wfn.org | NCC EXECUTIVE TESTIFIES AGAINST CIA USE OF RELIGIOUS WORKERS

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC7/17/96   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY RODNEY PAGE TESTIFIES
ON USE OF RELIGIOUS WORKERS TO GATHER INTELLIGENCE

 WASHINGTON, D.C., July 17 ---- The Rev. Dr.
Rodney Page, Deputy General Secretary for Church
World Service and Witness (CWSW) of the National
Council of Churches (NCC) today submitted testimony
urging the Senate Intelligence Committee "to close
completely the loophole in current regulations that
allows the use of clergy as informants in extreme
cases."

 "Whether or not the waiver authority is ever
again exercised by the CIA, the possibility that it
could be creates the perception that it is or will
be," Page said.  This perception "undermines the
trust all (religious) workers need to develop with
the communities they serve," he maintained. The
complete testimony follows.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to appear
before you this morning to express our concern about
this very important matter.  I am Rodney Page,
Deputy General Secretary for Church World Service
and Witness of the National Council of Churches.

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in
the USA is the preeminent expression in the United
States of the ecumenical movement.  Its 33
Protestant and Orthodox member communions, to which
52 million people belong, work together and with
other church bodies to make a common witness to
their faith and to service the churches and the
world.  While I do not purport to speak for all
members of the communions constituent to the
National Council, I do speak for our policy-making
body, the General Assembly, whose approximately 260
members are selected by those communions in numbers
proportionate to their size.

The Church World Service and Witness Unit is one of
two program units of the Council.  Within it is
Church World Service, a global relief, development,
and refugee assistance ministry of the communions
that work together through the National Council of
Churches.  Founded in 1946, Church World Service
works in partnership with local church organizations
in more than 70 countries worldwide, supporting
sustainable self-help development of people which
respects the environment, meets emergency needs, and
addresses root causes of poverty and powerlessness.
Within the United States, CWS resettles refugees,
assists communities in responding to disasters,
advocates for justice in U.S. policies which relate
to global issues, provides educational resources and
offers opportunities for communities to join a
people-to-people network of global and local caring
through participation in CROP walks.

Because of our commitment to work all over the world
in areas of great need, the staff and volunteers who
work with Church World Service and other religious
relief and missionary organizations are often in
danger.  They go willingly to places where natural
disaster, famine and war cause desperate need and
threaten personal security.  Often they undertake
these missions in partnership with or at the request
of the U.S. government, in the belief that their own
government will attempt to protect them and help
them if they are in danger.  Consequently, it is
particularly distressing to us to know that these
dedicated workers may, in fact, be endangered by
actions - or suspected actions - of that very
government.

I refer specifically to the perception that
religious workers may be recruited by U.S.
intelligence organizations to serve as informants.
We understand that the Central Intelligence Agency
has, for many years, operated under a general ban on
the use of religious workers as informants.  We also
know that the CIA's rules allow for waiving this ban
under special circumstances.  It is the existence of
this waiver authority that places religious workers
in jeopardy.  Whether or not the waiver authority is
ever again exercised by the CIA, the possibility
that it could be creates the perception that it is
or will be.

The widely-publicized recommendation made this
spring by a task force of the Council on Foreign
Relations that the ban on use of religious workers
be reviewed only increased our concern about this
issue.  At that time, the heads of a number of
communions constituent to the National Council of
Churches wrote to CIA Director John Deutch:

Missionaries are often in a position to observe
developments in society that need to be brought
to the public's attention.  We know, for example,
that church workers were among the first to
report the epidemic of starvation in Liberia a
few years ago.  Such reporting, done publicly, is
a service to the whole community.  However, to
ask church workers to observe in a clandestine
fashion and report secretly on what they see and
hear is often to endanger their lives.  The mere
public perception that a few U.S. missionaries
and religious workers might be gathering
information secretly for the government
undermines the trust all such workers need to
develop with the communities they serve in order
to carry out their ministries.

Because we believe so strongly that it is
inappropriate for religious workers to serve as
gatherers of information for the government, many
of our communions have adopted policies requiring
our personnel to refrain from contacts with
government intelligence agency representatives
which might result in providing intelligence
information to those agencies.  Violation of
these policies is normally grounds for dismissal.

We urge you to close completely the loophole in
the current regulations that allows the use of
clergy as informants in extreme cases.  Further,
we request that you announce publicly that a
complete ban has been instituted on the covert
gathering of intelligence by clergy and church
workers.  Such a public announcement might help
to allay the mistrust of U.S. religious personnel
that must inevitably follow the revelation that
they can be used as agents under current
regulations.

We still believe that this is the right approach to
take to this issue.  As long as there is any reason
to suspect that religious workers may be agents of
the U.S. government, the lives and safety of these
servants of the public good are in jeopardy.

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for giving us the
opportunity to address this issue.

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