WHAT PUBLISHERS CAN EXPECT FROM PENDING INTELLIGENCE LEGISLATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200890002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 30, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-008
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 l
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.
06R000200890002-0
It became clear as the 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 (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 PTV 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
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
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200890002-0