INFORMATION REVIEW & RELEASE (IRR) NEWS FOR 18 - 22 AUGUST 2003 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05578118
• 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: August 22, 2003

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Information Review & Release (IRR) News for 18 - 22 August 2003
Executive Summary
Future Planning Calendar:
(Uthiel+10) 23 September 2003: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP): Next Liaisons'
meeting at EEOB in Washington, DC.
(U//71111t>) 3-5 December 2003: Historical Review Panel: Next semi-annual meeting.
(UHAH40) 31 December 2006: The Automatic Declassification Date per Executive Order 12958, as amended.
Overview of IRR Activities Last Week:
(U//"ItH344) Ranko Primorac's FOIA Suit Against CIA Dismissed in Federal Court
(Ullit1116) A District Court for DC judge dismissed on 20 August a lawsuit against the CIA filed by Ranko
Primorac, who asked under the FOIA for "documents relating to himself that were allegedly collected by the CIA in
the mid-1970s." Mr. Primorac, according to the court's Memorandum of Opinion, was a Yugoslavian soccer player
from Croatia who received political asylum in the United States during a "sports visit" to this country in 1974. In the
early 1980s, he was convicted of two counts of racketeering, and is currently serving a 40-year sentence in federal
prison. Mr. Primorac wanted information which he alleged was collected on him by the CIA, and then passed to the
FBI.
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From an internet search: Ranko Primorac was convicted of racketeering in 1981 along with nine other
Croatian exiles and sentenced to 40 years. The ten men were convicted "offorming a criminal group (in the
US) that participated in a pattern of criminal activities, including murder, arson, and extortion," committing
crimes all across the US against Croatians living in this country. The crimes were committed in the name of
the Croatian National Resistance, an organization that advocated Croatian independence from Yugoslavia.
(U4A1.1.1.0) Prominent Immigration Lawyer/FOIA Requester Dies in Baghdad Blast
(UHAIU0) The Washington Post recently reported that Arthur C. Helton, a prominent immigration lawyer and
senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, was among those killed in the 19 August bombing of the UN
headquarters in Baghdad. Mr. Helton, an authority on refugees and humanitarian issues, was in the building for a
meeting with the UN special representative for Iraq. As reported, Mr. Helton had long studied and written about the
plight of refugees around the world. In his most recent FOIA request in 2000, he sought records pertaining to
refugee and population displacement crises in various parts of the world, including Iraq, Yugoslavia, Haiti, the
African Great Lakes region, and the Soviet Union. After obtaining Mr. Helton's concurrence to limit the search to
finished intelligence -- a common technique for narrowing the scope of a request -- CIA's FOIA Office released
three declassified finished intelligence documents reflecting a global perspective, and twelve documents that
addressed his specific interests.
(U///41510)- FOIA Requests
(UHAIU0) Requester Seeks Records About Rebuilding Iraq
(U/LntlitlerA frequent requester from the National Security Archive is asking for records relating to an "interagency
meeting at the National Defense University on February 22-23, 2003, aimed at reviewing and evaluating the U.S.
government's plans for rebuilding Iraq."
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(U//A+130)Request for 9/11 Report
(1.5//Alter) Judicial Watch is requesting the "pages of the Joint Congressional Committee's 9/11 Report dealing with
Saudi Arabia" and records relating to "the decision not to release and/or hold as 'classified' portions of the Joint
Congressional Committee's 9/11 Report dealing with Saudi Arabia."
(U//4141,10) Update on Gift-Giving Requester From Australia
(1.1//AIU ) An Australian requester who, in April 2002, sent a package addressed to President Clinton containing
articles such as bunny ears and a brassiere, among other items, has written in requesting all records CIA has indexed
to her name or her biological parents'/grandparents' names during the second Truman Administration.
(U//A.1430) CIA Declassification Center
(UMI1L44) It Was a Dark and Stormy Night for Three CDC/DRB Reviewers
(U//AltJu) the three-person review team assigned by CDC's Declassification Review Branch (DRB) to complete
the Survey and Analysis of the Nelson Rockefeller Vice Presidential collection (and other Government-sponsored
Committee records now stored at the Rockefeller Library and Archives in Pocantico Hills, New York) was partially
thwarted in its effort by a regional failure in the national electric power grid. The Library lost its lights and A/C.
Lacking a back-up power supply, the Library Director ordered an evacuation of the building. The review team
returned the classified material to the remaining functioning safes, secured for the night, turned on the alarm to the
safe room, and retreated to their hotel. With a major power failure covering the entire Northeast, all the traffic lights
were dark and traffic-was directed by the Tarrytown volunteer fire department. Although some daylight remained,
the hotel corridors were dark. Yet there was no loss of card key access to the rooms, or clean water. Moreover, the
hotel treated its guests to cold soft drinks in the lobby, issued disposable flashlights, and later concocted a barbecue
dinner using already defrosting hamburgers, chicken, and steaks cooked over charcoal.
(1.1//A-1430). From the Archives
(U//71/1559) Division...But Not Resolution
(U/,Q) In a short memorandum, dated 14 January 1948, DCI Hillenkoetter responds to an inquiry from the
Secretary of Defense regarding events in India-Pakistan. "Because of the chaos and almost complete breakdown of
government in the recent migration troubles in India, it is very difficult to obtain precise figures as to the number of
casualties since partition (15 August 1947). The most reliable figures are those of the Committee for Emergency Aid
to India and Pakistan, a relief committee composed of American church and charitable organizations. Figures from
that source say ten million persons were involved in the migration of minor groups from one dominion to the other.
The committee conservatively estimates that at least one million were killed or died en route during these migrations.
Ninety per cent of these deaths occurred in the Punjab. The number of deaths in the recent Kashmir dispute is
conservatively estimated at twenty-five thousand."
� This memorandum may have been one of CIA's earliest finished intelligence reports on India-Pakistan
disputes, including the dispute over Kashmir.
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(U//Aff18) Riga, Fashion Center of the USSR
(U/t�r}14Q) Some observations of an elderly Latvian woman from a refugee report prepared circa 1954: "Thanks to
the tailors and dressmakers from former days who still remain in Latvia, Riga manages to be the fashion center of the
Soviet Union [...]. Here women are better dressed than anywhere else in the USSR." All Latvian 'factory-made'
clothing is exported in exchange for Soviet clothing that is almost unwearable. Cotton dresses for women are
exceedingly ugly in design, and not colorfast. (Soviet women visiting Latvia always have an overcoat - 'Palto' -
made before they come. Dressmaking, of course, is very expensive.)" After eight years of perseverance, the woman
legally left her native land to seek a better life.
CC:
Sent on 2 September 2003 at 02:29:53 PM
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