TO HONORABLE BELLA S. ABZUG, CHAIRWOMAN FROM GEORGE BUSH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP77M00144R000800070023-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 15, 1976
• Content Type: LETTER

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= CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
OLC 76-1.614/a
Honorable Bella S. Abzug, Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Government Information and
Individual Rights
Committee on Government Operations
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C. 20515
Dear Madam Chairwoman:
JUN 1975
This is in regard to your letter of 4 June 1976, expressing
concern as to our letter to the Senate leadership requesting
confirmation of our expressed intention to resume destruction
of Agency documents.
We have extended the moratorium for six months, to
expire on 10 December 1976, as requested by the Senate leader-
ship.. Prior to the destruction of any records, we shall transmit
to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence copies of the
record schedules which are submitted to the National Archives
and Record Service for their approval prior to the destruction
of any records. The same will be done with respect to those
routine administrative records which, although not involved
under S. Res. 21, were withheld from routine destruction during
the life of that Resolution.
My letter to the Senate leadership was only a preliminary
step to destruction to determine if there is further congressional
interest. I wish to make clear that it was never my intention
to destroy any documents still subject to Justice Department
investigation or re'. svant to litigation.
I trust that this arrangement satisfies your concerns.
CRC, 10/06/2003
>~O UTIO,v
George Bush A
Distribution: Director 4 ' `M-)
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Sincerely,
George Bush
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Two letters. attached; one from Chairwoman
Abz g and one from Senator Mark Hatf;A1d
STATINTL
 BELGft S. ABZUG, N.Y.AP5yIGM td For Release 2004/03/11 : CIA-RDP77M00144R000800070023-5AM STEIGER, ARIZ.
JOH J. RYAN, `CALIF. tJ V G CLARENCE J. BROWN, OHIO
JOHN CONYERS, JR., MICH.
TORBERT H. MACDONALD MASS PAUL N. MCCLOSKEY, JR., CALIF.
, .
JOHN E. MOSS, CALIF.
MICHAEL HARRINGTON, MASS.
ANDREW MAGUIRF., N.J.
ANTHONY MOFFETT, CONN.
June 4, 1976
Honorable George Bush
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D. C. 20505
1 Executive Registry
01-C
This is in connection with your letter of June 2, 1976 to Senate
Minority Leader Hugh Scott regarding a request for release from the
moratorium on destruction of documents.
I am surprised, in light of your testimony before this Subcommittee
on April 28, 1976, that you did not see fit to share with this Subcom-
mittee your request to the Senate leadership. You are, of course, aware
of my position, as the principal sponsor of H.R. 12039, that no records
which might comprise the subject matter of that legislation be destroyed
before the Congress has had an opportunity to pass on it. I am taking
this opportunity to reiterate that request and urge that you withdraw
your letter to Senator Scott insofar as it affects files which might
be covered by H.R. 12039.
Beyond the concerns of this legislation, however, I am surprised
that your request is framed as broadly as it is. I would expect that
the Senate leadership would have no objection to the resumption of the
destruction of "routine administrative records", but I have urged them
to reject any request for destruction of records "which were subject to
investigation" by the Rockefeller Commission and the Select Committee.
This could include records which neither body ever saw, but merely "were
subject to" investigation. Your request presumably would include
files and records relating to assassinations of foreign leaders and
other matters which may be of continuing interest to various Congressional
committees.
In light of the above, I urge you to rethink your request and to
withdraw it.
NINETY-FOURTH CONGRESS
Congre of the 1n~iteb'tate~
34000 of tepregentatibez
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
SUBCOMMITTEE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ROOM B-349-B-C
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515
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Honorable George Bush Page 2
June 4, 1976
In addition, I would ask immediate clarification of the
closing comment in your June 2 letter to Senator Scott: "I trust
you agree that this action is now necessary and appropriate, and
I would appreciate your confirmation of this understanding." Al-
though I disagree with your position, I interpret that statement
to mean that you will not act to destroy any document until the
Senate leadership has affirmatively responded to your request.
Please correct me if your intention is to act prior to such reply.
BELLA S. ABZUG
Chairwoman
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
W ASH I NGTON, D.C. 20505
Honorable TIike Mansfield
United States Senate
Office of the Majority Leader
Washington, D.C. 20510
2 JUN 197r
On 27 January 1975, following adoption of S. Res. 21. creating the
Select Committee on Intelligence, you and Senator Hugh Scott requested
that the Central Intelligence Agency "not destroy, remove from I i.t:s:f
session or control, or otherwise dispose or permit the disposal of any
records or documents which might have a bearing on the subjects under, investigation, including but not limited to all records or docuznerits pcr -
taining in any way to the matters set out in section 2 of SS. Res.
