Intelligence Identities Protection Act - History

History

The law was written, in part, as a response to several incidents where Central Intelligence Agency 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 was assassinated by the Greek terrorist 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. 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.

Another major impetus to pass the legislation was the activities of ex-CIA agent 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."

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, Gary Hart, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Republican Senator Charles Mathias.

As of July 2005, there has only been one successful prosecution involving the statute. In 1985, CIA officer Sharon Scranage was sentenced to five years and served eight months, for giving the names of other agents to her boyfriend in Ghana.