CURRENT STATUS OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 12065 REVISION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R001900070003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 16, 2007
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 11, 1982
• Content Type: MEMO

AppLoved For Release 2007/02/16: CIA-RDP83MO09-14R001900070003-6
OGC 82-01429
FEB 1 1 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
FROM: Stanley Sporkin
General Counsel
SUBJECT:
Current Status of Executive order 12065
Revision _
1. Attached for your review is the latest revised
version of Executive Order 12065, "National Security Information."
This draft order has been provided to various congressional
committees for. review any. comment, and it is reasonable to
assume that a certain amount of public debate and-controversy
will ensue before the proposed order is signed by the President.
2. The attached order is based, in large part, ona
draft prepared by an Intelligence Community group chaired by
this Agency's Deputy General' Counsel. This Intelligence
Community draft was circulated by the Information Security
Oversight.Off ice (ISOO) to the approximately thirty-five
(35) Executive branch agencies involved in the classification
process.. After reviewing the-comments submitted by these
agencies, ISOO made a number of changes in the Intelli-ence
Community proposal and then forwarded this revised draft to
the Assistant- to the President for National : acurty Affairs
in early December 1981. in Mr. Allen's absence, this revised
.draft was circulated . to. interested agencies for die final
round of. comments by Edwin Meese on 23 December 1981. As
you will recall, the Agency's comments concerning this draft
were. forwarded to Mr. William Clark-by your letter of 18
January 1982. After making a number of limited changes, Mr.
Clark provided the attached revised draft to both the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence and certain other congressional
committees. some time last week. At the same time, the
attached draft was also forwarded by Mr. Clark to tTie Director
of OMB, who circulated the draft to concerned agencies for
3. As to. the attached draft itself, it still reflects
to a significant extent the changes originally proposed by
the Intelligence Community working group. One of the
comments which.must be submitted by 19 February 1982.
 ,, Approved For Release 2007/02/16: CIA-RDP83M00914R001900070003-6
revisions made by Mr. Clark in this latest draft, however,
is of some concern to the Agency. This revision effectively
.reduces the scope of the presumption of damage that had been
afforded to "information relating to intelligence sources. or
methods" in Section 1.3(c) of the draft order. This section
provides that the unauthorized disclosure of certain particularly.
sensitive information is "presumed to cause damage to the
national security," and thus significantly reduces the
burden of agencies in defending classification decisions in
court. The earlier draft had included "information relating
to intelligence sources or methods" as a category of information,
subject to this presumption. The attached revision has
dropped the language "information relating.to," and would
now extend the added protection of this presumption only to
the "unauthorized disclosure of ...intelligence sources or
methods." It should be noted, however, that the presumption
contained in the present E.O. 12065 does not include intelligence
sources or methods in any form, and that the inclusion of
even this more limited language is still an improvement over
the existing.Order. Nonetheless, the need to adequately
protect intelligence sources or methods requires, in my
.view, that the presumption apply not only to names or personal
identifiers of. intelligence sources, but to any information
which could lead to or significantly fac".litate the identification
of such sources. This and other suggested comments are
presently being prepared by this Office, subject to your
review and coordination with other interested components,
for submission to OMB by the 19 February deadline.
4. I should emphasize with respect to the current
congressional review of the proposed order that our ability
to influence this process is somewhat limited. Representatives
of.ISOO, at the direction of Mr. Clark, are assuming major
responsibility for selling this proposal to.Congress and the
public. Greater Agency involvement in this process does not
appear necessary at the present time until some indication
as to the scope of the changes that will be sought by the
various committees is provided.
5. You should also know that Mr. Clark has instructed
the Director of ISOO to make the attached available to
various public interest groups, including the Association
for Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and the ACLU. Thus,
.it is virtually certain that public debate on this order
will ensue shortly.
STAHLLiY SPORKlG`J
Stanley Sporkin
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OGC/SWH:ba (10 Feb 82)
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