WATCH ON THE MEDIA
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP80-01601R000100250001-6
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
26
Document Creation Date:
December 12, 2016
Document Release Date:
December 1, 2000
Sequence Number:
1
Case Number:
Publication Date:
December 18, 1972
Content Type:
NSPR
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Body:
IVES
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 talREbl (-01601R000
Va cch on the I
I ed*a.
By Herbert Mitgang Reputable historians trying to un-
earth facts often encounter Catch-22
More than five years after the Free- conditions. The Authors League of
dom of Information Act became America and its mernbershaveresisted
Federal law, it is still difficult for those bureaucrats offering "coopera-
journalists, historians and researchers tion" on condition that manuscripts
to obtain information freely. The idea be checked and approved before book
behind the law was to take t e rubber publication. The Department of Hous-
stanip marked "Confidential" out of in; and Urban Development has
the hands of bureaucrats and open up denied requests for information about
public records, opinions and policies slum housing appraisals. The Depart-
of Federal agencies to public scrutiny, went of Agriculture turned down the
It hasn't worked that way. consumer-oriented Center for the
When President Johnson signed the Study of Responsive Law in Washing-
bill, he declared that it struck a proper toil when it asked for research matc-
balance between Government con- rials about pesticide safety.
fidentiality and the people's right to The unprecedented attempt by the
know. In actual practice, it has taken Administration to block publication
court "actions to gain access to Gov- of the Pentagon Papers, a historical
crnment records. An effort is finally study of the Vietnam war, took place
being made to declassify the tons of despite the Freedom of Information
documents by the Interagency Classic Act, not to mention the First Amend-
fication Review Committee, under the meat. And the Justice Department is
chairmanship of former Ambassador
1 still diverting its "war on crime"
John Eisenhower. This historical sur- ?, energies to the hot pursuit of scholars
vey will take years. who had the temerity to share their
But more than mere documents knowledge of the real war with the
are involved. There is a matter of the public. Such Government activities
negative tone in Washington. not only defy the intent of the Free-
The White House and its large corn- dom of Information Act; they serve
munications staff have lengthened the as warnincs to journalists, professors,
. Long before there was a Freedom
of InfOrniation Act, Henry David
Thoreau was jailed for speaking out
and defying the Goverhmcnt's role in
the Mexican war, last century's Viet-
nam. "A very few men serve the State
with their consciences," he wrote,
"and they are commonly treated as
enemies by it," Grand juries, sub-
poenas and even Government jailers
will he unable to overpower today's
men of conscience.
Herbert Mitgang is a member of the
editorial board of The Times.
distance between executive branch, librarians and others whose fortunes
Congress and the public. Of course, fall within the line of vision -
every Administration has instinctively budgetary, perhaps punitive- of the.'
applied cosmetics to its public face, Federal Government.
but this is the first one operating for T'he executive branch's battery of
a full term under the mandate of the media watchmen are busiest with
suit is cif Information Act. The re- broadcasting because of its franchises
sult is -that official information -- and large audiences. At least one
Administration's iitrationit's robes appears to brush unfavorably -the-- White House aide, eyes glued to the
Admi
is not communicated but excommuni- news programs on the commercial
eaten]. networks. grades reporters as for or
The other day Senator Symington against the President. In one case that
of Missouri, a former Air Force Secre- sent a chill through network news-
tary who has been questioning the rooms, a correspondent received a
wisdom of the President's 13.52 foreign personal communication from a highly
policy in Southeast Asia, said: "I would placed Administration official ques-
hope that during this session of Con- tioning his patriotism after lie had
gress everything possible is done to reported from North Vietnam. Good
eliminate unnecessary secrecy especi- news (meaning good. for the Ad-
ally as in most cases this practice has ministration) gets a call or a letter of
notlihig to do with the security of the praise.
United States and, in fact, actually The major pressure on the commer-
operates against that security." cial and public stations originates from
This point was underscored before the White House Office of Telecom-
the house Subcommittee on i recdom munications Policy, whose director
of Information by Rear Adm. Gene R. has made it clear that controversial
La Rocque, a former Mediterranean subjects in the great documentary
fleet commander who since retiring tradition should be avoided. The same
has headed the independent Center for viewpoint has been echoed by the
Defense Information. Admiral La President's new ]lead of the Corpora-
Rocque said that Pentagon classifica- tion for Public 'Broadcasting, which
tion was designed to keep facts from finances major programs on educa-
civilians in the State and Defense tional stations. This Government cor-
Departments and that sonic Congress- poration is now engaged in a battle
men were considered "bad security to downgrade the Public Broadcasting
risks" because they shared informa- Service, its creative and interconnect-
tion witlAO-Or d For Release 20 hb`4dy ~eS 4~'is4il 8icr0o1u6~Or1 ( 0010.0250001-6
V SHTNGTON p?V1ATINTL
Approved For Release 2001 /07/2: rRl5 -01601R000
t
i
c
However, the CIA refused to
say what additional informa-
tion was needed and a follow-
-,A presidential order aimed' up request, couched in more
at',.prying the secrecy wraps specific terms, was turned
from old government papers' down.
has produced only a trickle of The AP has appealed the
new public information since CIA's rejection to an Inter-
it took effect five months ago. - agency Classification Review
The.White House edict will Committee set up under Nix-
show greater impact later on, on's order.
officials say, as declassifiers
delve into a mountain of aging Study on-Access
documents, and controls crimp A June 1 request to the De-1
the flood of new secret writ- Tense Department for some
logs. Korean war docum.cnt.s pro-
. But an effort by The Asso- duced a July 11 response that
ciated press to dislodge some the material was not in the
documents under one portion files of the assistant secretary
of the order has met with vir-1 for international security af-
tually no success so far. Other fairs and an Aug. 8 response
inquirers have had similar ex- i that a search for it would re-
periences. quire "an unreasonable,
Under President Nixon's amount of effort."
June 1 directive, any paper After a newsman noted that
more than 10 years old is sup- Eisenhower referred to the
posed to be made' available to material in his memoirs as
amember.of the public if he coming from the Joint Chiefs
"asks for it unless a review by of Staff, the Pentagon search-
officials finds it should be kept ers said they would look some
secret.- more.
The order calls also for au-'I A book-length report on
tomatie declassification for all scholars' access to documents-
documents when they become j covered by the June 1. execu-
30 years old, unless specifi- give order says the new review
cally exempted by a depart- ( procedures "will not be of
srient head in writing, and it l much assistance to the
pares sharply the number of
officials allowed -to impose se-
crecy stamps.
Of eight requests made by
scholar."
The study, published by the
nonprofit Twentieth Century
Fund, notes that the 1966
the AP since June 1 under the Freedom of Information Act
10-year proviso, seven have yet' ? already allows citizens to ask
to produce any once-secret ma- for. declassification of docu-
terial. } ments, of whatever age, with
CIA Refused appeal possible in court.
The lone exception was a re- The June 1 order, which
quest for a National Security! covers, only documents that
Council document from the I are at least 10 years old, pro-
Kennedy administration.
Nearly two months after the
request was submitted, the
NSC noted that it had already
been declassified.
All. other AP queries have
proven fruitless to date, in-
cluding a request for the rec-
ord of NSC recommendations
made to former President
? Dwight D. Eisenhower during
the 1958 Lebanon crisis.
. David Young, an NSC aide
supervising the declassifica-
tion program for the adminis-
tration, has acknowledged that
the request for the 1958 pa-
pers falls within the guidelines
of Mr. Nixon's order. But the
papers have yet to be made
available.
The CIA res onded to a
Thus, ; early signs are that
the June 1 executive' order
Will not prove of much imme-
diate help to scholars or news-
men searching for secret pa-
l
ess
pers tucked away in count
government files. !index System -h, hope-
prospects. are much bright- ;fully, will star! .gig; up-to-1
er, however, for creation of date accounting - the secret}
an internal-control system paper flow in 1973.
stemming the flood of new se-?j The end of the line for most
;cret writings and for yanking! old government papers, and
-away the secrecy of govern-' counting duplicate copies and
ment documents by the time minor items which aare de-
they are 30 years old. stroyed, is the national Ar-
:? No one knows exactly how chives.
many government documents - Remove Secrecy
are under lock and key, hid- And here, say the archivists,.
den from public view by secu- the outlook is bright for even-
rit.y classifications ranging tually putting nearly all once-
from "confidential" to "top se- secret documents into the pub-
cret." - lie domain..
But by conservative esti-
mate, there are more than a
billion pages of such material.
That's enough paper to circle
the earth -a half-dozen times if
placed-end to end along the
equator. -
NSC Directive
..And, with the help of mod-
ern photocopying gear, federal
officials were spewing an esti-
mated 200,000 pages of newly
classified documents into their
files daily as of June 1.
All that secrecy is expen-
sive.
A General Accounting Office
study covering just four agen-
cies-the State Department,
Defense Department, NASA
and the Atomic Energy
Commission-rated their an-
nual outlay for administering
the security-classification sys-
item at $60 million.
Since June 1, the 'White
House says, the number of
persons authorized to wield se-
crecy stamps has been slashed
I49 per cent or from 32,586 to
16,238. Those figures do not in-
clude the Central Intelligence
Agency, which keeps the num-
ber of its classifiers secret.
By NSC directive, each
agency is supposed to report
by July 1,1973, all major clas-
sified documents on file after
the end of this year, giving
their subject headings and
when they should become
available to the public.
This information is to be fed
},into a . computerized Data
query ilbppinoe-necliFsoirRtilmase 04YOT4' I~th 016018000100250001-6
&f P~
the n?a.,. been more 3eh a hum r o.
guest was not specific enough, stages of processing.
vides for appeal within the ex-
ecutive branch, where the se-
crecy label was applied in the
first place.
The directive requires also
that the request he specific'
enough that a government
search can locate the docu-
ment "with only a reasonable
amount of effort."
