BURR, WILLIAM; REQUEST FOR FEE WAIVER

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00668731
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: December 15, 2020
• Case Number: F-2011-00563
• Publication Date: October 5, 1990

Executive Director
John Ruthrauff
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The National Security Archive
A Project of the Fund for Peace
October 5, 1990
Mr. John H. Wright
Information & Privacy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
Re: F90-0858
Dear Mr. Wright,
LI 00.1940.
This is written in response to your letter of October 2, 1990 concerning my
Freedom of Information Act request for articles in CIA publications, during
1958-60, relating to the Berlin crisis. In your letter you deny my request for a
waiver of fees on the grounds that the request would not contribute
"significantly to public understanding of the operations and activities of the
[US] government." I believe that my request merits a waiver of fees; a letter
that I sent to you on October 2 provides sufficient information to support my
claim. Further, it seems to me that a request for articles on the Berlin crisis
from CIA publications would be of great public interest. Such material would
show how the intelligence community reported on and analyzed a major
foreign policy problem during a crucial period in the history of the Cold War.
My request is self-evidently onc that would that shed light on the U.S.
government's operations and activities.
If you have any questions about this letter, please feel free to call me at
the number indicated below.
Sincerely
William Burr
1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
202-797-0882
Fax [phone]
(b)(6)
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October 2, 1990
Mr. John Wright
Information and Privacy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
Re: F90-0257 and F90-0289
Dear Mr. Wright,
This is written in response to your letters of
14 and 20 September 1990. In those letters you
addressed my requests for a fee waiver on my Freedom
of Information Act requests for finished intelligence
reports concerning the Berlin crisis and/or Berlin
situation during 1962 and 1963. In both instances,
you denied me a fee waiver on the grounds that the
information requested pertains to Berlin or East and
West Germany and is therefore "not likely to
contribute significantly to public understanding of
the operations or activities of the United States
Government."
In your letter, you recognize that the Archive
is "eligible for categorization as 'representative of
the news media" if can establish that eligibility by
showing its intent to publish the materials
requested. As your agency is well aware through
information provided by the Archive in the past, the
Archive is engaged in a comprehensive program to
publish document sets relating to various areas of
U.S. foreign policy. The Archive plans to publish by
late 1992 a comprehensive set of documents on the
Berlin crises, 1958-1962. Consistent with this
intent, I am assembling a collection of documents on
the crises, using materials from the National
Archives, the Presidential Libraries, and other
federal agencies. These collected documents are
already available for use by researchers at the
Archive's facilities and are being put on our
computer data base to make them even more accessible
to researchers.
The document set on the Berlin crises will be a
part of the Archive's series on "The Making of U.S.
Policy" that our co-publisher Chadwyck-Healey has
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already begun to distribute. Indeed, your Agency has purchased
one. of our sets, Iran, 1977-1980. The set on the Berlin Crises
will be comparable to that one: the documents will be thoroughly
indexed by name and subject, with accompanying glossaries and
chronologies. Our record of publication and our plans to publish
additional document sets, such as the one on Berlin, makes us
eligible for media representative status.
I was astonished to read that your agency believes that
intelligence reports on Berlin or East and West Germany are not
related to U.S. government operations or activities. I believe
that such documents are related to the operations or activities
of our government and that it is improper for the CIA to deny a
fee waiver for a Freedom of Information Act request for them.
The following considerations are relevant:
1) To this date, although not for long, the United States
government and its French and British allies have had
troops and military installations in West Berlin. In
addition, the U.S. and other Allied military commanders
have played a major role in the administration of the city
(see the enclosed article from today's Washington Post).
This military presence gave the U.S. government a direct
stake in the political and military security of the city.
Therefore, any finished intelligence reports on the Berlin
situation would relate to the "operations and activities"
of the U.S. government and enlarge the public's
understanding of the same.
2) During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United
States was engaged in a bitter, sometimes frightening,
confrontation with the Soviet Union and East Germany over
the status of Berlin. U.S. government officials spent much
time and energy trying to find ways to defuse this
confrontation. Given this context, any intelligence
reports on the Berlin or the East German situations
generally would necessarily shed much light on the
"operations and activities of the United States
government." Finished reports would have provided
policymakers with the information they needed to determine
which way the Berlin situation was heading, whether
negotiations were possible or whether the U.S. needed to
gear up for war.
3) The Berlin crisis was closely tied to the "German
question." U.S. policymakers believed that the way they
resolved the crisis would influence the long-term political
and military situation in West Germany. During those
years, and until very recently, the U.S., along with the
Allied victors in World War II, had internationally
recognized rights to maintain troops in West German until
such time as the question of German reunification was
settled. Consistent with those rights, and consistent with
its participation in NATO, the U.S. had during the early
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1960s, as it does today, sizable military forces in West
Germany. Therefore, the question of West German political
and military security was of direct interest to the United
States government. Given such an interest, finished
intelligence reports on the East and West German situations
would have been useful to policymakers who were trying to
protect the U.S. position in West Germany. Therefore, the
release of such documents would contribute to "public
understanding of the operations and activities of the
United States Government."
In the light of the above, the Archive is clearly entitled
to a fee waiver for these and any other Freedom of Information
Act requests relating to the Berlin Crises under Eisenhower and
Kennedy. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to
give me a call.
Sincerely,
William Burr
Project Editor, Berlin Crises
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