AMENDMENTS TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00142R000200060008-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 26, 2001
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: January 14, 1978
• Content Type: MF

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14 JAN 1978
MEMORANDUM FOR: Office of Legislative Counsel
FROM Michael J. Malanick
Acting Deputy Director for Administration
SUBJECT Amendments to the Freedom of Information Act
REFERENCE OLC 775748, Same Subject, dtd 30 Dec 77
1. In addition to the suggested legislative modifications
(Tab A) that were considered in preparation for the Administra-
tive Practices and Procedures Subcommittee of the Senate
Judiciary Committee hearing'in September, one major exemption
for the Intelligence Community should be considered. It is
requested that Congress consider revisions to the Freedom of
Information Act that would exempt intelligence organizations
from a review and release of documents involved in the
collection of intelligence and other covert operations and
place the effort on search, review and release of the analysis
product. It was the intent of Congress that the Freedom of
Information Act would provide enlightenment of the public
regarding the activities of the federal government. However,
experience to date has shown that most worthwhile documents
involve sources and methods, are sensitive or classified
and must be denied or sanitized in a manner which may result
in a very incomplete or distorted release of information
to the public. Further, raw intelligence reports do not
necessarily represent an accurate evaluation of the subject.
The CIA product from a FOIA request often only provides
the requester with a few pieces to a puzzle or information
that is misleading or may not reflect the true CIA evaluation
of the material. Because of the nature of FOIA, as a matter
of policy, we have avoided editorializing on the value of
the information released through this channel.
2. Two very clear examples of this are reflected in
the information released regarding the Israeli attack on
the USS Liberty and the alleged nuclear accident in the
Southern Urals. Analysis of this problem was provided in
Section 4b of the 2 December 1977 Information and Privacy
Staff Weekly Report (Tab B).
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3. It is believed that an unnecessary exercise can
be eliminated and the true purpose of FOIA achieved by
exempting operational reports and documents originated
in the collection process and limit the application of
FOIA to those finished intelligence and estimative
documents that can be released to the public. The shift
of manpower to the review and release to the public of the
Agency's finished product could fulfill the desired spirit
of the Act and better utilize the resources now being
expended by the Agency in administering the FOIA. All
information collected about U.S. citizens would still be
accessible through the provisions of the Privacy Act.
Michael J. Malanick
STATINTLAttachments
IPS1 :cam:l/10/78
Distribution:
Orig. - Addressee
DDA Subject
1 - DDA Chrono
1 - IPS Chrono
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Suggestions for Changes or Modification in the FOIA
Response Deadlines
a. Change the mandatory response time on initial processing
of requests from present 10 working days to 30 calendar days,
plus an additional week for every 100 pages of material requiring
a review.
b. Change the mandatory response time on appeals from
present 20 working days to 30 calendar days,.plus two additional
weeks for every 100 pages of. material requiring a second review.
Permit agencies to charge requesters for review time in
addition to search time.
Scope of Requests
STATINTI Limit requests to one specific subject of manageable
roportions, rather than permitting blanket, omnibus -t e
requests which cover a variety of topics, e.g.,
with its 44 categories of requested records.
STATIITL
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Acting Deputy Director for Administration
Chief, Information and Privacy Staff
SUBJECT IPS Weekly Report (25 November - 2 December)
1.
The Week in Review
25 Nov-1 Dec
1977,Weekly Averas
a.
New cases logged
40
91.0
b.
Cases closed
28
71.1
c.
New appeals logged
0
3.4
d.
Appeals closed
6
2.6
e.
Manpower (man-weeks)
97.2
90.5
2. Spotlighted Requests
a. Among the recent requests received for access
to personal records were those submitted by former
Agency employees Victor Marchetti and Philip Agee.
1ir. Agee is being represented by ACLU attorney
Melvin Wulf. Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy, has
also requested copies of any CIA records pertaining to
him, as has Larry Flynt of Hustler.
b. Daniel A. Muse of Brookline, Mass., sent us
a request for copies of records pertaining to U.S.
activities in Guatemala from 1944 to 1955. His de-
tailed description of the specific information he
seeks runs to three full pages. We propose to obtain
estimates of search fees, which we assume will amount
to thousands of dollars, and require an advance deposit
before actually commencing processing the request.
We have had several previous requests for records con-
cerning the overthrow of Arbenz in June 1954, but very
little has been released thus far, and nothing of an
operational nature.
c. Mark Dowie, resident fellow of the Foundation
for National Progress, has requested "an index" of
all matter held by the Agency regarding the overseas
operations of Bechtel Corporation, Bechtel Power, or
Bechtel Inc. This information, he writes, will be
used in connection with "a major energy study" the
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(It is unlikely that such an index exists, and we are
not obliged to create records for requesters.)
d. Morton Mintz of The Washington Post has asked
for copies of any records showing CIA involvement in
the shaping of IRS regulations requiring medical
research foundations to distribute 4 percent of the
fair market value of their assets to charity or medical
research. He, in addition, requested copies of any
records concerning IRS's delay in determining whether
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comes under these
regulations. The regulations, according to Mr. Mintz,
were promulgated in February 1976--about five years
after they were proposed in draft form.
