LEAKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030057-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: September 13, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030057-6
WASHINGTON
LEAKS
BY PATRICIA KOZA
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
13 September 1983
Senators today sharply criticized a Reagan administration plan to curb leaks
to media of classified information and to require government employees with
top-secret clearance to submit speeches and articles for review before delivery
or publication.
Sen. Charles Mathias, R-Md., who chaired a hearing of the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee, noted that a national security directive would require
thousands of civil servants to abide by the pre-publication agreement even after
they left public service.
The Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, asked the committee
to consider relying on current laws to ensure that classified information is
protected.
President Reagan issued a directive in March requiring all government
employees wanting access to secret materials to sign a secrecy pledge. That
pledge means the employees must submit for scrutiny all writings about both
secret and non-secret intelligence matters and submit to polygraph tests when
asked.
The society complained the pledge would include even works of fiction.
' A broad interpretation of the president's directive would consign these
thousands of men and women to a virtual vow of silence on some of the crucial
issues facing our nation, " Mathias said in an opening statement. " I am
confident that this chilling scenario,, so antithetical to our most cherished
values, is not what the president intended in this directive.''
Mathias was joined by Sen. Thomas Eagleton, D-Mo., who warned the
pre-publication requirement "enters into the constitutionally sensitive area of
the First Amendment exercise of free speech. "
HE added, ''As of now, I am simply not convinced that the burdensome and
intrusive prior restraint procedure mandated by this directive will enhance our
national security and will be worth the sacrifices."
Representatives of the State, Defense and Justice departments appeared to
defend the directive as necessary to prevent unauthorized disclosures of
classified information.
" The sole purpose of pre-publication review is to permit deletion of
classified information before it is made public,'' said Deputy Assistant
Attorney General Richard Willard. ''This program does not permit the government
to censor material because it is embarrassing or critical.''
But, Mathias said, the committee had asked each agency how often such
unauthorized disclosures had occurred in the past five years and between them,
the three departments came up with only two instances.
Willard said the reason for that is that the government has no formal process
for monitoring such disclosures. cN TNUED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030057-6