TASK FORCE REPORT ON HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM DECLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06844973
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2020
• Case Number: F-2015-01343
• Publication Date: March 27, 1992

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27 March 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
FROM: Historical Review Task Force
SUBJECT: Task Force Report on Historical Review Program
Declassification Guidelines
1. The accompanying report responds to your 13 February 1992
request that we form a Task Force to prepare declassification
guidelines for the Historical Review Program.
2. Attached to the report is a revised Headquarters
Regulation (HR 70-14), which establishes general policies and
guidelines to ensure that the Historical Review Program has an
impetus toward declassification. The guidance in this Regulation
will enable the Program both to fulfill the expectations of the
Congress when Mr. Casey established the Program in 1985, and to
give the American people the expanded access to CIA's historical
records that you announced in your 21 February speech in Tulsa.
3. We asked the deputy directors and independent office heads
to select Task Force members who could address both general policy
and declassification issues, and we asked members to express their
components views as well as their own. We have attached a list
of Task Force members and of other Agency officers who took part
in our work. The Task Force met eight times as a group, and we
met separately with many of its members and consulted with other
federal agencies, including the National Archives and Records
Administration, the Departments of State and Defense, the National
Security Agency, and the Information Security Oversight Office.
4. Our report reflects a consensus of the Task Force members,
and we are grateful for the knowledge, judgment, and good will
that all members brought to our efforts. We are prepared to
discuss the Task Force's work and report at your convenience.
(2-t4-Lie6CIt/t-1.114-4-1-174
J. Kenneth McDonald W. George
Chief, CIA History Staff Chief, Lit
Co-chairman Co-chairman
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MEMBERSHIP
Task Force
on
Historical Review Guidelines
W. George Jameson
Cochairmen:
J. Kenneth McDonald
Chief, Litigation Division (OGC) Chief, CIA History Staff
Members:
Doug A.
Chief, DO Component
James A. Barry
Deputy Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence
Terry Joseph Busch
Deputy Director of Leadership Analysis (DI)
Lee K. Coyle
Chief, Information Management Staff/
Operational Support Group (DO)
Kathryn I. Dyer
Information Review Officer (DI)
Eunice Evans
Deputy Chief,Information Privacy & Classification
Review Division (OIT/DA)
Jane Bowman Fraser
Deputy Chief, Program Resources Div. (OIT/DA)
Information Review Officer (DS&T)
Attorney-Advisor (OGC)
David D. Gries
Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence
Information Review Officer (DA)
Chief, Information Management Staff
Litigation Support Staff (DO)
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Susan Kessler
Office of Inspector General
Frederick F. Manget
Chairman, Publications Review Board (PAO)
Mary S. McAuliffe
Deputy Chief CIA History Staff
IA's Executive Secretary
Deputy Director (OCA)
Becky L. Rant
Information Review Officer (0/DCI)
John H. Wright
Information and Privacy Coordinator
Additional Participants:
Robert B.
Deputy Chief, DO Component
John Carver
Classification Review Branch, Information Privacy &
Classification Review Division (OIT/DA)
George W. Clarke
Counsel to the Inspector General
Director National Intelligence Council
Analytic Group
Chief ParalegalLitigation Division (OGC)
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27 March 1992
REPORT OF THE DCI TASK FORCE ON
HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM
DECLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES
1. On 13 February 1992, the Director of Central
Intelligence asked W. George Jameson, Chief of the Litigation
Division, OGC, and J. Kenneth McDonald, Chief of the CIA
History Staff, to co-chair a Task Force to prepare
declassification guidelines for a reorganized and expanded
Historical Review Program. This report is the result of the
work of that Task Force.
2. Premises: The DCI's speech on "CIA and Openness" to
the Oklahoma Press Association of 21 February 1.992 expressed
the intent to make CIA and the intelligence process more
visible and understandable in light of changing world
circumstances, and from this the Task Force operated on the
following premises:
A. The Historical Review Program (Program) established
in 1985 will become the responsibility of the Center for
the Study of Intelligence (CSI).
B. Custody, control, and declassification authority
for records reviewed under the Program will be transferred
from the originating offices to the Director, CSI, in order
to accelerate declassification review.
C. The Program will fully conform to EO 12356,
"National Security Information," and maintain the DCI's
broad statutory authority to protect intelligence sources
and methods.
D. As part of CIA's movement toward greater openness,
the DCI has directed that the Program have "a bias toward
declassification of historical documents."
