INFORMATION REVIEW & RELEASE (IRR) NEWS FOR 20 - 24 JANUARY 2003 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05578135
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: April 2, 2019
• Case Number: F-2010-01471
• Publication Date: January 24, 2003

Approved for Release: 2019/03/27 C05578135
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Information Review & Release (IRR) News for 20 - 24 January 2003
Executive Summary
Immediate Calendar:
(U/7711Th4)) 29-31 January 2003: Historical Review Panel: Next meeting at
(UH14414Ci) 12 February 2003: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP): Next Liaisons'
meeting at Crystal City.
Future PlanninA, Calendar:
(U//i4LLIC) 25 February 2003: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP): Next Principals'
meeting at EEOB in Washington, DC.
(Uthieff3(4) 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:
(UHAIVEr) FOIA Requests
(Ullartr) Scientology Church Wants Information on Author
(U//AIU0) A requester from Los Angeles asked for information relating to British-born author Francis Israel
Regardie. The requester states he is making the request on behalf of the "Mother Church of the Scientology
religion."
� The FOIA case manager informed the requester that before CIA can begin processing, he must provide
"subject's citizenship status, specifically, if he ever became a US citizen, and, if so on what date, 'Y
(U/M414,14 New Yorker Asks About Italian Prime Minister's Connection With Channel 5
(U//04140) A requester from New York requested records on the relations between the Italian Prime Minister
Bettino Craxi and the Italian businessman Silvio Berlusconi and Italian TV Channel 5.
(1.1///1144)) Requester Wants Information on Her Grandfather Who Allegedly Flew For Air America
(U///t1144) A requester asked for information pertaining to her grandfather, Herbert S. Strouss, who, according to
the requester "served as a pilot for Air America and died in service on 4 February 1962." She specifically wants "his
military record, information on where he flew on assignment, ...and any records on trips to Bogota, Colombia."
(U//A4430) CIA Declassification Center
(U//24cH60) US News Reports on STAR GATE Release
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(U//#344(4) A collection of over 70,000 pages of STAR GATE Program records was released by CIA Declassification Center
(CDC) to the National Archives in November 2002. An article in the 27 January/3 February 2003 U.S. News and World
Report, titled "Enemies in the Mind's Eye," by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak and Charles Fenyvesi discussed the program and
the records collection in what is probably the first reference to the November release. The article states, "The outlines of Star
Gate [sic] have been sketched before, but new details of the project have come to light in 73,000 pages of previously
classified records released by CIA last November...."
� STAR GATE was the project name for US Government research into the parapsychological phenomenon known as
remote viewing. Pursuant to a 1995 Congressional mandate, Intelligence Community records on STAR GATE
were transferred to CIA with direction to begin a program of review with the intention of declassifi,ing as many as
possible. CDC began processing STAR GATE material in 1996. CDC currently is reviewing another 20,000 pages
of STAR GATE material for eventual release.
(11/MritiCI) From the Archives: In 1965, Vietnam General Snubs Bundy
(UHAE11/177) Bromley Smith, in a February 1965 National Security Council memo that was reviewed recently at the
CIA Declassification Center, told McGeorge Bundy, who was at the time on a fact-fmding'trip to Saigon, "the
President reacted sharply to an AP report from Saigon saying that [Gen. Nguyen] Khanh appeared to be snubbing
[Bundy] by turning down an invitation to a Friday reception for Vietnamese military leaders at Gen. Westmoreland's
home. The President told me that assuming this was true, we should start looking hard for someone who could
replace Khanh. He would like you to get a full rundown on replacements." ,
� On 25 February 1965, Khanh was deposed by a coup of disgruntled junior officers. In June, Nguyen Cao
Ky, a flamboyant Air Marshal, was named Premier of South Vietnam. Between March and June of 1965,
the number of US military personnel in South Vietnam jumped from 30,000 to 60,000.
� According to President Lyndon Johnson's memoir, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency,
1963-1969, Bundy returned from Vietnam on 7 February to report that the situation "is deteriorating, and
without new US action, defeat appears inevitable�probably in the next year or so." Bundy's report
further stated that the "stakes in Vietnam are extremely high and there is no way of unloading the burden
on the Vietnamese themselves or negotiating ourselves out of Vietnam." He recommended a policy of
"sustained reprisal" but warned that "the struggle in Vietnam would be long and this must be made clear
to both the American and South Vietnamese people."
(U//2411414) From the Archives -- Rumania Stops Pensions in 1950
(UHAIU ) Pensioners under age 60 in communist Rumania had to return to work because their pensions were going
to be stopped, according to a 1950 Information Report recently reviewed by the DO team at the CIA Declassification
Center. The IR reported, "Individuals drawing pensions from the state have been summoned to the Pension
Commission and informed that they must seek employment if they are under sixty years of age. They were informed
that the pensions would henceforth be paid only to persons over sixty. Pensioners who indicated that they desired to
continue drawing their pension if their new job would pay less than the pension were informed that, unless they were
sixty years of age, they had no choice but to obtain what employment they could find."
This is a record.
CC:
Sent on 31 January 2003 at 03:19:14 PM
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Approved for Release: 2019/03/27 C05578135