>Senator Coverdell. All right, Mr. Chairman. It says, permanent ineligibility. Persons currently or formerly employed by the Central Intelligence Agency shall be permanently ineligible for Peace Corps volunteer service or employment by the Peace Corps.

>JOHN M. DEUTCH, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE Simply put, the Central Intelligence Agency policy is not to use journalists accredited to American news organizations, their parent organizations, American clergy or the Peace Corps for intelligence purposes. This includes any use of such organizations for cover. The policy that I have just stated, Mr. Chairman, has been in place for 20 years. Recently — 19 years, more precisely. Recently, at the request of this committee, I reviewed the policy to determine whether it was both appropriate and sufficiently circumscribed. As I told you, Mr. Chairman, and this committee, when this issue was raised with me, my sympathy is on the side of the no intelligence use of Amer- ican journalists or clergy. I strongly believe in the independence of our free press and the division between the Government and the church. That is why I have stated publicly that I have no intention of using either American journalists or clergy for intelligence pur- poses. Further, as the committee knows, I have found no circumstances while I am Director of Central Intelligence, that have caused me to do either. ut, Mr. Chairman, as the Director of Central Intel- ligence, I must be in a position to assure the President and the members of the National Security Council and this country, that there will never come a time when the United State cannot ask a witting citizen, knowledgeable citizen, to assist in combating an extreme threat to the Nation. So I, like all of my predecessors for the last 19 years, have arrived at the conclusion that the Agency should not be prohibited from considering the use of American jour- nalists or clergy in exceptional circumstances.

Oh please Congress, give us an out incase one of our agents from the past 19 years gets caught, it's for public safety from them terrorists.

Clearly they had already been using Journalists as CIA assets for a minimum of 19 years prior to 1996