Countless Files
However, only insiders
know just what secret docu-
menu exist. An outsider can
guess,- but . serious - scholars
usually prefer to have access
to an entire file to make sure
they don't miss something im-
portant. -
Just how many requests
have .been made under the
STATINTL
REIK" OR" ;TIM'E'S
Approved For Release 2001/07/27-: ff81601R0001
erit
b
s
Congressmen asau u risks" because of a tendency
to "tell all to the public,"
Other former high Govern-
A ment to' Classified officials acknowledged
the existence among some
ucrats of the extreme
b
urea
view that "public business is no
G Bureaucratic Obstacles and High Costs business of the public.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21- wraps and by whom." A house properly belongs to the gunny Staff, Pentagon searchers said
President Nixon's pledge "to watchdog committee has is systematically withheld 1) ' they would Fo on looking.
lift the veil of secrecy" from) Tharrged that ar, vas p wide t to become ignorant hof t.hrir o~anl Before its rejection of the re-
--I ,Before
by The Times, the State
reattcratic, confusion timidity Figures compiled by the -incapable of e err y reviewing the material could be;
and prohibitive costs, in the White House staff suggest that their own destinies. 1"as much as $7,000 or meree;
opinion of historians, other results under the new order- Despite this endorsement of
scholars and newsmen. the first "reform" since 1953 a better-informed public, the 'but that this was not to be
have not been too bad. Of language of the President's or- taken as an estimate of any
Five months after the Presi- ,
177 requests made to validity and none could be at
dent's order on June 1, direct- various der makes access to classified
agencies in the five months information more difficult ra- tempted.
ing a freer flow of information through October, 83 were grant- ther than the reverse. In any case, The TWas
state in
to the public from secret and ed in full and four in part; 52. The order provides that, after told it would have Times
confidential papers more than were denied in full and 38 are 10 years, secret material on na- writing in advance that it would
10 years old, the output isistill pending, the White House tional security and foreign pal- assume whatever cost was as-
still isy rust be reviewed for de signet to producing the Ina_
The no more than a tment.IThe breakdown, however, classification on 'request, pro tonal, even thcwgit the review
More requests for documerts1dres not take into account that vided that the information is process determined that it could'
have been denied or labeled some of the information grante described "with sufficient par- pet ss dermieded and re
"pending" than have beenlwas not re;;-)onsive to a re- ticularity that it can be ob- leased.
granted, quest. One of the features of the tainccl with only a reasonable Pending the outcome of a
Those seeking access to the quesystem is that the person re- amount of effort." writ.t.en lirotest to David Xoanr>
,,documents are searrltng for in iquestinp declassification must Drawback Cited heat of declassification opera-
new light 'that might thro+s i Free in advance to buy the The drawback in this require. head at the White House, The
new light on the -origins of therm aterial. He must agree in ad- !went, those who have made the, Times an June 21 withdrew its]
United States in etn ment inlvance to pay the cost of to effrt say, is that only the of
the Cuban Ba requests to the State Denart-
the I{ocean and Vietnam wars,;eating, identifying and review- off o say, what is in the' moot and four other Federal ficials y of i'i0hsinvasioning the mater?ia] even though classified files and how it is agencies.
the nation's and for- it ma not answer his question. In a letter to Mr. Young, Max
military relating t for- ? may identified. Outsiders can guess
and nation's matters
Balked by Officials
eign policies. at what is there and provide FSrankel, the Washington come-
es said that
In an Cln inter-view nterview on results Officials' attitudes, as much approximate dates. But to start poQn ent will of not The Times saa id that
f , chairman the Presidential edict, Prof., as the rules permitting contin- the process the outsider must
agree in writin, poke, nor should the Govern
Lloyd C. Gent an ofiucd classification, hinder ac- g to a sumo any me ot aus t lay research
d ardiner
the history department at Rut-Coss to old papers on efe e costs entailed in identification rattlett ask
even if we aesar h
Secs University, said that "foriand foreign policy, it has been and location of the material and edged some responsibilkn f l-
circu ection, subterfuge and charged. Some of these offi- security review. edged the conibed."
circumlocution there has been een d coals relate prestige and the im The average citizen and most r? Frankel costs chief complaint
is mis-1
nothing like this portance of their jobs to the
-pert performance since the old-fash- vollume of secret information news media consider this cost was that "the bureaucrats co
comin , across their desks, ac- prohibitive. understand virtually every issue;
been shell game. 1' involved in this whole proceed-'
' cording to testimony before the The Washington bureau of
Professor Gardner, who has, ~ ing." lie said, "We have, first,
been trying g for nearly 10epartment payears - House Subcommittee on Free-The New York Times, within a
to obtain the admission (and in the cae:
dc?m of Information. men papers, week of the effective date of
pers on the origins of the 1{o- Rear Adm. Gene R. La the President's order, submitted of demon the s Pentagon that - the
vast
rean war, has also been a lead- Rocque, who retired from the 31 foreign policy questions to amounts of information have
ing critic before Congressional Navy after `31 years and who the State Department and re been either misclassitied or.
committees of efforts to devise received the Legion of plan for quested declassification of the been e held classified for took
a secrecy classification Sys,- his work on strategic ia planning material presumably containing long."
tern by Executive order. for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the answers. All together, 55 gMr. ." Frankel, who is also chief
Id th house panel that t t five Federal 1 f
to e requests wen o of the Washmgton bureau o
Future Effect Seen Pr.ntng(n rls?sification was or- .~r.;oc ... _ ";.I 11-f- thr. nh-
out the President's order say i tether than the legitimate one of Department responded that "we
will have a greater effect inl preventing information from, have concluded that your re-
years to conic as more paper's' falling, into the hands of a po quest does not describe the
are brought under review and tential enemy. records you seek with sufficient
new restrictions inhibit the use He listed among the other particularity to enable the de-
of secrecy labels. reasons: "To keep it from the nartment to identify therm and
ever, the brightest prospect is civilians in their own service; be obtained with 'a reasonable other. In short, if the Govern
that Cpr~ c~ ~yXj~ *10 g~n,,t}o,,~g t> rQsfj@ ~1; j meat means what it says and
to secfc'C'1,~iFrjC"acMr>Y.p~n't'MvjrhF'f~6n~relY Sbt ctrl took elaborate cr
edit for so say-
rninistrat.ive orders and spell(Denartment and, of course. : ted eight requests on June 1?' _- ._.r__
out in legislation what material;from the Congress." He said; Seven have yet to be ansv.ered
ran heut. under securitv!that many officers regardedl,,,ith a vp, or no.
On the other hand, one of the
Are. Impeding. Efforts. to. Obtain most eloquent statements of the
public's "right to know" was
given by President Nixon in;
Older Government Documents
promulgating the June 1 order.
"Fundamental to our way o
life," he said, "is the belief
Reference in memoirs.
by The Associated Prdss was,
one to the Defense Department!
?1
K
o
l on the
for certain materia rean war. The Pentagon replied
.on July 11 that the material
was not in the files of the As-
sistant Secretary. for Interna-
tional Security Affairs. Another
reply on Aug. 8 said that the
material could not be located
"with a reasonable amount of
effort."
When. it was pointed out that
the material had been referred
to in the memoirs of former
vious intent of the President's
order had been t.o correct both
categories of error and said:
"If the Government intends
to honor the intent and the
sprit of the President's order,
the it should facilitate access,
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP80-01601R0001002500
YPSILANTI, MICH.
PRESS
SEP 13 1972;
16,317
11~ SeCreCy gane
r ;Secrecy in government, either to
protect bureaucratic bumbli.ig or for
legitimate protection of vital national
defense and foreign policy documents,
is an issue that will not go away. The
balance between an informed public
and government censorship is not easy
to strike.
One of the latest proposals comes
from Rep. William S. Moorhead, Pen-
nsylvania Democrat, who introduced
legislation intended to give "top se-
cret" documents only three years to
live outside of public scrutiny. lie
claims that President Nixon's directive
revamping the security system is
"unworkable, unmanageable and filled
' ivih technical defeats' and massive
loopholes." The bill would create a
nine-member independent. regulatory
body and give it extensive power over
the security classifying system of the
executive branch. Top-secret stamps
would go only to top officials in the
White House, State Department, Pen-
tagon, Cenrral Intelligence A; cncy and
Atomic 1 nergy Commission.*
The only exemption would be pro-
vided for highly sensitive national de-
fense data, such as codes and in-
telligence sources. They could be hid-
den only when invoked by a president
or top official, and even this would
need approval of the new commission.
As with all good endeavors in this
field, there is no reason to believe that
it-will be much more successful than
previous attempts. The first obstacle
is the imperfectability of human judg-
ment. What should be secret to one
may not even be classified as
restricted by another. The temptation
to hide one's errors of omission or
commission is well-nigh irresistible.
Once set in motion, a classification
system seems to,develop a life of its
i-?.own. -Any attempt to reclassify the 85
million or more documents in the
Pentagon, for instance, would require
a substantial army of intelligen. men
of mature judgment, working in shifts
around the clock for many, many years.
The best hope of these reform efforts
is that it will make officials hesitate
to classify indiscriminately. The final
holie is that good common sense will
be applied to the issue of security
classification, rather than the whims
of vain, egotistical men of little minds.
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP80-01601 R00010025.0001-6
Approved For Release 2001/07/* s AF P8G- 1601 R000
A on S'ch-h ar s' Accoss to government 1)
By Cara!'M. Barker and Matthew I-..l. Fox
The Twentieth Century Fund/New York/1972
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP80-01601 R000100250001-6
OOnt il,lizn
Approved FoJ- Release 2001/07/27 N&ACP80-01601 R0001 00250001-6
for a hearing, and any person whose in- to the DI??^ntor, Central Intelligence
terest may be affected by the issuance of Agency, W: .lington, D.C. 20505.
this license amendment may file a pets- 3. Procedures for request of records.
tion for leave to intervene. A request for (a) Requests for access to records of the
a hearing and petitions to intervene shall Central Intelligence Agency may be filed
be filed in accordance with the provisions by mail addressed to the Assistant to
of the Commission's rules of practice, the Director, Central intelligence Agency,
10 CFR Part 2. If a request for a hearing Washington, D.C: 20505.
or a petition for leave to intervene is (, (b) Requests need not be made on any
filed within the time prescribed in this ,special form but may be by letter or other
notice, a notice of hearing or an appro- written statement setting forth the per-
priate order will be issued. tinent facts with enough specificity that
For further details with respect to this the requested record can be identified.
Issuance, see the application dated July -(c) If the request does not sufficiently
12, 1967, which is available for pub- Identify the record, the Assistant to the
lie inspection at the Commission's Pub- Director shall so inform the requestor
lic Document Room, 1717 H Street NW., 'vho may then resubmit his request to-
Washington, D.C. gether with any additional Information
toidenify
illhel
h
hi
p
c
w
Dated at Bethesda, Md.,.this 13th day w
of July, 1967. When the requested d record has
been identified the Agency will determine
For the Atomic Energy Commission.
PETER A. MORRIS,
Director,
whether it is exempt from public inspec-
?tion under the provisions of 5 U.S.C.
552(b).'If it is exempt, the Assistant to
the Director shall deny the request.
(e) If the Agency determines that the
ILicense No. DPR-14; Arndt. 11 requested record is not subject to exemp-
The Atomic Energy Commission having tion, the Assistant to the Director will
found that: Inform the requester as to the appropri-
a. The application for license amendment ate reproduction fee and upon receipt of
dated July 12. 1967, complies with the re- this fee, will have the record reproduced
quirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and sent to the requestor. Fees paid in
as amended. and the Commission's regula- accordance with this paragraph will be
tions set forth in Title 10, Chapter 1, CFR; ' naiA by nhPnk or nnstn1 money order for-
not be inimical to the common defense and
security or to the health and safety of the
public; and
c. Prior public notice of proposed issuance
of this amendment is not required since the
amendment does not Involve significant haz-
ards considerations different from those pre-
vlously evaluated.
b
i
h
warded to the Assistant to the Director
and made payable to the Treasurer of
the United States.
