LETTER TO MAX FRANKEL FROM STANSFIELD TURNER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05T00644R000601740007-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2009
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: August 22, 1978
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2009/06/24: CIA-RDP05T00644R000601740007-0
Mr- Max Frankel
Editor, Editorial Page
The flew York Times
229 Ilest 43 Street
flew York, New York 70036
Dear Mr. Frankel:
24 AUG 1978
Thanks for your helpful and extensive reply to my letter to
Abe Rosenthal. I appreciate the several ideas that
forward. They all have merit. Let me car-rent on butoa few. put
Quite frequently we do claim the privilege of thing in a secret classification although it has already the public domain. There is, however, a considerable differed
between a government agency officially acknowledging the substa nce
of a secret which has leaked and that same secret information appearing
in a newspaper or a memoir. To begin with there is the fact of veri-
fication. Beyond that there is often a factor of reneging on an
agreement for secrecy with an intelligence agent, a foreign intelligence
service, or some other entity. In short, while it may seem obtuse
times for us not to release information which is in the public domain,
there often is good cause. at
n,
While you have a good point that no one should be subjected
censorship for the rest of his life simply because he worked cinano
agency like the CIA for a short period of time, all we are really
asking is that we have a right to review any information obtained during that period of employment. We certainly
Publication based on
are not empowered to pass judgment on mal from other
experiences and even as to material deraivedterifronderiCIAved
experiences we
assert only a limited right of review, the sole purpose of which is
to screen out properly classified information.
too, think there is some promise in Bill Colby's thesis, and
surely enough to warrant careful exploration. tle are indeed both
interested in the same result: the preservation of truly vital
secrets, the downgrading of as many "run-of-the-mill secrets" as
C'hri V C.:. i
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 Approved For Release 2009/06/24: CIA-RDP05T00644R000601740007-0
can be downgraded, and elimination of any proclivity to use secrecy
as a way to obscure acts of embarrassment. I sincerely hope that
the country can grapple with this issue in the months ahead and
attempt to define a national attitude on secrecy in a democratic
society. I am enclosing a draft article on this topic which I have
written. Perhaps you would be good enough to let the Magazine Section
look at it to see if they have any interest in it. I suspect it is
not quite the type of thing for their publication, but I would be
pleased if they would at least consider it.
Again, thanks.
Yours sincerely,
-7s/ Stansfleld Turner
STAUUSFIELD TURNER
Enc.
DCI/OGC/DPA/kgt/22 August 1978
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee w/enc.
ER wo/att
1 - OGC wo/att
2 - 0/PA wo/att
Approved For Release 2009/06/24: CIA-RDP05T00644R000601740007-0