LEAKING ISN'T SPYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020034-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: March 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-0
STAT
AnTl 1 ' _f,E :3
eM P1 R.44
BALTIMORE SUN
28 March 1985
0561 R000100020034-2
Leaking Isn't Spying
Laws designed to prevent espionage and theft
of government property may be used to prosecute
government employees who leak security infor-
mation to the press, a federal judge in Baltimore
recently ruled, in ordering a case to trial. If the
case does go to trial, the defendant found guilty
and the ruling upheld, it will be a first.
We think it would be a bad first, It would bur-
den free speech. And it would protect not so much
national security secrets as bureaucratic and poli-
cy bungling. Government officials have a natural
desire to hide everything from the public but that
which supports their own projects or views.
The case involves Samuel Loring Morison, who
sold to a British magazine photographs he ob-
tained at a Naval intelligence center where he is
employed. He also apparently planned to give the
magazine a copy of a secret report. The Justice
Department charged him under laws that had
been used only once before in a case where there
was no intent to harm the United States. One of
those cases was dropped at the trial level and in
the other, the issue was not dealt with when the
case came before an appellate court.
We believe that espionage laws should apply
onlysto actual spying or sabotage by or in behalf of
foreign governments or such organizations as ter-
rorist groups. That seems to have been what Con-
STAT
gress intended. It is interesting that while the Jus-
tice Department was saying in court here that
these laws apply in Morison-type cases, the CIA in
Washington is saying it needs a new law to deal as
harshly as it would like with leaks such as this.
Presumably it will hold up on its request until the
Morison case is decided.
If U.S. Judge Joseph Young's order ultimately
is overruled, the government will surely seek a
new law to prosecute leakers. Congress should be
very careful in writing anti-leak legislation. It is
not in the public interest to give government offi-
cials overly broad power to keep information
from the public. The United States does not need a
British-style "official secrets act," which serves to
keep the public in the dark about all sorts of im-
portant public business.
Leaking is a way of life in Washington. Every-
thing is classified, and everybody, from the presi-
dent down, leaks "secrets" from time to time. You
probably could not have an informed public de-
bate on national security without leaks. To allow
any administration in power to use anti-spy type
legislation against political adversaries or dis-
gruntled careerists who want the public to know
more would do great damage to open ilebate and
public awareness about the most important issues
before the nation.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020034-2