IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST - COMMENTARY #1099

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160054-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: May 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160054-0
In The Public Interest
A Nationwide Daily Radio Program
20(N) P Street, NW O Washington, DC 20016 ? (202) 8M7-(717
I MMM P. M RGAN
IN TM PUBLIC Il ST -- Catmentary #1099
Taped 12 May 1986
If Central Intelligence Agency director William Casey pursues his
his threat to prosecute in order to plug leaks of government secrets, he'd better
be prepared to indict some high members of the Reagan administration, not excluding
the President himself.
Casey was miffed at Newsweek's report that U.S. intelligence had inter-
cepted messages directly linking the Libyan mission in East Germany with the
bombing of a West Berlin nightclub, before Mr. Reagan announced it to the world
on live television. Sane government officials are still holding their heads
because he officially confirmed it as a fact.
The truth is that rival government agencies are a main source of leaks,
for the purpose of floating -a trial balloon or to squelch opposition within the
administration,-or for other reasons.
All administrations -- Republican and Democratic alike -- are bitten by
the virus of secrecy on the specious if not insulting pretext that the government
knows better than the public what the public should know. This defies the very
principle of an open society, always done, of course, under the sacred label of
protecting "national security."
Admittedly, there are items which need to be stamped "secret" but does
that excuse the appalling fact that millions more item are stamped "classified"
every year? When has the government declassified anything important that would
enlighten the public?
Continued
SAI.I.IE M. BLAKE, Prodn,er/l)iretfor? EDWARD P. MORG AN, (.'/' of C.iirrec/N,ndtfft
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160054-0
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160054-0
In all the 36~ years this correspondent has covered Washington, I have
never witnessed anything to compare with the phobia driving the Reagan regime to
operate a "closed shop."
Abused though it may be at times, the Freedom of Information Act is one
of the most valuable laws ever passed to bolster the public's "right to know."
Yet the Reagan administration succeeded in weakening it.
TOO often, govensnent uses secrecy to hide mistakes which may themselves,
indeed, undermine security.
Same officials would subject all goverment employees to a lie-detector
test -- whose reliability is questionable. Diluted, that urge remains, eroding
trust.
It's the often unpleasant but always vital responsibility of the news
media to ferret out scandal, costly mistakes and outright crimes committed at every
level of government.
Ours is a dangerous world -- nobedy gets out of it alive as far as I
know. We must take every sensible precaution against danger - including terrorism.
But officials like the CIA's Casey and Attorney General Meese aren't strengthening
democracy by trying to close the doors of an open society to assure security.
Q.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504160054-0