CONGRESSMAN ROSENTHALS INTENTION TO PUBLISH CLASSIFIED CIA DOCUMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160083-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2007
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: January 15, 1982
• Content Type: MEMO

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OGC 82-00319
15 January 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
THROUGH: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
Executive Director
Director, External Affairs
FROM: General Counsel
SUBJECT: Congressman Rosenthal's Intention to Publish
Classified CIA Documents
1. The Central Intelligence Agency has been furnishing
classified documents since 1979 to the House Government
Operations Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary
Affairs, chaired by Representative Benjamin S. Rosenthal
(D, NY), in the course of the Subcommittee's investigation
of OPEC investment in the United States. The Subcommittee's
use of-the documents is governed by a Memorandum of Under-
standing (MOU) drafted by the Agency and signed by Chairman
Rosenthal in 1979. (Tab A)
2. In early September Chairman Rosenthal sent you a
letter notifying you that the Subcommittee planned to use
seventeen classified CIA documents in preparing its public
report on OPEC investment. (Tab B) You responded that clas-
sified information contained in the documents could not he
disclosed to anyone lacking the requisite security clearances,
and agreed, as an accommodation to the Subcommittee, to
initiate an interagency document declassification review of
the seventeen CIA documents. (Tab C) The Legislative Liaison
Division of the Office of External Affairs, in coordination
with my Office and the DDI Congressional Support Staff, has
kept the Subcommittee informed of the progress of the
interagency declassification review.
3. The responsible officers pf the DI Office of Global
Issues, the DDO Near East Division
reviewed the seventeen documents to redetermine Tne
correctness of the classification of each portion of the
documents. Simultaneously, the Departments of State and
Treasury, and the National Security Agency examined the docu-
ments. This interagency. review process was completed in late
December. Because of the extreme source sensitivity and foreign
policy sensitivity Gates involved
on 6nJathe nuaryereof these quested alfinallreview
documents, , D DI Bob
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of the documents, as sanitized for declassification by reviewers
External Affairs and of my Office delivered your response within
ten working days of your receipt of the Chairman's notification.
5. Under paragraph 9 of the MOU, Chairman Rosenthal may
raise his dissatisfaction with our response to his request with
you and, if necessary, with the President. The MOU does not
give the Chairman an option to publish the classified documents
at this point.
folder) refers to the Agency's failure to observe a ten working
day deadline contained in paragraph 9 of the MOU. However,
the deadline to which the Chairman referred applied to your
23 September response to his 8 September written notification
of intent to make public use of the CIA documents. Represen-
tatives of the Legislative Liaison Division of the Office of
at the working level, at the Assistant-Secretary level in the
Departments of State and Treasury, and the National Security
Council. State and NSC advised us on 13 January that they
have no objection to release of the package of declassified
documents. Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury
Foster Collins advised us today that Assistant Treasury Secret
Leland has not been able to find time to review the documents,
but, recognizing the Pressure for quick action and in view of
prior Treasury review at the working level, he anticipates no
problem if we forward the package to the Chairman.
4. The Chairman's letter of 13 January 1982 (inside
6. I recommend that you sign the attached letter to Chairman
Rosenthal, transmitting the results of the declassification
review and expressing regret at the length of time the review
has taken:
jarti ey por i n
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