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The Honorable Edwin fieese. III The Attorney General Washington,.
Dear Ed:
I know that you share my concern regarding the increasing threat to our national security posed by unauthorized disclosure of classified intelligence information, rhe compromise of our intelligence sources, both human and technical, has placed lives in jeopardy and rendered expensive technical collection systems ineffective. Unfortunately, we have not been able to take effective steps to punish those who have violated their obligation to protect classified information and this has crested the perception that nobody cares. Ue simply must restore discipline to the handling ofi ve inon.
While there is no single solution to the problem of leaks, one step that can be taken is to enact legislation that would criminalize the reprehensible conduct of disclosing classified information to those outside the government who are not authorized to receive it. enactment of leaks legislation, combinedigorous effort to detect those who are engaged in disclosing classified information, will restore an element of risk to those who misuse classified information.
Ue have proposed leaks legislation as part of the draft Intelligence Authorization Bill for the past two years. Last year, the Department raised objections to including leaks legislation in the Authorization Dill because the issue needed to be studied more closelyonsensus reached within the Executive Branch on whether we should attempt to enact leaks legislation. Tora not aware that any action has been taken to reachonsensus.
This year we again proposed leaks legislation as part of the Authorization Bill. Once again, the Department questioned the need for the legislation and raised objections to the substance of our proposed bill. Last week, etter to the Director of the Office of I'anagenent and Budget, the Acting Director of Central Intelligence reluctantly agreed to the deletion of the leaks prevision fron the Authorization Eill.
I not btlicvc wt- car. continue toostpone tafcinc effective *ctior.. ^oo nany cf our nation's urcrcte have already been COOpfOUised to continue ? husint: as u<*t Per* ust this cut can only he decatc! evels ofnin ino pressptinc of the rSPG at the earliest possiblt da t* to address the question of whether the Administration it willing to verh for enactment of Ittflkl lecislttion. ror th* reason* set forthn convincec* that nev legislationey first step in tackling this problen,an count on your active support in accomplishing this gosl. n sure that w* can uork tooether to prepare effective lecislatinn. I look forward to hearor you oner in th* very future.
Sincerely,
Villasey Director of Central Intelligence
cc: Secretary of Defense Secretary of State Assistant to the President for
ecurityector of Management and Dudee t
Original document.
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