Intelligence Identities Protection Act

Intelligence Identities Protection Act

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	50 U.S.C. ch. 15 § 401 et seq. 50 U.S.C. ch. 15, subch. IV §§ 421-426
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., 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.

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 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. 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 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."

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