WASHINGTON COURT AGREES TO DECIDE WHETHER CIA CAN BE FORCED TO REVEAL SOURCES BY JAMES H. RUBIN

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CIA-RDP91-00901R000500150012-7
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RIPPUB
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K
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2
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December 19, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 20, 2005
Sequence Number: 
12
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Publication Date: 
March 5, 1984
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PREL
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STAT ASSOCIATED PRESS Approved For Release 200-6/9,1Jj CjlapgRDP91-00901R0 WASHINGTON COURT AGREES TO DECIDE WHETHER CIA CAN BE FORCED TO REVEAL BY JAMES H. RUBIN The Supreme court today agreed to decide whether the Intelligence Agency may be forced in some cases to reveal its intelligence sources. The justices will hear the government's appeal from a ruling that could force the CIA to disclose the names of researchers who took part in a program Involving brainwashing and experimental drugs. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here ruled last June 10 that the CIA may 11 not refuse automatically to disclose the names of researchers involved in MKULTRA _ the code name for the program. Some individuals were unwittingly administered LSD and other drugs in the research program during the 1950s and 1960s, and at least two people died because of the experiments. A congressional committee and a presidential commission investigated MKULTRA in the mid-.1970s, shedding light on numerous alleged abuses. In the case acted on today, the Ralph Nader group Public Citizen sought under the Freedom of Information Act the names of individual researchers and institutions used by the CIA to conduct the experiments. The CIA contends that it promised confidentiality to the researchers, and that forcing the agency to reveal their names may threaten other intelligence sources. "The possibiity of such a disclosure alone can have extremely damaging effects, because it gives rise to the perception that the CIA cannot be trusted to keep a source's identity secret," Justice Department lawyers said. They added: "A foreign government that learned the sources that the agency was consulting would have been able to infer both the general nature of the CIA's project and the directions that its research was taking." The appeals court here ruled that in most operations the CIA will not be forced to reveal 'the names of intelligence sources. But, the appeals court said, the CIA may not withhold the names automatically "in cases like (MKULTRA) where a great deal of the information is not self-evidently sensitive, where the reasons why its sources would desire confidentiality are not obvious, and where the agency's desire for secrecy seems to derive principally from fear of a public outcry resulting from revelation of the details of its past conduct." A great deal of the CIA's records of PKULTRA were destroyed in 1973 on orders from then- CIA Director Richard Helms. But in 1977 the agency located about 8,000 pages of previously undisclosed material. At the. direction of Stansfield Turner, then- CIA director,. the documents were turned over to a Senate subcommittee but the names of participating researchers and institutions were not made public. Approved For Release 2006/01/12: CIA-RDP91-00901 R00050cawlIqUj STAT ARTICLE APPE,B oved For Relent"Ol J@SMMP91-00901 RO ONT PAGE ,2_-- 1 March 1984 U.S. Assesses Iran's Thre Oil-Supply Route can defense official is more direct: Iran Military Factors Weigh would find that it "can't sustain a blockade over time," he says. Against Tehran, but Its ' But even an Iranian attempt to close ,the strait, or threats from Tehran to mine Irrationality Is Feared .. It or attack of the tanerrw, could create havoc. "One better to close the strait insurance rates go up ' -says Christine By GERALD F. SS[s Helms (no relation to Richard Helms), a staff Reporter of THE W,%" STREET JOURNAL Brookings institution analyst. If Insurance Iraq strikes at Iran's oil-jugular vein in their 34 -year-old war. It uses its French- made Super Etendard warplanes to sink oil tankers at Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal in the Persian Gulf. Iran retaliates by dispatching helicop- ters and ships to mine the Strait of Hor- muz, the Gulf's narrow mouth. Frightened shipping companies and insurance firms that underwrite tankers call a halt to oil shipments from the Gulf, through which passes 200 of the noncommunist