Full Release - IRmep

~ conflicts. Representative pe>>oekstra, the chai~an of the C:>se Select Committee on
~ Intelligence, says he is so concerned about recent leaks that he plans to hold hearings,
beginning thls month, on whethe~ ~~IS necessary to revise the espionage statute to give
the Justice Department mo~e authority to prosecute leakers. 'But Hoek$tra also ~ants' to
revise t_he way information is classified to curb what. he calls "excessive
overclassification."
Until that happens, leaks arguably serve a vital functio~ jn U.s.
democracy--helping to ensure that the pUblic can make informed decisions about national
security policy. A~ Max Frankel, the former executive editor of The New York Times, put it
.in 1971, during the Ni.xon administration I s case against_ t.be paper for p;inting the
·Pentagon Papers, II [Pl ractically everythi_ng t_hat our Government. does, plans, thinks, hears
and contemplates jn the realms o{ foreign policy is $tamped and treated as secret--and
then unraveled by that same Government,· by the Cong;ess and by the' press in ope continuing
round of professional and social contacts and cooperative and competitive exchanges of
information." The question--to be decided by a Virginia jury next year--is whether that
unravel~ng will ~ontinue any longer.
LOAD-DATE: September 29" 2005
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