Anti-leak bill awaits president's action

Major news organizations oppose measure

In this story: 'People have been killed' Measure is 'overkill' Defense Department appears divided RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A controversial piece of legislation sitting on President Clinton's desk would turn the willful disclosure of classified information into a felony.

Opponents say the measure would violate the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, while supporters say the proposed law is aimed at protecting American lives.

MESSAGE BOARD National security

The anti-leak provision is part of the spending bill for intelligence agencies. The president has until Friday to sign or veto it.

Penalties in the bill include up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Several news agencies are opposed to the legislation, which they consider too broad.

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."

Measure is 'overkill'

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.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee

"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," the letter said.

The letter also noted that it took leaks of classified information to unravel the Iran-Contra affair and to reveal how the U.S. deliberately misled the U.S. public during the Vietnam War.

"We are taking a hard look at it. We have certainly heard from a number of news organizations around the country about their concerns about the bill and we will take those seriously," White House spokesman Jake Siewert told reporters.

A prominent Republican also opposes the bill.

"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," said Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois.)

Hyde also noted that the leaker of the bin Laden satellite phone information could have been prosecuted under existing law.

Under current U.S. law, it is a crime to release classified information if it helps a foreign power, exposes intelligence agents or relates to national defense. The new bill appears to go beyond this, extending to virtually all classified information.

Republican supporters of the legislation warned that if the president does veto the anti-leak bill, then Democrats can expect to be called weak on national security in the last days before next week's election.

In a recent appearance before the private Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Defense Secretary William Cohen said the biggest disappointment in his four years at the Pentagon was the constant leaks of top secret government information to Washington newspapers.

The secretary lamented that he even read personal memos to him in the newspaper before they reached his desk.

Cohen has warned in recent speeches that militant anti-Western guerrilla groups could begin striking targets in the United States and that Americans could be pressured to give up some cherished personal freedoms as the intelligence community probes for advance warning of such attacks.

But in an interview with the New York Times, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon strongly criticized the bill and said that by answering a simple question, a government spokesman ran the risk of violating the law.

"It's disastrous for journalists. It's disastrous for any official who deals with the press in national security, whether at State, the NSC (National Security Council) or the Pentagon," Bacon was quoted as saying.

Bacon cited, as an example, being asked about the movement of Iraqi troops. To answer this question, he said, he had to rely on classified information.

At his regular briefing later Tuesday, Bacon said the defense secretary's general counsel was looking at the bill.

Bacon said he was not at odds with Cohen over the bill, but said there was a "a lot of room for confusion on what this provision would mean and what it wouldn't mean."

"What it does say is that people who reveal classified information, whether wittingly or unwittingly, if they're caught doing that, could be imprisoned and pay a fine of up to $10,000," he said.

CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor and Reuters contributed to this report.

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U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Department of Justice
The Center for Strategic & International Studies

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