Intelligence Identities Protection Act

Intelligence Identities Protection Act
Great Seal of the United States
Other short titles Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1981
Long title An Act to amend the National Security Act of 1947 to prohibit the unauthorized disclosure of information identifying certain United States intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources.
Acronyms (colloquial) IIPA
Nicknames Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, Anti-Agee Bill
Enacted by the 97th United States Congress
Effective June 23, 1982
Citations
Public law 97-200
Statutes at Large 96 Stat. 122
Codification
Titles amended 50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense
U.S.C. sections amended
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 4 by Edward Boland (D–MA) on January 5, 1981
  • Committee consideration by House Intelligence (Permanent)
  • Passed the House on September 23, 1981 (355-57)
  • Passed the Senate on March 18, 1982 (90-6, in lieu of S. 391)
  • Reported by the joint conference committee on May 20, 1982; agreed to by the House on June 3, 1982 (319-36) and by the Senate on June 10, 1982 (81-5)
  • Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on June 23, 1982

The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (Pub.L. 97–200, 50 U.S.C. §§ 421–426) is a United States federal law that makes it a federal crime for those with access to classified information, or those who systematically seek to identify and expose covert agents and have reason to believe that it will harm the foreign intelligence activities of the U.S.,[1] to intentionally reveal the identity of an agent whom one knows to be in or recently in certain covert roles with a U.S. intelligence agency, unless the United States has publicly acknowledged or revealed the relationship.[2]

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History

The law was written, in part, as a response to several incidents where Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents or officers' identities were revealed. Under then existing law, such disclosures were legal when they did not involve the release of classified information. In 1975, CIA Athens station chief Richard Welch[3] was assassinated by the Greek urban guerrilla group November 17 after his identity was revealed in several listings by a magazine called CounterSpy, edited by Timothy Butz. A local paper checked with CounterSpy to confirm his identity.[4] However, the linkage between the publication of Welch's name and his assassination has been challenged by pundits that claim he was residing in a known CIA residency.[5]

Another major impetus to pass the legislation was the activities of ex-CIA case officer Philip Agee during the 1960s and 1970s. Agee's book CIA Diary and his publication of the Covert Action Information Bulletin (CAIB) blew the cover of many agents. Some commentators say the law was specifically targeted at his actions, and one Congressman, Bill Young, said during a House debate, "What we're after today are the Philip Agees of the world."[6]

The law passed the House by a vote of 315–32, with all opposing votes coming from Democrats. The law passed the Senate 81–4, with the opponents being Democratic Senators Joseph Biden (currently Vice President of the United States), Gary Hart, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Republican Senator Charles Mathias.[7] Biden had written an op-ed column in the Christian Science Monitor published on April 6, 1982 that criticized the proposed law as harmful to national security.[8]

As of January 2013, there have been only two successful prosecutions involving the statute.[9] In 1985, Sharon Scranage, a secretary in the CIA's office in Accra, Ghana, was sentenced to five years and served eight months, for giving the names of other agents to her boyfriend in Ghana.[10] In January, 2013 John C. Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, who accepted a plea bargain, is serving a prison sentence for disclosing the name of another CIA officer to a reporter.[11]

First Amendment implications

The criminal provisions of the act are contained in 50 U.S.C. § 421. During Congress's consideration of the measure, much attention is paid to subsection 421(c), which states:

421(c) Disclosure of information by persons in course of pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents.

Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual’s classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under Title 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

Under this subsection, journalists and political commentators alike could be prosecuted should they show an effort towards discovering or revealing identities of covert agents. However, it was ultimately concluded by the Senate Judiciary and the Conference Committee that the measure is constitutionally sound. Individuals would only be prosecuted if they engage in a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents, on the grounds that such actions goes beyond information that might contribute to informed public debate on foreign policy or foreign intelligence activities.

The Conference Committee assured that U.S. intelligence critics would be beyond the reach of law so long as they do not actively seek to identify or expose covert agents. However, commentators are still wary of the measure, finding 421(c) standard over-broad since it lacks a 'specific intent requirement' and instead relies on a 'reason to believe' standard.[12]

Valerie Plame affair

Between 2003 and 2007, an investigation was conducted by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into whether this law and others were violated in the identification of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative in a 2003 newspaper column by Robert Novak.[13] As a result of the investigation, former Vice Presidential Chief-of-Staff "Scooter" Libby was convicted on two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice and one count of making false statements to federal investigators[14] and sentenced to thirty months in jail.[15] In a court filing related to Libby's sentencing, the CIA stated that Plame was a covert agent at the time of the leak.[16] In addition, the leak enabled the identification of Plame as an employee of the CIA front company, Brewster Jennings & Associates, and in doing so enabled the identification of other CIA agents who were "employed" there.[17]

John Kiriakou

Main article: John Kiriakou

A former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, was charged and convicted under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. On Tuesday, October 23, 2012 Kiriakou pleaded guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.[11]

As part of a plea agreement, Kiriakou accepted a 30-month prison term, while the charges filed under the Espionage Act were dropped. He was sentenced on January 25, 2013.[18] This is the first conviction of a CIA officer under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in 27 years.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tyrangiel, Josh; Mazzetti, Mark; Shane, Scott (17 July 2005). "The Law: What Can You Say About A Spy?". Time. Retrieved 2011-01-09. What does the law actually legislate?... a government official with access to classified information... an official who has security clearance in one area, learns the identity of a covert operative in another area... any person... who continually exposes covert operatives knowing that the U.S. is protecting their identities and having "reason to believe" their exposure will damage U.S. intelligence
  2. ↑ Elsia, Jennifer (December 13, 2012). "Intelligence Indentities Protection Act" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  3. ↑ Washington Post. Obituary: Richard S. Welch 29 Dec. 1975, A16. ISSN 0190-8286 "The murder of Richard S. Welch, CIA station chief in Athens, was the entirely predictable result of the disclosure tactics chosen by certain American critics of the agency as part of their effort to destroy it."
  4. ↑ Morton H. Halperin and National Security Issues—A Partial Record, Congressional Record, United States Senate - July 15, 1994, pg. S9109.
  5. ↑ Garwood, "Under Cover"
  6. ↑ "Agee's Revenge" (Reason 14 July 2005)
  7. ↑ "Bill To Penalize Uncovering Of Agents Passed By Senate". Associated Press. June 10, 1982. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  8. ↑ Biden, Joseph (April 6, 1982). "A Spy Law That Threatens National Security". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  9. ↑ http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0713/p01s02-uspo.html
  10. ↑ Collier, Robert (12 July 2005). "Key questions at the center of the leak controversy". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  11. 1 2 Scott Shane (January 5, 2013). "Ex-Officer Is First From C.I.A. to Face Prison for a Leak". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  12. ↑ - January 28, 2011, pg. 5.
  13. ↑ Mission To Niger
  14. ↑ "Libby Found Guilty of Perjury, Obstruction" (CNN Newsroom 6 March 2007)
  15. ↑ "Former White House Official Sentenced to Prison in CIA Leak Case" (Voice of America 5 June 2007)
  16. ↑ "Plame was ‘covert’ agent at time of name leak" (MSNBC 29 May 2007)
  17. ↑ "Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm" (Washington Post 4 October 2003)
  18. ↑ Ex-C.I.A. Officer Sentenced to 30 Months in Leak, The New York Times, by Michael S. Schmidt, 1/25/2013
  19. ↑ Oct 2012, washingtonpost.com
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