WHITE HOUSE SEEKS INPUT ON INFORMATION SAFEGUARDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020006-3
Y
LOS ANGELES TIMES
3 December 1985
White House Seeks Input
on Information Safeguards
By MICHAEL WINES, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-The White
House, criticized for lax security
after the recent extraordinary
string of spying arrests, has begun
to seek congressional comment on
13 proposals to curb the unauthor-
ized flow of classified information,
including measures to toughen in-
vestigations of news media "leaks"
and restrict photocopying of secret
documents.
National Security Adviser Rob-
ert C. McFarlane will act on the
recommendations in about a month
and is expected to grant them "a
fair degree of approval, if not
complete approval," said Steven
Garfinkel, head of the federal In-
formation Security Oversight Of-
fice.
The proposals were sent Friday
to 10 Senate and House committees
with jurisdiction over classified
materials, with a request that they
comment before the year's end.
None of the proposals would re-
quire congressional consent .
The measures, prepared for
McFarlane by an 11-agency panel
that included the CIA, the Justice
Department and the military ser-
vices, would largely revise a 1982
presidential order that itself had
tightened restrictions on classified
materials. They were drafted in the
wake of last summer's Walker
family spy arrests, which spurred a
growing congressional debate over
the supposedly wide leeway given
the military and other agencies to
classify and distribute government
secrets.
The measures would address
several criticisms raised during
that debate, including "overclassi-
fication"-the tendency by officials
to stamp too much material as
secret for fear of accidentally re-
leasing valuable data-and "over-
distribution" policies that give too
many persons access to secrets.
A summary sent to the congres-
sional committees acknowledges
that some efforts to curb alleged
abuses of the security system have
failed to get results.
The summary concludes, for ex-
ample, that many executive-
branch agencies distribute classi-
fied material "on an automatic and
recurring basis" without deciding
whether readers need to know
certain secrets. And it warns that
programs giving some workers
special access to secrets outside the
normal security system have "pro-
liferated" without internal con-
trols.
Among other steps, the proposals
would:
-"Encourage" agencies to place
controls on photocopying of all
classified material. Current rules
restrict copying of "top secret"
material but leave restrictions on
lesser secrets to the discretion of
the agencies involved.
-Order the attorney general to
toughen the rules for investigating
news media "leaks" becausq "cur-
rent investigations ... usually do
not lead to successful prosecutions"
of news sources.
-Require workers to report in-
stances of improper classification of
secrets, rather than giving them
discretion on whether to do so, and
set up a system to protect employ-
ees from retaliation for criticizing
the classification system.
-Require all agencies to review
the distribution of classified mate-
rial at least annually.
Some of the same problems were
cited two weeks ago in a Pentagon
report that complained of sloppy
controls on defense-related secrets
and recommended strict new curbs
on military employees' access to
classified materials.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020006-3