APEX STEERING GROUP MEETING, 22 APRIL 1980

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00788R000100070033-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2005
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: April 23, 1980
• Content Type: MF

1. The 15th meeting of the APEX Steering Group was called to order
at 10:10 a.m. on 22 April 1980 with the following in attendance:
MEIORANDUIM FOR: SA to the DCI for Compartmentation
FROM: Deputy Chief, APEX Control Staff
SUBJECT: APEX Steering Group Meeting, 22 April 1980
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23 April 1930
ACS
ARMY
NSA
COMIREX
SIGINT
SECOM
DIA
ONI
AF
STATE/INR
SAFSS
STATE
DIA
CIA
ACS
ACS
ACS
ACS
Herbert W. Taylor
, Chairman
Colonel Herbert H. Kamm
Don Sti ers
William Deary
Richard L. Welch
2. The meeting began with the description of copies of congressional
testimony on the APEX system by DIA. This was followed with a discussion
on negotiations on an APEX nondisclosure_ agreement by the CIA's Office of
General Counsel and NSA attorneys. The secrecy agreement proposed by NSA
includes three optional paragraphs. It is not an APEX agreement, but a
"protected information" agreement which includes APEX. A meeting has
been called for Friday which will include members of the Security Committee
and the general counsels of the Intelligence Community, the agenda for
which is now being prepared. NSA is asking, because of the Snepp case, Mr.
said, for expansion of the prepublication review requirements.
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The CIA General Counsel will propose that anyone can add paragraphs to
the secrecy agreement upon approval by the DCI's legal advisor. At this
point, Mr. Welch asked for a copy of the proposed agreement and was
advised that none was available. Mr. Deary asked, "Even though subsets
will be added to the secrecy agreement, will all of them deal with
intelligence?" He pointed out that if the discussion has gotten into
areas other than APEX, it will now be necessary to bring in the State
25X1 Department legal counsel. told the group that Mr.
Silver, the CIA General Counsel, has requested the aforementioned meet-
ing but has not provided copies of what is to be floated at the meeting.
25X1 advised that he. has asked the Office of General Counsel,
CIA, for a secrecy agreement form to be used at the 5-6 May seminar and
for a lawyer to explain'-. the purpose of the agreement and the necessity
for it. Mr. Welch asked whether the agreement will address other than
25X1 classified information, and esponded in the negative.
25X1 3. I lannounced that the APEX videotape on administra-
tive procedures wil enter its last taping stage tomorrow, and the film
should be ready for the Sth of May. He also told the group that there
25X1 has been no comment on the APEX material
released to em on the 16th of April and apparent y, no news is good
25X1 news.. 1 -1
.4. Regarding the request for comments on the 0 nominating
,25X1 process, said the papers have been received from CIA, DIA,
25X1 and NSA, and that ill provide comments from COMIREX and the
SIGINT committee. Mr. Herb Taylor said that the Army concurs in the
comments by DIA. In response to Mr. Deary's request for some insight
into the responses received thus far, aid that NSA favors
having only the sponsor of'the material being nominated for and
the DCI make the decision. It appears unlikely, at this point, that
25X1 II nominations will be dealt with by everyone who attends NFIB meet-
ings. Mr. Deary commented that, realistically, the only option appears
to be to have the sponsor and the DCI make the decision.
elaborated on the NSA proposal indicating that there are three pol
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a. The advocate and the DCI would normally make the decision
regarding compartmentation.
b. The proposal does not rule out one or more additional
parties, for example, the Secretary of Defense or the
Secretary of State.
c. It does not
challenge th
items.
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25
25
Jrecipients to 25
t the ability of L
_____
Icompartmentation of individual
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25X1 indicated that some people have advocated a reduced group
consisting of CIA, DIA, NSA, and INR. Mr. Welch commented that the Navy
prefers having the DCI and the operational program managers in concert
make the determination in a forum similar to the DCI's Thursday morning
25X1 mini-NFIB meetings.
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5. told the members that NFIB concurrence had been
received on the APEX Industrial Manual with certain suggestions by NSA.
Copies of the NSA proposals were passed out to the members. E_ I
then read the NSA proposed changes and explained the reasons for acceptance
or nonacceptance on each of them. Of particular interest was the NSA
proposal to make the industrial APEX control numbers utilize a 4-digit
identifier for the contractor facility. It was pointed out that the
industrial orientation working group has been tasked to finding a solu-
tion to this problem and it appears likely that an alpha-numerical
designator will be the solution. There was also a lengthy discussion
of what contractors can or cannot destroy without permission of the NSO,
and the NSA suggestion was finally accepted provided there was no objec-
tion from the Steering Group membership within the next day Mr.
and Mr.
Deary commented that the contractor manual does not mention or
Welch commented that if 0 testimony is given when a contractor
recorder is taking notes, then contractors will have access.
.6. The second set of galley proofs for the APEX administrative hand-
book were distributed, and it was pointed out that paragraph 24 will be
changed to further eliminate the objective of avoiding the creation of
APEX documents unnecessarily; that an exhibit provided by Col. Kamm
demonstrating where force correspondence policy would be inserted; and
that the matter of routing indicators on inner envelopes needed to be
addressed. The third item generated considerable discussion concerning
current procedures for the existing compartmented systems (system indi-
cators are now placed on inner envelopes), the possibility of APEX
material being opened during nonduty hours by watch officers, and whether
any marking would be effective in all circumstances. A vote was taken
with Navy, DIA, and NSA favoring the use of project digraphs and trigraphs
on the inner envelope; State, CIA, SAFSS, SIGINT, COMINT, Air Force, and
Army favoring the use of compartment indicators (OPERATIONAL, SUBCOMPART-
NENT, or PRODUCT); SECOM favoring use of the proper address as the only
routing; and COMIREX expressing no preference. Following the vote, the
chairman announced that as a minimum the co artment indicators would
be used on the inner envelopes.
