LETTER TO WILLIAM J. CASEY FROM DAVE DURENBERGER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89B00236R000200120020-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2008
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: October 3, 1983
• Content Type: LETTER

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BARRY COLDWATER. ARIZ., CHAIRMAN
DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN, N.Y., VICE CHAIRMAN
JAKE DARN, UTAH
JOHN IQ XAFEE. R.I.
RICHARD O. LUGAR. IND.
MALCOLM WALLOP. WYO.
DAVID DURENBERGER. MINN.
WILLIAM V. ROTH, JR., DEL
WILLIAM 8. COHEN. MAINE
WALTER D. HUDDLESTON. KY.
JOSEPH R. SIDEN. JR., DEL.
DANIEL K. INOUYE. HAWAII
HENRY M. JACKSON. WASH.
PATRICK J. LEAHY. VT.
LLOYD EENTSEN. TEX.
HOWARD H. BAKER. JR.. TENN., EX OFFICIO
ROBERT C. BYRD. W. VA.. EX OFFICIO
ROBERT R. SIMMONS. STAFF DIRECTOR
GARY J. SCHMITT. MINORITY STAFF DIRECTOR
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SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20510
October 3, 1983
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The Honorable William J. Casey
Director of Central Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
Dear Bill:
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Last April, our Chairman, Barry Goldwater, introduced a
bill that would relieve the Central Intelligence Agency from
the burden of searching some of its files in response to
Freedom of Information Act requests. While several of us
had concerns regarding aspects of this bill, we all agreed
with you that it was foolish to require the CIA to search
its most sensitive files for documents that would almost
never be declassified and released.
Five months of work are now nearing culmination in a bill
that we all will be able to support wholeheartedly. You and
we have crafted solutions to such difficult problems as the
nature of judicial review under this bill, the extent to
which the files on activities that have been the subject of
investigations will remain open to search and review under
FOIA, and how intelligence memoranda or policy memoranda
that are circulated outside of designated files but then
returned to those files for safekeeping will remain accessible
for FOIA search and review. We have also agreed that the CIA
will review its designations at least once every ten years to
see whether some files--or portions of files--should be
removed from designated status.
I think that now is an excellent time to make parallel
progress on an issue that our work on S.1324 has highlighted.
This is the need to make more declassified materials available
to historians. We both know how important history is. I am
an avid reader of history and you are a writer of it. We both
have been shaped in part by history that we have read over the
years. As historians write the definitive works on the post-
World War II era, it is terribly important that their studies
be based on as full a record as possible, consistent with the
need to protect our national security.
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The Honorable William J. Casey
October 3, 1983
Page Two
You have recognized this in putting forth a bill that
leaves unchanged current FOIA access to intelligence memo=
randa, policy documents, and files on those covert action
operations the existence' of which is no longer properly
classified. The importance of an accurate historical record,
is also recognized in your criteria for removing files from
designation, which are to include "historical value or other
public interest in the subject matter" and "the potential for
declassifying a significant part of the information."
I urge you to take the next, vitally important step: to
establish procedures for reviewing and declassifying some of
the material in your non-designated or de-designated files.
Your declassification review program need not review the
mass of documents that are either of no interest to historians
or still too sensitive to be released. Rather, you could
reasonably base your selection of material for review on the
same criteria that you have set forth for the review of file
designations. The important thing is to make the declassifi-
cation of-useful historical information a cooperative endeavor,
rather than a test of wills fought out in FOIA requests and
courtrooms.
A declassification review program would be a burden for
the CIA, but it would be a manageable burden and one well
worth assuming. The. CIA would retain control over the size
of this effort, and you could avoid the sort of crises and
bottlenecks that bedevil areas like FOIA, in which. the pace of
work may be dictated by the level of outside requests and the
vagaries of litigation. You already have a CIA Historian, so
it might be reasonable to give him a major role in declassifi-
cation review. I would be happy to lead the effort to provide
you budget support for a dozen positions, say, to be devoted to
this enterprise.
Establishment of a declassification review program would be
a fitting complement to the fine Intelligence Information Act
that I am sure we will pass. It would demonstrate your commit-
ment to openness in the things that matter, while continuing to
safeguard that which must remain secret. And it would make a
lasting contribution to public understanding of the role of
intelligence in a complex and divided world.
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OLL 83-2403
Honorable Dave Durenberger
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20.510
Dear Senator Durenberger:
I received your letter yesterday with its kind words about
our efforts on the Intelligence Information Act. We have
worked diligently through the spring and summer to reach
agreement with you and your colleagues on this bill. We have
done this because we are convinced, as you are, that the bill
will relieve us of a needless burden without harming the
interests of the press, authors, or the public at large. I am
gratified to hear you say that as a result of our efforts you
will be able to support this bill. I certainly believe it
merits everyone's support.
Your views regarding the need for an accurate historical
record are ones that I share. If Congress is willing to
-provide the resources, I am prepared to institute a new program
of selective declassification review of those materials that we
believe would be of greatest historical interest and most
likely to result in declassification of useful information.
The term "selective" is very important. There is no point
in reviewing files that we basically know will contain little
releasable information. And it makes no sense to review -- or
even to release -- material that has become releasable only
because it is trivial. Our professionals have a pretty good
sense of what is likely to prove releasable; and we would be
happy to work with our Historian, other agency historical
offices, the Archivist of the United States, and others to
determine what topics are of the greatest interest and
importance. Historians would have to trust us,.however,.to
make these professional judgments in good faith. A
declassification review program could function only if we
maintained control over the workload and concentrated our
limited resources on' the areas where they would..do the most
good. .
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One certain consequence of this selectivity would be a
concentration of our efforts on the review of older, as opposed
to more recent, material. Such material which documents the
early years of CIA could well result in the release of
information that explains the role of intelligence in the
making of foreign policy. As a general rule, we are likely to
limit the declassification review program to files at least 20
or 30 years old. However, these older files would certainly
contain information which continues to be relevant to today's
world. I am hopeful that whatever material we can release,
consistent with the need to protect sources and foreign
relations, will make a major contribution to historical
research and interpretation.
At the moment, I do not know whether our small historical
staff would be in a position to manage a selective
declassification review program. But no matter where such a
program would be placed organizationally within the Agency,
I understand that what you are suggesting is a program provided
with adequate resources. Several weeks ago, on my own
initiative, I had requested the Historian of the CIA to explore
a program that would result in the release of usable historical
.materials from the World War II period. I look forward to
working with additional resources having, as you suggest, the
mission of declassifying and releasing historical materials
that no longer require protection.
Please allow me again to express my appreciation for your
support of S. 1324. With the enactment of this important
legislation and the achievement of the necessary budget
support, I believe this Agency would be more than willing to
undertake a new selective declassification review program.
With your leadership and support, we can forge a workable means
of informing the public while still protecting our nation's
secrets.
Sincerely,
William J. Casey
Director of Central Intelligence
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