E. The Program will review for declassification three
principal categories of CIA records:
� All documents 30 years old or older (except for
certain operational files exempted from FOIA search
and review by the CIA Information Act of 1984).
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� Al]. National Intelligence a e on
former Soviet Union 10 years old or older.
� Records (including operational files) on
selected topics and events of particular historical
value or public interest.
F. On an annual basis, CIA will publish an index of
all documents the Agency has declassified and approved for
release.
3. Objective and Products: The Task Force's primary goal
was to prepare guidelines to help this voluntary Program make
sound and consistent declassification decisions and to ensure
that the Program has an impetus toward declassification.
Recognizing the futility of any attempt to formulate rigid
instructions that dictate decisions for all possible cases, or
exhaustive lists of categories of information that reviewers
automatically must declassify or protect, the Task Force
prepared for DCI approval a proposed revision of Headquarters
Regulation 70-14 (attached), which establishes general policies
and guidelines for the Program.
The Task Force expects that the guidelines in this document
will advance the Program's objective to declassify and release
the maximum volume of information to the public consistent with
national security by emphasizing clearly and specifically that:
� The Program is guided by a presumption for
disclosure.
40 The CSI rather than the components will exercise
declassification authority for historical records.
� Reviewers may not automatically protect or
release documents.
� Reviewers may not withhold information without
articulating with reasonable specificity the
possible damage to national security expected from
disclosure of the information.
� The guidelines, firm in principle yet flexible
in application, identify certain factors that
reviewers must consider in determining whether
damage could result.
� The Program will continue to protect
information, including intelligence sources and
methods, that could damage the national security.
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4. Organization: Mt History staff in CSI, after
consulting with a wide range of historians, will select groups
of permanent records (excepting certain operational files) 30
years old or older for systematic declassification review, and
locate and collect for review records on specific events or
topics of historical interest selected with the DCI's
approval. A new Historical Review Group in CSI will carry out
declassification review in accordance with the Program's
guidance. (The Program will ordinarily focus on inactive
records, although on occasion it may be necessary to review
active files.) At the beginning of each calendar year, the
Director of CSI will submit a report to the DCI on the
Program's work during the preceding year, and on its plans for
the coming year.
5. Guidelines for Declassification: In preparing the
guidelines in the Regulation to give new impetus to
declassification, the Task Force focused on the following
issues:
A. Presumption for Disclosure: To carry out the DCI's
commitment to the Program, the Task Force emphasized the
presumption for disclosure. Since E0 12356 provides that
information may be classified only if its disclosure
reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the
national security, an essential Task Force objective was to
prepare useful guidance for reviewers to determine damage.
Unless reviewers can articulate how disclosure could damage
the national security, they must declassify information
even if it concerns matters the Agency has routinely
withheld from public release, such as CIA presence in a
specific country, the fact of certain covert action
operations, Agency organization and personnel, and
information withheld solely on grounds of the "mosaic"
effect. Since most records will be at least 30 years old,
and most operational records will be exempt from systematic
review, the Task Force expects that the Program can
declassify substantial amounts of information without
damage to national security.
B. Sources and Methods: The Task Force was careful to
ensure that the Program's guidelines do not undermine the
DCI's broad authority to protect intelligence sources and
methods. The guidelines reiterate EO 12356's presumption
that the unauthorized disclosure of intelligence sources,
methods, or foreign government information will damage the
national security. Such information, however, will not be
automatically withheld under this Program. Although
members were concerned about cover disclosure issues, the
Task Force agreed that as an intelligence method, cover
will be governed by these guidelines.
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C. CIA Presence Abroad: The Regulation does not
automatically protect the fact of the presence of CIA
representatives in a specific country or relationships with
foreign governments. Such information may be protected
upon a reasonable showing of possible damage. The Task
Force concluded that in many cases such presence or
relationship might be disclosed by substituting for deleted
particulars such terms as "CIA representatives" and
"government officials" or "authorities.
D. Publicly Available Information: Under this
Program, the extent to which information is already
available to the public, especially information that the
Publications Review Board has approved for publication,
will be a significant consideration in declassification
review. There is a presumption that information that has
appeared publicly will not damage national security, unless
a reviewer can articulate how official confirmation could
cause additional damage.
E. Protection of Unclassified Material: Reviewers may
withhold some information even if it is unclassified.
