LETTER TO SIDNEY HURLBURT FROM HERBERT E. HETU

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000300100014-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 28, 2007
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: November 13, 1978
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2007/03/01 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000300100014-6
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Phone: [phone]
Mr. Sidney Huriburt
Editor
Burlington Free Press
191 College Street
Burlington, Vermont 05401
13 November 1978
I have just seen your editorial of 13 October, "CIA's Unrelenting
Arrogance."
Providing your readers with editorial judgments which they trust
and believe is an awesome responsibility. To provide such judgments
based on false information without any attempt to verify your facts
is faulty journalism at best. To provide such judgments based on
.ignorance of the facts is_ frightening. In your editorial of the 13th
you have accomplished both.
Based on a story in the Wilmington Journal--like the Free Press a
Gannett newspaper--you report that five CIA officials have put pressure
on the Maryland State Police. to drop the investigation into the death
of a_former CIA employee and consultant. A call to my office or to
the Maryland State Police would have provided you with the information
that the charge made by the Wilmington Journal was utterly irresponsible
and ridiculous. If you did not believe my answer you could have had
the decency to call me a liar in print.
In closing your editorial you demand the President and the Congress
to hold the CIA accountable for its deeds and to impose severe restric-
tions to assure the American people and others that it (the CIA) will
not overstep its bounds again.
Where have you been?
In January of this year President Carter signed Executive Order 12036,
"United States Intelligence Activities" which spells out in great detail
what the CIA can and cannot do. Some 18 months ago the President created
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the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) whose only mission.is to look
over and into the activities of this country's intelligence apparatus.
Both Houses of Congress have created committees for precisely the
same purposes--the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (19 May 1976)
and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (14 July 1977).
Both committees are now working on Charter Legislation to provide laws
to direct and limit our intelligence activities.
Should the Burlington Free Press, the Wilmington Journal or
anyone else have evidence, information or suspicion of any wrongdoing.
t bein
t
~ga ion g
or impropriety by the CIA in the case of the inves
undertaken by the Maryland State Police--or in any other activity
involving the CIA--I urge you to make your information known to
the IOB and to the two Intelligence Committees in the Congress. I
can assure you that your charges will be fully investigated.
I also urge you in fairness to your readers to have the courage
to print this response. Those in the CIA who work for the citizens.
of the United States in a thankless and often dangerous profession
are deeply hurt by your groundless charges._.Itis you who have an
unrelenting arrogance.
Sincerely,
Director of Public Affairs
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BURLINGTON FREE PRESS (VT.)
13 October 1978
re entino-l' rrogance
IN THE NAME of national security, the Central
Intelligence Agency has trampled on the rights of
many American citizens and has often exceeded
the limits of, its authority in conducting clan-
destine activities in other countries.' Recent revelations have- indicated that the
nation's intelligence apparatus has operated.much
too close-to the line that sets off the legal from the
illegal in numerous instances-here and abroad:::-:
country
this
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has shocked many peop
has been the fact that the CIA apparently has been indicates that the CIA has not changed; its officials
ve the laws that- ?.;are .as arrogant. and confident as they- ever-were.
b
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accorded a status that:puts.
others must -And they apparently operate with impunity.in the
ti
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After being chided by Congress for some of its eyes. of
sinister undertakings:: the. CIA-could ,have been is- a' deed for ? a ;credible intelligence
appropriately -cantrite- bg~toning.:.down