MEDIA PROSECUTION LIKELIHOOD LESSENS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302580002-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302580002-5
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WASHINGTON TIMES
8 May 1986
Media prosecution
likelihood lessens
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The likelihood, perhaps never
great, that the Reagan administra-
tion would prosecute five major
news organizations for publishing
"leaked" security information, sub-
sided yesterday.
Neither William Casey, the direc-
tor o t e w o was hot on the
case ours ao, nor o icia s at the
Justice epartment, who would
make asey s case in court,
wane to iscuss t o case t there-
Is one, yester av
A source within the highest levels
of the administration told The Wash-
ington Times that consideration of
criminal prosecution by the Justice
Department is "total nonsense."
Speculation that the Justice De-
partment would prosecute The
Washington Post, The Washington
Times, Time, Newsweek, and - in
some but not all accounts - The
New York Times, has circulated in
the capital for two days.
Mr. Casey was said to believe that
these news organizations had vio-
lated federal law against dissemina-
tion of information about U.S. secu-
rity interests, particularly about
U.S. intercepts of Libyan radio
transmissions just before the Amer-
ican raid on Libyan military targets
last month.
The Associated Press quoted un-
identified Justice Department offi-
cials as saying that Mr. Casey also
wants to avert the publication of ma-
terial concerning the Ronald Pelton
spy case.
Mr. Casey went to the Justice De-
partment seeking two lines of legal
proceedings: a pre-emptive court or-
der prohibiting The Post from
printing a story it has prepared for
publication, and criminal prosecu-
tion of the four or five news organi-
zations for "past transgressions."
The Justice Department - al-
most certainly at the direction of
Attorney General Edwin Meese -
declined to seek the court order, and
the question of prosecuting "past
transgressions" is said to be "still an
open question."
Another high administration
source disputed this version of
events. He said Mr. Casey had not
requested "specific criminal pros-
ecution" under a 1950 statute pro-
hibiting publication of specific intel-
ligence intercepts. This source said
Mr. Casey did not, as reported yes-
terday in The Post, mention prosecu-
tion in his conversation with Ben-
jamin C. Bradlee, executive editor of
The Post, and Leonard Downie Jr.,
the managing editor.
Mr. Downie said his newspaper
had completed the reporting on a
story, as yet unpublished, which Mr.
Casey warned during the meeting
with the Post editors might lead to
prosecution.
Mr. Downie declined to character-
ize the story, and said The Post had
not decided whether to publish it.
The Post has on previous occasions
refrained from publishing all or part
of articles for fear of possible dan-
ger to "human life or national secu-
rity," he said.
Mr. Casey and the CIA were said
to have been displeased by stories in
The Washington Times about the
confirmation hearings for Stanley
Sporkin, a former CIA executive
who was nominated to the federal
judiciary. These stories touched on
the Libyan radio intercepts.
Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-in-
chief of The Times, said in response
to reporters' questions that Mr.
Casey "has reminded us that there is
a statute that prohibits publication
of specific intelligence intercepts."
"We have reminded him that we
are in a delicate area where national
security and the First Amendment
can conflict, and we are very sen-
sitive to the issue."
J Henry Grunwald, editor-in-chief
of Time, Inc., said the CIA had re-
fused to answer specific questions
about what Time had done to anger
Mr. Casey. "It is irresponsible to talk
about the possibility of prosecuting
Time and other news organizations
without telling us what we may be
prosecuted for."
A spokesman for The New York
Times declined comment because
Mr. Casey was "completely unspe-
cific" about which stories in The
New York Times he was talking
about. A spokesman for Newsweek
said his magazine had received no
"official complaints" from Mr.
Casey or the CIA.
The threat of government re-
straint of the press, and the inevi-
table conflict with the First
Amendment, was addressed sharply
by organizations traditionally sensi-
tive to free-speech issues.
"I hope at this point the notion is
Mr. Casey's and not the Justice De-
partment's," said Jane Kirtley, ex-
ecutive director of the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the
Press. "My hope is the Justice De-
partment will persuade Mr. Casey
this is not the way to go"
The American Civil Liberties
Union reacted more harshly. The
Reagan administration is "clearly
trying to establish the notion that we
have an official secrets act and that
they can threaten the press to keep
them from publishing," said Morton
Halperin, director of the Washington
legislative office of the ACLU.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302580002-5