4. Appeals. Any person aggrieved by
any determination made or action taken
pursuant to the foregoing provisions of
this notice may request the Executive
Director of the Agency to review that
Central Intelligence Agency.
[P.R. Doe. 67-0440; Filed, July 20, 1967;
8:45 a.m.]
e
Facility License No. "PR-14
ere y 'determination or action. No specific form
amended by restating subparagraph 2.B., in
Its entirety, to read as follows: , Is prescribed for this purpose and a letter
"2.0. To receive, possess, and use at any or other written statement setting forth
one time 6,550 kilograms of contained ura- pertinent facts shall be sufficient. The
nium-235 In connection with operation of Executive Director reserves the right to
the facility pursuant to the Act and Title 10 require the person involved to present
CFR, Part 70, 'Special Nuclear Material." additional information in support of his
This amendment Is effective as of the date'
of Issuance. for review. The Executive Diree-,
.
h
Date of Issuance: July 13, 1907.
For the Atomic Energy Commission.
re-
for will :promptly consider each suc
quest and notify the person' involved of
his decision.
PLTza A. MDireonni c or, 5. Effective date. This notice shall be-
Division of Reactor Licensing, come effective upon its publication in the
Doc. 67-8445; Filed, July 20, 1907; FEDERAL REGISTER.
y L. K. WHITE,
8:45 a.m.1 Executive Director,
CENTRAL INTELLIGE CE AGENCY
-ruBr ACCESS TO RECORDS
Procedures
1. Purpose. Pursuant to the require-
ments of the Public Information Section
of -the Administrative Procedure Act (5
U.S.C. 552), the following are established
as the rules of procedure with respect to
public access to the records of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.
2. Organization and requests for in-
formation. The headquarters of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency is located in
Fairfax County, Va. Requests for Infor-
mation and decisions and other sub-
mittals may be addressed to the Assistant
` CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD
J
[Docket No. 174301
ALLEGHENY AIRLINES ROUTE 97
INVESTIGATION
Notice of Hearing
Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the
provisions of the Federal Aviation Act
of 1958, as amended, that a hearing in
the above-entitled proceeding will be
held on August 15, 1967, at 10 a.m.,
e.d.s.t., In Room 726, Universal Building,
1825 Connecticut Avenue NW? Wash-
10759
ington, D.C., before the undersigned
examiner.
For information concerning the issues
involved and other details in this pro-
ceeding, interested persons are referred
to the prehearing conference report
served on May 8, 1967, and other docu-
ments which are in the docket of this
proceeding on file in the Docket Section
of the Civil Aeronautics Board.
Dated at Washington; D.C., July 14,
1967.
[SEAL]
MILTON H. SHAPIRO,
Hearing Examiner.
67-8471; Filed, July 20, 1967;
8:47 a.m.I
[Docket No. 166951
ALM DUTCH ANTILLEAN AIRLINES
Notice of Postponement of Hearing
Notice Is given herewith, pursuant to
the provisions of the Federal Aviation
Act of 1958, as amended, that public
hearing In the above-entitled proceeding
heretofore assigned to be held on July 26,
1967, is hereby postponed' and Is now
assigned to be held on August 9, 1967,
at 10 a.m., e.d.s.t., in Room 726, Universal
Building, 1825 Connecticut Avenue NW.,
Washington, D.C.
Dated at Washington, D.C., July 18,
1967.
(SEAL]
RICHARD A. WALSH,
Hearing Examiner.
67-8472; Filed, July 20, 1967;
8:47 a.m.I
[Docket No. 19655; Order No. E-254231
EASTERN AIR LINES, INC., ET AL.
Order Regarding Reservations Prac-
tices and Procedures in East Coast-
Florida Market
Adopted by the Civil Aeronautics
Board at its office In Washington, D.C.
on the 17th day of July, 1967.
Agreement adopted by Eastern Air
Lines, Inc., National Airlines, Inc., and
Northeast Airlines, Inc., relating to reser-
vations practices and procedures in the
East Coast-Florida Market, Docket 18554,
Agreement C.A.B. 19655, as amended.
An agreement has been filed with the
Board pursuant to section 412(a) of the
Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (the Act)
'and Part 261 of the Board's Economic
Regulations, between Eastern Air Lines,
Inc., National Airlines, Inc., and North-
east Airlines, Inc., which establishes
ticketing time limits in certain East
Coast Markets' in an effort to alleviate
reservation problems during peak holi-
day periods'
'Between Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Key
West, Miami, Sarasota/Bradenton, Tampa/
St. Petersburg, and West Palm Beach on the
one hand, and, Baltimore, Boston, Hartford/
Springfield, New Haven, New York/Newark,
Philadelphia, Providence. Washington, D.O.,
and Wilmington on the other band.
Southbound from Dec. 15, through Dec.
26, 1967, and northbound from Dec. 80, 1967
through Jan. T. 1958,
. 7
FEDERAL. REGISTER, VOL. 32,; NO:, 140=-FRIDAY* JULY: 21#- 1967
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A
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : d A Pj7 01601 R0001.0
; The Wasl>i ingtoii N~err~~. a- olr>i'
By Jack Anderson
Harlem Heroin -Rep.
Charles Rangel (D.N.Y.), wor?
ried about drug addiction in
his Harlem district, has pri o;
vately asked Central Intelli-
gence Director Richard Helms.
for 10 studies the CIA has
made on worldwide drug
routes to the U.S. When
helms declined, Range' served
notice he would invoke-the
Freedom of Information Act.
1972, united Feature Syndicate',
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'A uINcT~'i ST.m,
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WASHINGTON CLOSE-UP
Grip on Secrecy - Sta'? Still Fir
By ORR KELLY
!' The administration is now
In the midst of a thorough
overhaul of its security and
and secrecy classification
-system-and about time too.
But anyone who thins this
overhaul will result in any
significant loosening up of in-
formation about day-to-d a y
operations of the government
in a form that will useful to
the press or the public will
k,3 sadly disappointed.
Recent congressional testi-
mony explaining and support-
ing the President's new ex-
ecutive order on safeguarding
of official information clear-
ly shows that the government,
as an institution, rather than
either the press or. the public,
will be the principal benefici-
ary of the changes being
made.
* -
If the changes are carried
out and the new rides laid
down by the President are
rigorously applied, there will
be two results. One will be a
freer flow of information
within the government and
within those parts of industry
that serve the government,
particularly in the production
of military hardware. The
other will be a reduction in
-the cost of keeping secrets.
The amount of confidential,
secret or top secret material
the government and govern-
ment contractors have in
storage is almost unbelieva-
ble. It amounts to thousands,
perhaps millions, of tons of
paper-stored away in elabo-
rate file cabinets and safes
that cost an average of $460
apiece. It is hard to know
even where to begin to deal
with such a mountain of ma-
terial.
David Packard, the former
deputy defense secretary,
took one practical approach
in May of last year when he
ordered the military services
and defense agencies to start
cutting down on the amount
of material they keep classi-
fied. Ile put teeth in his order
by telling them they could not
buy any more of those expen-
sive security containers for a
year and a half.
By the end of last year,
two of the smaller defense
agencies, the office of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and the
Defense Intelligence Agency,
had managed to empty 158 of
their containers, according to
Joseph J. Liebling, deputy
assistant defense secretary
for security policy.
One defense contractor, Lie-
bling said, got rid of 90 tons
of classified material last
year and another one destroy-
ed 53 tons of the stuff in a 90-
day period, .
The Defense Department
also has been trying to cut
down the cost of keeping
things secret by reducing the
number of people who have
access to highly classified doc-
uments. It costs $5.44 for the
average investigation requir-
ed before a person receives
clearance to handle confiden-
tial material. But it costs an
average of $263.28 for the full
field investigation required
for a top secret clearance.
It is now estimated that 3.6
million persons have security
clearances. Of these, 464,550
are top secret clearances.
But, according to J. Fred
Buzhardt, the Defense De-
partment's general counsel,
that number has been cut by
31.2 percent-from a high of
697,000-since mid-1971.
*
The President's new rules,
which go into effect June 1,
will restrict the number of
people able to classify materi-
al, expand the number able to
remove classification and
speed up the automatic de-
classification process.
If, as intended, these chang-
es -promote greater govern-
mental efficiency at lower
cost, the public generally will
benefit.
But these changes, and any
conceivable changes that
might be legislated by Con-
gress, do not begin to touch
the kind of problems raised
by the Pentagon papers and
the more recent White House
minutes published by Jack
Anderson.
The fact is that, under the
old rules, the new rules or
any other rules you might
care to imagine, the execu-
tive branch of the govern-
ment will retain the power
to control the flow of infor-
mation to the public about its
internal decision-making,proc-
ess-at least until it is of in-
terest primarily to historians.
If the President and his close
advisers deliberately set out
to mislead the public-and
this reporter is not impressed
by the evidence contained in
the Pentagon and Anderson
papers that they did make
such attempts - no law on
earth is going to stop them.
Attempts to write such laws
may, in fact; be dangerous.
It is ironic and a 'little fright-
ening, for example, to find
Buzhardt, the Pentagon's top
lawyer, arguing that the
"clearest congressional ac-
knowledgement of the Presi-
dent's authority to restrict
dissemination of information"
is found in the Freedom of In-
formation Act.
Despite the administration's
efforts to ease security re-
strictions, it probably would
be well for us all to keep in
mind these words attributed
to Lord Tyrell of the British
Foreign Office:
"You think we lie to you.
But we don't lie, really we
don't. However, when you dis-
cover that, you make an even
greater error. You think we
tell you the truth."
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NEW YORK TIMES STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-2PP#Atx01;@92R0001002500-
INFORMATION ACT'
SCORED AS FUTILE
Nader Assistant Criticizes It
-Official Defends Law
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Apecl&i to The New York TYmeJ
WASHINGTON, March 14-
A lawyer with Ralph Nader's
Center for Study of Responsive
Law asserted today that the
Freedom of Information Act of
1967 "has foundered on the
rocks of bureaucratic self-in-
terest and secrecy."
Peter H. Schuck, a consultant
to the consumer advocate's law
center, told a House subcom-
mitte. that "a statute which
should have facilitated public
participation ' in the public's
works has instead. engendered
endless litigation" and has
"produced relatively little in-
formation of consequence."
However, Roger C. Cramton,
chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United
States,?an Independent Federal,
agency that monitors Govern
ment procedures, testified at';
the same hearing that "the act'
ture's civil rights record by' Mr. Cramton was less spe-
what he termed the "it's-ex- cific but more wide-ran ging in
empt -because -it's - embarrass- his testimony. He said that the
ing" approach. Under the act, record of compliance with gen-
certain categories of informa- eral principles the Administra-
tion are, exempt from disclo- five Conference had recom-
sure. mended was good. But compli-
In a third example, Mr. once with specific proposals,!
