H-BOMB SCIENTISTS SUSPECTED OF LEAKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100070020-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: September 20, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100070020-2 STAT
ARTICLE APPEAR~11"'
ON PAGE i-- D
bomb that the government ?tried td'.
laboratories leaked, classified secrets''
to authors of stories on the hydrogen
own Argonne and Livermore national
perts suspect' that scientists At their.
,Government 'nuclear
and Thomas O'Toola
wanhlnston Pont Staff writers
THE WASHINGTON POST
20 September 1979
oirrib cieuh:sts
By Charles R. $abcodt`J:',L's`
Though the ..writers.... insist.;.they l
based their articles .oin-'lnformation~
available to the 'public, ; Energy, De ,7
partment :'officials' feel' they. were '
aided by sympathetic scientists at the'-
government laboratories, the sources
said. The Justice Department as
,been asked to determine whether any-
one should -be prosecuted,tmder the!
criminal sections' of, the 'Atomic,-En,', ergy Act fdr divulging the Crucial con ','
cepts of the H-bomb:,
'to Stop the Progressive magazine from
publishing an article by Howard Mor--
land on Monday; This came a day al-
ter the Madison` (Wis.) Press Connec-
tio?.printed a letter,.by Charles Han-
sen, which disclosed-the key princi-,
pies for making an H=bomb,' a Justice
Department spokesman said..
Energy Departnjen't officials seem
more Intent oil finding those who
might have, leaked, classified informa-'
tion than In prosecuting tiie MadisonI,
newspaper for 'finally.- printing.: the
'Hansen letter.' JuStIce ' lawyers haven't
decided yet whether the case Is: worth.:.
' pursuing, officials.. there said y ester,'
The government; nucleat experts
were-said to be paticularly upset' by
what-they belteve *ere leaks from the.
government's ' secret filings in the.'
Progtessive case!, that they, , believe -
were used an Hansen's lettery .the.
sources. said.
One source said Energy Department
officials" found ' "significant language
similarities between ? sections of the
t. The government dro}3ped,its'.etfoit
government briefs and parts of the 18-
page Hansen letter.
It was not clear why scientists from
Argonne. and Livermore are the sub-
ject of suspicion, though a few nu-
clear experts from those labs had
permission to see the secret. govern-
ment filings while aiding defense law-
yers preparing the Progressive's case..
Mark H. Lynch and Paul L. Fried-
man, attorneys for- the. Progressive,
said they were disturbed by the gov-
ernment's decision: to begin. even a
preliminary criminal inquiry. They
said they did not violate the court's
protective order and Lynch added he
was sure- the scientists who. assisted
them "wouldn't be that- foolish." ' "
They. noted that the defendants,.
Morland and Progressive editors Er-
in Knoll and Samuel Day Jr., did not
have access to the government's se-
cret court filings.
Some government nuclear experts
have believed from the beginning that
both Morland and Hansen had help in
preparing their articles.
In its public brief before the 7th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chi-
cago the government said: "The, evi-
dence suggests that Morland was able
to write accurately about the H-bomb
secret only because he had significant
guidance by a person or'persons with
access to classified material."
Morland interviewed several gov-
ernment scientists during his research
on the article, with the permission of
the Energy Department. But the gov-
ernment moved to block publication
of the story in March, when- Prog-
ressive editors submitted' it for ap-
proval.
Government suspicions-were height-
ened in late April and early. May
when a--Milwaukee, Sentinel reporter,
Joe Manning,.wrote stories about the
H-bomb from materials he said. he
found on library shelves,, the; sources
said. The articles repeated some of
the same mistakes Morland made in
his piece, sources said:
Truemgn Farris, .managing editor of
the Sentinel, -said-in a phone inter-
view yesterday that Manning didn'tl
talk to anyone with a classified clear-
ance in preparing. his stories. "If there
were mistakes that : paralleled- Mor:
land, it could be because they used
the same public materials," Farris:
said.
Hansen, a computer programmer t
from Mountain View, Calif., said he
couldn't comment -about the gov-i
ernment's leak suspicions because his
lawyer told him not to discuss the
case.
The government's concern about
suspected leaks is apparent in its mo-
tion to dismiss the prelimnary injunc-
tion;against the Progressive.. In that.
motion,. Justice lawyers specifically
ask that the district court be- allowed
to take "appropriate action to protect
the in camera [secret) materials."
"Some material-filed in camera. by
the United States - is more. senstive
than the Morland article," the govern-
ment lawyers said: ."This material
was submitted by the government, in
reliance upon the. assurance of con-
ifdentiality provided by its in camera
treatment."
Progressive attorney Friedman said
the scope of, the protective order and
the government's reference to a, pre-
liminaray inquiry for possible crimi-
nal violations of the Atomic' Energy
Act would have a "chilling effect" on
future writers. "It could lead to self-
censorship and the victory we have
achieved would be eliminated," he
said. '
The Progressive lawyers - said they
feel the constitutionality of the At
omit Energy Act can be challenged
because its provisions are too loosely'
defined. Deputy.,, Assistant. Attorney
General Robert L...Keuch, an, expert
on espionage, cases, said the act has
been used in only one criminal prose-
cution and that was a classic spy case
Some , department 'lawyers'believe
any criminal case-stemming from the
H-bomb disclosures. would be flawed
because- the government has acknowl-
edged that' many: of the same secrets
had been -disclbsed by inadvertent de-
classifications.,;'.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100070020-2
suppress, according to sources