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

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500150012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2005
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 5, 1984
• Content Type: PREL

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.
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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._ _
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Approved For Release 2006/01/12 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500150012-7