Sclfuck said another attorney he said, was "much more
from Mr. Nader's center had checkered."
asked- for information on sus- Mr. Cranrton, who was for-
pected violations of Federal mcrly a professor of law at
meat laws and had been denied the University of Michigan,
it by a "sue-us-again" tactic.. said that agency rules were
He contended that the right of 1 good about identifying offices'
access had been established by
a court ruling but that the
Department of Agriculture in-
sisted on having the issue de-
cided in court again.
Ner:arr the public Informa-
tion officer of the Agriculture
Department nor an official of
the department's office of legal
counsel had any comment. A
representative of the depart-
ment is scheduled to appear
before Mr. Moorhead's panel
later this month.
Incentives Recommended
Mr. Cshuck recommended
that the act be strengthened
by legislating "sufficient incen-'
fives for bureaucratic compli-
ance so that the act will be-
come to a significant extent
self-.enforcing." Among his sug-
where the public may go for
information and that few agen-
cies require special forms for
requesting it.
But, he said, few agencies
have rules requiring an answer
to a request within a given
time and few require that the:
reasons for a denial of infor-
mation be given. Moreover, he
said, few have rules governing
the time in which an appeal
must be taken or the time for
a response to an appeal.
is a success story in the pos-. (]Establishing a freedom of
sibility of orderly change of, information unit outside the ex-
bureaucratic organizations." isting agencies to police en-
'Problems Remain' forcement of the law.
But Mr. Cramton added 1 c3Setting specific deadlines
'.'Despite the substantial prog.- by which Government agencies
must respond to requests ress, uncertainties and prob-! information tiono-
, either affirma firmative
lems remain in abundance.i fy or negatively.
Complaints continue to abound; nAllowmg applicants for In-
of foot-draffing and unneces? formation to recover legal fees
sary red tape in making in, if a court rules that he should
formation available." be given the information. "If;
Mr. Schuck and Mr. Cramton the given
rules that the agen-
appeared before a Government cv's denial of the information
Operations subcommittee head-
was frivolous or willful, the,
ed by Representative William requester should be entitled to
S. Moorhead, Democrat of Penn- recover punitive damages from
+L... p damages
calve ni
;
ti
Li
It i
a
nves
g
ng
s
im
)
t
ti
th
p
men
a
on of
e Freedom
of INFORMATION Act, which
was intended to open up sourc-
es of Government information
to private citizens.
Mr. Schuck said he had been
denied information on a Mis-
souri meat inspection program
of the Department of Agricul-
ture by what he called the
"fob - him . - off - with -a
meaningless- summary" strata-
gem or the "delay - until . the -
information - becomes stale"
routine.
Mr. Schuck also alleged that
he had been denied information
on the Department. of Agricul-
information in the hands of
Congress and the work of Gov-
ernment consultants and con-
tractors.
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EDITOR & PUBLISHER
1 1 rvmp 1372
Court,-- Congress
assay effect of 'Top Secret' label
President Nixon has issued an Execu-
Inf orniation Act tive: Order, effective June 1, which sub-
stantially restricts authority to classify
papers "Top Secret."
The Supreme Court and a Congression- Materials may be classified "Top Se-
al committee have embarked on separate cret" only if their unauthorized disclosure
inquiries into the way the Freedom of "could reasonably be expected to cause
Information Act, passed five years ago to exceptionally grave damage to the nation's
curb excessive government secrecy and security."
enhance the free flow of information to The burden of proof is placed upon
the public, is working. those who want to preserve secrecy rather
The high court agreed for the first time than on those who want to declassify the
to hear a case involving the Act, brought documents. This is the first time such a
by 33 Congressmen, to force the White requirement has been imposed.
House to disclose reports and letters The order limits authority to use the
prepared for President Nixon relating to "Top Secret" labelto 12 departments' and
the underground nuclear explosion at agencies. Under current rules 24 agencies
Amchitka Island, Alaska. have broad classification authority. '
A. Federal District judge ruled that t e In the State, Defense and the Central
documents were exempt from the dis- Intelligence Agency, the number of of-
closure provisions of the FoI. The U.S. ficials authorized to classify material "Top
Court. of Appeals for the District of Secret" is reduced by the new Nixon order
Columbia, however, ordered the District from 5,100 to 1,860.
Judge.to inspect the documents and decide The new system provides that "Top
whether some of them could be made pub- Secret" information is to be downgraded
lie without endangering natibnal security. to "Secret" after two years. and to "Con-
In its appeal to the Supreme Court the ? fidential" after two more years and do-
Government contended that inspection by classified after 10 years.
judges would invite judicial tampering -
with.-national security and go beyond the
intention of Congress-to encourage free should be classified. Such an organization
exchange 'of ideas within and between . should be staffed by high-level government
government bureaus. I personnel.
The court's action coincided with hear- ' (2) The Freedom of Information Act
ings by a House Government Information might be amended to provide for a re-
Subcommittee into how the FoI act is quired periodic review of all classified ma-
working and whether the Executive terial, either by an independent quasi-
Branch is following the letter and the judicial board, or commission, or by a spe-
spirit of the law. Representative William cial staff of the National Security Cbur1-
S. Moorhead of Pennsylvania, chairman, cil or by a similar board or staff within
said the committee lapped to "suggest each department and agency reporting di-
make records available within 10 days af-
ter 'receipt of the request. He said this
would speed up the flow of information to
the public. . .
Kissinger identified as source
In another aspect of government secre-
cy, the Boston Globe and the Miami Her-
ald identified Dr. Henry A. Kissinger as
the "Administration spokesman" who had
discussed President Nixon's recent talks
with China leaders at a "background"
meeting of newsmen who had been on the
trip.
John S. Knight, editorial chairman of
Knight Newspapers, reported that the
White House had asked why the Miami
Herald's reporter did not abide "by the
rules."
"Well, what rules? Whose rules?"
Knight wrote in his Editor's Notebook.
"Unfortunately, many Washington cor-
respondents who regard themselves as
`statesmen' let themselves be used and
fall for the `background' con game while
forgetting they are supposed to be report-
ers.
"It's a shoddy practice which more of-
'ten than not actually 'embarasses the very
officials attempting to serve their own
ends.
"And that is what I told the Biscayne
White House." '
The. Boston Globe said its reporter had
not been invited to the Kissinger session
and "therefore is free to identify the
source of the material."
The edited transcript of Kissinger's
briefing contained sections marked "off the
record" and "on the record,''-' and this led
to some confusion among the reporters.
P
legislative solutions to any shortcomings r?ectly to the Cabinet' officer or Agency STATINTL
we uncover." head. ?
James C. Hagerty, press secretary to "Such a board or staff would be author-
President Eisenhower, testified that a sys- ized to determine periodically, whether
tem of classification of documents is es- existing documents, or portions of them
sential to the operation of any govern- that do not endanger national security,
ment but that government procedures should be removed from classified list-
should be reviewed periodically to bring ings," Hagerty said. "It would be a gi-
them into line with changing times and gantic-and awesome-job at first, and it
conditions. would take a long time to go through the
George Reedy, press secretary to Pres- present classified documents, but if it
ident Johnson, said Congress should look could .be started it would have the result
into the proliferation of executive privi- of eliminating some of the problems relat-
lege operations in the White House, which ing to government information."
he said made it "literally impossible to get Hagerty, who is a vicepresident of
at the facts." American Broadcasting Co., remarked
Morehead said he deplored the fact that about the frustrations of trying to release
Herbert G. Klein, the .Nixon Administra- over-classified information when he was in
tion's director of communications, had de- . the White House. Sometimes, he said,
clined to testify on the ground that the documents for release at a news confer-
President's immediate staff do not appear ence would arrive "literally covered with
before Congressional committees. . classified stamps, including the highest
secrecy ratings."
Changes suggested "I would actually Kaye to take these
Hagerty called ? the existing classifica- papers to the President and have him
tion system an antiquated one, dating declassify them on the spot. And the only
from World War I, and often subjected to _ thing that was top secret about that was
abuse. He made the following recommen- what he would say when he had-to go
dations concerning changes: through such nonsense."
(1) EachApnowed Ribr Reie >X001/OGY ':d DP841661 0 t 250001-6
should have a, classification clearing house University's Law Center's Institute or
which would have sole authority to deter- Public Interest Representation, suggested
mine whether an of its papers or actions that the Act should be amended to require
.Nixon order limits
t:'... W YORK '`NM ES
Approved For Release 2001/07/2t AAR64-01601R0001002
Nixon' s Order Held "Res trietive'-
By House Information Specialist
But Moorhead, Subcommittee
Nead, Praises President's
Statement on Secrecy
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Speolal to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 10-
Representative William S.
.Moorhead, chairman of a
House subcommittee on Gov-
ernment information, criticized
today President Nixon's new
Executive order on secrecy in
national security papers calling
it "a very restrictive docu-
ment."
But the Pennsylvania Demo-
crat praised the President's
statement accompanying the
Executive order for, as he puts
it, "emphasizing past abuses of
the classification system," un-
der which documents are
stamped "top secret," {'secret".
or "confidential." The order, is-
sued Wednesday, goes into ef- E
fect June L. I
mittee on intelligence, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State
William D. Blair Jr. continued
the Administration's effort to
explain the Executive order and
head off legislation that would
establish a joint executive-Con-
gressional-judicial commission
to review secrecy in the Gov-
ernment.
. Mr. Blair conceded that "too
much material - probably far
too much-was being classified
in the first ulace, and too much
of that was being over classi-
fied.
He said that, in the central
foreign policy files since 1950
alone, there were more than
eight milion documents? at'least
half of them classified. To de-
classify them, he said, would
take 10 years, while more pa-
pers piled up. .
Mr. Blair noted that the new
order severely limited the au-
thority of officials to classify
material. He said that about
8110 officers of the department
may now stamp papers "top
secret," that number Will be
cut to about 300 when the new
order becomes effective.
1,860 May Use Stamp
Under the Executive order,
about 1,860 persons designated
by the President or the White
House staff, as well as the
heads of 12 agencies or those
designated by them, may use
the, "top secret" stamp. . '
They are the heads of the
committee this morning, assert-. vri11,a1,1a. ,uvui,leau
ed that a preliminary tudy of A Distinction Is Made-.
the order itself indicated that
it "does not live up to the "In other words," 11Ir. Moor-
laudable goals of the Presi. head said, "the same political
dent's statement." party could control the Presi-
'"It appears to be an order
written by classifiers for clas-
sifiers," Mr. Moorhead said.
Sees Way to - Cover Errors
The Executive order' is de-
signed to reduce the secrecy
surrounding national security
material by limiting the use of
secrecy classifications when the
papers are written and by
:speeding up the process by
which they are later made
public. -
. Among its provisions is one
ordering that "top secret"
documents be automatically de-
classified and made available
to the public after 10 years,
"secret" papers after eight
years and "confidential" ones
after six, with certain excep-
tions that Nixon said would be
narrowly applied.
