LIE TESTS, CENSORS THREATEN FREEDOM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030028-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: October 27, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST"T
1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 ROOO1OOO3OO28-8
ARTICLE APPEARED USA TODAY
ON PAGE 27 October 1983
OLE
PINIOMM
. LIe tests, censors
threaten freedom
President Reagan is fond of comparing the advantages of
living in our country, where freedom rings, with the ordeal
of life in the Soviet Union, where freedom weeps.
His analogy is valuable. We who live in an open society
should count our blessings and sympathize with citizens of
countries where free expression is feared, uninhibited polit-
ical debate is never allowed and easy access to information,
so vital to self-governance, is unknown.
It is more than mere rhetoric for the president to say our
free speech tradition is precious and worth preserving.
That it is why it is impossible to understand his adminis-
tration's push to enforce secrecy regulations that would
chill free expression, curtail uninhibited political debate
and curb citizen access to information.
The secrecy regulations allow the government to give
random lie detector tests to federal employes who work
with classified information - without any suspicion that
they ever leaked anything
Last week a Department of Justice official told Congress
the administration thinks such lie detector tests - despite
their frequent inaccuracy - are appropriate, even if
there's no evidence employes have done anything wrong.
That sounds more like a policy practiced in Russia than
in the United States. Whatever happened to the cherished
ideal that all citizens, absent proof, are presumed innocent?
The secrecy rules also would forever bar 113,000 federal
employes with security clearances from writing books or
articles, or making speeches or comments on many public
policy issues, without prior government approval.
That would put a government license on expression.
Sure, there have been government employes who have
leaked embarrassing information about government. Leaks
have angered many presidents, and some disclosures have
been irresponsible. But in an open society, abuses occur.
And there are larger abuses bythose who indiscriminate-
ly use the classified stamp to withhold from the public any
document that reflects badly on government performance.
These secrecy rules thoughtlessly challenge the integrity
of loyal government employes and put a lifetime muzzle on
public servants who may wish to share knowledge and in-
formation their fellow citizens legitimately should have.
There are federal laws that make unauthorized release
of classified information a criminal act, punishable by im-
prisonment and fine. When national security is affected,
those laws should be vigorously enforced.
But this nation should never adopt the iron rules of totali
tarian regimes, under the guise of protecting freedom
When citizens cannot speak or write without government
license or permission, freedom is not protected. It is lost.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R0001 00030028-8