WILL SIZZLER SINGE RUSK?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040113-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 113
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitizecd-O6ve
Ctapita! Letter:
Will Sizzler Singe, J,usk
CPYRGHT By RUTH MONTGOMERY
: Secretary of State
W Rusk Ilia,,, need the powers of a
modern-day Daniel to emerge un-
scathed from t tic den of angry lions he
a' Jest corironting today behind
closed doors on Capitol Hill.
The Senate Inter-
nal Security Subcom-
mittee, which for weeks
has been gnashing its
teeth over the depart-
ment's attempt to rid
Itself of Miss Frances
Knight, eiroc-or of the
Passport. Office, and
Otto Otepka, chief of
the Division of Securi-
ty Evaluations, has
sent Rusk a blistering
indictment: of his secu-
rity division.
The too-page memorandum, whose
contents ',lave not previously been re-
vealed, Y loi unanimously approved by
the furl .ludietary Committee before
Iorwarr~ lq; it to Rusk.
Thul,'prr:spondent has obtained a
copy of 'Pau document, whose contents
Rusk ?/Mat called upon to answer in
secr&J session. Among the official
char//es are these:
Security risk cases have been
Cot ;;id up, and security risks permit-
te/ ,'r) v'ork in the State Department
t!` 'Atr the Kennedy Administration.
??/b; r it of security clearances, or
tril-tr.;ency clearances, have been
m,tted as favors, or as ?a result of
prtkd fare.
h.. D 'rogatory information about
$ $ ' 11)' rLrtment emplo es under in-
by the Civil Service Corn-
slis ?,.
mission was deliberately removed from
the files, and no hint given that such
information existed.
- The department, in defiance of
U.S. law, has been issuing passports to
Communists.
- Miss Knight has been and is
being subjected to a campaign of
deliberate harassment from her State
Department superiors.
- Consistent efforts have been.
made over a period of two years or .
more to get rid of Otepka, the last
professional security officer remaining
in the department since the Rusk ten-
ure began.
- The changing of locks on Otep-
ka's safes and files and the removal of
his duplicating machine, the instruc-
tions to personnel in the division not to
give information to Otepka, Instruc-
tions to O t e p k a not to enter the
Evaluations Division area, and Otepka's
physical transfer to a desk at the end of
the hall without stenographic assist-
ance, were moves designed to humiliate
Otepka and discredit him.
-- Otepka's office was "bugged"
with an electronic listening device.
Rusk received the sizzling Senate
memorandum Oct. 1, but Instead of
agreeing to testify, insisted the com-
mittee first turn over to him all me-
moranda and testimony given by State
Department employes, and the tran-
scripts of all executive sessions of the
committee.
Not until after President Kennedy
told a news conference that Rusk was
wiling to testify did the Secretary
,v,tify the committee that he would be
available for Questioning.
d - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040113-0