THERE IS NO REPLACEMENT FOR SIMPLE TRUST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030121-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 121
• Publication Date: April 22, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RD
f-"TI rLF APPEARED BALTIMORE SUN
r" ^ f.^l l j /~ 22 APRIL 1983
'here Is No Replacement
for Simple Trust
Washington.. So far, so good. But as with everything
COM.MV.NDER WHITEHEAD, the man else in government, there have to be limits.
with the long gray beard, used to tams. The first is on what gets classified in the first
line television audiences with the "secret of place, and anyone who has-ever read a docu-
Schhh ..." The secret soon got out; he was meat with "confidential," "secret," or "top
talking about a brand of soft drink, and the secret" stamped in bright red letters is cyni.
Schweppes company went on to other image- Cal about the standards too often applied.
ry. But if the Reagan Administration has its Perhaps articles from the daily newspaper
way, other graybeards will sit beside `the Y classified "secret" by the Pen-
tagon, karen,'tagon,tactuall but that is the waggish rumor that has
long circulated. in the corridors of power.
By Robert E. Halter 'em are all kinds of secrets. Some go to
the vital heart of American security. But a
mass of them involve far less sensitive sub-
typewriter of every ex-government official jam, such as political judgments about for-
who ever saw a secret, with cautionary fingers eign countries and leaders that rapidly
come dated. Some are designed to keep
ep
to lips hest the identity of "Schhh ..." slip today's diplomatic plans from being revealed
out. prematurely, whereas tomorrow they'll
That is the import of a document signed properly be on the evening news. And, as hu-
by President Reagan earn in March Na- man nature would have it, the secret stamp is
JO-11a; Security Decisica Directive (NSDD) too often used to shelter political embarrass.
&4. Well ci.-' over because of its threat to meat, as Watergate proved. Under the new
use the lie-detecting polygraph against any directive
govern ment employee suspected of 1 ' discuss* in print any of these so-
tbt press, the new directive is far more o aking called secrets would be a no-no, for as long as
portent for what it ~nuid do to the government deems frt.
people who In theory, the memoirs of today's leaders
have left federal service. In brief, before any - including Ronald Reagan himself - could
official henceforth becomes qualified to see be reduced to a few short bromides; and the
ce:-tarn xwcls of secrets--defined as "Sensi- op-ed pages could be ruled off-limits to ex-of-
tiv& -Compartmented Information"-he or facials, not
rc .tiill have to sign an ar-E:e::ent including rather because of the ponderous processes re-
a Provision for prepubiAcatior, review to as. quired to read and review articles, however
sure deletion of SCI and other classified in, innocuous, that might need to go to press to-
formation." That means a few thousand sen- right to have any claim on readership. We
for stuff but anyt}u of lust the really sensi- might hear little or nothing from former offs.
tive t ff but
cret; it
mean rem a ver of considered chats the about El Salvador, arms control negotia-
chooses to write for publication; extreme, debate on the th missile. At the
and it means forever. extreme, one strength of the American sys-
S what's wrong with that? Surely, the tam - that, like Cincinnatus, people come
United States Government has the right-in- and go in goverment - could be weakened.
deed, the duty-to protect the nation's vital Of course, in practice the new rules are not
secrets, especially those that got to the heart designed to impose such harsh requirements,
but
of intelligence-gathering, which is a major, rather to stop the tiny handful of willful
reason for "compartmenting" secrets to limit idth~ Aw determined olatoor, nhowweeve ,
access to them. Surely, too, anyone who goes would not be impeded; nor, in practice, would
into the federal government should do so top-level former officials be prevented from
only with the clear understanding that this drawing
entails a public trust, scrupulously to be hon- on rafts classified material in pen-
entails ning their footnotes to history ?- as the Car-
ter memoirs now emerging
amply demonstrate. The only people limited
would be those too weak and vulnerable to
claim special privilege.
We must also hope that this and future
administrations will exercise discretion in ap-
plying the new rules. Presumably, no one
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030121-4