ADM STANSFIELD TURNER, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 5 AUGUST 1977

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000300090037-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: August 5, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/03/01 : CIA-A~~_4
ADM Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence
Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco, 5 August 1977
Excerpt from question-and-answer session:
Q. How long do you think it will take to regain the effectiveness
overseas in carrying out legitimate intelligence functions that
have been lost over recent years of adverse publicity?
Traitors like Mr. Agee nd others who have published, from their
knawledge__o.f__the_Centr--a1 Intelligence Agency, the names of agents,
,rev-e'Tations of m1ssro4 ng but revelations of important information.
A: There is no way you can answer that with a number. But I will
certainly agree that we have been grievously injured in our govern-
ment capabilities by some of the unfortunate revelations. Not just
am6s of people and places and.so on. And it, takes a while
to recoup, to regain confidence. We've had a number of people
who were, in my view, heroes, people who were not US citizens but
who were working for us overseas'-at the risk of their lives because
they-believed in us, come to us and say, "Can I risk working for
you any longer? Will my name appear in the Washington Post to-
morrow?" That's a difficult answer for me to give. And I have
had to personally intervene in some of these to try to hang on
to"the splendid cooperation we're getting. I can only say that
there is a delicate balance in this coulitry between what we all'
believe in, the freedom of information, the freedom of inquiry.,
and the unnecessary exposure of delicate, sensitive, critical
national security information.
STAT