SPIES WHO AREN'T

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100100063-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: May 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP91-005618000100100063-1
LOS ANGELES TIMES
22 May 1986
Spies Who Aren't
The current furor between Central Intelligence
Director William J. Casey and several news
organizations over the dissemination of classified
material is the latest in a long line of disputes that
pit national secrets against the public's need for
information in order to make policy choices. The
Reagan Adminiattation has been particularly
eager to control information and to close leaks. But
other administrations have taken similar actions in
the past, and other administrations can be expected
to take similar actions in the future. ~ Since this
issue will not go away, it is worth thinking about
what is involved and what might be done about it.
N~ sensible person would argue that all defense
secrets should be made public. The government
has a right and a duty to protect some secrets, and
it is in the national interest for it to do so. At the
same time, informing the public on matters of
national defense is also desirable. In an open
society, Congress, members of the government and
news organizations provide considerable amounts
of information that foreign governments would
have great difficulty in gathering on their own.
Can speech and security be reconciled?
The approach of Casey and others in the Admin-
istration is to treat everyone giving out "classified"
information as a spy. They see no difference be-
tween John A. Walker Jr., who sold secrets to the
Soviets for nearly 20 years; Samuel L. Morison, an
'intelligence analyst who leaked a satellite photo to
the press, and NBC News, which reported details
? of an espionage case that the Soviets already
knew. Obviously the three cases are very different.
The law in this area is based on the Espionage
Act of 1917 as amended in 1950. During the 1949
congressional debate on the amendments, Atty.
Gen. Tom Clark said: "Nobody other than a spy,
saboteur or other person who would weaken the
internal security of the nation need have any fear
of prosecution under either existing law or the
provisions of this bill." Tell that, to Morison, who
was sentenced to prison even though his disclosure
of the satellite photograph added nothing to Soviet
knowledge of Amerlcan spying capabilities.
To set things straight, several additional criteria
need to be added to the muddled espionage laws.
Because government overclassification ie endemic,
a useful question would be whether the disclosed
classified material was properly classified in the
first place. Under this standard, Daniel Ellsberg
would not have been prosecuted as a spy for
leaking the Pentagon Papers. They shouldn't have
been classified. (The case against Ellsberg was
dismissed because of government misconduct. )
Another pertinent question would be the value
of the disclosed material to foreign powers. If this
standard had been applied in Lhe Morison case,
there would have been no criminal charge. (The
Russians had already bought the technical manual
for the reconnaissance satellites from a real spy. )
If this standard were now in effect, Casey would
not be threatening to prosecute NBC or the
Washington Poet for reporting on the case of
Ronald W. Pelton, an accused spy now on trial in
Baltimore. The damage in the Pelton case was
done when the Russians got secret information
about American technology for eavesdropping on
Soviet communications. They learn nothing new
when this is revealed to the American public.
In 1967 the Supreme Court wrote, "Implicit in
the .term 'national defense' is the notion of
defending those values and ideals which set this
nation apart." The government should prosecute
real spies who do in fact damage the nation, but it
should not interfere with those who are serving
the public and causing no harm.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP91-005618000100100063-1