MEETING WITH HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE (HPSCI) STAFF RE SECURITY MATTERS WITH THE CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000400520014-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: July 28, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/19: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000400520014-4
28 July 1986
SUBJECT: Meeting with House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI)
Staff re Security Matters with the Congress
1. On this date, in response to the request of Steve Berry, HPSCI
staff, the following people met to discuss security matters pertaining to the
Congress:
Steve Berry, HPSCI
Bernard Raimo, HPSCI
David Addington, HPSCI
hief, Special Security Center
Domestic Security Division
pecial Security Center
-OCA
ief, Clearance Division
2. Mr. Berry opened the meeting by stating that this was a
"factfinding" mission. He said they want to know the procedures we have in
effect for handling security matters with the Hill - clearances, storage,
inventory of material we send there, etc.
3. The undersigned began by going over all the steps involved in
processing a Congressional staff member for SCI, i.e., the Chairman of a
Committee must send a letter to the DCI requesting SCI access, giving a
justification for the accesses. I then submit the appropriate forms (2018a)
to Security. Security then sends a Liaison officer to review the Background
Investigation (BI). If the BI is favorable and meets the standards of DCID
1/14, then I notify the staff member that he/she has been approved and arrange
an SCI briefing. I pointed out that only Committee staff personnel are
approved for SCI - no personal staff. I said this is chiefly to keep the
numbers low - SCI "clearance" is a status symbol to people on the Hill and
everyone wants it. Mr. Berry said he understands that. We discussed the fact
that even though a Committee staff member receives the SCI accesses, this does
not mean they have a right to SCI material - it is still on a need-to-know
basis. We discussed the passing of clearances - when a staff member goes to a
meeting, i.e. the Pentagon, overseas, etc., - they should contact me and I
pass the clearances - through Security - to their meeting place. I pointed
out the problems they can face if they do not have them passed, i.e., they can
get to an overseas post and find that they cannot sit in on the meetings they
want because the post has not received word of their clearances.
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STAT 4. explained the responsibilities of the CIA Special
Security Center (SS7~: all non-NFIB SCI accesses are provided by CIA. The
SSC maintains a centralized - 4C - listing of all accesses of non-NFIB
personnel plus all CIA personnel, I advised Mr. Berry that I maintain the
Legislative Branch listing - which is in 4C. I have the "up-to-date" copy.
When someone leaves a Committee,the clearances do not follow him/her. If
possible, we get the person to sign a debriefing oath, but in the majority of
cases we find out too late and can't reach the person. In that event we
"admin debrief" which is to put a memorandum in their Security file stating
that they are no longer cleared. I added that the Library of Congress, who
have their own Office of Security, are extremely good about making their
personnel sign the debriefing oath as part of their exiting process. They
send me the oath and I send it to Security for their files. I said I make
sure that my copy of the 4C is kept current - deletions, corrections, new
STAT entries, ones in process, etc. told Mr. Berry that the other
agencies have access to 4C - they nave thle-ir own terminals and can access the
list - so they can check on their own to see if a particular person on the
Hill has SCI. I mentioned this is not really good because of the changes
which don't make it into the system right away -- there are some staff people
who try to use their clearances after they have left the Committee.
5. I explained how we handle a situation where a staff member holds
SCI, moves to another Committee and requires them there. If the BI is within
five years, we will just "move" them to the new Committee and have the person
sign an oath showing the new Committee. If someone comes from State for
example, and holds the clearances there, we will do the same as long as the BI
is within the five year timeframe.
STAT
6. Mr. Berry asked if we have ever removed a person's accesses. Mr.
I
years for various reasons. He asked how we handled "security violations" and
I explained we will talk to the person involved, and write to the Chairman of
the Committee, or the Member. I told him we have not had too many of these
instances. One problem is trying to prove the violator. We can give a
briefing and the information can show up in the press, but we have to prove it
was the person we briefed who leaked the information - if the information was
known by a number of people it could have been one of them.
7. Mr. Berry asked about storage requirements on the Hill for CIA
material. I explained that we have audited and approved several places - some
for SCI (SSCI, HPSCI, SCNSI, SAC, HAC) and several others for Secret. We
discussed the fact that CIA standards are higher than the other agencies. I
said I know for a fact that Top Secret material is stored in areas on the Hill
which we would never approve. Mr. Berry asked why DOD and others would allow
this and we don't. I said I don't have the answer to that, but I explained
that we are very careful not to send or leave material anyplace but the
approved places. I said all material going to the Hill is to come through OCA
and the Liaison officers and our Registry personnel all check to be sure the
destination is on the approved list. If it isn't, we arrange for the person
to see it and return it in the same day, or store it in one of the approved
areas overnight. I told Mr. Berry that the House side has a problem because
the HPSCI will not let anyone store anything overnight - the SSCI does allow
this. I promised to give Mr. Berry a list of the approved storage
facilities on the Hill.
to rye a "closet" homosexual. I said we have disapproved several over the
and I told him we have - one was a House Reporter, another was found
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8. Mr. Berry asked about BI's. I explained - with Mr. Pierce's
assistance - the problems we encounter. I said we quite often have difficulty
gaining access to the BI for review. Mr. Pierce explained how the Security
Liaison officers spend so much time trying to review them. Mr. Berry asked
how HPSCI handles this and I said they send us a copy of the BI when they send
the request for the SCI. He asked why we couldn't get the other Committees to
do the same. I said we could try - it would speed up the processing quite a
bit. I said I know that most of the Committees don't receive a copy - but I
could ask them to request a copy each time.
9. Mr. Berry asked why the Library of Congress - Congressional Research
Service - had SCI. I explained that they all work with DIA on some special
project.
10. Mr. Berry said that he will be sending letters to the other
agencies, State, DOD, DOE, FBI, Justice, etc. asking what their procedures
are. He asked me what I felt was the most important matter and I said
education. I explained that people are brought in to personal staffs and
Committee staffs who have never seen classified material before. All of a
sudden they are given a letter from DOD or somewhere stating that they have
been granted a Secret or a Top Secret clearance. They are not given any sort
of briefing on what this entails - the responsibilities, how to handle the
material, who they can discuss it with, give it to, etc. I explained that
when we give them the SCI briefing we cover all of these things. I said they
must be given some education. I told Mr. Berry of the freshman Congresswoman
who asked us to come up and brief her on classified material because she found
that she was getting it from all over and didn't know how to handle it. We
went up and gave her about an hour's briefing and she was most grateful.
11. I told Mr. Berry that I would find it extremely difficult to work
on the Hill having to figure out how each agency wants material handled. I
feel that there should be one set of standardized regulations for
transmitting, storing, etc. I don't know how they can keep it all straight
the way it is.
12. Mr. Berry and the others seemed to be pleased with the meeting and
said they felt they had a good understanding of how we operate. The meeting
lasted an hour and forty-five minutes.
Distribution :
Original - JNID Subject File
1 - D/OCA
1 - C/CD/OS
1 - C/SSC/OS
1-D.SD/O.S
1 - OCA Subject
1 - OCA Chrono
1 - J ND Chrono
1 - C/HA/OCA
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