SECRETS OF THE C.I.A

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090061-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: March 9, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

ON PAGE-l_
Approved F
'sl/1 ~IAR$1 I81R0000900~1-
By Anthony Lewis
prop
BOSTON, March 8-As Director of
be more attractive because it differs
Central Intelligence, William E. Colby
significantly in method.
put great emphasis on the need to
1. The type of secrets to de protect-
protect intelligence secrets. He helped
ed would be strictly defined, and
develop a legal strategy for secrecy,
courts would hold in camera hearings
and he repeatedly asked Congress for
to decide whether the material in a
a law to restrain leakers.
case met the definition. These woul
So it is news when Mr. Colby
be adversary proceedings, with counsel
changes his approach. The other day,
fo rthe defendant participating.
in little-noticed testimony before a
2. Journalists or other third parties
Senate Intelligence subcommittee, he
who had the information could not be
made a careful new proposal to bal
prosecuted and would be protected.--
ance the interests of security and freer
from having to disclose, under sub-h
-dom. His thoughts should be helpful to
poem, where they got it.
Carter Administration officials, who
3. The statute would be the ex-,
are struggling right now with the old
elusive way to proceed against dis- '
problem of how to keep some secrets
d'..n!
n our open society. closure of intelligence sources an
It would bar injunction or'H
Mr. Colby proposed legislation to techniques.
suits on a "contract" or other-
protect "secret intelligence sources and damage
obligationc i
techniques.", His basic idea was to basis. It would also end any
to submit manuscripts for clearance; h
define those secrets narrowly, and
but if an ex-employee submitted one .'
apply the statute only to people who
and it was cleared, he couidi;
had specifically promised to keep them voluntary
. ;1
secret. Such a- carfully aimed law not be prosecuted.
would be both more credible as a
Mr. Colby, who now practices laworr
threat and less worrying to civil liber-
in Washington, was asked why hehad T
tarians; he argued, than broad laws
turned against the contract theory. H~
o~
isn't very dignified-use
against leaks. said: "It really
"We all know," he testified, "that
the total secrecy which characterized
intelligence in the past included many II
ABROAD AT HOME , -,
unnecessary secrets. and that some of
these covered activity improper at the
contract law to protect secrets." Heel
time. . . , We must give a sienal .. . ing
made clear he thought it was ineffec' E
that America will not try to keep the
tual, because publishers got around it:rn
unnecessary secrets but that . it does
approach like Mr. Colby's could'd
have the will and the machinery to An
have political as.well as legal advan-:^
keep the necessary ones."
For those concerned about:!
In the past, Mr. Colby has urged Cages.
security, it offers greater certainty imi.
legislation to let the Government go
protecting real intelligence secrets.
to court and get injunctions against
For civil libertarians it offers an end-,-j
anv prospective leaks of classified in-
to the chilling effects. of prior rem.,
telligence . information." He was also
straints in this area, enforced by
involved in developing the legal theory
judges with no guidelines on what is.
that secrecy agreements signed by
secret. -
.C.I.A.. employees are legally enforce- a'
i=y
able contracts-the theory recently The proposal could also help Pres
Carter get out of what seems to
invoked by the Justice Department to dent
suit1
seek damages from Frank Snepp for be some embarrassment over the
publishing his book on Vietnam with- against Frank Snepp. Asked about thl
out agency clearance. case last week, Mr. Carter referred"
Those ideas Mr. Colby now dis- testily to. the dangers of intelligence
avows. He told the Senate committee people "revealing our nation's utmost
that the Government should not "turn secrets." But there is no claim that
frantically. to attempts to enforce con- Mr. Snepp's book reveals any secret
tracts or obtain damages." And he' intelligence sources or methods, an,,
indicated that the constitutional pre- the suit would not lay down any
sumption against prior restraints, standards of secrecy, only Congress -
spelled out by the Supreme Court, can really do that.
made injunctions a doubtful remedy. The dilemma is always how to safe='01
Instead, Mr. Colby urged a narrow guard genuine secrets-the names of 11
criminal statute. It would cover only agehts, for example-while not pre=`t
intelligence sources and techniques venting the disclosure of abuses that
-'vulnerable "vulnerable to termination or frustra- we know have occurred in intelligence)
lion by a foreign power if disclosed." agencies. Mr. Colby's proposal would'I
And it would apply only to personnel, not accomplish the total reform of our,
who. had signed secrecy agreements. espionage laws that 'experts think, is-A
'President. Ford, on Feb. 18; 1976, needed. But it would deal precisely and,.,
o I ation. n t elli- ivel with What most think ApprO ~iz c~~rn~ y>~ti~hecC14,90 1(14Q& 002000D900qJ-4
injunction or prosecution. It never
got anywhere in Congress. Mr. Colby's
osal has the same object but may