PENN NEWSPAPER: CIA STALLING ON DOCUMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150013-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: May 29, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150013-8
By Jan Schaffer
.,q.irerStall writer
The Daily Pennsylvanian, the stu-
dent newspaper-at the University of
Pennsylvania, yesterday filed suit
accusing the CIA of deliberately stal-
ling on the newspaper's request for
information.
The suit says that, under the feder-
al Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). the newspaper in September
1977 asked for access to all docu-
ments pertaining to the relationships
between the CIA and members of the
university community.
However, in May 1979, the CIA
supplied only a portion of the docu-
ments and has failed to respond to
the newspaper's appeal for almost a
year, according to the suit filed in
U.S. District Court.
"This is an inordinately long peri-
od of time," said Jack Levine, the
newspaper's attorney: The FOIA
requires a government agency to
respond within 10 days to an initial
request and 20 days to an appeal.
The suit contends that the agency
is deliberately stalling while it tries
to secure passage of new leg;;siation'
that would exempt it from the FOIA
requirements.
Among the items.that the newspa-
per asserts were withheld are docu-
ments pertaining to Project MK-
ULTRA, a CIA project conducted
from 1953 to 1964 that included re-
search on drugs, behavior modifica-
tion and mind-altering techniques.
In 1977, along with 80 other universi-
ties and companies, the university
was informed that some of the re-
search for the project was conducted
at Penn.
The paper asked for information of
activities in the university communi-
ty by the CIA, FBI,or foreign intelli-
gence agents monitoring foreign
student dissidents.
It also sought disclosure of docu-
ments pertaining to CHAOS and RE-
SISTANCE, CIA projects that involved
surveillance of American dissenters
on college campuses during the Viet-
nam War.
In addition, the paper asked for
documents pertaining to organiza-
tions that served as "fronts" for the
CIA to fund information-gathering or
research by people in the university
community.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150013-8