LETTER TO THE HONORABLE BENJAMIN S. ROSENTHAL FROM WILLIAM J. CASEY REGARDING GEORGE LARDNERS ARTICLE PANEL VOTES TO BARE ARAB INVESTMENTS REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160043-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2007
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: May 7, 1982
• Content Type: LETTER

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Central Intelligence Agency OE XA : 82-1309
7 May 1982
Honorable Benjamin S. Rosenthal
Chairman, Subcommittee on Commerce,
Consumer and Monetary Affairs
Committee on Government Operations
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
George Lardner's May 7, 1982 article "Panel Votes to Bare
Arab Investments Report," reports that your Subcommittee staff
had accused several of my congressional relations officers of
attempting to "commandeer" a stenographer who is an employee of
the House of Representatives. I have been assured that this is
utterly untrue. It appears that whoever made any such charge
does not regularly deal with classified hearings, and does not
understand the practices which the Executive Branch and con-
gressional committees have followed for years in protecting the
sensitive classified information which appears in transcripts
of closed hearings.
The customary and long established procedure for dealing
with classified stenographic notes from closed hearings is for
our Office of Security to provide officers to accompany the
stenographic materials from the hearing room to the steno-
grapher's working area to convert them into a transcript. If
the stenographer plans to produce the transcript at a later
time, our Security officers store the material in a secure area
at CIA Headquarters. Thereafter, at any time when the House
stenographer is ready to convert the stenographic materials
into a transcript, our Security officers take the material to
him. Our officers provide physical security for the classified
information, and that is their sole function. We have followed
this procedure regularly with the Intelligence, Appropriations,
and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Congress and have never
run into any difficulty, let alone the type of strident attack
which George Lardner reported in the Washington Post of May 7th.
The statement that the stenographer "would have been
whisked away to Langley," is particularly offensive. That
statement could not have been made in good faith. Indeed, the
stenographer himself told your staff on the spot that what we
were doing was the normal procedure and it matched the regular
instructions he had from the House Clerk's Office. Lest the
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American people be misled into thinking that CIA has misbehaved
when it merely sought to follow a long established and accepted
procedure, the misinformation your staff seems to have given to
the press needs to be corrected.
Mr. Chairman, I am concerned that the matter seems to be
getting out of hand and that there has been a loss of perspec-
tive. Somehow we seem to be forgetting that the product produced
by the CIA and provided to your Subcommittee was an excellent
one. Indeed it is the high quality of our intelligence product
that is the cause of the present dispute. It is vital that this
Agency be able to cooperate with the various committees of the
Congress. The Congress has always recognized a corresponding
responsibility in its use and handling of information we
provide to assure it does not adversely impact on the ability
of this Agency to continue to gather information vital to our
Nation's interest.
I realize that the issue of your desire to publish
information from seventeen classified CIA documents has been a
difficult one to resolve amicably. I do hope that we can restore
the spirit of cooperation evidenced by our continuing relation-
ship over the past four years.
Distribution:
Original - Addressee
1 - DDCI 1 - C/PAD/OEXA
1 - ER 1 - D/OGI
1 - EXDIR
1 - GC
1 - OGC/Legislation Division
1 - LLD/OEXA (Prehnl
1 - OEXA Subject
1 - OEXA Chrono
OGC/Leg Division:DSA (7 May 1982)
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