(Examples are information protected by discretionary
privileges such as deliberative process--especially
involving the Director and President--attorney work
product, attorney-client, and witness statements.) This
material also will not automatically be protected, and
reviewers must articulate expected harm to US interests in
order to protect it. Much of the information in this
category will probably be disclosed. Information
prohibited by law from disclosure (e.g., privacy data) will
continue to be protected.
6. Procedures: To be effective in accelerating the
declassification review, the Program will ensure that
components are consulted. The Regulation addresses this and
certain procedural matters as follows:
A. Consultation: The CSI will advise the responsible
components of its selection of records and consult with
them as necessary in conducting its review.
B. Appeal. Process: Records approved by the Director
of CSI for declassification will be made available to the
appropriate deputy directors or heads of independent
offices, who will have 30 working days to appeal any
decision to the Director, CSI. If the appeal is denied,
they will have 10 working days to appeal that decision to
the DCI.
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L. He -review: In its review, the cSI will identify
records that cannot be released, and will review them again
not more than 10 years later.
D. Index: CIA will publish an annual index of all
Agency documents approved for release (e.g., under the
FOIA, but not the Privacy Act). This will serve both the
public and the Program's research needs. It has been
suggested that CSI publish this index, but the Task Force
is convinced that such an index will require ADP expertise,
personnel, and equipment far beyond anything available in
the Center. Although the Historical Review Group will
record its final review determinations, the Task Force
recommends that the Office of Information Technology (OIT)
be asked to develop and maintain this index.
7. Application to Other Review Programs: The guidelines
will inevitably have an impact on the release of Agency
information under other review programs, such as the FOIA.
While standards need to be consistent, many different factors
will determine whether CIA will release information in any
given situation. The Task Force therefore agreed that the
Program's guidelines for historical records should be taken
into account Agency-wide, but that their specific application
to other review programs should be the subject of future study.
8. Resources: The Agency's current means of recording
declassification and other disclosure decisions are
rudimentary, fragmented, and entirely inadequate. The Task
Force believes OIT should develop and maintain a data base both
to track all Agency disclosures and to facilitate the
publication of the annual index. Additional resources for OIT
may be required. Directorates and independent offices also
will require additional resources both to conduct appeals of
the Program's decisions, and to cope with the impact of the new
declassification guidelines on their review of Agency
information under the FOIA and other programs.
9. Conclusion: The Task Force recognizes that applying
the proposed guidelines will raise some complex issues that CSI
can only resolve by consulting the rest of the Agency as the
Program actually gets underway. While making the Program
succeed will demand extraordinary energy, commitment, and sound
judgment, we believe that our guidelines give the Program the
foundation it needs to begin its pioneering work.
Attachment
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INFORMATION AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT HR 70-14
14. CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM
SYNOPSIS. This regulation prescribes the
responsibilities, guidelines, and procedures for the
declassification review and release of permanent Agency
records under the CIA Historical Review Program.
a. GENERAL
(1) The Agency's Historical Review Program (hereafter, the
Program) is established to make significant historical
information available to the public without damage to
the national security interests of the United States.
This includes systematic review for declassification
and release of: all permanent records 30 years old or
older (with the exception of certain operational
files); other records on selected topics or events;
and certain National Intelligence Estimates.
(2) Reaffirming the principle that the US Government's
records should be available to the public, this
Program will declassify and release to the public the
maximum volume of historical records consistent with:
(a) The responsibilities of the Director of Central
Intelligence (DCI) under the National Security
Act of 1947 and the CIA Act of 1949, as amended,
to protect intelligence sources and methods and
organizational and personnel information.
(b) The requirements of Executive Order 12356 and
successor orders to protect national security
information.
(c) Provisions of law that govern the public
disclosure of information.
(3) The Agency will transfer records declassified and
approved for release under this Program to the
National Archives and Records Administration
(hereafter, National Archives) for public use.
(4) The Agency will also make information available to the
public in other ways, including the release of
declassified records to the Department of State for
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publication in its documentary history series, The...
Foreign Relations of the United States. Such Agency
material released to the Department of State will also
be transferred to the National Archives through the
Program.
b. AUTHORITY. The Historical Review Program is established
in accordance with:
(1) Executive Order 12356, which prescribes a uniform
system for classifying, declassifying, and
safeguarding national security information, and
provides in � 3.3(c) that the DCI may establish
special procedures for systematic review for
declassification of classified information pertaining
to intelligence activities (including special
activities), or intelligence sources or methods.
