An intelligence agency cannot operate effectively unless its necessary secrets are maintained even in this, the most open and free country on Earth. We cannot expect you or your informants to endanger life and work because of carelessness, sensationalism, or unnecessary exposure to risk. Hostile intelligence activities conducted in this country and directed at U.S. interests abroad threaten not only our legitimate secrets and our technological advantages but also our privacy and, ultimately, our freedom. To the danger of espionage is added active measures designed to subvert and deceive, to disinform the public opinion upon which our democracies are built.
