said
the innocent newsman is pro-
tected by the law. But, he also
said, "Anyone who reveals CIA
agent names in order to diminish
our intelligence activities
deserves to be punished.
Freedom of the press is not
unrestricted."
While the clear purpose of the
law is to stop the naming of any
intelligence operative, the in-
formation gathered to identify a
CIA agent can be obtained from
material already in the public
domain. The co-editors of the
Covert Action Information
Bulletin discovered CIA names
through government registers
and personnel' bioghe State
publicly released by
Department..
If, through research in public
sources, the identity of a CIA
agent were often revealed, that
would constitute "naming
names," and would be
punishable under the law,
Abrams testified.
The Senate Select Committee
reported it rejected the "conten-
tion that the identities of im-
perfectly covered intelligence
persons are part of the public
record."
The committee reasoned that
"those seeking to learn (iden-
tities) without the use of
classified information must sfr
quentty engage . in physical
surveillance, in search of per-
sonnel records."
The committee equated
surveillance and investigation
through the public record with
counterespionage against the
STAT