3. Spotlighted Responses
a. One of the cases completed during the week
was a request from Dan Morgan of The Washington Post,
levied on the Department of Agricluiltur-e or copies
of records related to the 1972 "Russian Wheat Deal."
Some two dozen OER publications and memoranda which were
made available to the Department of Agriculture at
the time were referred by the Department to the Agency
for review. This material ranged in content from
assessments of the Soviet wheat crop and grain position
to more comprehensive studies of the status of the
Soviet economy and the potential for trade with the
USSR. As a result of the review, three documents were
declassified and released in their entirety, and almost
all of the text of the remaining items was released
in segregable form, deleting only the names of economic
analysts and particular bits of sensitive information.
b. The Inspector General Report on the Bay of Pigs,
and a rebuttal to that report, both of which were
requested by David C. Martin (now with Newsweek), were
denied in their entirety. The IG Report as been
requested, and denied, on two or three previous occasions.
4. Anal ysis
a. The automated logging system now utilized by
IPS is proving itself to be a mixed blessing. It
requires more manpower to maintain it than was true
of our former manual log, and system downtime, coupled
with slow terminal responses, has further exacerbated
the problem. 'A bottleneck has resulted. We propose
adding another person to the logging unit or, if that
is not possible, using overtime to surmount the manpower
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shortage. The system shortcomings, however, are beyond
our power to remedy. ODP is aware of the problems.
b. Another FOIA release made the news last Saturday.
In an article in the New Scientist, 4 November 1976,
concerning dissidence among Soviet scientists, Dr.
Zhores Medvedev, Russian expatriate now working in
London, casually mentioned that there had been a
serious nuclear accident in the southern Urals, near
Chelyabinsk, in 1957 or 1958. This story, confirmed by
another Soviet scientist who had immigrated to Israel,
triggered a number of newspaper articles, arguments
between environmentalists and nuclear power advocates,
and, eventually, several FOIA requests. Among the
requesters was Dr. Medvedev himself.
The reaction generated by the documents we sub-
sequently released clearly demonstrates the inherent
difficulty faced by the public in trying to draw a true
picture from the fragments of intelligence documents we
can release, and, conversely, the propensity of the
press to leap to exaggerated conclusions from the same
evidence.
The Agency's response, as originally drafted, had
included only a few documents, and these tended to
cancel each other out--creating the false impression
that Medvedev had been mistaken. Before this reply
could be released, however, additional material responsive
to the request was received in IPS. This material,
heavily sanitized clandestine service reports, repeated
second- and third-hand descriptions of the accident,
indicating extensive human casualities.
One of the organizations to which the documents
were sent was Critical Mass--the Nader-associated
"Citizens' Movement for Safe and Efficient Energy." On
25 November, Critical Mass released the documents to
the media, with a Nader "slap" at the CIA for sitting
on such vital information for 20 years. Articles which
appeared the following day in both Washington newspapers
stressed the most sensational aspects of the released
documents. The Washington Post, which had picked up
copies of the documents directly from the Agency, did
mention the "raw data" caveats on the documents; The
Washington Star did not even do that. According to a
'knowledgeable OSI analyst, the truth probably fell
midway between the two extremist views. Human casualties
and biological damage was probably not as serious or
widespread as the raw clandestine service reports would
indicate. Our dilemma, which was also faced in connection
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with the release on the Israeli attack on the USS
Libert , is this: we cannot withhold the misleading
raw human source reports without violating the letter
and spirx~, of the law; yet, more reliable data must be
denied in order to protect from disclosure sensitive
collection systems. In situations such as these, it is
'possible that there may be occasions where information
provided by the agency could be misunderstood or mis-
interpreted. There is no valid basis for withholding
raw reports under the Freedom of Information Act, and
any effort on our part to place the information into
proper perspective might lead to speculations and
accusations that the Agency was attempting to manipulate
the media.
STATINTL
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OLC 77-5748
30 December 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: Morning Meeting Participants
FROM: George L. Cary
Legislative Counsel
SUBJECT: Amendments to the Freedom of
Information Act
DD/A Registry
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1. (C) In a recent meeting with the Chairman of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, the Director expressed serious concern
about the impact of the Freedom of Information Act on Agency
activities, not only from the standpoint of the man-hours involved
in record searches, reviews, appeals and litigation, but more
importantly from the standpoint of the impact which FOIA disclosures
were having in the aggregate on our relationships with foreign intel-
ligence services and cooperating individuals.
2. (C) Chairman Inouye was both sympathetic and receptive to the
Director's concerns and suggested that we draft proposed amendments
to the Freedom of Information Act which might resolve some of these
problems. This office is currently assessing the impact of FOIA
and working on possible amendatory language. An essential part of
this process is the argumentation to go with amendatory language
stating the impact of the FOLA and giving examples of the difficulties
which we have experienced as a result of it.
3. (C) I am aware that there are some differences of opinion as to
whether or, not FOLA has in fact has a negative or harmful impact on
Agency activities and operations. With this in mind I would appreciate
receiving your comments and suggestions plus any documentation you
can give on your position on this subject by 15 January 1978.
~CY~ a ~~F..a r.~ ? ? .~ i~
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