DISCUSSION OF DCI S RESPONSE TO HOUSE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, CONSUMER, AND MONETARY AFFAIRS REQUEST FOR DECLASSIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160078-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2007
• Sequence Number: 78
• Publication Date: September 25, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

? Approved For Release 2007/03103 :CIA-RDP~~111t1~R0~0~2~100160078-1
25 Sep ter;he ~ 19 81
rl~t:U~z~1t~'1~~'~1 ~o~;_
FRO:; _
~SJBJECT:
Date/T ire,/Place: 23 Septe~b?r 1981, 1640-2710, B-377
_ ?Rayburn House Office Building
Participants: Stephen R. rlcSpadden, Counsel to the
Subcomni~~ee
A dzscusszon of the response___ensued in___whck~_ rir. _ricSpadden
C a.e Aci~.~inistrative Lam Division
D.I.JCUSJ.~On Of DCZ's Response to House
Gove;~nment Operations Subcommittee on
. Co:anarr_e, Consu,tier, and i?iorfetary Affairs
~tegLes t ~o ~. Declassi=icati on of ,Documents
-? ? S TAT
Legislative Liaison
ranc , EAS OPP, CIA ?
Office of General
~~. ounsel, CIA
1. .The DCI signed his response (OGC Si-08512) to
Sub om 'rnan Rosenthal `s letter (ER 81-08286) at~1605
and and I delivered it at 1640 to rir. McSpadderi_
a. Third Aqency Ynvolvement_ rir_ IlcSpadden stated
that our inclusion of two other agencies Treasury
Department and NSA) in the declassification review
prooess unnecessarily complicated the process, indicating
a possible lack of cooperative intent on our part_ In
response I explained that CIA included these two agencies
to comply with the requirements of Executive Order 12465
and t:he Information Security Oversight Office's regulations
implementing that Order, under which the d eclassificatic~n
and dissemination decision on information contained in a
document rests with the agency originating the informatioa_
b. Treasury De~aT meat Obs =inac;~_ t:r _ i:cSpac~derr
stated that the Treasury Department hat flatly refused
to provide certain OPEC information to the Subcommittee
during its investigation, and thezefore giving Treasury
a v-e to power in the declassification revieca process would
result in a complete refusal to permit. the Subcommittee
STAT .
 ~c>A~prQVe~rF~or~~1~~~07~31Q~;~~I1~yE~P~`3~Q~9~j4~002100~160~78 1 Y~ -~
In zesponse X reer;,phasi~ec; that the '~'rea.~~:ry Departr~.~nt will
mane the declassification decision w:i.th respect to tam
Treasury DeYartr;ent information container: in the C1pC[tl;:~r2`.:,,,
but will root make the declassification ~ieci :ion with resaect
to infarmation originated by other agencies_
c. Subcommittee Assistance in Decl~:ssification of `
Documents. iir. t?IcSpad~~~n stated that the Subcommittee
cannot: tell in advance which, portions of t~:e documents it
wzll need to use in its public report_ I explained that
the DC:I's response offered the Subcommittee the opportuzitlr
to set: priorities for the document reviewers so that the
Subcommittee can receive declassification decisions
relatively quickly for those portions of the documents in
which it has the greatest interest_ i?Ir. I.1cSpadden stated
that h.e strongly preferred not to have the Subcommittee
involved at all in the process and that we should prxeed
with d ssification review without Subcommittee guidances
and I assured i-ir . 1?icSpadden that the
ec assi cation review will go .forward:
d. Lack of Need for Classification. Mr. McSpadd~ .
stated that most of the information contained in the
.documents is very general and thus its publicatio
not cause problems for intelligence sources.
and I both emphasized strongly that one unfamz iar wit
the genesis of the information cannot determine the tent
to which its revelation would compromise sources, that the
DCI has a statutory responsibility to protect intelligence
sources and methods, and that publication of the classified
information contained in the documents would have a grave
impact on our ability to obtain foreign intelligence.
I?Ir
_
.
McS.,.padden ;assured ..u~ that he understood lI thi = ~
s
a ut
th
_ _
:.~
~..~
._` "` ;?-=~'='t~a~r .~ _ ,. -
n_'~.`~` ion-
_- .~ ?~ -~setst~nrTa~--.oF~rrr`enz -~-~`t~~~~ `tie `i ?oz~cia ..~...
would compromise sources if published.
2. raised with Mr. McSpadden the Agency's
concern o~er.Ta Szulc's New York Times Magazine article o;
20 September quoting a classified CIA memorandum verbatim_ I~Ir.
t4cSpadden immediately displayed a volume of House hearings on
OPEC investment in ,which the classified memorandum appears in
full and said that ~~since the material is already in the' public
domain the Szulc article should not cause any problem. I?Ir.
I?IcSpadden stated that the volume contained the document as a
result of a misunderstanding he had. with an Agency Assist~t
Legislative Counsel who transmitted the document to him two
ye:~rs ago at the Subcommittee' s request. I?Ir _ i?IcSpa:de.n stated
that at the time the document went. to the printer he did not
notice the classification stamps, and the Assistant Legislative
Counsel had not warned him that the document could not be
printed. Subsequent to this episode the Agency obtained
Subcommittee Chairman Rosenthal's signature on a I-Ienorandez~ of
Understanding (OLC 79-303) to govern the CIA-Subco;:r?.rittee
liaison relationship..
 Approved For Release 2007/03103: CIA-RDP83M00914R002100160078-1
3. tlr. t?lc~p~tdden eri~pi>asiz~d during the course of tho
discussion th~.:t ~,~ir_ac~capii 9 or the t?ic:morandun~ of Unclerstan~Iireg
provides that i - yency representative, Associate
General Counsel cannot agree with respect to the. sTAT
declassification o portions of the documents, then the
Subcormittee CkiairrZan and the DCI ~, _il attempt to resolve the
issue, folloc~~ed if necessary by an appeal to the President and
?a vote on the matter by the House of Representatives. TAT
explained that we fully expected that the matter can be handled
~ti~ith cooperation at the worE:ing level .and that we should not
focus at this early stage on procedures to resolve impasses.
4. Both and Y came a~3ay from the meeting with
the impression t at SFr , t-IcSpadden has at least tentatively reaae
up his mind that the Subcommittee dill not be satisfied with
what the declassif ication review process will produce for the
Subcommittee's public use. Given his skepticism of the declas-.
sification review process and his conviction that publication
of most of the information contained in the documents will not
compromise intelligence sources and methods, further contacts
with Iir. ricSpadden should reemphasize the need to protect the
information in the documents from unauthorized disclosure.
OGC:DSA:es
Dis
1 - GC) .
/EAS/OPP) .
_-DSA..Sl~erw~~ __......
1 - G~i IC Signer ,
1 - OGC Subject - ,
1 - OGC Chrono
;-
:,.
roved For Release 2007/03103: CIA-RDP83M00914R092100160078-1