LETTER TO DON EDWARDS FROM DAVID D. GRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87B00858R000500810053-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 53
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2011/09/08: CIA-RDP87B00858R000500810053-4
Central Intelligence Agency
The Honorable Don Edwards
Chairman
Subcommittee on Civil
and Constitutional Rights
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I am replying to your letter of January 28, 1986 to the
Director of Central Intelligence concerning personnel security
investigations.
The Central Intelligence Agency was not involved in the
"lesson plan" or "classroom hand-out" materials which your
letter indicates were used by a Department of the Army
polygraph training school before their use was ordered
discontinued. The Agency recognizes that personnel security
investigations can, by nature, appear to be intrusive.
t`onetheless, the Agency works to insure that all such
investigations under its jurisdiction are properly conducted
and inquire only into those areas which involve legitimate
security concerns.
Personnel security investigations are, of course, only one
part of the Agency's personnel security program. The purpose
of this program is to insure that all persons hired and
retained by the Agency possess the extremely high degree of
trustworthiness required to deal with this nation's most
sensitive national security information. Determinations of
trustworthiness are, however, not made in a vacuum. They
hinge, instead, on the particulars of each case. Further, the
sorts of information which may be required to reach a
determination of trustworthiness in a particular case and the
means by which that information is assembled can involve some
of the most sensitive intelligence sources and methods
information which the Agency possesses.
Your letter requests that the Agency furnish a witness to
testify, among other things, on the relationship "demonstrated
through a scientifically valid method" between the sorts of
issues raised by the Army materials and a "proclivity to commit
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espionage". Because of the Agency's view that determinations
of trustworthiness cannot be made in a vacuum, the Agency does
not believe that a general discussion on the subject would be
particularly useful, especially a discussion which had as its
reference criteria not generated by the Agency and apparently
discontinued by the Army. Further, were the discussion to turn
to specific sources and methods used by the Agency, I fear that
it would fall within an area, intelligence oversight, which has
been committed to the jurisdiction of the intelligence
committees. It is for these reasons the Agency is reluctant to
provide a witness as described in your letter.
Let me, however, suggest the following. If, at the time
the Subcommittees' proceedings in this matter have been
completed you still believe the record needs supplementation,
the Agency would be willing to discuss with your staff the
possibility of providing, in an appropriate format, written
supplementary materials.
I hope that this is responsive to your letter. A copy of
this letter is also being forwarded to Chairwoman Schroeder.
Sincerely,
David D. Cries
Director, Office of Congressional Affairs
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