RUNNING SECRECY INTO THE GROUND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200600018-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 1999
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: September 2, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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running Secrecy
Into the Ground
Despite periodic demands that it be
made more accountable to the govern-
ment it was established to serve, the
Central Intelligence Agency continues to
operate on the asumption`tTiatit?is-a law
unto itself.
The latest manifestation of this un-
democratic arrogance is the CIA's suc-
cessful 11th-hour attempt to block Sen-
ate debate this week on the so-called
"right to privacy" bill, which was filed
last year by Democratic Senator Sam J.
Ervin of North Carolina and 54 co-
sponsors.
This bill had its origin in a flood of
complaints from federal job applicants
.who found themselves subjected to lie
detector tests in which they were grilled
about their religious beliefs, sex habits,
and anything else that the questioners
thought might affect their reliability
The bill would. limit federal agencies
from asking questions unrelated to the
job applicants' prospective duties except
yyiae~1 cases where it could be
rd`? cessary to protect the national
security.
Twice in the past two years the, CIA
has been asked to testify at public
hearings on this legislation. Both times
it declined to do so. But on Monday of
this week, only hours before the bill was
to come up for debate, the CIA asked
that it be removed from the Senate cal-
Although such a request from a feder-
al agency is wholly without precedent,
Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield
postponed the scheduled debate. Now
the CIA is demanding a secret Judiciary
Committee hearing - a demand which
the committee is apparently, and wisely,
disinclined to grant.
In effect, what the CIA (supported by
the National Security Agency, its Pen-
tagon counterpart) is saying is that its
hiring practices are its own business and
nobody else's, not even, the Senate's.
Further, it is saying .that it isn't even
obliged to state publicly its reasons for
demanding this right to freedom from
legislative control. "They want," said
Senator Ervin yesterday, "the unmiti.
gated right to kick federal employes
around, deny them respect for individual
privacy, and deny them the basic rights
which belong to every American regard-_
less of the mission of his agency."
Obviously an intelligence agency has
to conduct many of its operations in se-
crecy. But this doesn't give it the right
to total immunity from outside supervi-
sion. The Senate, which is extremely jeal
ous of its.own prerogatives in most mat-
ters, should refuse to knuckle under to
the CIA in this one.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200600018-8