INFORMATION REVIEW & RELEASE (IRR) NEWS FOR 13 - 17 MAY 2002 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05578084
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: April 2, 2019
• Case Number: F-2010-01471
• Publication Date: May 17, 2002

Approved for Release: 2019/03/27 C05578084
ADMINIGT HAT IVE I HTERNP Li ICE (WI V
Information Review & Release (IRR) News for 13 - 17 May 2002
Executive Summary
Immediate Calendar:
(U/ntlile) 12 June 2002: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAPI: Next Liaisons' meeting
at Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, DC
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Future Planninz Calendar:
(U/alfeQ) 26-27 June 2002: Historical Review Panel: Next meeting at
(Utheallsie) April 2003: The Automatic Declassification Date per Executive Order 12958, as amended, for
unreviewed intelligence-related or multi-agency records.
Overview of IRR Activities Last Week:
(U) NARA Announces Public Release of CIA Documents on Nazis
(U/40elee/ The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced on 8 May 2002 that declassified
CIA records involving Nazi war crimes are being made available to the public. The CIA recently declassified these
records under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, Public Law 105-246, which mandated that all agencies,
including the CIA, "locate, inventory, recommend for declassification, and make available ... all records pertaining to
individuals in the Nazi government, or in governments allied with the Nazis, who participated in racial, religious, or
political persecution or to theft of the assets of persecuted people." In a press release about the opening of the CIA
records, U.S. Newswire, Inc. pointed out that the release included "files on 381 individuals and subjects associated
with Nazi war crimes or war criminals," including Walther Rauff, designer of a "gas van" extermination device;
Krunoslav Dragonovic, a Franciscan priest who served the Nazis in Croatia; and Reinhard Gehlen, leader of a
German military intelligence unit during World War II who entered into a controversial post-war liaison relationship
with the US government.
� The CIA's Nazi War Crimes effort was orchestrated through the ExDir's office. IMS provided significant
support to that effort, including reviewers from IMS/Public Information Programs Division and
administrative support personnel from IMS/Declassification Services Division.
(U//nite) Litigation
(UHA1017) FOIA & E0 Requests
(UHAtige) Clearinghouse Seeks Information on CIA's Processing of FOIA
(U/Mr1+18) The Freedom of Information Clearinghouse in Washington, DC seeks "records showing requests that
Central Intelligence Agency has made for additional resources for FOIA processing in order to reduce the agency's
backlog for pending FOIA and/or Privacy Act requests," including "requests for increased funding from Congress,
and requests for increased staff" The requester states the intention of the request is to "evaluate the efforts that the
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Central Intelligence Agency has made to comply with the response times provided under the FOIA...." The Freedom
of Information Clearinghouse describes itself as providing, "legal and technical assistance to individuals, public
interest groups, and members of the media who seek information from government agencies pursuant to the Freedom
of Information and Privacy Acts."
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(U//MO)- Italian Wants CIA Information on Noah's Ark
(U/,A.3) A requester from Italy seeks records on the so-called Mt. Ararat anomaly -- a formation near the peak of
Turkey's Mt. Ararat that some believe holds the remains of the Biblical Noah's Ark.
� CIA provided five previously released documents to the requester. One of these documents indicates that
former DC1 Robert Gates directed the Office of Imagery Analysis (01A) to review imagery collected in the
Mt. Ararat area between November 1990 and January 1992 in which 01A responded "that search
revealed nothing conclusive; only two areas of apparent rock formations protruding through existing
snow and ice."
(U/PAII7OT Requester Wants List of Scientific Personnel and Consultants
(U/M170) A requester from California seeks a list of personnel and scientific consultants to the Office of Scientific
Intelligence from 1975 through 1977.
(11//11.1.1.0) Associated Press Requests Information on "Operation Cyclone"
(11///rIr) The Associated Press (AP) seeks records on "Operation Cyclone' and the associated funding of
madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan as part of that plan." The AP alleges that "Operation Cyclone" was a
Carter Administration project in 1979 that authorized money to create a movement that would spread Islamic
fundamentalism in Central Asia to destabilize the Soviet Union.
(UHAT119) CIA Declassification Center
(U//4.1.1.1a) From the Archives: Director's Log, 14 January 1953:
(UHAILlie) A DDI entry in the Director's Log, Which was recently reviewed by the DCI team at the CIA
Declassification Center, indicates that a panel would be convened on 14 January 1953, "for the study of the problem
of Unidentified Flying Objects." Scientists from a couple of California universities, Brookhaven National
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Laboratory, the Air Force, and Johns Hopkins were among the participants. The panel, which became known as the
Robertson Panel, found no evidence of UFOs but expressed concems about possible Soviet exploitation of public
fears. In the spirit of the Cold War, the panel recommended control of UFO information to "protect" the public.
� The Robertson Panel is well known to UFO buffs and is described in detail in previously released CIA
documents.
� CIA's collection about UFOs is one of the most popular of CIA's "frequently requested records" on the
Agency's FOIA website, wwwfoia.cia.gov.-- in the past receiving far more attention than the other
collections, which include Guatemala, Bay of Pigs, POW/MIA, Human Rights in Latin America, the
Rosenbergs, Penkovsky, and Francis Gary Powers. Recently, though, a new collection has been added to
the webs ite -- Declassified Intelligence Analyses on the Former Soviet Union -- which in April, received
more attention than the UFO collection.
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This is a record
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Sent on 21 May 2002 at 12:36:22 PM
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