7. A series of questions concerning problems in generating software
for the 4-C system was passed out. A copy is attached.
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COMIINT access. He also said that the DCI had, in recent years, required
a similar breakdown in the functions of persons holding access to SCI.
25X1 responded that the present proposal for 4-C will provide
a reasonable breakdown and he asked for a response to the handout by the
next Steering Group meeting. It was pointed out that there will be no
Steering Group meeting the following week due to the APEX seminar. -
Further discussion ensued regarding various requirements for knowledge of
the functions performed by persons holding access to APEX. Lt. Col.
25X1 suggested that it would be valuable to study the exposure to SCI
o ersons in specific income brackets who live in high cost areas. W.
25X1 suggested that this can be done with the statistics which will
25X1 be provided by 4-C. indicated that COMINT wanted to look
very closely at the requirement or functional indicators. M% Deary
suggested that the entire decision should be left to the DCI because
he has a right to know what kinds of people have access to compartmented
25X1 information.
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8. The members were given a handout outlining a proposal for a
further attempt at developing a single receiptin system for APEX. Mr.
that organization's internal use only.
indicated that he wished to make one more attempt to find a
single receipt which would be useable by all parties. He further indicated
that if anyone requires a machineable form, it probably will have to be for
'9. Col. Kamm reported that the APEX seminar agenda has been revised,
speakers:. have been identified, and approximately 400 attendees are
expected of whom 250 will attend the cocktail party. He further stated
that buses from the Pentagon to CIA Headquarters have been arranged and
told the members that no manuscripts or visual aids have yet been received
from the scheduled speakers. Projection transparencies must be received
by the APEX Control Staff by Thursday afternoon in order to try them out.
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25X1 10. I Ireported that the Industrial Working Group is
planning a session on 19 I may at CIA Headquarters for 31 persons represent-
25X1 ing 19 industrial firms. Ire ported there are no new develop-
ments from the SIGINT committee. Jndicated that COAIIREX
does not anticipate that much progress will be made in their efforts until
25X1 after the APEX seminar. elaborated on the prior
discussion of the meeting to be held by the members of the Security
Committee and the Community General Counsels. He stated that the original
tasking from the APEX Steering Group to the Security Committee was to
formulate a standard nondisclosure agreement, not a preemployment oath.
At this point, several of the General Counsels wanted to capitalize on
the Snepp case with a strong requirement for prepublication review. The
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Justice Department, on the other hand, is calling for a pullback from
this position and indicates that they are not likely to concur in any
form with a strong prepublication review clause. He further indicated
that the proposal supported by the CIA General Counsel contains several
optional paragraphs and is seven pages long, with five of the seven pages
in legalese-.. He indicated that he did not believe the Security Committee
would report out a nondisclosure form in time for the 5-6 May seminar if
it depends upon concurrence by both the CIA General Counsel and the
.Department of Justice. Mr. Deary asked if the State Department legal
counsel is participating in this e
ffort and received a negative
reply.
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asked whether the eff
ort to use simple., clear lang
uage in
the oath was
being continued and
again replied in t
he negative.
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11. The meeting was adjourne
d;at 11:34 a.m.
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cc: Steering Group Members
APEX Control Staff
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SUBJECT: APEX Steering Group Meeting, 22 April 1980
25X1 SA/DCI/C kb (23 April 1980)
Distribu :
Original - SA/DCI/C File
1 - SA/DCI/C Chrono
1 - Richard Welch, ONI
1 - Anderson, OSD
25X1 1 DIA
1 - Herbert Tay or, Army
1 - Col. Herbert Kamm Air-Force
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HAiIDOUT FOR APEX STEERING GROUP MEETING -- 22 April 1980
A. APEX Steering Group guidance is needed regarding three aspects of
the Community-wide, Computer-assisted, Compartmentation Control
(4-C) System.
B. Input from the APEX'Steering Group is needed on 4-C software for
handling cases in which the sponsoring agency wishes to debrief a
contractor employee who has been term certified to another agency.
Alternatives appear. to be as follows:
1. Create software which would preclude Agency "A" from
debriefing the subject until Agency "B" has had an opportunity
to pick him up as prime sponsor.
2. Create software that will notify Agency "B" that the
subject has been debriefed by Agency "A" (and you'd better get
him approved for access if you plan to continue to use him).
C. A second matter on which Steering Group input would be desirable
is 4-C archival records on term certifications for Government
and contractor employees. It seems important for the 4-C
archives to reflect that a contractor employee worked for other
than the sponsoring agency under a term certification. It seems
less important that a Government employee's visits or TDYs to other
agencies be so recorded, because his personnel and/or security file
would reflect these matters. Alternatives are:
1. Archival records of contractor employee term certifica-
tions only.
2. Archival records of Government employee term certifica-
tions only.
4. 'Neither
D. Finally, input from the ASG is desired on whether the 4-C record should
include a functional description of the role of the individual access
holder, e.g., administrative, analytical, operational, etc. This option
would be relatively costly, but some agencies currently maintain such
information.
1. Yes
2. No
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