Documenting the Progressive Case Secrecy News -- 10/11/02

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Aftergood, Steven" <saftergood () fas org>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 11:33:54 -0400
To: secrecy_news () lists fas org
Subject: Secrecy News -- 10/11/02


DOCUMENTING THE PROGRESSIVE CASE

The first time that the U.S. government ever imposed prior restraint on
a U.S. publication was in 1979 when it sought to block publication of
Howard Morland's 1979 Progressive Magazine article on "The H-Bomb
Secret."

The Morland article became the subject of a landmark lawsuit (United
States of America v. The Progressive) that raised challenging
questions about the role of nuclear secrecy, the limits of government
accountability, and the requirements of the First Amendment.  The case
also divided the scientific community.  (The Federation of American
Scientists opposed publication of the article, which eventually
appeared in the November 1979 issue of The Progressive.)

Now, over two decades later, some of the central points of contention
have been declassified and disclosed in the form of a 1979 exchange of
correspondence between the eminent Hans Bethe, who opposed publication
of the Morland article, and Livermore physicist Ray E. Kidder, who
favored it.

The 1979 Bethe-Kidder correspondence, with an introduction by Howard
Morland, is posted here:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/bethe-kidder.html

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