RECORDS REVIEW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00674R000300050008-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 30, 2006
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 2, 1977
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/04/19 : CIA-RDP86-00674R000300050008-4
FROM
SUBJECT
8/2/77
CONCLUSIONS
(1) The difference in the percentage of classified material that
could be released to the public resulting from a Twenty vs. Thirty year
review period is practically negligible.
(2) The CIA can live with a twenty year review period providing:
(a) Management is willing to make the required resources
available.
(b) Management is willing to live with the increased chance
of error due to increased records volume.
(c) Management understands that this is a huge undertaking
proceeding into unknown areas which could result in many,
many course changes.
DISCUSSION
Within the CIA, the primary reason for classifying material is to
protect an intelligence source or method. The time span that a source
or method must remain classified and thus protected will vary greatly
from case to case, project to project. This is especially true when
dealing with a human source living in a hostile or semi-hostile area.
When this need for protection is taken into consideration, it is easy to
see that it is impossible to determine a general time frame that intelli-
gence information of this nature could be released to the public, be it
20, 30 or 50 years old. Any decision to release classified records can
only be made after conducting a careful review of the material in question.
The Records Review Branch (RRB), believes that until the Agency's
records are actually reviewed, it would be impossible to come up with a
percentage figure for material released at 20 vs. 30 year time period.
And unfortunately this will remain true throughout the review process.
RRB does believe that the difference in the percentage of material
that could be released between the twenty and thirty year time frames
would be practically negligible. Unfortunately there are no facts or
figures to support this statement. RRB did check with
I of the IPS Staff to see if his experience in ROIA would support
our e ief. I I said that while he had no statistics to support
our theory, he did agree with it.
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The basic problem confronting the CIA is not the amount of material
that can be released, but the amount of resources to be committed. to
the records review. If the review period remains at thirty years, then
the Agency can probably handle the review with only a small increase in
the resources already allotted (i.e. 40 fulltime personnel). However,
should the time frame be reduced to twenty years, the agency would then
be faced with an immediate backlog of an estimated 28,500,000 pages of
classified material to review. A job impossible to accomplish without
quadrupling current resources. (note: an estimated 161 personnel.)
It is RRB's opinion that the CIA can live with a 20 year review
period, if the Director and the Agency is willing to make the necessary
manpower and resources. available. If not, then such a time period would
be impossible to live with.
Finally, it should be pointed out that a records review of the
magnitude of this undertaking will be a complex and involved process.
It is not something that can be done overnight. Many problems will be
'encoutered and for those who believe there are no.problems involved
with 20 or 30 year old documents, we point to the MKULTRA example.
Approved For Release 2006/04/19 : CIA-RDP86-00674R000300050008-4