POSSIBLE SPEECH INSERT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01554R003300260029-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2005
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: May 14, 1979
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Releas 2005/03/16: CIA-RDP80B01554R003i300260029-1
14 May 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: SA/DCI
Herbert Hetu, D/PA
FROM: Director of. Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: Possible Speech Insert
The following is a quotation from a Jody Powell press conference:
Questioner: "You refuse to comment on this, yet this is
important information that the.American people have a right to
know."
Powell: "There is information the American people also have
the right not to know, i.e., it is in the best interests of the
country that we conduct some of our diplomacy, military affairs,
and intelligence in secrecy.
"Beyond this, if the press have the right to know
almost anything, it is then the press that determines what the
American public will know by whether or not they elect to print
it. Clearly under the First Amendment of the Constitution we
cannot order the press to print something if we are willing to
release it. Why should the media become the only arbitors of
what the American public can and should know? Surely the people
elect their officials in order to hold them responsible for
administering the affairs of state on their behalf. Such admin-
istration does require certain elements of privacy and secrecy.
Hence, one of the most overworked cliches today is this assertion
by the press that they have a right under the First Amendment of
the Constitution to know and reveal everything."
An absurd example of this is a further exchange in the above
dialogue with Jody Powell:
Questioner: "If you tell it to the Senators, they are elected
by the people, why don't you tell it to the American people who
elect them? Why don't you declassify it?"
STANSFIELD TURNE
Approved For Release 2005/03/16 : CIA-RDP80B01554R003300,260