THE SPY BILL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100240032-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: June 24, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100240032-4
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PROGRAM The Daily Drum STATION WHUR Radio
DATE June 24, 1982 6:00 PM CITY Washington, DC
The Spy Bill
GLORIA MINOT: Yesterday President Reagan signed into
law a bill forbidding the disclosure of government agents'
identities, making it a criminal offense to do so. The measure
has been opposed by a number of public interest groups, civil
liberties organizations and journalists, among them Bill Schaap,
co-editor of the Covert Action Information Bulletin which used to
publish a Name in Names column in the magazine. Schaap
elaborates on his objections to the measure.
BILL SHAAP: The major problem is that the bill has
virtually nothing to do with what its sponsors say it does, and
that is that we are not keeping the identities of these people
secret from anybody. Even the CIA has testified before Congress
that the KGB, the British intelligence, all the other intelli-
gence services know far better than we at Covert Action magazine
do, who these people are. It's not a question of keeping their
identities secret, even though that's the myth which they
perpetrated.
MINOT: Schaap also discredits the stated intent of the
bill to protect the lives of CIA agents and their families from
attempted assassinations, especially those agents operating
abroad.
SCHAAP: Any organization that wants to kill these
people can do so. The fact that it happens very rarely is, I
suppose, testiment to the fact that that, in fact, assassination
is not a very viable political means. Certainly, you don't stop
what you may view as the abuses of American society or the abuses
of the CIA by assassinating one particular individual. I mean,
that has never worked. Most political groups, I think, under-
stand that.
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 Approved For Release 2007/05/21: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100240032-4
MINOT: The measure provides for up to ten years in
prison for discloding -- disclosing federal agents' identities,
and fifty thousand dollars in fines.
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