CIA Director John Deutch has told news executives that the CIA does not use American journalists as agents nor American news organizations as cover and would not do so except under "genuinely extraordinary" circumstances.
In correspondence made public last week, Deutch said, "I have not encountered any set of circumstances that would lead me to consider such a possibility."Deutch's letters to Louis Boc-car-di, president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press and W. Thomas Johnson, president of Cable News Network, was a response to widespread complaints within the media about disclosure that CIA directors reserve the right to make exceptions to a 19-year policy barring attempts to recruit journalists.
Boccardi and Johnson welcomed Deutch's assurance, but continued to press for a flat prohibition.
"On the issue of an extraordinary exception to the stated policy, as written in the regulations established 19 years ago, we continue to request the unequivocal statement that there will not be any waivers," they said in a jointly drafted letter to Deutch.
Johnson said in a telephone interview that a flat prohibition is needed "so that our journalists are not under any suspicion anywhere. I think as long as this exception remains, we're not in the clear."
In his letter to Johnson and Boccardi, Deutch wrote, "We do not use American journalists as agents or American news organizations for cover, nor do I have any intention of doing so."
"As you know past DCI's have reserved the right to make exceptions to this policy. The circumstances under which I - or, I believe, any DCI (director of central intelligence) - would make an exception to this policy would have to be genuinely extraordinary."
In February, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked Deutch, "So you're saying that there are some extraordinary circumstances where the U.S. intelligence community would call upon jour-nal-ists?"
"That's correct, Mr. Chairman," replied Deutch.