ASNE - CASEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100010036-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: April 10, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010036-1
LNLLLV eK SS INTERNATIO.
10 April 1986
ASNE - CASEY
WASHINGTON
CIA Director William Casey says journalists have seriously hurt U.S.
intelligence sources of the highest value 'and jeopardized national security
in recent years by publishing classified information.
He said publication of the leaks hands the Soviet kGE and other hostile'
intelligence organizations information ''on a silver platter" that they would
otherwise spend billions of dollars trying to acquire.
Speaking Wednesday at the American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting,
Casey said he did not want to prevent reporters from getting ''the information
the public needs and should have,'' but insisted ''it's a very delicate and
difficult balance to strike."
Casey said he has offered to consult with editors before they print
classified information and said the CIA has stepped up efforts to identify
leakers. New, tougher laws may be needed to punish federal employees who divulge
secrets, he said.
"Leakers are costing the taxpayers millions and even billions of dollars -
and, more important, putting Americans abroad as well as our country itself at
risk,'' he told the 900 newspaper executives.
In recent years, publication of classified information by the media has
destroyed or seriously damaged intelligence sources of the highest value, if
Casey said.
''Every method we have of acquiring intelligence -?- our agents, our
relationships with other security services, our photographic and electronic
capabilities, the information we get from communications - has been damaged by
the publication of unauthorized disclosures. "
Howard Simons, former editor of The Washington Post and now curator of the
Nieman Foundation for journalists, said reporters in Washington cannot do their
Jobs without publishing some information the government deems secret.
The government routinely classifies thousands of documents to avo,.d
embarrassment, not to protect national security, Simons said. But he
acknowledgea that editors should not publish every secret that crosses their
desks.
Casey agreed editors have often shown ''admirable restraint when asked to
hold iriformaticr that would endanger the nation.
The CIA chief said he was puzzled, however, by the fact newspapers are
willing to expose waste, corruption and other government misconduct, but rarely
take a public servant to task for revealing classified information.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010036-1