But Mr. Moorhead argued
that, under this arrangement, a
"President could safely stay in
office for his full two constitu-
tional terms, totaling eight
years,. and at the same time
make it possible for his Vice
President or another of his sup-
porters to succeed him without
the public knowing the full de-
State Defense, Treasury. and
Justice Departments; the De-
-Pr..nnfc of th
X...--..,.
h
e
t
e
ones he wants to see. Thel
agency that originated the,
documents will then ? review
them to make sure national.
security will not be compro-
mised by releasing them
If the applicant is dissatis-?
fled, he may then appeal to the
National Security Council's In.
teragency Classification Re-
view Committee, established by
the new order. If that com-
mittee still refuses to release
the document, the applicant
may go to Federal court. {
ul;"V'r lU{ 16 'Year' WiW[1, per-.'Navy and the Air Forcc? the
haps, the public would throw.ICentral Intelligence Agency, the
it out of office if onl
the facts'
y
.were known."
In his remarks, Mr. Moor-
head drew the distinction be-
tween information covered by
the Freedom of Information
Administration and the Agency
for Internatoinal Development.
The heads of 13 more agen-
cies and their principal sub-
ordinates ma
use the "secret"
y
Act and that covered b the'
by classification. They are the De.
Executive order. The law con- partment of Transportation, the
cerns the disclosure of infor- Department of Commerce, and
mttion on the Government's the Department of Health. Edu
day-to-day activities, while the cation and Welfare; the Federal)
White House order covers in- Communications Commission;
formation on national defense the Export-Import Bank, the
and foreign policy or, as the (Civil Service' -Commission, the!
President put it, national se- (United States Information
curity. Agencv, the General services:
I
h
b
n t
e su
committee hearing
Assistant Attorney Genera
Ralph E. Erickson testified that
from July 1967, to July, 1971
the justice Department received
about 535 requests for access
to its records under the Free-
dom of Information Act.
Mr. Erickson said that access
had been granted in 224 cases
and denied in 311. The majority
of the denials, he said, involved
investigative files or cases
where the privacy of an indi
vidual would have been vio-
lated.
foreignv policy y. errors ''jr Order Is Defended
$ ~'rf R~11?~~ei~g~21~e?o~
,minfstration
House Armed Services subcom-
Administration, the Civil Aero-'
nautics Board, the Federal1
Maritime Commission, the Fed-
eral Power Commission, the
National Science Foundation
and the Overseas Private In.
vestment Corporation.
Regulations to Be Issued.
Each agency, before June 1,
will designate those officials
who will have the authority to
use each stamp.. The agencies
will also issue regulations and
guidelines within the frame-
work of the Executive' order.
For classified documents al-
to them by specifying which
pC n
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U.S. Is Sued
By Ashbrook
On Secrets
United Press International
Rep. John Ashbrook (R
Ohio), announced yesterday a
suit to force the Defense De-
partment to make public se-
cret documents on Soviet mill-I
tart' strength obtained from a
Red army official.
The suit, he told a news con-
ference, would allow access to
the so-called Penkovsky Pap-_
ers--a compilation of statistics
on Soviet nuclear weaponry
by Col. Oleg Penkovsky, a sen-
ior Intelligence officer with
the Russian army general
staff, who was executed for es-
pionage 10 years ago.
Ashbrook, conservative chal-,
lenger to President Nixon in'
Republican presidential prima- I
ries, said declassification of
the documents was essential
to any debate on a SALT
agreement which may be
forthcoming between the
United States and Russia.
He said his efforts to per-
suade the Pentagon to volun-
tarily declassify the papers
were unsuccessful. A suit
under the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act was filed in fed-
eral district court for southern
Illlinois yesterday, he said.
"It is the right of the Ameri-
can people to know how the
Soviet Union plans to destroy
them; and it is their right to
know just how the Nixon ad-
ministration plans to protect
them," Ashbrook commented.
Material from Penkovsky's
reports was rewritten: and pub-
lished in the United States in
1966 as "the Penkovsky Pap-
ers." But the raw material on
which the book was based has
never been released..
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? )itlSHI1 ,".'-V i POLT
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : C f P89V1601 R000100250
MAR
washincton Post Staff writers
Congress and the Supreme.
ked yesterday on
b
ar
Court em
separate inquiries into requested information, even if 1
the average citizen is denied it
whether the Freedom of Infor under the act's exemptions.
matlon Act is working poorly
or too well - in getting of- . The court's action is ex-
flelal data into the open. pected to figure prominently
A House Information sub- 'when the House-subcommittee
committee opened hearings to ,holds its second day of hear-
see whetlier the White Home ings today to hear the testt?
and executive departments are mony of lawyer witnesses fa-
still withholding too much miliar with the administration
public information despite the of the act.
Yestefuay's opening wit-
1967 law.
In the Supreme Court, the nesses were former White
government t won won the right to
argue that too many of its House press secretaries James
secrets would be compro- C. Hagerty'and George Reedy
inised under a recent interpre- and other former government
tatipn of the act by the U.S.
Court of Appeals here. officers.
.
The court's action marks the Hagerty, now vice president
first time that the justices of the American Broadcasting
have agreed to review a case Co., reported on the frustra-
involding the act, which was tions of trying to release over.
'hailed five years ago as a classified information to the
breakthrough in the battle public when he was in the Ei
over "the public's right to senhower administration.
know:' Sometimes documents for
The law, which preserves of- release at a press conference
s would arrive ','literally covered I
. secu riitty y and d other in arr6eas but butt give-
c
citizens the right to take the with classified stamps, includ-
government to court over ing the highest ratings," Hag-
non-disclosure, was atsy o ek erty said. "I would then ac.
last fall by Rep. tiially have to take these pa-
(D-Hawaii? and 32 other con-
gressmen. They challenged the pers to the President and have
underground nuclear explo= him declassify them on the
sion at Amchitka Island, spot. And the only thing that
Alaska. was Top Secret about that was
Classified documents sought,what he would say when he
by the legislators were held to had to go through such non-
be exempt from the law's dis- sense."
closure provisions by District Both Hagerty and Reedy
Court Judge George. L. Hart I said the subcommittee should
Jr. but the court of appeals or-'i come to grips with modern
dered him to inspect the docu- problems of executive privi.
ts in his chambers to see lege.
znen
whether some of them could Reedy, press aide to Presi-
be made public without endan- dent Johnson, agreed : with
gering security.
Government lawyers asked Chairman William Moorhead
the court to rule that such (D-Pa.) that executive' agency
Inspection by judges would officials who once could be
take the judiciary out of its reached by congressional in-
depth, invite tampering with quiry are increasingly winding
national security and go be- up on White House staffs, im-
yond Congress's intent i on to mune from legislative su
encourage free exchange of~
ideas within and between gov- moss.
Key, intimate presidential
ernment bureaus. advisers should remain pro-
Ramsey Clark, counsel for d from possible harass
t
the 33 legislators, urged the
court not to review the case in
its current state. But he said if
review w spg?re t *e2wi.oud
argue th e
gress may not be denied the
e
tee
ment, Reedy said, but some at-
tempt should be made to
reach lower-level but never-
e s~;t"a'ut operating
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sure
STATINTL
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POST
F~Z 197E
M - 243,938
GOVERNMENT MOOD KEEPS COVER INTACT
~orhead Sees No Secrecy Cut
By MILTON JAQUES
post.Gazetfe Woshinaton Corresoondent
:WASHINGTON - The mood
in Congress and in the Nixon
administration at this time is
probably against reducing sec-
recy. in government.
And that is too bad, accord-
ing to Rep. William S. Moor-
head, . Shadyside I)emocrat, .
who heads the House subcom-
mittee dealing with govern-
-mentl information policies.
On h i s own assessment,
Moorhead feels it would proba-
bly futile this year to at-
tempt-to get liberalizine legis-
lation enacted to the 1967 Free-
dom of Information Act.
That leaves Moorhead fac-
ing the possibility of. holding
extensive hearings on the act
this: year, with a view toward
later legislation.
r head 's assessment
i~ o o
grows out of his study during
the ',past year of government
Information practices. These
range from the "ridiculous" as
practiced by the intelligence
apparatus, the Cen t^lli-
pence Agency, or the "spooks"
as Modttitltt calls them, to the
just plain bureaucracy cover-
ing-up of goofs and political
deals with a secrets label.
During the year, too, the
publication of the so-called
"Pentagon Papers" and the.
"Anderson P a p e r s" caused
shooks to race through the
government over leaks in the
secrecy erected around some
official .documents.
THE PENTAGON PAPERS
rs ra lop an a
gotten out of hand. coincidences" for Moorhead
.The mood in the Nixon ad- . and Sen.. William Proxmire
ministration, as Moorhead (D-Wis.) to get the informa-
sees it, is toward greater se- tion leading to their exposing
crecy, not less. Efforts within of the Air Force's problems
the administration are direct- with huge cost overruns on the
ed at stopping leaks, such as C5-A aircraft.
those in the Pentagon Papers -We never would have got-
and the incident involving col- ten that information other-
umnist Jack Anderson. wise," Moorhead says.
''of course it is a legitimate
effort to try to prevent leaks," ALONG WITH other Demo-.
-Moorhead says, "but it sh-uld crats, Moorhead also suspects
have its counterpart in how to the Republican administration
maximize the pm.ount of infor- may be using secret tags to
mation available." cover defense spending for
what might be called political
ANOTHER PROBLEM fac- purposes. The charge grows
ing the subcommittee, Moor- out of the administration's call
head feels; is- the amount- of. to Congress for extra funds
leeway given a President in this year for the department of
revealing secrets. During the defense.
-tibcommittee hearings which The feeling in Congress is
t;,gin next month former pros- i that some of the money being
Idential press secretaries have spent in the 1972 election year
been invited to testify on this could be interpreted as for
aspect of their work. It the political purposes if it is di-
White House. - rected solely toward relieving
President N i x o n's recent uneinploytnent a it d thereby
speech revealing secret nego- helping to reelect the presi-
tiations carried on with the dent. ' -
North Vietnamese about their
American prisoners fo - war
was cited by Moorhead as in
this area of security.
According to Moorhead, the
Nixon' speech disclosing the
tafks "blew the cover" (re-
vealed the identity) and dis-
study; ordered by former De- maximum amount of informa- closed the role of presidential
ferfse S e c r e t a r y Robert S. tion available to the public, not adviser Henry Kissinger. This
- presents Congress with the
McNamara on the origins and the minimum
,
background of the unpopular , "A D e m o c r a. t 1 c society problem that "if you only let
tear 'in Vietnam. The other doesn't wort: well unless it has the top elected political official
p.a per s disclosed concerned ?the.maximum." blow the covers of a country,
apparent differences between ? then he won't reveal all, just
the administration's p ft b 1 i c The testimony on over-clas- that which is advantageous to
,and. private positions on the sification was supplied by Wil- him and keep concealed that
India-Pakistan conflict. Liam G. Florence, who said which isn't."
