SENATE PANEL SEEKS ACTION TO OUTLAW UNMASKING AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160015-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: November 26, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160015-4
STAT
I.:.T I CL E APPEAR r
WASHINGTON POST
26 NOVEMBER 1981
Senate Panel Seeks
Action to Outlaw
Unmasking Agents
By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Senate Intelligence Committee has ex-
pressed alarm over a spate of disclosures about
the names of CIA officers abroad. and asked for
quick floor action on a bill to outlaw the practice.
In letters to Senate Majority Leader Howard H.
Baker Jr.(R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Robert
C: Byrd (D-W.Va.), the committee's eight Repub-
licans and seven Democrats urged "that there be
no further delay in bringing this vital legislation to
the floor ... "
The bill would make it a crime to reveal infor-
mation that identifies undercover U.S. intelligence
agents, informants or "sources of operational as-
sistance," even if the information is gleaned from
public documents.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved it
Oct. 6, but it has been held up, partly] because of
the press of other legislation, partly. because of
"holds" placed on it by objecting senators.
The Intelligence panel, which had primary jur-
sidiction over the proposal last year, said it was
concerned by the publication three weeks ago in
the Covert Action Information Bulletin. of the
Intelligence Committee ers siso expr
concern over the recent publication in Nicaragua's
pro-Sandinist newspaper, Nuevo Diario, of the
names of 13 alleged CIA officers stationed in Ma-
nagua. "Several of those named [in Nicaragua]
have already received death threats, and the fam-
ilies of a number of these American officials have
been evacuated for their personal safety," the sen-
ators said. "U.S. officials in Managua believe the
publication of these names is linked with the visit
of Philip Agee to Nicaragua last month."
Agee, is a former CIA officer and renegade who
has made a career of exposing agency personnel
and operations abroad. He is also a member of the'
Covert Action Information Bulletin's Board of
Advisers.
The House has already passed a stiff identities
bill that would make even negligent disclosures a
crime. The Senate Judiciary Committee's version
would penalize journalists and others outside gov-
ernment channels only if they acted with specific
"intent to impair or impede" U. S. intelligence
activities through their disclosures.
names of 69 alleged CIA officers in 45 countries,
abroad.
"In addition," the senators said in their letters,
"the Bulletin reprinted the names of 272 alleged
covert agents which had been identified in the 12
previous editions of the magazine."
The anti-CIA periodical said in a lead editorial
that the issue would mark "our last `Naming
Names' column for some time" because of the im-
minence of the legislation, which is known as the
Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160015-4