(2) The responsibility of the DCI under � 102(d)(3) of the
National Security Act, as amended, 50 U.S.C.
403(d)(3), to protect intelligence sources and
methods from unauthorized disclosure.
(3) Section 6 of the CIA Act of 1949, as amended, 50
U.S.C. � 403g, which exempts the Agency from the
provisions of any law requiring the publication or
disclosure of the organization, functions, names,
official titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel
employed by the Agency.
(4) The CIA Information Act of 1984, 50 U.S.C. � 431,
which exempts certain operational files from the
search and review provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act.
c. RESPONSIBILITIES
(1) THE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF INTELLIGENCE,
has principal responsibility for the Historical Review
Program. Custody, control, and declassification
authority for all purposes of records selected and
received for review under the Program will be
transferred from the components to D/CSI. At the
beginning of each calendar year the Director, Center
for the Study of Intelligence will submit a report to
the DCI on the Program's work in the past year, and on
its plans for the year ahead.
(2) In the Center for the Study of Intelligence the
History Staff and the Historical Review Group (HRG)
are responsible for carrying out the Program.
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(a) The History Staff will both select groups of
records for systematic declassification review,
and locate and collect for review records on
events or topics of historical interest selected
with the approval of the DCI.
(b) The Historical Review Group will be responsible
for declassification review of records under the
Program in accordance with this Regulation and
additional guidance promulgated by the Director,
Center for the Study of Intelligence, with the
DCI's approval.
(c) In conducting this Program, the History Staff and
Historical Review Group will advise the
responsible components concerning the selection
of records to be reviewed under the Program and
will consult as necessary with the Agency
Archivist and responsible directorate and DCI
area Information Review Officers.
(d) To advise the Program on its policies and
procedures the Director, Center for the Study of
Intelligence, may from time to time convene the
Historical Review Panel, which will include the
Archivist of the United States, the Librarian of
Congress, and representatives of the historical
profession.
(3) The Agency Archivist will assist the Historical Review
Group in maintaining the integrity of all permanent
records (as determined by the Archivist of the United
States) received or created by the Agency, and in
preparing appropriate documentation to provide data
for an annual index of all Agency documents approved
for release under this Program or through other
means. The Agency Archivist will transfer records
declassified and released under the Program to the
National Archives.
(4) The History Advisory Board will advise the History
Staff in its responsibilities for the Historical
Review Program.
d. CRITERIA FOR REVIEW PRIORITY
(1) The History Staff, with the assistance of the Agency
Archivist and the relevant Information Management
Officers, will use archival data and listings that
describe the Agency's permanent records as well as
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on-site CebedLCh at the Agency Archives and�RetrOirds
Center to identify and locate specific groups of
records for review under the Program.
(2) The History Staff will determine the order in which
records are reviewed, using as primary criteria their
historical value, public interest in the subject
matter, and their potential yield of documents that
can be released. The Program will give special
attention to records originated by the DCI or his
principal subordinates and other senior Agency
officials, finished intelligence, and disseminated
intelligence reports. Priority for review will also
be given to file series requiring prompt reproduction
or other conservation action to ensure preservation of
the information contained in the records.
(3) The History Staff will evaluate records in light of
the contribution their declassification and release
can make to understanding the history of CIA and its
role in US intelligence, foreign policy, and
international developments.
(4) To determine historical value, the Chief, History
Staff, will consider the recommendations of the
Historical Review Panel, and of a wide range of
government, academic, and private historians.
(5)
The following records will be subject to systematic
declassification review:
(a) All permanent records held by the Agency that are
30 years old or older when reviewed, with the
exception of certain operational files designated
by the DCI under the provisions of the CIA
Information Act of 1984. Included in this review
will be files inherited from predecessor
organizations and formerly designated files that
have been removed from exempt status as a result
of the periodic review required by the CIA
Information Act of 1984.
(b) All issues of Studies in Intelligence.
(6) In addition to selecting records for systematic
declassification review, the History Staff will locate
and collect for HRG declassification review National
Intelligence Estimates on the former Soviet Union that
are ten years old or older when reviewed, and with the
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DCI's approval, records (including operational files
excluded from systematic review) on selected events or
topics of historical interest.
e. GUIDELINES FOR DECLASSIFICATION
(1)
Executive Order 12356 requires that information be
classified only if its disclosure reasonably could be
expected to cause damage to the national security, and
that it shall be declassified or downgraded as soon as
national security considerations permit. The Order
further states that information that no longer
requires protection in the interest of national
security shall be declassifed and released unless
withholding is otherwise authorized by applicable law.
