A BLACK MARK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040009-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 24, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Front Ed;t oCner
Pace Pago Page
Saimitilaed - ni readad For Rel se . ~ ~p - '9F~'b( 0~@0
CPYRGHT
that Mr. Otepka's decline began then.
UP 2 4 195L - ,_ His safe was cracked by State Depart-
5-273, 709 Mr. Otepka's telephone was bugged.
U-126,688 committee with classified information.
CPYRGHT
who supported him were transferred to ':
meaningless jobs, and two of these
later were fired. (The two a p p e a l e d , 5
were reinstated, and promptly resigned.)
Two officials perjured themselves in an
attempt to cover up evidence about the
telephone tapping.
Mr. Otepka was suspended formally
In September, 1963, and was fired in
November. He immediately appealed,
but hearings on the appeal were post-
poned six times. The hearing finally was
held last spring - four years to the
again in Washington. Lawyers' briefs in
the appeal of -the fired State Depart-
ment security officer will be filed Sep-
tember 29. Thereafter a hearing officer
will recommend to Secretary of State
Rusk either that Mr. Otepka be rein-
stated or that his dismissal be upheld.
Because it has dragged on for so
long, and because of what it reveals
about the hidden inner workings of the
State Department, the Otepka case de-
serves recapitulation.
It probably begat} in 1955, when Mr.
Otepka, then chief of the Evaluations
Division of the Stag Department's Se-
curity Branch, was asked to evaluate the
record of a prominent figure - as yet
unidentified - who was being consid-
ered for appointment to a sensitive post
in the Government.
Mr. Jpka produced evidence from
secret CIA files showing that the man
in question had been denied a position
on a Cold War strategy board .because
of "reservations" about him as a "se-
curity liability."
The man was passed over for the
appointment.
. Twice more in five years the same
name came up, and both times Mr. Otcp-
ka produced the same evaluation.
In 1961, under a new Administration,
Mr. Otepka's reservations a b o u t this
person were overruled. Observers who
have follgwed the case closely believe
assignment,
Mr. Otepka was removed from his jo
and put to shuffling papers? in anothe
alle
'subcommittee was investigating ga
tioni ' 'Mx security procedures in the
State Department. -
The subcommittee counsel called o
Mr. Otepka, who.produced records o
his findings and recommendations i
several cases, including one in which h
had b a llc_ e d at granting "emergency'
clearances for 10 persons recommends
for appointment to a State Departmen
advisory committee.
Shortly thereafter onJune 27 1963
month from the time hewas first re-
moved from active service as a security
officer.
The Internal Security subcommittee
hearings, which produced a transcript of
1,500,000 words, revealed indications of 1
a systematic State Department purge of i
"hard" anti-Communist employes, of
whom Otto Otepka was one of the most
prominent.
The hearings revealed indications of
Executive pressure to provide security }
clearances for some questionable risks,
including William Wieland of Castro
fame.
They also revealed a picture of Otto
Otcpka as a stubborn, conscientious civil
servant who insisted on doing his job
in the face of subtle pressures designed
to lower the security bars to sensitive,
high-level positions. (It was revealed aft-
er Mr. Otepka was fired that 63 State
Department employes, including three
senior officers in the Foreign Service,
had resigned in 1963 after being con-
were security.iiabilities.)
The irony of_ the case' is that the
State Department persecutors of Otto
'Otepka will have won, no matter how it
comes out. Even if Mr. Otepka is rein-
stated, which doesn't appear likely, his
career is ruined. Any successor in his
office will remember vividly how consci-
entious work is rewarded, and can be
expected to trim his sails accordingly.
The affair will leave a black mark
forever on the record of the State De-
partment. In the minds of many Ameri-?
cans, it will cast doubt as to whether
he conduct of their country's foreign
I f f a I r s Is in completely trustworthy
lands.
Sanitized - Approved For Relelase : CIA-RDP75-00149R0006000140009-6