world's oil. To protect the oil supplies, the U.S. and its allies spring into action. Saudi Arabia sends its four mine-sweeping ships into the strait to start clearing It out. The U.S. air- lifts mine-sweeping helicopters half way around the world to begin sweeping opera- tions of its own. Planes from the aircraft carrier Midway protect the mine-sweepers from attack by Iranian planes. while U.S. warships escort tankers through the Gulf. Such a scenario is purely hypothetical. But with Iraq claiming this week that its warplanes attacked tankers near Kharg Is- land and warning ships to stay away, It doesn't seem so far-fetched. Iraq's claim hasn't been confirmed, but the mere re- ports of it sent oil prices shooting up. And U.S. officials again are worried Iran could be provoked into carrying out its long- standing threat to close the Strait of Hor- muz to punish Iraq and its supporters. The task of closing the strait would be, forme a e mt itaril the risk of massive ret cation high and the cost to Iran's own econom steep. "In th_e s ort ran a they coul do it " says Richard He -s ormer director o t e entral Intelligence A enc lid a ormer am a sadQi1ojran u v{ isn't in their intere~ inn e,l~g r lo ,J ok at it coldly and cvnicallv." An Ame-ri- rates go too high. the tankers would be forced. to stay out of the Gulf. A shutdown of the Straits of Hormuz would be -designed to punish countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which support Iraq economically, by cutting off their abil- ity to export oil. But Iran could accomplish the.same thing by bombing Saudi and Ku- waits oil installations. An attack against the huge Saudi oil-loading facility at Ras Tanura would be particularly crippling and could spark war all around the Gulf. Mining the strait or attacking moderate Arab states like Saudi Arabia would force Iran to divert military resources from its war with Iraq. Blocking the strait also would cut off its own ability to ship oil. And the massive Western military re- sponse that might follow could overwhelm Iran's own deteriorating military ma- chine. But Iran has defied logic before, and the U.S. is prepared for it to do so again. Mining the strait would be difficult. Its deep water (the depth averages about 150 feet) would make it a problem to plant mines, particularly ones that must be t. moored to the sea floor. "The problem with mining the strait is that it isn't per- : manent," says one Pentagon analyst. "The water is swift," he adds. Mines could wash away. Iran wouldn't be sure of their loca- tion, meaning it couldn't send its own oil tankers through the area any more safely than could other countries. U.S. officials aren't sure, but they as- sume Iran could at least scatter some mines using ships and helicopters or, per- haps, P-3 patrol planes Iran acquired from the U.S. before Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho- meini took power. But some analysts say American mine- sweeping capabilities have proved to be deficient in the past, and that even scat- tered Iranian mines could interfere with oil shipments for weeks. Iran also would face difficulties trying to sink ships in an effort to close the strait. Iran's navy and air force are believed to have deteriorated so much in recent years that experts aren't sure they are capable of carrying out effective attacks. Generally. Mr. Helms says, the Iranian navy doesn't "amount to a damn RV_ more. They never were verve ran's navy had 135 ships before the shah's fall, including-many light coastal patrol craft. Western experts don't know how many of them are still working, but most assume that losses and a shortage of spare parts have substantially reduced the number of operational ships. Similarly, Iran's air fleet has dwindled because of a lack of spare parts and losses In the war with Iraq. For instance, An- thony Cordesman, a former Pentagon offi- cial who' is now an editor of the Armed Forces Journal, estimates that Iran has only 25 usable F-4 fighter-bombers out of a pre-war total of 90, 30 usable F-5 fighters out of 166 previously. and five to 10 F-14 fighter-bombers out of 77 before the war. Those types were. bought from the U.S. during the shah's reign. And even if Iran did sink a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the strait is deep and wide enough so that other ships still could pass. At its narrowest point, the strait is 25 miles wide. As a result, some U.S. officials think' Iran might simply try to use its warships to intercept and turn back ships, rather than actually sink them._ _ .Con27vrrED Approved For Release 2006/01/12 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500150012-7