MR. CASEY VS. THE PRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100110020-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: May 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110020-7
.U
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH (MO)
15 May 1986
Casey V
The Press
CIA Director William Casey is on thj")
warp ; he wants criminal prosecution o
news organizations for allegedly publishing
classified data. Although the Justice De-
partment is quoted as saying that "cooler
heads will prevail," this effort to punish
the press is, sadly, in keeping with the
Reagan administration's past actions.
The CIA director is reportedly angry
over leaks about U.S. interceptions of Liby-
an communications that tied Col. Kha-
dafy's agents directly to the West Berlin
disco bombing. Mr. Casey is particularly
outraged with The Washington +o&% which
quoted the messages and listed details on
the intercepts, thus allowing the Libyans to
pinpoint which codes the United States had
managed to compromise. In Mr. Casey's
mind, the Post is In direct violation of a
little-used 1950 law that makes it a felony
to publish information about cryptographic
systems and code-breaking activities, even
.though this particular law has never been
used to prosecute a news organization for
revealing such data.
What is ironic is that the ~story was a
follow-up article on President Reagan's
television speech announcing the U
bombing of Libya. Mr. Reagan cited
refit" and "precise" evidence of messages
between Tripoli and the Libyan People's
Beau in East Berlin ordering the disco
bombing. One would assume that Libyan
intelligence would be smart enough to con-
clade from Mr. Reagan's remarks which of
itscodes had been broken.
Mr. Casey reportedly has a secondary
agenda in his current anti-press campaign:
He wants to intimidate The Washington
Post from publishing a story on Ronald
Pelton, a former employee of the code-
breaking National Security Agency who
was arrested last November on charges of
spying for the Soviets. The Post allegedly
has classified information on the case, and
Mr. Casey wants legal action against the
paper if it publishes the information.
Whether to reveal sensitive information
in a news story is a tough judgment call for
editors and reporters; the use of such Infor-
mation is generally decided on a case-by-
case basis. Also, there is no question that
some information is legitimately classified
and should be kept secret in the name of
national security. That said, however, Mr.
Casey's suggestions for criminal prosecu-
tion seem to be an end run to establish a de
facto, British-style "Official Secrets Act,"
which could prevent the publication of any
so-called top secret material. That would
represent an effort to undermine the First
Amendment's freedom of the press.
The details about intercepted Libyan
messages and information about the Pelton
case more than likely were leaked by very
high sources within the administration
rather than by some low-level staffer. (The
director knows that the U.S. ship of state is
the only ship that leaks from the bridge.) If
Mr. Casey wants to stop this flow of secret
material, he should start at the top and not
attempt to silence the press.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110020-7