CIA CHIEF: LAWS NEEDED TO PROTECT SPY SOURCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201060004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 2, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201060004-8
THE DENVER POST
2 August 1980
IA Chief: Laws Ne6L4
` o Protect Spy Sources
By FRANK 2lMOYA
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer
New legislation is necessary to en-
sure the confidentiality of American
spy sources if the Central Intelligence
Agency is to discharge effectively its
intelligence duties in the "precarious
decade of the 1980s," said CIA Director
Stansfield Turner.
Turner, addressing a
ence Friday, said if the
United States is to re-
tain any confidence in
its ability to guide for-
eign policy based on-in-
formation surreptitious-
ly gathered . in other
countries, the CIA must
be able to guarantee the
sources of the informa-
tion will be kept secret.
The importance of ef-
fective intelligence is
more crucial today than
it has been in the past,
because the "Russians
have infinite agressive
intentions" and for the
Turner said he favored proposals
now before Congress that would: .
-Reduce from eight to two the num-
ber of congressional committees that !
have to be informed whenever the CIA
decides to embark on a "covert ac-
tion" - an operation in which the CIA
secretly Lies to manipulate events
without participants in those events
Dgn~ er audi- being aware of CIA intervention.
"There is a proper
place for a limite&
first time are equals of
the United States . in
strategic and conventional
strength, Turner said.
ADM. TURNER
military
Turner, who has headed the CIA for
the past 31h years, made his remarks
before an audience of about 400 jurists
and lawyers gathered at the Brown
Palace Hotel for the concluding day of
the annual 10th Circuit Judicial Confer-
ence.
He spoke on behalf of proposals be-
fore the Congress that he said would
give the CIA the necessary ability to
guarantee confidentiality to its sources
while simultaneously protecting Amer-
icans from CIA -excesses that in the
past had resulted in violations of con-
stitutional rights.
Those excesses - which prompted
congressional investigations in the ear-
ly 1970s that resulted in legislation
some believe has hindered the CIA's
effectiveness - have been curbed,
said Turner. But he intimated that leg-
islative overkill in the aftermath of the
congressional investigations threatens
U.S. security if new laws aren't adopt-
ed. - . - - .
amount of covert action;
in our diplomatic port -1
folio," Turner said. But
the likelihood that the l
CIA can elicit necessary
cooperation in covert
actions from sympathiz-
ers in foreign countries
is reduced substantially
when these potential al-
lies know some 200
members of Congress,
will be apprised of the
CIA's every move.
-Exempt CIA sourc-
es of information from
mandatory disclosure
sought under the federal
Freedom of Information Act. Under
the act, anyone, including agents of the
Russian KGB, sometimes can require
the government to provide information
that can lead to the identities of CIA
operatives, Turner said. "Our agents
need reassurance that they are specifi-
cally exempt from the Freedom of In-
formation Act," he said.
-Permit, in some circumstances,
criminal penalties to. be assessed,
against persons who disclose the
names of CIA operatives abroad. Ac-
cording to Turner, disclosures by such
disaffected CIA agents as Phillip Agee
have endangered CIA agents and, in
one case, led to-the assasination of the
CIA's chief operative in Greece.
-Install new procedures governing
when the CIA would be required to dis-
close?classified information to defense
attorneys in criminal cases. In the re-
cent past, the government has elected
to dismiss charges lodged against de-
fendants rather than abide by court or-
ders to disclose sensitive intelligence
information, Turner said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201060004-8