Word: caseys
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...begun raising problems for the press as well. In covering spy cases, the media face a delicate dilemma: How much can they report about the secrets involved without further harming U.S. security? Two news organizations grappled with that question last week under the hostile gaze of CIA Director William Casey...
...first report to rouse Casey's ire came on Monday's edition of NBC's Today show. Giving a preview of the Pelton trial, Correspondent James Polk reported that the accused spy "apparently gave away one of the NSA's most sensitive secrets--a project with the code name Ivy Bells, believed to be a top-secret underwater eavesdropping operation by American submarines inside Russian harbors...
Polk's report gave Casey a chance to act on a warning he had issued three weeks earlier, when he said that he was weighing legal action against several publications for allegedly printing details of U.S. intelligence-gathering operations. His weapon: Section 798 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Passed into law in 1951, the statute forbids the disclosure of classified information about secret codes and other communications intelligence. Though no news organization has ever been prosecuted under the law, Casey cited the Washington Post, Washington Times, New York Times, TIME and Newsweek for unspecified violations...
...clear how serious the CIA chief is about bringing the Post and other news organizations to court; not the least of Casey's difficulties, of course, is that many of the classified leaks he deplores come from the Government, including his own department. According to agency officials, Casey does not truly contemplate bringing suit against all five newspapers and magazines, but only cited them to Bradlee to underline his concern about publication of the Woodward piece. "It seems as if Bill Casey was shooting with an automatic weapon against the Washington Post and forgot to release the trigger," says...
...Even if Casey persists, the final say on prosecution belongs to Attorney General Edwin Meese. At the moment, Justice Department lawyers are cool to the idea. "We're not hot to trot on this thing," says one Justice official. That lack of enthusiasm is mirrored on Capitol Hill by lawmakers who deal regularly with the CIA. Says Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence: "When you go after press organizations, you're treating the symptoms rather than the problem...