WHAT PUBLISHERS CAN EXPECT FROM PENDING INTELLIGENCE LEGISLATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100010034-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: May 30, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
30 May 1980
What Publishers Can Expect from
Pending.Intelligence Legislation
Congress has given up efforts to
write a comprehensive new charter for
the U.S. intelligence community this
year. For publishing interests, what is
likely to emerge is preservation of the
status quo.
Congressional leaders now intend to
pass simple legislation spelling out
House and Senate committees' rights
to oversee the intelligence agencies,
but leave alone the laws that guarantee
the public's access to unclassified in-
telligence material and preserve the
CIA's right to use journalists and schol-
ars in undercover work.
Although the Senate Intelligence
Committee had to limit the scope of its
bill in order to get it to the Senate floor
in this election year, several attempts
to amend the measure are anticipated
when the full Senate acts late this
month or early in June. Some of the
likely amendments will be of direct in-
terest to the publishing community.
As the legislation stands now, there
will be no tinkering with the Freedom
of Information Act, which allows the
public to obtain unclassified informa
tion on intelligence activities. Earlier
proposals would have exempted in-
telligence agencies from the FOIA. __
There will be no proscription on di-
vulging the names of intelligence offi-
cers or operatives. The original charter
proposal would have made disclosure a
crime for persons with authorized ac-
cess to the names and would have car-
ried a possible penalty of five years in
prison and a $50,000 fine.
In some bad news for publishing in-
terests, the new legislation makes no
mention of the CIA's use of journalists,
clergy and scholars in its intelligence-
gathering work. That means those
groups would continue to rely on the
administration in power to formulate
guidelines for the use of such groups or
individuals as covers for the in-
telligence community.
Current CIA policy is that journalists
cannot be used except when specifical-
ly authorized by Central Intelligence
Director Stansfield Turner. Clergy may
be used only on an unpaid basis. There
are no limitations on the use of academ-
ics.
806R000100010034-2
,
It became clear as inc e Intelligence
Committee wrangled over what to in-
clude in the charter that the various
proposed amendments were so contro-
versial the bill stood no chance of pas-
sage this late in an election year.
Chairman Birch Bayh (D., Ind.)
worked out an agreement with two
committee members, Sen. John Cha-
fee fee (R., R.I.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (D., N.Y.). They agreed not
to offer their amendments in committee
so that at least the oversight section of
the legislation could have a chance for
passage.
Chafee is sponsor of a proposal that
would ban the divulging of agents'
names. Moynihan is sponsoring an
amendment that would prohibit the
CIA from using journalists, clergy and
academics in its operations and would
not even allow its agents to pose as
members of those professions.
Moynihan has said that he still in-
tends to offer his amendment on the.
Senate floor. Neither Chafee nor
Moynihan was expected to succeed on
the Senate floor, however.
In the House, meanwhile, action on a
charter has been held up pending final
Senate action. House Intelligence
Committee Chairman Edward P. Bo-
land (D., Mass.) indicated to PW that
he was not sympathetic to the publish-
ing industry's concerns with the char-
ter.
"Our committee would be interested
in the proposal to add the [ban on the]
identification of agents" to the charter,
he said, and also to exempt the CIA
from FOIA. On the use of journalists,
clergy and academics, he said, "I see
no objection to using that class on a
-voluntary basis. They can be very im-
portant sources for intelligence gather-
?
ing.
No champions appeared in the Sen-
ate Intelligence Committee to lead a
charge for excluding the CIA from the ,
FOIA. Heavy lobbying against such an i
exemption by academic and civil rights
groups during hearings. earlier this year
may have convinced the committee not
to exempt the CIA from the act.
The Authors League, Association of
American Publishers, and P.E.N.'s
Freedom to Write' Committee were
'among groups testifying in favor of re-
strictions on the CIA's use of people in
certain professions and against a CIA
exemption from the FOIA.
HOWARD FIELDS
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
18 April 1980
Groups Protest Aspects of
Proposed CIA Bills
Voicing the strongest objections to any
legislation that would remove the CIA
and other intelligence agencies from
public and scholarly scrutiny, Kirk-
patrick Sale, vice-president of P.E.N.,
testified March 25 before the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence. Also
expressing fears over proposed in-
telligence legislation were representa-
tives from the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Organization of American
Historians and several church organi-
zations.
In an earlier action, John Hersey,
president of the Authors League, had
asked for legislation that would "un-
equivocally prohibit the CIA (and other
agencies) from using journalists and
professional authors of books and
magazine articles to gather information
or perform other intelligence serv-
ices." The Authors League position
was outlined in a letter to Sen. Walter
D. Huddleston (D., Ky.), who in-
troduced the proposed National In-
telligence Act of 1980.
The Senate committee is expected to
begin line-by-line consideration in the
middle of this month of the Huddleston
bill as well as of a similar one proposed
by Senators Patrick Moynihan (D.,
N.Y.) and Malcolm Wallop (R., Wyo.).
In still another action protesting as-
pects of the proposed bills, 150 organ-,
izations and individuals circulated a!
letter to senators and representatives
on the relevant committees, express-
ing opposition to provisions that would
substantially exempt intelligence agen-
cies from the Freedom of Information
Act. Among the national organiza-
tions sponsoring the letter are the As-
sociation of American Publishers and
P.E.N.'s Freedom to Write Com-
mittee.
The provisions t ,
objects "represent a radical change in
government policy and would severely
limit the disclosure of information to
the public. They would damage serious
historical and journalistic research and I
... informed public debate."
Noting that the FOIA "in its pres-
ent form provides ample protection for
information that is properly classified
or which reveals intelligence sources or
methods," the group concludes: ,It is
imperative that the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act not be sacrificed as part of a
hasty or ill-considered reaction to cur-
rent international tensions."
Representing P.E.N.'s 1700 writers
and editors at the Senate hearing, Sale
declared: The works that have been
produced as a result of FOIA access
have been absolutely essential, we be-
lieve, in giving the American people a
better idea of the true nature of its gov-
ernment and enabling them to assess its
foreign and domestic policies."
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