Moorhead, a lawyer, is deep that "disclosure of information
ly involved in the eongression- 1 it at least 99.5 per cent of Moorhead said the memoirs
al discussions on the sensation- fh o s e classified documents of former President Lyndon
al. disclosures. Ire's chairman could not be prejudicial to the Johnson also revealed secrets
of. the House subcommittee In defense interests of the na- with a one-sided treatment to
foreign operations and goveriL- HQn?" ward accuracy.
! Secrecy's other uses, the
ment informAtt~~gqr ~~tt,ff~~ Rell3~tse> ~ 9t~~e 1lALR~i X61 i~@001@92,461001-6
House Govern'ftfentuperati figure, estimated that the per-
Committee.
His thinking now is that Con-
gress should at some point
assert its watchdog role more
tentage of information that in "covering up for goofs in
should be withheld could range government." -
from one to five per cent, , "Whenever somebody h as
instead of 0.5 per cent. made a mistake, he may try to
crets, and the p r o c e s s by . Florence obviously in the cover that up with a secret
which the government classi- Moorhead view is one of those label" Moorhead contends.
Pies its documents. "`good citizens" who believe "It.took a change of admin-
te classification system has t t' d whole series of
tive branch institution to cor-
-rect secrecy in the executive
departme.-.t." Moorhead fig-
tires as point of departure
for his study. If he had a
proposal to .make, it would be
to have Congress appoint a
commission dealing with the
matter or secret classification
of government documents.
The details of such a com-
mission, and the legislation -to
create it, according to Moor-
head,, are "negotiable." He is
inclined toward a measure (S-
2965), introduced by Sen. Ed-
mund S. Muskie (D-Me.). the
presidentiaT'-aspirant, which
would provide Congress and
the public a means for gaining
access to certain information
now l o c k e d in government
files.
MOORHEAD 'INDICATES
he is also impressed with the
testimony given to his subcom-
mittee by at least one former
Pentagon security official who
claims an excessive amount of
information is stamped class-
fied.
"There are good citizens
within government and outside
who think this classification
has been overdone," Moor-
bead says. The object of the
Freedom of Information Act,
Rep. Williarr S Moorhead `policy significantly related to
(D-Pa.), vhose House Subcom--the nationa, security" or
mittec on Fore,-n Operations "jeopardy to the iives of pris
and 'Iovernmeat Information oners-if-war."
wwill open new hearings next. ? "Contidential" refers to
north, complained yesterday: nationa! security information
that the N,,C draft was or- material, the unauthorized
"aimed only .t closing infor- I disclosure of which could rea-
matio.r leaks hi the executive l
sonably cause damage to the
branch r--ether than (making) :,nationa'. security." No exam-
the informatiom available to national
were listed " this a -
the public and in Congress.!' poty
lio,n?I- cad said he had re- i
The `Pentagon also said that
quested a copy of the NSC "'it is imperative that these re-.
{remain secret indefinitely in , draft trom the White House. striations be imposed only
the interest of "national se EarlL ;' in the day, the Of- : where there is an established
curity: II fice of Legal Counsel at the need."
But the Defense Depart-II Justice Department declined The Defense Department ob-I
ff
h
t
1 2' F 1972
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enta on. Fights neerets
)0100250001-6
lan
By Sanford J. Ungar
The Defense Department is
opposing a National Security
'Council recommendation that
all. classified government in-
formation be made public
after being kept secret for a,
maximum of 30 years.
Criticizing an NSC draft re-
,vision of government security
regulations, the Pentagon has
appealed for a "savings
clause" that would permit
agency heads to designate ma-
terial affecting foreign rela-
e s
to provide a copy to t
a lected, however, to the CSC si
of the -Moorhead subcommit-. proposes,, requirement that
tions of the NSC draft as un-I tee, saying that it was only every classified document be
.duly restrictive and has sug-1 "a working draft." - marked to indicate who had
gested changes that might The Jan. 11 letter of trans- declared it secret. Buzhardt's
have the effect of reducing mittal which accompanied the memo called this condition
the number of classified docu- NSC proposal when it was "both un, ealistie and unwork-
ments in government archives, sent to the Departments of able."r
The Pentagon suggestions State, Defense and Justice, the Its strongest objection ap-
d t the NSC
involve
'
are contained in a memoran-
dum to the National Security
Council from J. Fred Buz-
hardt, general counsel of the
Defense Department.
The Washington Post has l
obtained a copy of that memo-1
randum, one of several that
will be considered by the Na-
tional Security Council before
submitting the draft for presi-
dential approval.
Meanwhile, members of
Congress and other experts on
security classification attacked
the NSC draft for cutting back
on- public access to govern-
ment information rather than
expanding it.
Rep. John E. Moss (D-Calif.),
the author of the Freedom of
Information Act, said that "no
more stringent regulations are
needed. They are the antithe-
sis of a free society."
Commenting on details of
the NSC draft as revealed in
The Washington Post yester-
,day, Moss was especially critic
cal of the suggestion ' that the
President seek legislation,
similar to the British Official
l id, would sev-
t
A
ened Amcrj O&tVe8 ibtittel ~S~ly%7 'ro&jVt~bP80-01601 R000100250001-6
c
Secrets
, , sht),:'
erely punish anyone who re- As examples of. c;uch dam-
ceives classifies information age, it cLed a range of situa-
ps well as those who disclose tions from "armed hostilities
it. . against the Urited States or
Such legislation. Moss said, its allies" to the compromise
"would be in outrageous im- of cryptologic and communica-+ -
Position upon the American I tions intelligence systems "
people. >I wili tight it, and I ? "Secret" is to be usea to
would bone that every enlight- prevent "sei o'us damage"
i
Central Intelligence .-'agency /pear
and the Atomic Energy Com. suggesti:.n for a 30-year rule
mission, however, called it guaranteeing that all secret
"the final draft." 'documents are released even-
The Defense Departmenttually.
recommendations concerning "A savings clause to provide
the draft, sent to the NSC on for exceptions to be exercised
Jan. 21, were the product of a oily by the agency head con-
review by the three military seined is essential to prevent
departments and "a working damage to national security,"
group composed. of classifica- the Pentagon recommenda-
tion specialists. intelligence lions said
experts and lawyers," accord- "There are certain contin-
ing to Buzhardt's memoran- gooey r?lans dating from the.
-him. 1920s which should be exempt
Buzhart observed in the from the 30-year rule," thei
nemo that the Pentagon Pentagon critique added "Re-
ound so many problems with lease of such documents
the draft that it should "be would be unacceptable from a
substantially reworked before foreign relations standpoint
submission to the President." for an indefinite period."
1m~ othe.- matters, the Willia?i G. Florence, a re-
Defense Department urged an tired security expert for the
updating of the definitions Of l 'Au? Force. complained yester- i
the three security classifica-I day that the NSC draft, as re-
tines nv follows: i ported in The Washington
? "The test for assigning Pest, "'.will continue to permit
'Top Secret' classifications hundreds of thousands of peo-
shall be whether its unauthor-'; pie to continue putting unwar
ized disclosure -ould reasons-; ,ranted security classifications
bly be expeetefs to cause ex-! on information."
ceotionally grave uaniage to I Florence referred to the
the nation or. is citizens." practice as "illegal censor-
L W YORK TIMES
Approved For Release 2001/Q / 7 : a0-01601 R0001 00250
the,
COST OF SEUR~~ ? t? ??? u. ? bran vh-!u7`[ usba , how JS , that
em is the executive ranch'II said however, that the
from disclosing these types of,subcommittee hoped the hear-
TO U ESTIMATED information. !ing, who may extend until
t 1 The staff of the subcommit- Jwle, would lay the groundd-
tee has sent out a questionaire work for the passage of such
Ito nearly 100 Government de-I iegislation next year.
Year; Bill Is Put at Over partments, . agencies, bureaus
Y and commissions asking for de-
$60-Million, House Aides Say tailed records of what requests
for information were made un-
der the act and what responses,
;?.By NEIL SHEEHAN including denials, the agencies
Spedal to TheNea York Times gave. The responses to the ques-
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23--1tionaire already fill three cabi.
The staff of the House sub-nets a senior subcommittee
staff member said.
committee on Foreign Opera- Representative Ogden R. Reid
tions and Government Infor- of New York, the ranking Re-
oration has been told that the publican on the subcommittee,
cost to the taxpayers of Gov-;intends to submit for consider-
ernment secret-keeping runs:ation an amendment to the act
$60-million to $80-million athat would drastically strength-
year. !en the ability of Congress to
The estimate is based on the obtain information from the ex-
preliminary findings of an ex-;ecutive. Mr. Reid, along with
.amination the Government Ac- (Representative John E. Moss,
'counting Office is conducting; Democrat of California, was a.
,for the subcommittee on the co-author of the original act.
;cost of running the security, Reid Sees a Basic Fault
classification system, including
the outlays on everything from Under Mr. Reid's amend-I
safes and file cabinets to docu- ment, the executive branch'
meet cover sheets marked Top could still provide the informa-
Secret. One Government official Lion to Congress in classified
familiar with the classification form, so that the data could
system believes, however, that not be made public. But Mr.
this $604o-$S0-million estimate:Reid argues that at least Con
Is too low. gress would be informed, as it,
The examination is part ofn0w is not.
the preparations the subcom-1 "We've got to put some teeth'
mittee is making for extensiveiinto this thing," he said in a
hearings this year, beginning telephone interview. "As iti
on March 6, on the workings stands today, in 9 cases outs
of the security classification of 10, the Congress doesn't!
system and on how the execu- !know know what is going on
tive branch withholds informa- or they find out too late.
tion from Congress and the!1 "I would like to see a right]
public. The G.A.O. is the in- of access by Congress estab-!
vestigating agency of Congress. lished and exercised -in an ap.
These hearings by the sub- propirate way, with security in-I
committee, which is headed by terests, to the body of doct+
Representative William S. Moor-! ments in which the CongreJ ,
head, Democrat of Pennsyl-t has a vital interests."
vania, will extend and develop) `What we've been seeing," 1 ?
the exploratory sessions held, continued, "is an erosion in the
last summer following publica-i power of Congress vis-a-vis the
tion of the Pentagon papers. i executive and a virtual inability
This year's hearings will seek:lfor the Congress to share in
ways to force executive-branch;i the decisions of 'war and peacei
disclosures by strengtheningi'and life and death. There isi
the Freedom of Information";now a fundamental imbalance
Act and will look into the pos=!I in our system."
sibility of creating an inde-. Mr. Reid also intends to~
pendent agency to declassify submit other amendments to!
documents. the Freedom of Information!
Effect of Act Is Sought Act. One of these would hive
Congress independent power to
The broad framework of the declassify what information it
hearings will be a review of does obtairt from the execu-
what effect four years of the tive branch. Another wound
Freedom of Information Act (create some independent body
has had on the flow of infor- to oversee the entire classifi-
mation' to Congress and the nation system and declassify
public. The act went into ef-lidocuments, feet in 1967. . . , A senior member of the
The general opinion in Wash-I'subcontmrnittee's staff noted
ington has been that the act';that "this is a pretty tough
has resulted in relatively little area" and that the subcom-
increase in c~isclcas ~a~t u ~ ~1t0i~/~d niMAtRDP80-01601R000100250001-6
larly in the Nersial areas' get legislation to this effect
of foreign and military policy.
