FREE SPEECH, SECURITY AND THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200400011-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 11
• Content Type: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING

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Approved For Release 20ik 'O 1Jf P 192PA-P&1lA$ A L350R0
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By Alan Bar th
UNDAUNTED by, its experience in the obtained from U.S. District Court Judge Al- It Is a very serious constitutional ques-
case of the Pentagon Papers, the administra- hart V. Bryan on May 19 a permanent in- tion whether a man can waive so basic v
tion is,back in court again trying to impose junction ordering the author to "submit to constitutional right---any more than he could
a prior restraint on publication. And again, the Central. Intelligence Agency, for exami- put himself, by contract, into involuntary
of course, it is trying to justify its censor- nation 30 days in advance of release to any servitude for life in contravention of the
ship in the name of national security. person or corporation, any manuscript, art!- terms of the 13th Amendment. In any case,
cle or essay, or other writing, factual, fie-
This time, the administration has a new tioual or otherwise, which relates to or pur- so vague and so needlessly sweeping a re
angle. Its attempt to suppress the Pentagon ports to relate to the Central Intelligence nunciation of constitutional safeguards seem..
papers failed because the government was Agency intelligence, intelligence activities, utterly foreign to the character of American
unable to sustain its burden of proving that or intelligence sources and methods," and law and Its insistence upon ascertainable
publication would do "grave and irreparable forbidding release of any such material standards..
-injury" to the United States. "without prior authorization from the Dirac- It may be that Mr. Marchetti is vulner.
In the current case, however, the govern- for of Central Intelligence." Obviously, this able on the basis of what he has already pub
ment has rather neatly managed to evade gives Mt?. Ilelins complete power as a cen- lished to a suit by the CIA for breach of
that burden by seeking to suppress same- sor. thing that has not yet been written, The Like other employees of the CIA, Mr, contract. It may even be that what he ha.. 14larchetti had put his signature, solemnly spoken nal and prosecution for lays viol him violation of t open he to crispimi-
o
menacing material exists only in the mind of witnessed, on October 3, 1955, when lie Act or some other statute wile Eel
a writer to whom the government imputes. began employment, to a "Sec nage
recy Agree
an intention to write something that would meat." In addition, on Sept. 2, 1969, when he Congress for the protection of information
expose its secrets. What the administration left the CIA, Mr. Marchetti signed another vitally affecting the national security.
is trying to do, in short, is to apply to the document-this one called a "Secrecy Oath"- Such actions would, of course, entail a
field of publication one of its favorite law- 'which even more categorically pledged him trial by jury-an. adversary proceeding in
and-order- gimmicks; it is trying to impose a -to reticence. "I will never," the oath intoned, which the defendant would have, a chance to
kind of preventive detention in the realm of "divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, word, justify his conduct and the government
ideas. conduct or otherwise, any information relat would be obliged to assume the burden of
The case in point-which has received all -ing to the national defense and security and proving that his words, spoken or written,
too little attention in the press-involves a . particularly information of this nature relat- actually violated the terms of his contract or
man named Victor L. Marchetti who was actually did substantial injury to the United
employed. by the Cen- States.
tral Intelligence Agen- (( It is a radically. different thincts? how
ever. for the government to forbid w'o'rds be-
,
until his resignation in I i fore they hve been utterer on the mere as-
i
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b
i
th
t
i
h
ey are go
n?;
e
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o
ous_
on t
at
the fall of 1969. In the sumpt
course of his employ- or to allow a single executive official to
t he rose to the foreclose publication on the basis of his un-
mea checked judgment that the words will, in
grade of GS-15, hold sonic fashion, breach security. The differ-
ing a variety of posi- ence is the difference between responsibility
tions.including that of
Special Assistant to and censorship.
Classification of official information in
the Deputy Director. UPI (1967 Photo)
Emerging from the the name of security is far too frequently
cloistered atmosphere CIA Headquarters, Langley: ".... Almost a vow of perpetual employed as a device for covering up gov-
of the CIA, Mr. Mar- silence, as though anyone emerging from the CIA must thereupon ernmental error or inefficiency or miscon-
chetti undertook to enter a Trappist monastery for the remainder of his natural life. duct to warrant treating mere classification
itself as a touchstone of publisliability
b
y
nd op
earn a living as a writ- ing to intelligence sources, methods, a.
T
r
n:_ Disclosure of classifie material some-.
n
e
A
c
"
,-
g-,
a more or less ro- genet;
%" Time !tope Dancer,
mantie tale about an organization called personnel, fiscal data, or security measures the national interest. To let any public off!-
without the express written cial arbitrarily foreclose it--in his own abso-
the National Intelligence Agency, one to anyone ..consent of the Director of Central Intelli- lute and unchecked discretion, without judi-
of the employees of which turns some classi- genre or his authorized representative." cial review or effective appeal of any sort---
Pied documents overdo agents of the Soviet Here is an oath of secrecy so sweeping is to imperil the freedom that makes self-
Union. Mr. Marchetti also appeared on a that it amounts almost to a vow of perpetual government possible.
number of television and radio shows, gave silence as though anyone emerging from To treat the Marchetti case as involving
interviews to the press and published an ar- the CIA must thereupon enter a Trappist nothing more than the enforcement of an or-
ticle in the Nation magazine, the purport of monastery for the remainder of his natural Binary commercial contract-whirl) is the
which may be divined, perhaps, from its life. For a pledge never to publish "any in- way Judge Albert Bryan treated it-is to
title: "CIA: The President's Loyal Tool." formation relating to the national defense mistake form for essential substance. The
'Moreover, lie entered into a contract with and security" is a renunciation of any partic- expression of ideas cannot be enjoined in
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. for a non-fiction book ipation whatever in the political process. It America. Foi, to imprison ideas is to dank the
about the CIA, not yet begun. is, in point of fact, the renunciation of a democratic process.
Whatever the artistic merits of Mr. Mar- major part of an American's birthright-the The Marchetti case, like the case of time
chetti's literary efforts, they did not will freedom of expression guaranteed by the Pentagon Papers, tests the reach and the
much favor at the CIA. The director of that First Amendment to the Constitution. reality of time First Amendment. Recognizing
agency, Richard Helms, went into court and
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Approved For Release 2006/06/19: CIA-RDP88-0135OR000200400011-8