LETTER TO JOHN N. MCMAHON FROM (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R002300120029-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 4, 2008
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: February 17, 1984
• Content Type: LETTER

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EXECUTIVE SEICRETAR AT
ROUTING SLIP
2 1 DDCI
3 EXDIR
4 D/ICS
12 Co,npt
13 D/EEO
14 D/Pers
15 D/OLL
SUSPENSE
ACTION L INFO I DATE
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February 17, 1984 Tel. [phone]
The Honorable John N. McMahon
Deputy Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
It was a pleasure to see you again when we passed at White
Flint last Sunday. I regret that upon leaving the Agency in
August 1982, I did not have an opportunity to say goodby.
STAT
I left the Agency in order to make a transition from
Federal service to private practice. That transition is now
nearing completion. However, I am currently working full-time
as a supervising attorney and clinical law professor with the
D.C., Law Students In Court Program, a program which is under the
auspices of the five area law schools. The experience gained from
the program has facilitated my transition to private practice
but it is extremely time demanding, with a net result that I
have not been able to increase my non-program or private case
load significantly. I have been exploring part-time or
contractual positions that would provide a reasonable level
of income and further facilitate the transition to private
practice.
g part-time arrangements, I discussed with
in October 1983, the possible need for a
comprehensive study on the effects disclosure laws such as
the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act have had
on U.S. relations with foreign intelligence organizations
and sources. felt that there was a need for such a
study but considered the data for research to be of such
a sensitive nature that Agency components as well as other
U.S. intelligence agencies might not want to see such data
condensed or discussed in a comprehensive research document.
Such a document, of course would be highly classified.
I had all but shelved the idea of such a study as a
means of convincing Congress of the need for further legislation
to protect intelligence equities or of modification of
existing disclosure laws, when I read an account in the
Washington Post of your testimony on the very subject of
concern to me.
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STAT
STAT
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My proposal is modest. I would like to do such a study
for the Agency and/or the Intelligence Community, drawing
upon my eight years of working and litigating in the FOIA and
Privacy Act areas. Such a study would attempt to show not
only the perceptions that foreign governments and individual
sources have about the disclosure laws but also actual flaps
and their impact on intelligence sharing arrangements. Additionally,
a second part of the study would show how the U.S. Executive
Branch has under our constitutional system, attempted to protect
in judicial and Congressional forums, sensitive information, i.e.
intelligence sources and methods from disclosure. The second
part could be written in a manner that could be presented to
foreign governments as a vindication of the U.S. intelligence
community's efforts to protect foreign source information and
identies from public or non-authorized disclosure. -
I would be glad to discuss my proposal further or provide
a research prospectus. I look forward to hearing from you.
Very truly yours,
STAT
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