Secrets, Free Speech, and Fig Leaves

摘要

CIAs Publications Review Board (PRB) and its small staff perform a balancing act more than 300 times a year, navigating a process sanctioned by the US Supreme Court to clear the writings of Agency authors for nonofficial publication. The challenge: to balance CIAs secrecy agreement with the Bill of Rights. Business is brisk, as a growing number of former CIA employees seek to become published authors especially former operations officers reflecting on their clandestine careers abroad. The variety of material the PRB has reviewed for publication in recent years has encompassed former President Reagans memoirs, the Brown Commission Report on the Roles and Capabilities of the US Intelligence Community, and broadsides from timeworn Agency antagonist Phillip Agee. Former employees submit manuscripts directly to the PRB, as do some nonemployees such as former Defense Secretary Weinberger; Judge Lawrence Walsh, the Iran-Contra Independent Counsel; and former members of Congressional oversight committee staffs who, because of their special access to CIA information, need to seek PRB review before publishing.