In response to this request, the Agency placed in. effect a complete
moratorium on the destruction of records, including normal administrative,
records scheduled for routine destruction.
The purpose of this letter is to advise you that it is our intention t.o
proceed with destruction of records, now that the Select Committee has
completed its investigation and issued its final report? We have so aclvieaocl
Senator Church.
Along with the backlog of routine administrative records, the Agency
-,xAll destroy records which were collected and maintained by the Agency
and which were subject to investigation by the Rockefeller Commission
and the Select Committee. The Agency is required to destroy much of
this latter material by the Privacy Act of 1974 (P. L. 93-579) and by
Executive Order 11905. Of course, all records destruction will be fully
consistent with other applicable laws, Presidential directives, and thc;
requirements of pending litigation and Justice Department invc-.-stig"adomi.
I trust you agree that this action is now necessary and appropriate,
and I would appreciate your confirmation of this understanding.
I am sending a duplicate of this letter to Senator Hugh Scott.
Sincerely,
SIGNED
George 13n sly
Dixector
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WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
Honor able Hugh Scott
United States Senate
Office of the Minority Leader
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Scott:
2 JU11197 6
On 27 January 1.975, following adoption of S
Res
21 cr
ti
l
.
,
ea
ng i:
ie
Select Committee on Intelligence, you and Senator Mike lvlansfiel.d requested
that the Central Intelligence Agency "not destroy, remove from [its) pos-
session or control, or otherwise dispose or permit the disposal of any ..
records or documents which might have a bearing on the subjects under
investigation, including but not limited to all records or documents per-
taining in any way to the matters set out in section 2 of S,. Res. 21. "
In response to this request, the Agency placed in effect a complete
moratorium on the destruction of records, including normal administrative
records scheduled for routine destruction,
The purpose of this letter is to advise you that it is our intention to
proceed with destruction of records, now that the Select Committee has
completed its investigation and issued its final report. We have so advised
Senator Church.
Along with the backlog of routine administrative records, the Agency
will destroy records which were collected and maintained by the Agency
and which were subject to investigation. by the Rockefeller Commission
and the Select Committee. The Agency is required to destroy much of
this latter material by the Privacy Act of 1974 (P. L. 93-579) and by
Executive Order 11905. Of course, all records destruction -will be fully
consistent with other applicable laws, Presidential directives, and the
requirements of pending litigation and Justice Department investigations.
I trust you agree that this action is now necessary and appropriate,
and I would a
reciat
f
pp
e your con
irmation of this understanding,
I am sending a duplicate of this letter to Senator Mike Mansfield
Sincerely,
SI L D
George Bush
Director
U C~?.. t M
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that some of the envelopes which were photographed were not
entered on an index. But this does not change the total. figures
of the numbers of letters involved. The nom. it intercept records
are still the subject of litigation and therefore will not be
destroyed until all this has been resolved in any case.
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26 May 1976
SUMMARY OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY PROBLEMS
INVOLVED IN DESTRUCTION OR RETENTION
OF IMPROPERLY ACCUMULATED DOCUMENTS OR RECORDS
Subject documents and records may involve Category I activities, defined
as cases where positive harm was done to individuals, such as action causing
a man to lose his job, and Category II activities, where the wrong was the mere
improper creation or holding of a file containing information on an American.
The Agency considers that it has no records pertaining to Category I.
No Agency records have been destroyed since 28 January 1975. This
moratorium on destruction was based on a joint request of Senators Mansfield
and Scott on 27 January 1975. Chairwoman Abzug, on 24 February 1976,
requested that our moratorium be extended until the Congress has had an
opportunity to act on legislation dealing with this matter. In response to her
request, the Director advised Mrs. Abzug that the moratorium. would be the
subject of discussion by the Agency with Senators Mansfield and Scott, and
that destruction of Agency material would be in accordance with Presidential
directives and as permitted by law.
For purposes of the moratorium, the records under question fall. into two
basic groups. The first is routine Agency records, unrelated to allegedly improper
activities by the Agency. Approximately nine thousand cubic feet of such
records have accumulated during the moratorium and will be destroyed as
soon as possible upon the lifting of the moratorium. We are working on records
destruction schedules for submission to the National Archives and Records
Service in order to receive destruction authorization from the Archivist in
accordance with 44 U . S .C . Chapter 33. The second group consists of special
files whose creation and retention is considered questionable. These are files
on American citizens and are the ones which would be the subject of any additional
self-imposed moratorium.
