LETTER TO JOSEPH PULITZER FROM HERBERT E. HETU

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201040002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 21, 1980
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010
21 January 1980
Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Editor
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
900 North 12th Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63101
Dear Mr. Pulitzer:
I encourage you again to contact my office for the facts before
you err in print as you did in your editorial titled, Censorship
Considered, on 26 December 1979. We are anxious to be helpful.
First of all the Central Intelligence Agency has never admitted
that Mr. Snepp's hook contained no classified information. That
subject has never been publicly addressed. Snepp was taken to court
for violating his secrecy agreement with this Agency--an agreement
determined by the court to be a binding and legal contract.
Second, the intransigence of Mr. Frank Snepp in violating the
terms of the secrecy agreement he signed as an Agency employee relates
in no way to authors who have never taken such an oath--nor to freedom
of the press.
I am chairman of the Publications Review Board, that body which
reviews manuscripts to ascertain whether they contain legitimate classi-
fied material identified under existing statutes. We do not "clear"
or "censor" manuscripts. It may interest you to know that in the
past 3 years we have reviewed 198 manuscripts and disapproved only 3
for security reasons. The Agency regulation which specifies the duties
of the Publications Review Board states in part, "Approval will not be
denied solely because the subject matter may be embarrassing to or
critical of the Agency."
My office is in business to answer public and media inquiries to
assist you in keeping the U.S. public accurately informed. We will
welcome hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Herbert E. Hetu
Director of Public Affairs
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201040002-9
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201040002-9
ST. LCUIS POST-DISPATCH
26 DECEMBER 1979
Cen3 ors h.-p... C-oJ jl arP d
Aithou;h the U.S. Supreme Court has had
months to consider the case of Frank Sneop
- from whom the government has been
trying to collect damages for writing a book
about the CIA without clearance - the
justices apparently are still unable to decide
what action, if any, to take on this suit that
has broad implications for freedom of the
press. Earlier. this year, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a
federal district judge's decision that former
CIA agent Snepp, in writing without agency
clearance a book about the blunders of the
CIA in the last days before the U.S.
evacuation of Saigon, had violated the oath
of secrecy he took as an agent. -
Even thou the CIA admitted that the
book contained no classified material, the
appellate court affirmed e lower court's
judgment that Mr. Snepp was required for
the rest of his life to submit for clearance
any speech or written work (even fiction)
that might touch on the agency. The Court of
i _.
Appeals did not, however, ate,pt tl,;e trial
judge's farfetched ruling 'Mat L'.-,& secrecy
oath conferred on- the government a
"constructive trust" that, if the oath was
violated, entitled the U.S. to all money made
on the book. The appellate court held that
this rule would only apply if the author wrote
Even the narrower ruling of the Court of
Appeals poses a grave threat to th- free
-
rights not only of , many
speech and press
former g ent employees but os other
authors who make use of such materii=ls and
of their publishers. By upholding the secrecy
oath rationale of the Snepp case,_ the
Supreme Court conceivably might even be
able to penalize the writing of a book like
"The. Brethren," a newly published work
about the high court. Whatever one may
think of such exposes, the government should
not be able to censor books, especially those
by writers with inside krowledk? of th
ublic's business.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201040002-9