-Caveat Lector-
Reno says 'anti-leak' bill will close gap in U.S. security
November 2, 2000
Web posted at: 2:43 p.m. EST
(1943 GMT)
David Williams
CNN.com Writer
WASHINGTON (CNN) --
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday that a controversial measure that
would increase the penalties for leaking classified information will not lead to
a dramatic increase in prosecutions.
The provision would make the willful disclosure of classified information a
felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine. It cleared
the House and Senate as part of the spending bill for intelligence agencies, and
President Clinton has until Friday to either sign it or veto.
When asked about the bill in her weekly news briefing, Reno said it was needed
because current law only covers leaks related to national defense.
"That leaves a gap, a very narrow gap involving other material that might not
relate to national defense, but could jeopardize various interests of the United
States," she said.
Reno said the anti-leaking measure would not go after reporters, or other
recipients of classified materials.
At one point, a reporter asked why the administration is considering
strengthening the law, when current restrictions on news leaks are rarely
enforced.
"I don't think there is a reluctance to prosecute the person who leaks
information, but finding that person while at the same time honoring the First
Amendment interests of the media is a very difficult task," Reno said.
The CIA sought the provision after losing agents and sophisticated surveillance
methods because of newspaper articles based on leaks of classified information.
When describing why they favor the bill, some U.S. officials cite the example of
a leak involving accused terrorist Osama bin Laden.
The officials say a news report that U.S. intelligence was monitoring bin
Laden's satellite telephone calls caused him to switch to other channels of
communication, cutting off that method of U.S. surveillance of his activities.
That reaction to the leak may have cost American lives, perhaps even in the
bombing of the USS Cole, the officials said. Bin Laden's organization is on the
list of possible suspects behind the terrorist attack.
"People have been killed," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, who is chairman
of the House Select Intelligence Committee. "Men and women that have operated
with our agency and with other countries dealing with national security issues,
when they are compromised, generally their lives are compromised," he said.
But news organizations such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN
sent a letter to the White House urging the president to veto the measure.
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, also opposes the bill, saying that leaker of the
bin Laden satellite phone information could be prosecuted under existing laws.
"To put a three year -- up to a three year -- felony sentence for leaking
information that doesn't affect our national defense, our national security is
overkill," he said.
CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor and
Reuters contributed to this report.
� 2000 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
======================================
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/02/classifiedleaks.ap/index.html
News organizations ask Clinton to veto classified leaks bill
November 2, 2000
Web posted at: 9:19 AM EST (1419 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four of the nation's largest news organizations have asked
President Clinton to veto a bill that would expand criminal penalties for
government employees who leak secrets.
"For the first time in our nation's history, a law would criminalize all
unauthorized disclosures of classified information _ in effect creating an
'official secrets act' of the sort that exists elsewhere but that has always
been rejected in this country," wrote top executives of the four media
organizations in a letter sent Tuesday.
Congress passed the legislation in October and sent it to Clinton for approval.
Congressional intelligence committee leaders and the Justice Department say it
is a tough measure needed to stop the flow of classified information that
threatens to undermine national security.
Rep. Porter Goss, the Florida Republican who chairs the House Intelligence
Committee, has said the provision was "narrowly crafted to protect the rights
that all Americans hold dear. It is not, as some will say, an affront to the
First Amendment."
But critics warn it also could silence whistle-blowers and stop the media from
getting information to the public.
In their three-page letter to Clinton, executives with CNN, The Washington Post,
The New York Times and the Newspaper Association of America criticized the
"antileak" law, part of an intelligence agency funding bill, saying it "simply
goes too far."
The letter said several important stories -- including those involving the
Pentagon Papers, the Iran-Contra affair and cases of waste, fraud and abuse in
the defense industry -- were the result of classified information disclosed to
journalists.
"This provision shatters the delicate balance that has been achieved in this
country between the public's right to know and the legitimate demands of
national security," they wrote.
The letter was signed by CNN Chairman Tom Johnson, Post Publisher Boisfeuillet
Jones Jr., Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Newspaper Association
President John F. Sturm.
News organizations such as the Los Angeles Times and the St. Petersburg Times
have published editorials opposing the legislation. Groups that represent the
interests of magazine publishers, scientists, journalists, editors, librarians
and free-speech advocates also protested in a joint letter to Clinton.
In an interview Wednesday, Sturm said harsh penalties for whistle-blowers have
never been necessary "even through the dark days of World War II and the Cold
War."
He noted that the measure was approved by the House and Senate on voice votes
and without a public hearing.
"I don't think that's good for the American people," Sturm said. "It's just not
consistent with our open system of government."
White House spokesman Elliot Diringer said Clinton is reviewing the bill in its
entirety. He said it is "important that we do all we can to protect our nation's
secrets, but we're not certain that this is the right way to go about it."
Diringer said the White House had expressed some concerns to lawmakers about the
legislation. Congress made some changes based on those concerns "but it still
may be too broad," he said.
He said the president had not made a final decision on whether to sign it.
Attorney General Janet Reno has endorsed the new criminal penalties as a
deterrent to leaking, while acknowledging a "fine line between a free press able
to publish and encourage public debate and how we protect the national
security."
She says federal prosecutors would not bring charges against news reporters or
those who inadvertently reveal classified material.
Current law makes it a felony to harm national security by leaking classified
defense material. The new measure, authored by Senate Intelligence Committee
Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would subject government employees to up to
three years in prison for willfully disclosing nearly any classified
information.
But while Congress may have signed off, the measure's opposition is uniting
civil libertarian supporters from the left and right.
Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a liberal member of the House Intelligence
Committee, and Bob Barr, R-Ga., a leading conservative, agreed that it would be
the nation's first official secrets act.
"It would silence whistle-blowers in a way that has never before come before
this body," Barr said.
Other countries have had such provisions for years.
Britain, for example, has had an Official Secrets Act since 1889. It was
replaced by a new act in 1989 that says receiving leaks is not a crime and some
types of information are not subject to criminal law. Prosecutors also must
prove that "harm" has been done to the national interest.
Under the proposal sent to Clinton's desk, Pelosi said even members of Congress
could face felony charges for revealing classified information.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Rep. John Conyers of
Michigan, that committee's ranking Democrat, said in a letter to Goss that "this
extension would grant the administration a blank check to criminalize any
leaking they do not like."
Conyers said the measure would "scare the bejesus out of whistle-blowers." He
said past revelations, such as disclosures about the CIA's support of the 1973
coup in Chile or Nixon's support of Pakistan in its 1971 war with India, would
have led to criminal prosecution.
The bill that includes the measure funds 11 intelligence agencies, including the
CIA and the National Security Agency, in fiscal 2001. The total budget is not
made public, but it is believed to be about $30 billion.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any
copyrighted work in these messages are distributed under fair use without profit
or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.
[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
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