LETTER TO MS. VICTORIA TOENSING(SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00338R000300380019-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: F
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 22, 2008
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: March 8, 1984
• Content Type: LETTER

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8 March 1984
Ms. Victoria Toensing
Chief Counsel
Committee on Intelligence
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Vicki:
You will recall that the National Security Agency (NSA)
submitted for inclusion in the written record at the
22 February closed hearing addressing the use of the polygraph
a Polygraph Utility Study prepared by the Director of Central
Intelligence Security Committee. Since the submission of the
study by NSA, the study has been formally bound and an
introductory statement explaining its preparation and purpose
has been added. In order that the Committee and individual
Members may have the most complete version of this study, I am
providing a number of copies of this bound study to you for
appropriate distribution.
If I may be of further assistance in this matter, do not
hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
STAT
Chief, Legislation Division
Office of Legislative Liaison
DISTRIBUTION:
Original - Addressee
OLL Chrono
1 - LEG File: Polygraphs
1 - SWH Signer
1 - D/OLL
1 - DD/OLL
SWH:csh (8 March 1984)
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OLL 84-0812
6 March 1984
STAT FROM:
Chief, Legislation Division
Office of Legislative Liaison
SUBJECT: Hearings on H.R. 4681, the Federal Polygraph
Limitation and Anti-Censorship Act of 1984
SUMMARY: On 29 February 1984, I attended a hearing before
the House Subcommittee on Civil Service of the Committee on
Post Office and Civil Service, chaired by Representative
Schroeder, on the subject of H.R. 4681, Representative Brooks'
bill restricting the use of the polygraph and prepublication
review requirements by federal agencies. Chairwoman Schroeder
was the only real attendee at this hearing on behalf of the
Subcommittee, as Representatives Pashayan and Wolf made only
brief obligatory appearances at the start of the hearing and
then departed.
The witnesses which appeared before the Subcommittee were
primarily media and federal employee association
representatives who strongly supported enactment of the above
bill. Attached hereto is a complete listing of the witnesses
who appeared before the Subcommittee. The only two witnesses
to appear on behalf of the Administration and to oppose this
proposed legislation were Richard Willard, Acting Assistant
Attorney General, Civil Division, Department of Justice (DOJ),
and General Richard Stilwell, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense
for Policy, Department of Defense (DOD). There were no major
surprises during the course of this hearing as Chairwoman
Schroeder's questioning clearly indicated her support of the
Brooks bill. While she did indicate at one point that the Top
Secret briefing she had received from CIA and NSA had convinced
her that there was a problem concerning unauthorized
disclosures, she was equally certain that NSDD 84 was a totally
inappropriate solution to this problem. She noted that the
vast majority of leaks originated with top Administration
officials, and that unless the solution encompassed serious
measures designed to punish and deter such officials while they
were currently in office rather than requiring them to sign
prepublication agreements which addressed disclosures made
after they left office, that she would have difficulty in
supporting any proposed "bipartisan" compromise in this
regard.
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With respect to the repeated suggestions by both
Messrs. Willard and Stilwell that the Administration was
willing to talk with the Congress about a compromise solution,
Representative Schroeder was somewhat critical and curious as
to where these alleged negotiations were taking place since
neither she nor Representative Brooks nor other key
Congressional leaders, to her knowledge, had been contacted by
high-level Administration officials to discuss such a
compromise. Mr. Willard indicated that he personally had been
spending considerable amounts of time talking with the staffs
of various Senators and Representatives on this subject and
indicated his willingness to do the same with Representative
Schroeder and her people. Representative Schroeder was cool to
this idea, and suggested that if the Administration is truly
serious about working out a compromise that senior
Administration officials should make arrangements to contact
Representative Brooks and other key Congressional leaders to
discuss this subject.
Indications at the hearing seemed to suggest that the
Brooks bill will be reported out of the Subcommittee with only
a few minor changes, the principal one being the possibe
expansion of the current exemption provided for NSA and CIA to
include DIA and other DOD intelligence agencies. The bill is
scheduled for full committee mark-up before Chairman Brooks on
the 21st of March and it is expected that the bill will quickly
be reported out of full committee and will be referred to the
Rules Committee for further action. Whether the Rules
Committee reports the measure out for full House floor
consideration will depend upon whether the House Democratic
leadership wishes to make an issue out of this subject during
an election year. If the House Rules Committee does send
H.R. 4681 to the floor for consideration, it is expected that
the measure will pass without any major modifications.
1. The first witness to appear before Representative
Schroeder was the bill's sponsor, Representative Brooks.
Accompanying him was Representative Barbara Boxer from
California who serves on Jack Brooks' Subcommittee on
Legislation. Representative Brooks compared the polygraph and
prepublication review requirements to the medival uses of thumb
screws and water torture. He stated that in his opinion the
withdrawal of NSDD 84 was simply a political ploy by the Reagan
Administration to diffuse this issue as a political campaign
liability and that the need for this legislation still existed
since the Reagan Administration in withdrawing NSDD 84 had only
postponed the planned implementation of these policies.
