THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100230006-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: February 1, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100230006-2
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS REVIEW
January-February 1982
THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND
INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
Athan G. Theoharis
Department of History, Marquette University. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 5
Abstract-The author challenges the claims of intelligence agency officials
empting their agencies' files from the FOIA. Noting that the FOIA's m
search and disclosure provision alone permits access to the range of into
agency files, the author cites the separate filing and "compartmentalized"
policies of the CIA and the FBI. He concludes by challenging the adequacy
gressional oversight without independent historical research.
Since 1979, one of the principal legislative objectives of the Federal Btl
tion (FBI) and of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been to exempt their files from
the mandatory search and disclosure provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
of 1966, as amended [1]. These agencies' claims to the contrary, there is no record to date
that legitimate national secrets have been compromised because of the FOIA. This is not sur-
prising since the Act already contains a "national security" exception which exempts properly
classified FBI and CIA files from public disclosure. The FBI's and the CIA's proposed FOIA
exemptive measures, however, would effectively preempt scholarly research into the past
history of the FBI and the CIA at a time when such research can only now be initiated.
Until the mid-1970s, because CIA and FBI files -were absolutely classified, scholarly
research into the history of these agencies was virtually impossible. Unlike journalists,
historians and political scientists need to have access to primary source materials-inter-
views, press conferences; public testimony, and selectively leaked documents clearly do not
meet the exacting standards of scholarly research. Yet, for example, all FBI files dating from
the World War I period were classified, including those documenting the FBI's August 1923
investigation of the fraudulent Zinoviev Instructions. In addition, in the early 1960s, FBI of-
ficials successfully pressured the National Archives to withdraw from Department of Justice
and American Protective League files deposited at the Archives all documents and copies of
documents pertaining to FBI investigations of the World War I period [2].
The problem is not simply over- and indiscriminate-classification. Were that the case, then
--these proposed amendments to the FOIA would not cripple historical research. Under Ex-
ecutive Order 12065 (and formerly E.O. 11652), historians can submit mandatory review re-
quests to obtain declassification of improperly and an longer justifiably classified
documents. Yet, to employ the mandatory review procedure, the researcher must be able to
identify specific classified documents and be generally aware of particular programs and ac-
tivities. As a result of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities' hearings and
reports, however, we now know how limited, even irrelevant, had been our knowledge of past
FBI and CIA activities. Experts of the Cold War years might have been aware generally of
the preventive detention program instituted under the McCarran (Internal Security) Act of
1950 and lasting until congressional repeal in September 1971. We now know that without
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100230006-2