DISCLOSING UNDERCOVER AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100240020-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: June 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

A,_" Approved For Release 2007/05/21 : CIA-RDP88-01070R000100240020-7
RADIO N REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PROGRAM Eyewitness News STATIONWDVM TV
DATE June 23, 1982 6:00 PM CITY Washington, DC
SUBJECT Disclosing Undercover Agents
GORDON PETERSON: President Reagan says CIA employees
are the eyes and the ears of the free world. Today the President
signed legislation making it illegal for people to disclose the
name of American spies.
Eyewitness News correspondent Kent Jarrell reports.
KENT JARRELL: Inside CIA headquarters, away from
cameras and reporters, President Reagan talked to several hundred
undercover agents. Outside, before a hillside full of other
employees, less sensitive to being photographed, the President
said the CIA is the trip-wire against the forces of repression
and tyranny, and he urged special care because the Soviet Union
is suffering from internal decay.
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: History shows that it is
precisely when totalitarian regimes begin to decay from within,
it is precisely when they feel the first real stirrings of
domestic unrest that they seek to reassure their own people of
their vast and unchallengeable power through imperialistic
expansion or foreign adventure. So the era ahead of us is one
that will see grave challenges and be fraught with danger.
JARRELL: Then the President, to applause, signed the
agent protection law which calls for a penalty of up to ten years
in jail and up to fifty thousand dollars in fines for persons
disclosing the names of US spies.
The American Civil Liberties Union is offering to help
anyone prosecuted under the law, saying the law is an infringe-
ment on the constitutional right of free speech.
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
Material supplied by Radio N Reports, Inc. may be used for file and reference purposes only. It may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited,
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100240020-7
 Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100240020-7
The President said the legislation is only aimed at
indecent people, and is a vote of confidence in the CIA by the
American people.
JARRELL: And in another attempt to keep secrets secret,
photographers were told not to take pictures outside the area the
ceremony was held in.
The President's visit to the CIA was an obvious morale
boost, the President saying a decade of neglect and over-zealous
criticism of the CIA is now over, that the nation's intelligence
agencies are now being rebuilt.
Kent Jarrell, Eyewitness News, at CIA headquarters.
Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100240020-7