Representative Boxer sounded similar themes about the trampling
of the inviolable First Amendment rights of individuals, and
provided an extended discussion of Reagan Administration
policies which demonstrated a clear disregard for these
precious rights.
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2. The next witness to appear was George Reedy, former
Press Secretary to President Lyndon Johnson, who provided some
rather incredulous testimony which in effect concluded that
there were no secrets in the federal government that were
worthy of protection. Mr. Reedy opined that classification
stamps should be done away with altogether and that secrecy in
government was a hindrance to effective policymaking and should
be opposed not only through the passage of the immediate bill,
but also through a comprehensive re-examination of the entire
government security apparatus.
3. Richard Willard was the next witness and stated that
with the withdrawal of NSDD 84, the Administration had
indicated its clear willingness to sit down with Congress and
work out a more reasonable and acceptable solution to the
problem of unauthorized disclosures. As mentioned above,
Representative Schroeder found this offer to be somewhat
disingenuous and indicated she would not credit the
Administration with truly seeking a compromise in this area
until "senior" Administration officials contacted her and other
key Congressional players to initiate meaningful discussions in
this regard.
4. General Stilwell next testified and emphasized the
limited use that DOD intended to make of the polygraph and the
various procedural safeguards which would apply to DOD's use of
this investigative technique. General Stilwell ended his
testimony with a rather lukewarm endorsement of DOD's use of
prepublication review. When asked if DOD intended to implement
this expanded polygraph policy when the 15 April moratorium
expired, he indicated that DOD plans in this regard obviously
would be affected by Congressional action and guidance provided
on this subject. General Stilwell seemed to indicate that
strong Congressional opinion expressed in a form other than an
actual bill could delay implementation of this expanded policy.
5. Dr. Fred Wood, Project Director of the Office of
Technology Assessment (GAO) study conducted with respect to the
polygraph, was the next witness. Dr. Wood repeated the
conclusions contained in this OTA study that there was no
scientific evidence to support the use of the polygraph for
screening purposes, for administrative investigative purposes,
or for use in large dragnet screening in connection with leak
investigations. Dr. Wood called into question the exemption
provided for CIA and NSA in section 6 of the bill since, in his
opinion, there was not sufficient scientific evidence to
support its use at either CIA, NSA, or other federal agencies.
Given the absence of any kind of legislative framework Wood rfor
federal government use of the polyg p , Dr.
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endorsed the Brooks bill, since Congress, in his opinion,
should be making the judgment as to what, if any, use of the
polygraph by federal agencies should be permitted.
6. Morton Halperin, Director, Center for National Security
Studies, appeared next and testified only with respect to
prepublication review, noting that, in his opinion,
prepublication review was a violation of the First Amendment.
Mr. Halperin stated that the withdrawal of NSDD 84 only removed
the Presidential mandate for these expanded polygraph and
prepublication review requirements and that agencies were still
free to utilize their own authorities to implement these same
policies. It thus was essential in his view that Congress take
action through enactment of the Brooks bill so that
implementation of these same policies by individual agencies
would be prevented. Mr. Halperin also sounded the repeated
theme that prepublication review discouraged public debate on
important national issues by former senior policymakers and
other highly qualified individuals.
7. I departed from the hearing at this point since the
remaining witnesses were comprised of several panels of media
and government employee representatives who*had earlier
testified on this same subject before Representative Brooks and
had noted their serious objections to any type of polygraph or
prepublication review use in the federal government. As noted
above, we can expect fast track consideration of this bill with
it being reported out of the full Committee by the end of this
month and its ultimate fate being decided by the House
Democratic leadership's willingness to raise this issue in the
current election year.
DISTRIBUTION:
1.- OLL Chrono
Of - LEG File: Polygraph
1 - LEG File: Prepublication Review
1 - SWH Signer
1 - D/OLL
1 - DD/OLL
1 - C/SECOM
SWH:csh (6 March 1984)
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COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE
122 CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
RaOington, 39.C. 20515
February 29, 1984
Witness List
p/1 b
Honorable Jack Brooks (Representative from Texas)
inorable Barbara Boxer (Representative from California
George E.. Reedy, Former Press Secretary
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard K. Willard, Acting Assistant Attorney General
Civil Division, Department of Justice
General Richard G. Stilwell (USA, Retired)
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Department of Defense
Dr. Fred B. Wood, Project Director
Office of Technology Assessment
Center for National Security Studies
Townsend Hoopes, President
4' ~5
Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Jim Hampton, The Miami Herald Editor
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Robert Lewis, National Secretary
Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi
Jack Landau, Executive Director
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Dr. Page Putman Miller, Director
National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History
Rabbi David Saperstein, Co-Director & Counsel
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Kenneth T. Blaylock, National President
American Federation of Government Employees
Dennis T. Hays, President, & Ambassador Parker T. Hart
American Foreign Service Association
James Peirce, President
National Federation of Federal Employees
David S. Burckman, President
Senior Executives Association
Henry L. Canty, Past President
American Association of Police Polygraphists
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