(2) There shall be a presumption in favor of disclosure
except as provided in subparagraph (e)(4). Reviewers
conducting declassification review of information
under this Program who advocate the continued
classification of information will bear the burden of
identifying any damage its disclosure reasonably could
be expected to cause to the national security.
Information may remain classified only if the reviewer
can identify such damage and a clear connection
between disclosure and the projected damage. To show
such damage with respect to information 30 years old
or older, a reviewer must articulate how disclosure of
the information is likely to affect, in a significant
and adverse way, the US Government's current or future
ability to carry out its authorized activities.
Unless a showing of possible damage is made with
reasonable specificity, the information will be
declassified, even if the information concerns Agency
matters normally withheld from public release, such as:
(a) The fact of CIA presence in a specific country
abroad.
(b) The fact that certain covert action operations
were conducted.
(c) The existence of foreign government relationships.
(d) Agency organization, functions, names, official
titles, and salaries, and numbers of personnel
employed by the Agency.
(e) Information withheld solely on grounds of the
mosaic" effect.
(3) Factors to be considered in determining whether damage
to the national security reasonably could be expected
to be caused by disclosure include the effect of the
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passage of time on the sensitivity of the information,
any prior disclosures of the information, the link
between disclosure and possible harm, and past
experience with respect to disclosures of similar
information.
(4) Under EO 12356 the unauthorized disclosure of foreign
government information, the identity of a confidential
foreign source, or intelligence sources or methods is
presumed to cause damage to the national security.
Such information, however, shall not be automatically
withheld under this Program.
(5) In accordance with the third agency rule, the
Historical Review Group will coordinate its review
decisions as necessary with other US Government
agencies before taking final declassification action
and arranging to transfer records to the National
Archives.
(6) A significant consideration in reviewing information
for declassification under this Program will be the
extent to which the information is already available
to the public. Information that CIA has officially
acknowledged (including inadvertent disclosures) will
not be eligible for continued classification. There
is a presumption that information that has appeared
publicly, including information that the CIA
Publications Review Board has approved for publication
even if not confirmed officially, will not damage the
national security unless the reviewer can show how
official confirmation could reasonably be expected to
cause additional damage to the national security.
(7) The Historical Review Group will determine whether the
information under review warrants continued
protection, even if declassified, pursuant to
statutory or other requirements. Such information
(e.g. privacy data and information protected by
executive privilege) will be released, except when
prohibited by law, unless there is a showing that US
interests will be adversely affected by the
disclosure.
(8) In no case will information be kept classified in
order to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or
administrative error; to prevent embarrassment to a
person, organization, or agency; or to prevent or
delay the release of information that does not require
protection in the interest of national security.
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PROCEDURES
(1) Individual documents will be released in full,
withheld in full, or released in part. When a
document cannot be released in full, an effort to
sanitize the document by deleting those portions that
may not be declassified, or that may not be made
public for other lawful reasons, will be undertaken.
This procedure will be followed only when it will not
slow the pace of the review unduly, will not obscure
the record's essential significance, and will not
distort the document's bibliographical identity, even
if details of internal dissemination are excised.
Documents that cannot be sanitized according to these
criteria will be withheld in full.
(2) The Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence,
will review the determinations proposed by the
Historical Review Group, and if approved, make them
available to the deputy directors, heads of
independent offices, or their designees, whose
components originated or have a substantial interest
in the records. The responsible official will have
30 working days from the date of receipt of such
records in which to appeal in writing to the Director,
Center for the Study of Intelligence, any decision to
declassify and release information.
(3) If the appeal is denied, the responsible deputy
director or head of independent office will have
10 working days from the receipt of the decision of
the Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence, to
appeal that decision in writing to the Director of
Central Intelligence, whose decision will be final.
(4) The Historical Review Group will maintain a record of
all final determinations.
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(5) At the time of review, HRG will identify Agency
records that cannot be declassified. The HRG will
again review such records for declassification at a
date not more than 10 years later specified by the
Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence. That
date will be marked on the document.
(6) This Regulation is intended to provide direction and
guidance for those engaged in declassification review
of records under the CIA Historical Review Program.
Nothing contained in this Regulation or in any
procedures promulgated to implement this Regulation
intended to confer, and does not confer, any
substantive or procedural right or privilege on any
person or organization.
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