INTRA-AGENCY SECURITY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF SEVENTH MEETING ROOM 4 E 64, CIA HEADQUARTERS BUILDING THURSDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 1972, 1430 HOURS ERMAL P. GEISS ACTING CHAIRMAN PRESIDING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000200130004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 16, 2006
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 17, 1972
• Content Type: MIN

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IASEC-M-7 (Draft)
17 February 1972
INTRA-AGENCY SECURITY COMMITTEE
Seventh Meeting
Room 4 E 64, CIA Headquarters Building
Thursday, 17 February 1972, 1430 Hours
I
Acting Chairman
Presiding
MEMBERS PRESENT: REPRESENTING:
* Present for Part of Meeting
Art 'l I M9 Aft V
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National Intelligence Programs
Evaluation
Deputy Director for Intelligence
Deputy Director for Plans
Deputy Director for Support
Office of General Counsel
Deputy Director for Science
and Technology
Secretary
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17 February 1972
Office of Security
FI Staff
CIA Top Secret Control Officer
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17 February 1972
STAT The Intra-Agency Security Committee was convened by the Acting
Chairman,
at 1430 hours on 17 February 1972
in the Office of Security conference room, 4 E 64.
for the information of the representatives attending,
set forth the reason for the meeting by reading a Memorandum for
the Record dated 24 January 1972 by Mr. W. E. Colby, Executive
Director -Comptroller, under the subject: "Contingency Survey of
CIA Classification Policy.
In the light of the growing Congressional
interest in problems of overclassification and
declassification, specifically the upcoming hear-
ings by Congressman Moorhead, I suggested to
Mr. Coffey, DD/S, that we do some contingency
study on what the CIA policy and reply will be
to any questions posed to the Director on this
problem. Mr. Coffey referred to ongoing
studies in this general field but said he would
look at it more specifically with this prospect
in mind.
ointed out that the members had already addressed
themselves to the problem of overclassification last month which
resulted in Committee guidance being processed for promulgation in
a Headquarters Notice. Today the Committee would address itself
to declassification.
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Prior to entering a discussion on the broad subject of declassifi-
cation, the Acting Chairman asked
CIA Top Secret
Control Officer, to give the Committee a run-down on the Agency's
current declassification procedures. I
began by stating that
the Agency does not have a current formal program, as such. He
said, however, that in the early 1950s following the promulgation of
Executive Order 10501 there was a formal program of classification
review. It arose out of the need to upgrade or declassify all Restricted
material because that classification was eliminated. This change
caused a review resulting in the downgrading of a substantial body
of documents. The program functioned within the classification
control network. Reclassification bulletins were issued regularly
by the CIA Classification Control Officer in the Office of Central
Reference (OCR). There was little interest in the reclassification
bulletins or in the master reclassification files maintained in OCR.
By the early 1960s, the reclassification process, costly in terms of
manpower, virtually disappeared. The Central Reference Service
(formerly OCR) continues to disseminate and file the few reclassi-
fication notices received from other agencies. The Central Top
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17 February 1972
Secret Control activity continues to issue semiannual notices of Top
Secret documents which have been downgraded. About 100 CIA TS
documents were downgraded in 1971. The Classification Control
Network remains active, functioning largely for the handling of
internal classification questions or problems and responding to
ad hoc requests both internal and external for the downgrading of
specific CIA documents. In effect,
said, the Agency has
not had a program of continuing review for downgrading purposes for
many years probably because of the Director's statutory responsibility
for the protection of intelligence sources and methods and the continuing
use by the Agency of productive sources for extended periods of time.
This position,
indicated, is backed in a real sense by
which states that "All classified information or
material originated by CIA is considered of an intelligence nature
within the definition of Group I above and is excluded from automatic
downgrading or declassification. "
I J ent on to say that the Agency thus generally limits its
downgrading and declassification efforts to a program of responding to
specific requests. However, the Agency has recently undertaken a
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Propaganda', and earlier titles in the series for the years 1947 to
1966. In addition, Agency offices have frequently expended many
man-hours in sanitizing classified documents in order to permit
their contents to be disseminated in an unclassified form.
project to declassify the
I oncluded by saying that against a backdrop of
growing Congressional interest in the entire classification process,
and in light of the new Executive Order, the time is now opportune
for the Agency to take a close, hard look at the situation in terms
of cost and manpower to effect appropriate action in the near future.
The Acting Chairman, on behalf of the Committee, thanked Mr.
for his presentation, whereupon the members discussed the
subject of declassification in great detail. The Committee subse-
quently agreed that the Agency's current regulations are adequate in.
light of the provisions of the existing Executive Order 10501, but noted
that a minimum of assets have been expended on this effort in past
years. In view of the apparent imminence of the issuance of a
revision of Executive Order 10501, the members believed that no
new directives on declassification and downgrading need be issued at
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17 February 1972
this time. The Committee also agreed that priority attention should
be given to the formulation of directives on declassification and down-
grading as soon as we have adequate assurance as to what the provisions
of the new Executive Order will be on that subject. In conclusion, all
present recognized the budgetary exigencies which will result in order
to accommodate any additional assets required, especially in light of
the delicate judgments necessary to protect intelligence sources and
methods.
As an item of new business the Acting Chairman furnished the
members with a copy of the Forrestal Diaries which are tentatively
scheduled for public release pending approval of the USIB.
solicited the members' comments as to whether any of the representa-
tives present interposed an objection to their release with respect to
such disclosure posing a threat or compromise to intelligence sources
and methods. No objection was voiced by the representatives from
NIPE, DD/I, OGC, and the DD/S. The DD/P and DD/S&T requested
that their judgment be held in abeyance since they were unfamiliar
with the subject matter.
Adjournment: 1640 hours
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IASEC -M -7 /Annex
SECRETARY'S NOTE:
The DD/P and DD/S&T subsequently telephonically stated that
they interposed no objection to the release of the Forrestal Diaries.
On Z9 February 1972 the membership of the Security Committee
approved release of the Diaries, whereupon the SIGINT Secretariat
was so notified by the Secretary.
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