STATINTL
STATINTL
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e
P PERS PL i~ A.
PNIEi) BY JUDGE
Two Congressmen flobuffed
in'Suit for Full Disbiosuro
Specter to The New York Timox
WASHINGTON, Disc. 7 --
A Federal district judge denied
today a suit by two Congress-
men to compel the release of
all or part of the still classified
segments of the Pentagon
Papers.
At a hearing here last Friday
Representatives Ogden R. Reid,
.
ongress
oes no
intend
Republican of Westchester, acid, fie rnrke toe materiel public will
John E. Moss, Democrat of Cali. also be examined, and ways to
foznia, co-authors of the Free strengthen the Freedom of In-
dom of Information Act, asked formation Act will be sought.
Judge Gerhard A. Gesell to One way in which Mr. Reid
examine the still classified hopes to fortify thn act is to
segments in a secret session narrow the criteria under which
and decide whether all or part, the. executive can now witliold
should. be made public. I fro mtho public matters "spe.
In his written opinion today, 1 cifically required by Executive
Judge Gesell said that an in- order to be kept secret in the
dependent court review lire interest .of he national defense
this was neither required by or foreign
the Freedom of Information Iii hi o union, Jude Gessell
Act nor desirable. Judge Gesell) said this exemption Judge
an
ruled against the Nixon Ad
ministration last June in the
Government's attempt to re-
strain the Washington Post
.from publishing articles based
on the Pentagon Papers.
The two Congressmen spe-
cifically requested review of the
material the Government with-
held. when it published a de-
classified version of the first
43 volumes of the papers last
September-about 2 per cent
of the total---and the four re-
nia.ining volumes on the secret
Vietnam diplomacy of the John-
son Administration. None of the
newspapers that published arti-
cles last summer have obtained
these four volumes.
Legislation Urged
Mr. Reid said in a statement
that Judge Gesell's opinion
"points up the need for new
legislation to give some inde-
Wirdent reviewing body the
authority and resources to eval-
u-.te classified documents and
order declassification of those
which are being improperly
withheld from the public do-
main."
He said that the House Sub.
committee on Foreign Opra-
tions and Government Informa-
tion would hold extensive hear.
inns in February to determine
what kind of reviewing agency
should be created and to pro-
pose legialation en this and
other aspects of the classifica?
tion of inforpi ~ithldr-
ecutive brancFF t r. Mss is
the subcommittee chairman.
The precise character of the
proposed reviewing agency is
a matter for the hearings to
develop, Mr. Reid said, but lie
suggested that it could be a
joint committee of the Horse
"I'lie determination of the in
terests of national defense or
foreign policy cannot be made
by applying some simple litmus
test to a document presented."
Ii added that since he had
and Senate. . ""no experience or background
The agency should be "r:.c- In such matters"" he would need
courita.ble to Congress and the detz..iled ""background briefing"
people and independent of the by some neutral authority "even
executive," Mr.. Reid asserted, to make a tentative judgment
Purposes of Hearings and thus the litigation would
proceed In secret with those
The hearings will explore the seeking the data wholly ex-
possibility that Congress might: eluded:'
assume the power to declassify Ivir. Reed said some way must
inforinatiorr it receives from the by found to break what he
executive branch, a power the called the pattern of "withhold-
executive now exercises exclus- ing, obfuscation and outright
Ively. The withholding of in. deceit" practiced by the exec-
formation from Congress even utive branch in its information
whcn
C
d
policy toward Congress and the
t
indepenent court revie; r un.
necessary. He noted that coml.
scl for the Congressmen had
conceded at the licaring that
the Government was claiming
the exemption in this case "in!
good faith" because the decisin
to keep the relevant portions of
the Pentagon Papers classified
had been made "at the highest:
level of the Department of Def-
ense after careful considera-
tion."
Review Held Undesirable
On the undesirability of a
court review, Judge Gesell said:
"It is entirely foreign to our
traditions to place papers in
the hands of a judge for his
private ex parte inspection, ex.
luding therm from the eyes of
khe litigants.
general public and to make the
executive "accountable" for its
actions.
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r
.VItS!1!17G ~~kd FOu l
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I.
By Sanford J. Ungar
Washington Post Staff Writer
A federal judge yesterday
upheld the governments re-
fusal to release the final four
volumes of the Pentagon pa-
pers, which deal primarily
with American diplomatic ef-
forts throurh other govern-
on.the secret Pentagon study
of the Vietnam war, because
the government had failed to
show in court that such dis-
closurc.was a threat to nation-
al security.
Legal observers regard Ge-
sell's earlier opinions in the
ments to obtain the release ofiPentagon papers case-when
prisoners of war in Vietnam.
U,S. District . Court Judge
Gerhard A. Gesell granted
judgment for the government
on lawsuits brought by two
congressmen and a journalism
professor at the University of
Missouri under the Freedom
of Information Act.
Gesell said that he had ac-
cepted the Defense. Depart-
ment's assertion that the ma-
terial in the four volumes
"could, if disclosed, result in
serious damage to the nation
by jeopardizing the interna-
tional relations of the United
States."
"The.public's right to be in-
formed cannot be transposed
into a legal requirement that
all. governmental papers will
be automatically revealed," the
judge said.
Gesell ruled last June that
The Washington Post was en-
titled to print articles based
the Justice Department sought'
to e n j o i n publication - as
among the firmest in uphold-
ing strict interpretation of
freedom of the press.
On two occasions, he re-
fused to stay his decision even
momentarily while govern-
ment lawyers sought review
of them by the U.S. Court of
Appeals here.
But in yesterday's decision,
Gesell drew a distinction be-
tween the main body of the
Pentagon papers and the four
"diplomatic" volumes, which
never came into the possession
of The Washington Post, The
New York Times or other
newspapers.
His ruling also applied to
deletions made by the Defense
Department from the other 43
volumes of the papers, which
were formally released in
September after a high-level
declassification review.
right to inspect and copy the
requested documants."
But Gesell, finding that the
withheld portions of the Pen-
tagon papers fall under exemp-
tion to the information act,
said, "Obviously documents in-
volving such matters as mili-
tray plans anti foreign nego-
tiations are 'particularly the
Those deletions, the govern
meat said in an affidavit re-
cently submitted to the court,
fell into four categories: "In-
formation concern States military plans;""Information concerning joint
planning of defense arrange-
mentsby the United States with other countries;" "Infor-
mation concerning United
States diplomatic negotiations
with high-level officials of oth-
er countries;" and "Informa-
tion derived from United
States intelligence."
Much of the deleted mate-
rial has a l'r e a rl y appeared,
however, in another edition of
the Pentagon papers, released
by Beacon Press in Boston,
after a near-complete set of
the study was turned over to
the publisher by Sen. Mike
Gravel (D-Alaska).
The suits under the Freedom
of Information Act were
brought by Reps. John E.
Moss (D-Calif.) and Ogden 11.
Reid (R-N.Y.) and by Paul
Fisher, director of the Free-
dom of Information Center at
the Missouri. School. of Jour-
nalism.
type of documents entitled tc,
confidentiality . Govern-
ment, like individuals, must.
have some degree of privacy
or it will be stifled in its legit-
imate pursuits."
The judge also rejected the
congressmen's suggestion that
he inspect the disputed docu-
ments in secret before making
his decision. "lt is entirely
foreign to our traditions to
place papers in the hands of
a judge for his private ... in-
spection, excluding them frori
the eyes of the litigants."
They argued that as legisla-
tors and citizens they had "a
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STATINTL
Freedom of the press and freedom
of information have never bebn more
persistently challenged in this coun-
try---or more vigorously asserted
than they, have been this year.
Last week, the issue was raised
once again when New York Supreme
?the. press and public from the trial
of Carmine Persico on extortion and
Court Justice George Postel barred rather than transgressing the Consti-
conspiracy charges in connection with
alleged loan-sharking. Judge Postel
closed the trial . because newspaper
reporters persisted in including in
their articles material that was not
brought out in court-Persico's nick-
name ("The Snake"), his crininal rec-
ord and the allegation that he is con-
nected with organized crime. Persico's
lawyer contended that this material,
if it came to the notice of the jurors,
.could prejudice them against his cli-
ent.
Judge Postel first threatened to hold
reporters in contempt of court - to
throw them "in the can," as he put
it --- if they wrote anything about
the trial that had not "transpired" in
court. When the reporters . published
accounts of his conversation with
them, he charged the press with "con-
tumacious conduct" and granted a de-
fense motion to exclude the press
and public from the Persico trial. ?-
Judge.Postel thereby set the scene
for a legal test of whether a judge
may exclude the press from an ordi-
nary criminal trial: Five members of
a committee of 100 New ? York re-
porters have brought suit to reopen
the Persico trial to the public. They
claim their Constitutional rights have
been violated. Their case will be
heard tomorrow in the Appellate Di-
vision of the New York State Supreme
Court.
It probably will be argued there
that the New York State Judiciary
Act allows a judge to exclude the
public only in certain kinds of cases
-- rape cases and adoption proceed-
ings, for example --- and closing the
courtroom to exclude the press and
insulate the jury is not authorized by
the act. It will also be argued that
Judge Postel had other means at his
~.Iisposal to ensure the impartiality of
tutional guarantee of a public trial.
Judge Postel - might, for example,
have sequestered the jury in the Per-,
sico case to keep it from reading
the newspapers. He might have or-
dered the trial held elsewhere, or de-
clared a mistrial if he thought the
jury had been tainted. by prejudicial
publicity. Instead, he barred the press
- ironically, leaving the jury free to
read whatever the press might write
about Persico.
Underlying the reporters' suit is the-
so-called right to know, the right of
the public to know how public busi-
ness, including the administration of
justice, is being conducted. There is
no right to know explicitly stated in
the Constitution. The right to it pub-
lic trial, for. example, has been found
by the .New York State Court of
Appeals to belong only to the defend-
ant, not to the public or to they
press, and Carmine Persico has waived
that right in his trial before Judge
Postel. That ruling, in which the Court
of Appeals was evenly, divided will,
be challenged tomorrow.
.Legal scholars disagree about it. Prof.
Herbert Wechsler of Columbia Uni-
versity, who represented The New
York Times In one famous case --
the Sullivan case, in which public
officials were held to be practically
immune to libel -- takes the position
of the Court of Appeals.
Professor Alexander Bickel of Yale,
who represented The Times 'in an-
other famous case --- the case of the
Pentagon papers -- has told the New
York Post: "I think there's more to
the guarantee of an open trial than
the rights of the defendant. There is
a public interest that is part of the
picture."
That public' interest, in this view,
is too see not merely to be told
-- that the law is being effectively
and fairly enforced, especially in a
case' involving organized crime, which
vitally affects the public welfare,
This, then, is the issue: While there
'is no stated right to know in the
Constitution, is there a presumed, im-
plied or inherent right that derives
from the other liberties guaranteed to
us and from our system of democ-
racy and the requirements of an open
society? Is there a widespread long-
established assumption that public
business should be conducted in public?
