A LICENSE FOR SLANDER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400190092-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2000
• Sequence Number: 92
• Publication Date: April 27, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/26 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R0004001,90092-3
Pale Pdas Pry
DES MOINES, IOWA
I TRIBUNE
E-121,54&
_I
'APR 2 71966
A License for Slander 11
(Washington Post) ' ' ...,,,.. . .,r .. .t.__. L_r ... ...-` " - ? . .
THE C e n t r a I Intelligence issued. 4 ought to have the power to say
. .t ('.hief Justice Earl Warren :'.%_ th
Agee currentl
eg
CIA ...I.- V...] - A
y
g
e
lbert
In ah a empt to deny any means a dissenting opinion, said : ? 'Reeves said to the FBI when
h
etically and, we think, ,that agency tried to withhold
} of rdrers~to .@ man whose char-' p
gather soundly that the de= ..t relevant information in the trial
ii5M iv,ha_ ithlessly assas i- would have the "effect of de- of Judith Coplon in 1949: "If it
hnated..Bj an pen admission of terring the desirable public dis- turns out that the government
kits TcIe jjy director, a CIA opera- cussion of all aspects of our gov- has come into court exposing
77- five named Juri Raus was in- ernment and the conduct of its- itself, then it will have to take ?,
rstructed to defame an Estonian, officials. It will sanctify the the peril. If it embarrasses the
powerful and silence debate. government to disclose relevant
Eerik Heine, active in the Es- This is a much more serious material, then the government
tonian community in the United danger than the possibility that ought not to be here."
f States, by bruiting it about that a government official might This case raises some other
"Heine was a covert Soviet agent.. occasionally be called upon to vital questions. What on earth
Heine sued for slander. Raus. defend his actions and to re-' is the CIA doing trying to ma-
does not deny that he made the ., spond in damages for a malt nipulate the affairs of the Es-
offending statements. At the cious defamation." tonian community in the United
same time he makes no effort We make no judgment as to States? This kind of interference
to defend them as truthful. He the merits of the controversy in the political actions of foreign
'merely submits to the court a between Raus and Heine. But nationality groups amounts, in
CIA assertion that he said what we think it intolerable that gov- our judgment, to a most dan-
he said on instructions from his ernment officials should hold an gerous sort of subversion, a
superiors, that what he said is,: unlimited license for slander. pollution of.one of the main cur-
[therefore privileged and that rents of American political life.
Heine's suit ought to be dis- The CIA ought-to be excluded
missed on these grounds, CIA Doing? absolutely from involvement in
i..
Absolute If, 'as the CIA asserts, "it domestic affairs. ~y+
Privilege - I would be contrary to the se- . r =L-? _ ~?`^'--'~
curity interests of the United_
The law is probably on the States" to release the informa-
side
of the CIA. In 1959, the Su- tion relevant to Raus's defense, S
preme Court decided, by 5 to 4, then the CIA ought to indemnify
a case, Barr v. Matteo, holding . Heine. for the injury done to
that two subordinate officials of him. The United States has I
the ? Office' of . Rent Stabiliza- other interests than security; .1t-h .
tion had, an absolute privilege has an' interest'.in justice and in'y
ra..'
f
..
against A 'suit for Mal based the Inte
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g
o
is
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Approved ' For Release 2000/08/26 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400190092-3 '