QUESTIONS OF NATIONAL SECURITY - THE CIA TANGLES WITH THE WASHINGTON POST AND NBC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807560049-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: June 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807560049-6
1 tl-lti
ARTICLE APPEARED 2 June 1986
ON PAGE G7
-Press-
Questions of National Security
The CIA tangles with the Washington Post and NBC
S itting in the backseat of a U.S. mar-
s'hal's car, Ronald Pelton betrayed lit-
tle emotion last week as he arrived for the
start of his espionage trial in a Baltimore
courthouse. For 14 years, Pelton worked
in a low-level computer job at the top
secret National Security Agency. He had a
knowledge of Russian, access to sensitive
intelligence data and, in later years. mon-
ey troubles. After Pelton left the NSA in
1979, according to federal authorities, he
lint of the
and Floyd
Co., Yr.
1andmr-
U.S. Code. Passed into law in 1951, the
statute forbids the disclosure of classified
information about secret codes and other
communications intelligence. Though no
news organization has ever been prose-
cuted under the law, Casey cited the
Washington Post, Washington Times,
New York Times. TIME and Newsweek
for unspecified vitiations.
Casey formally asked the Justice De-
partment to consider prosecuting NBC for
its report. Meanwhile, the Washington
Post on Wednesday published another
sensitive story on the Pelton case. The
front-page article, however, had been
abridged after numerous discussions with
Casey and other Administration officials.
The published story, written by Assistant
Managing Editor Bob Woodwar~Land
started selling information to the Soviets.
Accused spies like Pelton have been a
cause of growing concern to the U.S. intel-
ligence community. Lately, however, they
Two news organizations grappled with
that question last week under the hostile
gaze of CIA Director William Casey.
The first repot o asey's ire
came on Monday's edit?Mr5r' c s Today
show. Giving a preview of the Pelton trial.
Correspondent James Polk reported that
the accused spy apparently gave away
one of the NSA's most sensitive secrets-a
project with the code name Ivy Bells, be-
lieved to be a top-secret underwater eaves-
dropping operation by American subma-
rines inside Russian harbors."
Polk's report gave Casey a chance to
act on a warning he had issued three
counters with Soviet agents. Removed
were any technical details of the spying
techniques that Pelton allegedly betrayed.
One thing the article did include was
a revealing description of the Post's own
encounters with Administration officials.
Originally scheduled to run on May 4, the
story was delayed after Casey met with
editors to warn them of possible prosecu-
tion. On May 10, President Reagan took
the extraordinary step of telephoning Post
Chairman Katharine Graham. In what
Graham described as a "very civilized,
low-key conversation," Reagan stressed
that the matter was of the highest security
importance and warned that he would
support prosecution if the Post printed the
full account.
have begun raising problems for the press he high-level campaign succeeded.
as well. In covering spy cases, the media Though skeptical that the Post would
face a delicate dilemma: How much can be revealing any new information to the
they report about the secrets involve Soviets, Executive Editor Benjamin C.
without further harming U.S. security? Bradlee said the paper withheld detat s
because it was "unable fully to judge the
validity of the national security objections
of senior officials and because of Post law-
yers' concerns." The CIA said it was re-
viewing the story the Post ran, but had not
decided whether to seek prosecution. Fear
of legal action "was less important to me
than the question of whether you do in
fact violate national security," Bradlee
says. "In my heart. I think the Russians
already know what we kept out of the sto-
ry. But I'm not absolutely sure of it."
The week's activities did little to clear
up confusion among news editors over just
what constitutes a breach of the law in Ca-
weeks earlier, when he said that he was sey's book. NBC News President Lawrence .A ol weighing legal action against several pub- Gross id the CIA's move ' caug
lications for allegedly printing details of y b'surprise, asince the network had aired
U.S. intelligence-gathering operations. virtually the same report last November,
His weapon: Section 798 of Title 18 of the when Pelton was arrested. Indeed, details
on similar submarine eavesdropping oper-
ations were revealed in articles in the New
York Times and Washington Post as early
as the mid-1970s, and the code name Ivy
Bells was used by Pelton's attorney in a
pretrial hearing.
Intelligence officials argue that no
matter what the Soviets may or may not
know, press reports on secret operations
can confirm important details. Moreover.
officials say, the eavesdropping techniques
may not be known to other countries that
might be targets of U.S. surveillance.
While national security concerns are
often taken into account on sensitive sto-
ries, news editors insist that the final deci-
sion on what to publish must be their own.
Casey has contacted the Post six times in
the past year with objections to specific
articles, according to Post editors, and in
one case the paper killed the story. Others
argue that-Casey's campaign is misdirect-
ed. "The public has the idea that the press
is constantly breaking secrets," says A.M.
Rose xecutive editor of theew
or imes. "The reality is that it is the
U.S. Government and U.S. officials who
are releasing information to serve their
own political, bureaucratic or govern- STAT
mental ends."
Justice Department officials privately
doubt that a news organization can be suc-
cessfully prosecuted under Section 798. But
the mere prospect of Government action
could serve the same purpose. "We don't
want to police the press," says a CIA
spokesman. "We want the press to police
itself." The dilemma is that unless a news
organization is willing to risk criminal
prosecution, it must rely on the CIA to tell it
whether a story poses a threat to national
security. As the sometime subject of such
stories, the CIA may not always be the most
objective judge. -BylikhwdZosiaff*paNd
by Joseph M Boyce/New YOM and Alessamft
StaWey/WasMrton
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807560049-6