Freedom of the press does not re-
quire anybody to give information to
the press. Can freedom, however, be
fully exercised if the press is unduly
hindered or inhibited in gathering
information, or if its sources of infor-
mation are arbitrarily shut off?
These are some of the questions
that will face the Appeals Court to-
morrow.
-.--CLIFTON DANIEL
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G. Warren Nutter issued written
.instructions to his top assistants
on June 2.9, 1970, telling them not
to talk to reporters unless a Pen-
tagon public affairs official was
present, according to a docu-
ment made public today.
A copy of the Memo to the
deputy assistant secretary in Nut-
ter's Office of International se-
curity Affairs was released by
The Pentagon in response to a
request from Samuel. J. Archi-
bald,- a director of the Washing
ton office of the Freedom of In-
formation Center of the Univer-
sity of Missouri.
Archibald cited the Freedom
of Information Act in requesting
a copy of Nutter's memo. The
:Pentagon previously had refused
to supply the memo to newsmen
who asked for it.
The memo said: "'The weekly
activities report indicates that
DASD (Deputy Assistant Secre-
tary of Defense) have evidently
been conducting interviews with
news media personnel without
a public affairs representative in
attendance. Mr. Nutter desires
that this practice be discontinued
and that a PA representative be
in attendance at all discussions
with press personnel."
]Early in the Kennedy adminis-
tration, Defense Secretary Rob-
ert S. McNamara set up a "mon-
itor" system in which every offi-
cial who talked with reporters.
was supposed to have a public
affairs officer present or to
make a written report of the
conversation. The system helped
McNamara cut down on use of
the press in inter-service rival-
ries, but it also was routinely
iL.tiored. Before McNamara left
the Pentagon, the monitoring re-`
quirement was dropped. i
-It has persisted in some parts
of the Pentagon, however, and
has been enforced by Nutter
whose office frequently works in
areas of. particular interest to
the White House and State De-
partment.
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, 0.11, cite f. U01
I3y JONA I IN I: A DELL 11,1r. Ilayden said that under
5peclal to Th- New York ftoe3 the First Aniendinent, newspa-
I'iIILADELPIIIA, Oct. 20-. per editors "have a privilege,
The Associated Prcc s Idiniaging not a license, to print every-
thin? that they can get their
Editors Association pzesented hands on."
its first Freedom or Informs- He also warned that the pub-
tion Citation today, honoIing lication of the Pentagon papers
The Now York Times for its could cause a backlash in pub-
publication of the Pentagon' lic opinion that would "lead to
papers the enactment of an official
secrets act," similar to the one
The award was established in Britain, prohibiting the ells
last spring to. reward neF~sm e it closure of any secrets thought
or newspapers that have "made detrimental to security.
an outstanding contribution to 'Not for Whale. Press'
maintaining present freedolii-. Mr. Hayden said that the Su-
of - information standards preme Court decision permitting
against cncroxeimnents or 111
any way Widening the scope of
information available to the
public."
In accepting the award at the
association's convention in the
Bellevue Stratford Hotel here,
A. M. Rosenthal, managing; edi-
tor of 7"he Times, said the
Pentagon papers contained a
"treasury, of facts--not inntl-
endo or rumor----which shoWed
the decision-making process in
Cir
He added that if The Tines
had not published the docu-
ments, it would have "deprived
the people of the country of an
extremely important. body of
information" and "would have
made a mockery of freedom of
the press."
Ellsberg on Panel
a panel discussion before
-lie presentation of the award,
)r. Daniel E1lsberg, the former
Defense Department official
uho says he made the Penta-
;on papers available to the
Tress, declared that the real
esson of the documents was
.he Government's "process of
secrecy to deceive the American
,eopie." Dr. Ellsberg contended
aiat "99.5 per cent of what is
slow classified should not, be."
He also remarked that "Some
official secrets have been shared
with" countries turned hostile'
'long before they were shared
with the American people."
In a dissenting view, Martin
Hayden, editor of The Detroit
News, said that the process of
government" secrecy was "a'
system under which the Amer
ican people have become the
best-informed electorate in the
world." .
'fhe New York Times, The
Washington Post and other
newspapers to publish the Pen-
tagon Papers vras "a great Court
victory" for those newspapers,
but that it was not "a victory
for the whole press."
I In rebuttal, Mr. Rosenthal
said the material in the Pcrlta-
gon papers "did not involve the
military security of the United
States."
Noting that much of the in-
formation in the papers had
been previously made available,
Mr. Rosenthal emphasized that
the documents contained "no
secrets, but insight into how c1e-
cisions Were made, and how
they were concealed."
In a poll taken before the
presentation of the award to
The Tinges, one-fourth of the
365 newspaper editors attend-
ing the convention said that the
Pentagon papers should. not
have been published.
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!J ,1 rr 1! }~ u prt( '~ _,,'
1f:
r o
f, i 0114111 ci s !i
By By WMNST01 GROOM
Etar Staff Writer
The U.S. Court of Appeals
here has struck clown the gov-
ernment policy of arbitrarily
classifying all documents in a
file the splne as the highest
classilied single document in tho
group.
Tht:.ruling came yesterday in
the case of 33 congressmen, led
by Rep. Patsy T. Mink, D-Ila-
waii, who have sued the Nixon
administration for release of a
'secret report on the proposed
The suit involved in yesterday's
ruling sought release of a se-
cret report held by the Environ-
mental Protection Agency that
atomic test at Amchitka Island
in Alaska.
The test, code named "Cannl-
kin," is scheduled to be carried
out this month if President
Nixon gives his approval.: ev-
eral environmentalist groups
have filed suits to stop the blast,
and their' Cases are pencbng in
the federal courts.
n r7
allegedly contains negative com-
ments on the test from several
other govermnent agencies.
7'lie ruling sends the case back
to U.S. District Court Judge
George Hart Jr., instructing him
to hold a secret hearing at which
EPA's Amchitka papers can be
screened -- and those docu-
ments which would not normally
bear a security classification
can b-a separated from those
which weuld.
The congressmen opposed to
the blast hope that once they
have the documents in hand,
they can convince the court of
appeals that the Amchitka test
The 'question of whether or notI
the government should classify
all documents in a file just be-
cause one or more of them is
classified has been the subject'
of controversy in the case of the
Pentagon papers. Part of that
report On the U.S. involvement
in Vietnam was classified top
secret but some of the report
had been published previously
without classification. .
Today's ruling overturns a
1953 presidential order that set
the current policy for classifying
documents. It had said.
{ "A document . . . shall bear a
classification at least as high as
that of its highest classified
component. The document shall
bear only one Overall classifiea
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tion not withstanding that pages,
paragraphs; sections or colnpo-
nents thereof bear different clas-
sificatiotr."
In striking down that policy,
the appellate court held that the
;Freedom of ISrforlnation Act of
1970 supersedes the executive
order.
"Secrecy by association is not
favored. If the non-secret com-
ponents are separate from the
secret remainder and may be
read separately without distor-
lion of meaning they too should
be disclosed."
In its instructions to the lower
court regarding the Amchitka
papers, the appellate court sug-
gested that a cautious attitude
should be adopted by Judge Hart
in reviewing the matter.
"In approaching this problem
we have in mind the very sp e-
vial place the President occupies
in the conduct of foreign af-
fairs," the court said in its
t; L-rT nr - 'r }iii
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I
II
I'y
{liPfi The rlcw chairman of the Ilouse
~"Freedcin of Information" subconlmittoe has
taken a stand that may not endea.r.him to his
Collea.f;ues. Ile thinks Congress ought to.he as
free of secrets as it wants the government to
he.
Rep, AVilliatrn Moorhead, P-Pa., did not blare
out his position, he. did not oven volunteer it. It
cater in response to a reporter's question and
was expressed in a soft, somewhat hesitating
voice. ?
1/flat he suggested was that the legislative
branch of the federal government be covered
by the provisions of the Freedom of Informa-
tion Act, the salve as the executive branch,
The proposition may , Cern logical to outsid-
ers but to lao-rilakers it is literally undnink-
able. Congress specifically exempted itself
when it drafted and approved the bill in 1935
and the odds are hearvily against Rep. f.oor-
head if lie e;,'er tries to put his theory into
practice.
K1111"EiN& NE ;V
For Rep. Moorhead that would be nothing
new. 'Pilo he is not personally combative --
shy would be a better word -,-- the 43-year-old
lawmaker has a way' of now and then getting
in battles with congressional powerhouses,
Back in 1559 ho calmly remarked on a TV
interview that some member of Congress had
dealt so long with the Pentagon and its con-
traeirirs that they no lodger could see their
faults. The, late Rep, L. b,eirdel Rivers,
D-S,C., chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee, was outraged. Ile virtudlly or-
derecl Rep, Moorhead to appear before his
committee and back up his charge.
tying on a campaign against the Air Force's
i C fl
REP, MOORI EAD
C5 transport, accepted fife offer, Rep, Rivers
backed clown.
In that same year Rep. Moorhead infuriated
another powerful defender of the military,
Rep. Chet Ilolifield, D-Calif. With information
prepared by his staff, Rep. Moorhead sur-
prised and annoyed Rep. Holifield by utilizing'
a hearing of Rep. I-lelifield's Government
;Operations Subcommittee to raise some ember-
Ira.ssing questions about the C5 with Air Force
witnesses.
3i it is a lot tougher than lie appears," says
one congressional friend.
? }tall 'Si)f_1~ Gil I`~ili`.IH.Y
Rep. Moorhead reflects his background, lie
comers from a well established Pittsburgh fam-
ily, and in Washington he lives in fashionable
Georgetown. His education is pure eastern es-
tablishment -- Phillips Andover Academy,
Yale., and Harvard Law School.
Ills political ideology is solid liberal Demo-
crat. The conservative Americans for Constitu-
tional Action examined his 12-year voting rec-
ord and gave }r{nl fin approval r'z.tio'g G, G1 (!o'
of loii.
Rep, ft5oorhead took over tire. reins of (h
"Freedom of Information," sirbcorrltuittee thi
year when its first and only chai man,
John L. Moss, D-Calif., was forced to
down because of a Democratic rule limiting,
Democrats to one. legislative suheolrrriti_c
chairmanship,
Known officially as the Foreign Otr tali : ;.
and Government Information su!;coi'crnitte: o`
the house Government Operations Committn
the panel was created in Its purpose
serve as a wa.tchd.crg over government in cr-
matioll pr helices anti protect the 1 ublic's
toknww,
C11111/1!FWN .01? P tF SS
e r
Over, the .years it became a Cnaillpi0flo~ lf~:c
press and its staff has worked with re O i": `_
in prying information out of relict tant apcn-
cie.s. In IS85, following a reorganization of
Government Operations Coninri:teni, it pic.l.r
up the fielded task of maintaining