OFFICE OF SECURITY CLEARANCE POLICY REGARDING HOMOSEXUALS (U)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03302435
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 22, 2024
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2024
• Case Number: F-2020-01929
• Publication Date: February 16, 1979

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16 FEB 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: General Counsel
FROM: Robert W. Gambino
Director of Security
SUBJECT: Office of Security Clearance Policy
Regarding Homosexuals (U)
1. This memorandum is written in response to various
conversations with representatives of your Office regarding
the policy of this Office with respect to the denial or
revocation of a security clearance for employment with this
Agency or for access to Sensitive Compartmented Information
(SCI) in cases involving an admitted homosexual and/or where
credible evidence indicates the likelihood that an individual
will engage in homosexual acts In the future. (U)
2. As a result of long-standing and documented infor-
mation, we are aware that the modus operandi of hostile
intelligence services includes the collection of compromising
information regarding known or suspected homosexuals and the
subsequent targeting of these individuals for assessment and
recruitment.1 In addition thereto, there are other well-
documented reasons that clearly indicate that a homosexual
is a security risk. Therefore, this Office has, over the
years, followed the policy which was recently described as
an "automatic bar" or a "per se denial of access (to SCI or
security clearance in the case of applicants for employment
with this Agency) to homosexuals..." (C)
3. We do not believe that the above referenced Justice
Department memorandum is an accurate description of either
our policy or our procedures in regard to the policy of this
Office for the following reasons:
a. All applicants for employment or for
access to SCI are investigated and appraised
in accordance with what we describe as our
"whole person" concept.4
Regraded Confidential When
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b. An investigation is not routinely
terminated when allegations of homosexual
conduct are developed. Rather the investiga-
tion is continued until and unless credible
evidence or an admission is obtained and then
that information along with all other available
information bearing on the individual is
appraised. A recommendation is then made for
or against the granting of a clearance and/or
access to SCI. (U)
4. As a result of the foregoing, we respectfully submit
that we do have an articulated basis for our policy that we
believe is both reasonable and necessary. Arguably, this
may be regarded as an absolute bar notwithstanding the
procedures referred to in paragraph three (3) above. If
that position is taken, then I further submit that the
basis for said policy (as set forth above and further
documented in the attached paper) constitute and meet the
requirements of the "rational nexus" test enunciated by
the courts. (U)
Robert W. Gambino
Attachment
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2State Department Homosexual Study, February 1976.
30ffice of the Attorney General memorandum dated
2 January 1979, with attachment, from J. Michael Kelly to
Walter Elder.
4See Proposed Annex A to DCID 1/14.
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HOSTILE INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
USE OF HOMOSEXUAL ENTRAPMENT
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trie very
Numerically, few cases are actually available showing
hostile foreign intelligence services utilization of homo-
sexual entrapment and threatened compromise to attempt
recruitments
The Soviet KGB defector, Yuriy
Ivanovich Nosenko, has provided information concerning
several KGB recruitment cases stemming from homosexual
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compromise. Nosenko has detailed the use of a KGB homo-
sexual agent team, Anatoliy Volkov and Aleksey Nikolayevich
Yefremov, who were solely tasked with spotting individuals
having homosexual proclivities in the foreign community in
Moscow. The spotting was for the purpose of further develop-
ment for homosexual entrapment/arrest by the KGB. One such
case coming very close to the Agency is that of Spencer
Eugene Roberts who was a staff employee/agent from February
1948 to September 1950, serving part of this period as an
Agency representative in Moscow. In September 1950 Roberts
resigned from the Agency, electing employment with the State
Department. In February 1953 Roberts was terminated from
State for admitted homosexual activity. Nosenko later
advised that Roberts was of interest to the KGB for a long
time and eventually, when again in the Soviet Union in the
summer of 1962, Roberts was recruited by the KGB after an
"arrest" involving a homosexual compromise. This KGB
recruitment of Roberts was consumated in spite of Roberts'
prior homosexual activity admissions to the State Department.
British national security has been heavily hit by
Soviet intelligence recruitments based on homosexual compro-
mise, a major case being that of the KGB recruitment of
William John Christopher Vassall. Vassall was a British
Embassy employee in Moscow from 1955 to 1957 when the
recruitment took place, and at the time of his arrest for
espionage in the early 1960's by the British, he was servybX1)
as a clerk in the British Admiralty. (b)(3)
Yet another case of homosexual compromise/recruitment
is that of USAF Master Sergeant Raymond George DeChamplain,
arrested by Air Force officials in Bangkok on 2 July 1971 as
he was about to deliver four Top Secret documents to the KGB
officer, Viktor Vladimir Mizin. After his arrest DeChamplain
claimed the Soviets had gained his cooperation, along with
other pressures and inducements, by threatening to expose
his homosexuality.
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