INFORMATION REVIEW & RELEASE (IRR) NEWS FOR 27 DECEMBER-7 JANUARY 2005 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05578284
• 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: January 7, 2005

Approved for Release: 2019/03/27 C05578284
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Information Review & Release (IRR) News for 27 December-7 January 2005
Executive Summary
Future Planninz Calendar
(UHAIV(f)) 12 January 2005: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP): Next Liaisons'
meeting at NARA in Washington, DC.
-(UHA11717) 31 December 2006: The Automatic Declassification Date per Executive Order 12958, as amended.
Overview of IRR Activities--Last Two Weeks
(U/b4+1344) FOIA Requests
(U/i/CMIT Interest in Colombian Events
(UHACIT/rfr The National Security Archive, a frequent requester of CIA documents under the Freedom of Information
Act, submitted requests concerning: "a May 11, 2000 massacre of civilians in the town of Sabeletas, Colombia, near
the port of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca department. According to the Department of State's 2000 Country Report
on Human Rights Practices, 12 individuals were murdered by members of the 'Calima Front,' a component of the
national Colombian paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). The group was also
allegedly responsible for killing 14 more suspected guerrilla sympathizers in the same area and, the July 2001
kidnapping of 43 men in Peque, Antioquia department, Colombia. According to the Department of State's 2001
Country Report on Human Rights Practices, the victims were taken captive by paramilitaries belonging to the (AUC)
and forced to herd stolen livestock."
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� The FOIA case manager accepted the requests,/
(U/LarI430) Seeking Information on Mind Matters
(U//A+146) A Washington state requester asks for the following: "1) the unclassified CIA document, 1974,
'Declassified Pulsed Microwaves Used for Mind Control, 2) Any or all documents pertaining [to] cerebral hypnotic
synthetic telepathy (and), 3) Experimental investigation of psycho physiological manipulation using modulated
electromagnetic energy for direct information transmission into the brain."
� The FOIA case manager located a copy of the 1974 document from the MOP] database of previously released
information, and provided it to the requester. Responding to items 2 and 3, the FOIA case manager provided
the requester a MOP] database Requester Report ofpreviously released documents from which the requester
can select records of subject interest.
(U//A+134)-Request on Noted Anthropologist
(U//A144Q) A professor at St. Martin's College in Washington state, who is a frequent requester, asked for records
pertaining to "American anthropologist and explorer, Frederick Roelker Wulsin [who] conducted extensive fieldwork
throughout the world, including in China, Mongolia, Persia, East Africa, Madagascar, and the Congo."
(U//k142143) CIA Declassification Center
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(UHAttlit Ho's Death and Succession
(U///ki-Td15) Various Current Intelligence Bulletins ( CIB's) of early September 1969 report the death of
Ho Chi Minh and begin to try to decipher who, if anyone, will appear as a "first among equals" in Ho's
wake. The CIB of 5 September reports that Chou En-lai has arrived in Hanoi to offer condolences on
Ho's death and was met at the airport by a group of North Vietnamese politburo members headed by
Truong Chinh. A CIB of 8 September reports that an editorial the North Vietnamese Army
newspaper and the party's theoretical journal published have made the first official statement on the
new leadership, which will be "a stable collective leadership" of Ho's "closest comrades in arms." A
CIB of 10 September reports that party first secretary Le Duan delivered the party central
committee's eulogy and read Ho's will, both stressing "unity of collective leadership." But by 23
October, the CIB is reporting that "Truong Chinh appears to stand 'first among equals' in North
Vietnam's new leadership."
� Comment: These articles provide a series of snapshots that track the IC's efforts to identify for
US leaders the identity of possible key interlocutors post-Ho, but these few CIBs may not
accurately reflect CIA's and the IC's ultimate judgment about the succession in North Vietnam.
In any event, the actual first among equals was Le Duan, also known as "BA" or "the second son."
� Postscript: Subsequent review of a 60 page Intelligence Report of April 1974 titled "Le Duan and
the Post-Ho Chi Minh Leadership" sheds further light on the Agency's difficulty in sorting out the
leadership situation in Vietnam. The paper states: "For a few months after Ho's death in
September 1969, it was unclear who was more powerful, Le Duan or his chief rival Truong Chinh.
[Uncertainty! over Le Duan's status increased in late 1969 when, after delivering the funeral
oration for Ho Chi Minh, he went into seclusion.... Understandably, Western observers began
speculating that Truong Chinh was winning the power struggle. That theory became untenable
in February 1979 when Le Duan showed up to give an important speech ... spelling out the party
line on strategy and domestic politics. The content of the speech was published in an article that
"firmly established Le Duan 's primacy."
(U//PrI4313) OGC Staffing At The Creation
(UHAtt-.543).A 7 December 1945 memorandum from the Strategic Services Unit Office of General
Counsel to a "Comdr. Antell" (not further identified) outlined the mission of that office. The mission
was rather lengthy given the transitional nature of the office. The memo noted the current
composition of the SSU OGC office was significantly depleted as several members were working
"solely on War Crimes in connection with the trials at Nuremberg." The memo added that "the only
members of the office actually performing General Counsel functions are Capt. Houston, Lt. Walsh
and Mr. [John] Warner. (ed. note: Capt. L.R. Houston as Acting General Counsel signed the memo.)
Another document in the same folder states that "The functions of the Office of General Counsel
[was] established by CIA Organizational Charts dated 15 October 1947" and the History Staff
Registry notes Mr. Houston served with the CIG after the SSU and became the CIA's General
Counsel when the Agency was created in 1947. He held that position until June of 1973 and was
succeeded by the same John Warner, presumably the same one mentioned above.
(U/M6143143)-13en Franklin's Philosophy on Spying
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(U//Are�From the Spring 1965 issue of the quarterly publication Studies in Intelligence comes
Benjamin Franklin's response dated 19 January 1777 to an American woman who sought to alert
him that those around him in Paris -- where he sought aid for the American revolution from
England's long-term enemy, France -- were spying on him. Franklin, who among his many
accomplishments as one of the great minds of the age, wrote and published the humorous yet
practical Poor Richard's Almanac , replied by stating his philosophy on spying, which the Studies
editor calls a "classic contribution to doctrine for general application." Franklin thanked Mrs. Richie
for her "kind Attention to my Welfare" and said of the information passed on to him that "I have no
doubt of its being well founded. But as it is impossible to discover in every case the Falsity of
pretended Friends... I have long observ'd one Rule It is simply this, to be concern'd in no
Affairs that I should blush to have made publick; and to do nothing but what Spies may see &
welcome."
� Comment: Franklin probably applied this same philosophy to the British agent Edward
Bancroft, "who made himself invaluable to. . .Franklin as private secretary" during the latter's
time in Paris. Although Bancroft's activities were not confirmed "until a collection of British
secret service papers was published more than a century later," the author states that Franklin
repeatedly ignored warnings about the man.
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