DIRECTOR'S CONCERN REGARDING INTELLIGENCE LEAKS AND COUNTERTERRORISM CAPABILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R002800020041-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2008
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: March 28, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

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28 March 1984
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Director
FROM: George V. Lauder
Director, Public Affairs
SUBJECT: Director's Concern Regarding Intelligence
Leaks and Counterterrorism-Capabilities
REFERENCE: ,DCI's memo, this subject, dated 23 March 1984
1. If a new effort to stem leaks is to have any effect, we must first
nail someone, or several people, under the Identities Act. It is the old
story o fitting the donkey over the head with a two by four in order to get
its attention. Efforts to educate people with access to classified
information regarding the need to protect that information will only be
effective after somebody has been prosecuted and convicted for leaking such
data.
2. In order to prosecute successfully we have to get Justice's attention
and cooperation. Since neither we nor the Congress have been very successful
in that regard, perhaps we need to wheel the President himself, with the
parallel cooperation of Congressional leaders, into the act to tell Justice to
make a case, a good case, and see it all the way through. Stan Sporkin may
have hit on the right avenue for proceeding, i.e., a special prosecutor or
investigator. I recommend retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart as the
right person to head such an inquiry. He has the right national stature,
integrity and attitude. When he was on the PBS series "the Media and National
Security", he said "there is nothing in the Constitution about the public's
right to know."
3. Then we need to go for legislation for criminal sanctions for
unauthorized disclosures of classified information. Other than the Espionage
and Identities Acts, Comint law, and firing people, there are no enforceable
penalties for leaks that I know of. People feel free to leak since they are
risking little.
4. Resources in the Intelligence Community agencies, especially Defense,
State and the FBI, are woefully inadequate to cope with the number and
difficulty in investigating the spate of leaks which have been occurring.
Their resources should be greatly augmented and devoted exclusively to
pursuing leak investigations.
5. Defense and State and the Oversight Committees should develop
educational programs and reports to promote understanding among their
officials as to the truly damaging effects leaks can have on very important
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national security programs. We keep seeing in the press that, according to
Congressional testimony, leaks aren't a problem. Six identified leaks were
reported during the year, etc., etc. We need to get the story out through the
Oversight Committees, if possible, about the true figures and that the damage
caused is clearly serious.
6. Last, we need to continue our efforts to educate the media regarding
the need to protect sources and methods (I have worked hard on this and with
some success) and to educate the other Public Affairs Officers in the
Community to emulate the Agency's efforts to better control media contacts
with their officers and other employees.
STAT
eorg V. Lauder
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
1 - ER
1 - PAO #84-0148
2 - PAO files
1 - C/CCIS
STAT
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