Search This Blog

HUMINT: Use of Journalists as Assets

50 USC § 403–7 - Prohibition on using journalists as agents or assets


(a) Policy 

It is the policy of the United States that an element of the Intelligence Community may not use as an agent or asset for the purposes of collecting intelligence any individual who—
(1)is authorized by contract or by the issuance of press credentials to represent himself or herself, either in the United States or abroad, as a correspondent of a United States news media organization; or
(2)is officially recognized by a foreign government as a representative of a United States media organization.
(b) Waiver 
Pursuant to such procedures as the President may prescribe, the President or the Director of Central Intelligence may waive subsection (a) of this section in the case of an individual if the President or the Director, as the case may be, makes a written determination that the waiver is necessary to address the overriding national security interest of the United States. The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate shall be notified of any waiver under this subsection.
(c) Voluntary cooperation 
Subsection (a) of this section shall not be construed to prohibit the voluntary cooperation of any person who is aware that the cooperation is being provided to an element of the United States Intelligence Community.

CIA's use of journalists and clergy in intelligence operations : hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate, One Hundred Fourth Congress, second session ... Wednesday, July 17, 1996

Testimony by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, Foreign Relations Committee, United States Senate, May 2, 2002

The CIA and the Media: How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up, Carl Berstein, Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977

Subverting Journalism: Reporters and the CIA, Controlling Interest: Vietnam's press faces the limits of reform,  Committee to Protect Journalists, USA, February 1997

Déjà Scoop: Journalists and the CIA  Sheryl M. Kennedy, American Journalism Review, April 1996


News 

Press groups protest CIA using journalists as spies, July 24, 1996