In the second group we have identified 17 kinds of questionable files on
Americans which we believe can be destroyed in their entirety when all moratoriums
have been lifted. These include such subjects as District of Columbia demon-
strators, files on extremists compiled by an Office of Security Regional Office,
data on former employees who have authored publications divulging classified
information and files on individuals well known at the time of compilation for anti-
U.S. broadcasts and other activities abroad. However, the preponderance of such
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STATINTL
files on Americans must be retained for the time being because of matters in
litigation and criminal investigations being conducted by the Department of
Justice. These include all files involving the mail operation, CHAOS, and
assassinations. Probably some files on dissident groups will have to be retained.
for the same reasons. Our review indicates that these files which must be
retained probably amount to about ninety percent of our files on Americans which
would otherwise be destroyed upon lifting of the moratorium. This figure, of
course, excludes the nine thousand cubic feet of routine files.
We have been working with the National Archives and Records Service
in preparation for destruction of the improperly held files. The procedures
have been worked out and NARS will "walk through" our file destruction. schedules
when we request authority to destroy, in order to grant that authority with.
dispatch.
To summarize then, a short, additional, self-imposed moratorium on
destruction of improperly accumulated files for perhaps 60 to 90 days, and
certainly not beyond the end of the calendar year, will affect only an, insignif-
icant proportion of such records. It should not apply to routine records properly
created in the ordinary course of business. While the announcement of such a
moratorium might induce a flood of new inquiries and particularly POt requests, this is by no means certain. There is also the possibility of attempts to get
restraining orders to enjoin destruction, but it would seem that anybody that
seriously concerned would have recognized that destruction might occur soon,
and would have already taken steps to try to stop it. Of course, there is also
the possibility of another attempt by Mrs. Abzug or others to get legislation
relating to the files and notification of the subjects. We think these problems
are largely offset because very few files will be destroyed for quite some time
in any case. The self-imposed moratorium, with public notice, is a good-faith
alternative, recognizing the rights of citizens to question the Government about
actions it may have taken involving them and should also help to blunt criticism
which is almost certain to come in any case when we finally do destroy records
which we should not have created in the first place.
OGC: JDM: Ish
1 LDXed to T. Hardy
White House
1 - Mr. Knoche
X. - AI/DDA
1- OGC Y Subj : RECORD
, '- JDM Signer
(I'r G&gq Fx2rs~gz@@e 2
to requirement of
25 May ICG meeting)
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To: Tim Hardy
Room 109, Old ROB
From:
Acting General Counsel,
LDXed 26 May 19 76
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OCC 76-3014
4 June 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Abzug Concern With CIA Record Destruction Plans
1. Jim O'Neill, Deputy Archivist, called me this morning to report
that late last night Tim Ingram of Congresswoman Abzug's staff called him to
discuss the letter Mr. Bush had sent to Senators Scott and Mansfield
concerning the destruction of records. Ingrim was concerned and thought
NARS should be concerned that CIA apparently intends to destroy records
contrary to law. Ingram read portions of the letter to O'Neill, who also was
not certain that it indicated CIA intentions would be entirely satisfactory to
NARS, in particular the matter of CIA compliance with the Federal Records
Act.. I assured him that of course we are fully aware of that Act and as Mr.
Bush's letter indicated our intention is to dispose of records entirely in
keeping with all applicable law. Dr. O'Neill indicated he was sure that was
our intention. He further suggested that when he receives a copy of Bush's
letter, which Ingrim had promised to send him, he might want to send to us
the draft of a letter from the Archivist to Mr. Bush which would record once
again, in an exchange between our two agencies, our assurance to the Archivist
that our records destruction program will continue to be in accordance with. law.
(An exchange of this nature between Archivist Rhoads and Mr. Colby .took
place some months ago.) I promised to send Dr. O'Neill a copy of the Bush
letter also, thinking that it might reach him earlier than the copy from
Mr. Ingram.
2. O'Neill has the impression from Ingram that Abzug is quite upset by
the Bush letter. Ingram also complained that he had a call in to Mr. Warner
and as yet not had a reply. (Sue and Lu have no knowledge of a call from
Ingram.) O'Neill said that his own judgment of Ingram is that Ingram
probably believes that CIA has engaged in misdeeds and is not above action
to destroy the evidence.
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3. Ingram told O'Neill that at a recent session at American University
a CIAer told him that CIA had two destruction schedules--one that it furnishes
to NARS, and a secret one which it really uses.
STATINTL
Associate General Counsel
Chief, General Law Division.
cc: OLC
DDA
C/Records Administration Branch/ISAS
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 STATIN-
STATI
SECRET
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
Executive Re
ist
g
ry
.23S"
FROM: EXTENSION NO.
Legislative Counsel
7D35 HQ DATE
- 4 June 1976
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
INITIALS
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
1.
Diretei*
The attached material appeared
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