AERIAL PHOTOS AND OTHER SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030134-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 134
• Publication Date: April 4, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RD P91-00561 R000100030134-0
ARTICLE AF? L=
-
QN PAGE________
Philip Geyelin
WASHINGTON POST
4 APRIL 1983
Aerial Photos and Other Secrets
Thank, in part. to the rigorous atten-
ti,,n the Rea -,all administration has been
giving to the sanctity of government se-
crets, the power of the media in the poh-
cv-making process is once again a hot
item on the lecture circuit.:dn_one such
discussion here the other day, a British
television producer talked quite frankly
of T\' as a "monster, almost inescapa-
ble, by reason of its awesome power to
selectively convey violent, visual images.
. Familiar exhibits were offerecl-in-evi-
dence. The Vietnam War was lost in
American living rooms. The British got
the best of it in the Falklands crisis-
short-lived and by its nature not telegen-
ic. The Israelis got the -worst of it in
Lebanon with, nightly TV coverage of
the Beirut ixombardntents. Government
atrocities get the.most play in.El Salva-
dor. Communist barbarities in Afghani-
stan and liampuchea. being largely out
of sigin. are also out,of mind.
The implication is that the "media"
whether by design or sheer physical im-
pediments. set the world agenda while
distorting individual events and inflam-
in, puhiic passions. And there's some-
thing to it: the "media" do tend to pre-
sent what is most readily accessible,
which ii never going to be a perfect.iv
balanced picture.
But what we have been witnessing in
recent days is the other side of the
coin: the government's extraordinary
capacity to define and control what is
most readily accessible.
First there was the president's exec-
utive order carrying the use of lie de-
tectors as "plumbers" for "leaks" to an _
unprecedented high-or low. Some say
that this won't stop loose talk, and..
maybe it won't if we are talking about
White House hatchet jobs on office-
holders in, -say, the Environmental
Protection Agency. One doesn't readily
imagine Ed Meese or :Jim Baker or
Michael Deaver strapped to a poly-
graph. But second- or third-level offi-
cial: and their underlings who deal in
classified -materials cannot help being
constrained as never before in any pri
'ate conversations _with _ news people.
T-e chill is already detectable. The
valuable give-and-take will almost cer
taint' he more narrowly confined. It is
nonsense uW suppose that this will not
dl'co ursge the airing of internal dis-
sent or that this, in turn, will not
diminish public discussion and debate.
So we are getting a one-two punch: a
calculated campaign to squelch publi-
_cation of anything that might work
against the administration's case on
the issue of- the -.moment,--defense
spending -and arms- control--and -a
great outpouring of self-serving presi-
dential. statements, press conferences
and prime-time television addresses.
The president's command of the
modern machinery of communication
dues not end with his ability-to com-
mandeer it almost at will:-Ite'xtends to
".his authority to break his own rules by
-selectively declassifying aerial photo-
graphs and other products of U.S. in-
telligence available exclusively to him.
Responding for the Democrats to the
president's-- defense-spending pro-
osals, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
raised the question of whether "the
president, to, bolster his -views, has
compromised sources of highly sensi-
tive intelligence information."
, Since the classification process is itself
classified, it is hard to know. But you
do know that Inotrye's' response 'his
graphs and charts of relative t1.S. ,Soviet
nuclear power-could hard lv convey the fl
weight or authenticity of a president's
prime-time displav of photo-intelligence..
There is nothing new about the edge
afforded by incumi encv. Lyndon John-
son was not above instant declassifica.
tion of secret documents to make his
case for the "success" of the Vietnam
war effort.. Nor is there that much new
about the question of whether the awe-
s-me impact of modern-day communi-;
cations, with all its distortions, puts the;
governments of open societies at a crip-
piing disadvantage. The administration's -
leak-plugging and concurrent public-
relations blitz on defense spending is evi-
dence of the equally awesome power of
government to bend the media to its
purl,- yes.
What. we really ought to be worried
about is whether, in its efforts to redress
a perceived disadvantage, the current
administration may not he trampling on
some of the values that its national-
se-curity policies seek to preserve.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030134-0