CIA TO 'ANALYZE' SPY CASE STORY FOR DAMAGE TO NATIONAL SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200710010-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: May 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200710010-4 STAT
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4" PAM WASHINGTON TIMES
22 May 1986
to ` a1'
sto
CIA Y e spY case
for damage to national secui'ity
By Ed Rogers Mr. Yoh said the administration offi-
THE WASHINOT TIMES cial who leaked the classified informa-
P
charges of selling to Soviet KGB agents
technical information about intelligence
U.S. submarines can pick up at Soviet
ports. Mr. Casey had expressed concern
that the Post story would reveal details of
U.S. intelligence capabilities.
Asked by the Associated Press
whether The Post had deleted all the ma-
terial requested by the administration,
Executive Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee
said: "I am sure we did not. We deleted
what we felt appropriate after discus-
sion:"
The Post story quoted Mr. Bradlee as
saying he did not believe the Soviets
would learn anything new from the ma-
terial withheld, but the editors decided
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes yesterday said a Washington
Post story about the espionage case
against Ronald W. Pelton was being "ana-
lyzed by the CIA to see if they have any
specific problems with it."
CIA Director William Casey had
threatened prosecution if the story con-
tained information damaging to national
security. During meetings with Post edi-
tors, Mr. Casey requested that classified
information be withheld. Later President
Reagan pressed the request in a tele-
phone call to Katharine Graham, board
chairman of The Washington Post Co.
Mr. Pelton is on trial in Baltimore on
not to publish it because they were unable
to evaluate the "national security objec-
tions of senior officials" and because of
concerns by Post lawyers.
Media representatives were divided
on how the incident should have been
handled.
"I certainly think that Mr. Casey
achieved the end that he wanted, which
was censorship, and he did it without hav-
ing to go to court to testify," said Michael
Gartner, president of the American Soci-
ety of Newspaper Editors.
"It's chilling:' Mr. Gartner said in an
interview.
But Barnard Yoh, communications di-
rector of Accuracy in Media, said the fact
that the Post editors decided to comply
only after deliberation demonstrates the
"arrogance" of the press today.
"When the director of the CIA asks
this out of national security importance,
you should be able to take his word for it,"
Mr. Yoh said. "When the president calls,
you should be able to take it at face value:'
tion to The Post "should be investigated,
should be caught, should be punished se-
Reached by telephone, Robert Ken-
'dall, a respected columnist who is board
chairman of Reporter Times Inc. and edi-
tor of its Daily Reporter in Martinsville,
Ind., said: "I think the person who made
it possible for them [the Post editors] to
have this information, if it is critical,
ought to be shot:'
The problem is that too much informa-
tion is classified and none of the clas-
sified information is properly protected,
Mr. Kendall said
"There ought to be someway to cut the
classifications way down, I mean really
way down, and then those secrets ought
to be protected - literaly, I'm talking life
and death;' Mr. Kendall said.
"When they overuse it [classification],
that's about as counterproductive as not
classifying at all;' he said. "They [edi-
tors] say nothing is worth keeping. Then
there are these guys who would give any-
thing they can away to the Reds. I know
that:"
During a panel discussion of issues
raised by the Post decision, Jane Kirtley,
executive director of the Reporters'
Committee for Freedom of the Press,
said: "What you've got is a threat -
maybe an idle threat, maybe a serious
threat. But you've got a threat that seems
to be effective in the sense that it's acting
as a prior restraint on the media"
Ms. Kirtley disagreed with George
Carver, a former CIA official and panel
member, who said any discussion of com-
munications intelligence "either does ac-
tual damage or runs such a high risk of
damage that it's got to be stopped:'
"I would certainly not want to publish
or air anything that would cause the loss
of life in a covert operation or a cata-
strophic setback in American intelli-
gence," John Huddy, a CBS News execu-
tive, said.
William Casey
"At the same time," he said, "history
has been such that you never know when
you're being victimized, that maybe this'
is the first step in a move by this or any
other administration to shut down the
press:'
Jerry W. Friedheim, executive vice
president of the American Newspaper
Publishers Association, expressed a
milder view.
"These decisions are always difficult,"
he told The Washington Times. "It is usu-
ally appropriate that editors consult with
the government about such matters, and
it is also appropriate that the ultimate
decison about publication should be
made by the editors and their newspa-
pers:"
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200710010-4