LETTER TO BOB GRAHAM FROM STANLEY MOSKOWITZ REGARDING INFORMATION ON THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY'S (CIA) INVOLVEMENT IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S PREPUBLICATION REVIEW OF DANNY B. STILLMAN'S MANUSCRIPT, INSIDE CHINA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM.

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06240896
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2020
• Case Number: F-2010-00549
• Publication Date: August 6, 2001

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The Honorable Bob Graham
OCA 2001-2229
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Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505 .
OCA 2001-2229
6 August 2001
The Honorable Bob Graham
Chairman
Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510-6478
Dear Mr. Chairman:
(U) This letter responds to your 6 July 2001 request to
the Director of Central Intelligence for information on the
Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) involvement in the U.S.
Government's prepublication review of Danny B. Stillman's
manuscript, Inside China's Nuclear Weapons Program.
(U) CIA's Publications Review Board (PRB) first learned of
the manuscript on 12 May 2000, when the Board received it from
Mr. Charles Hoing of the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA)
Public Affairs Office. Mr. Hoing said that the manuscript
contained CIA equities and directed the Board's attention to
specific Agency references on six pages. Such prepublication
referrals from other government agencies are common. In fact,
Mr. Hoing noted that the Department of Energy (DOE) had
completed its review of the manuscript and that DIA and the
Department of Defense (DOD) were in the process of their
respective reviews.
(U) On 1 August 2000, the Chairman of the CIA's PRB wrote
to Mr. Hoing that CIA's review was complete. The CIA's PRB
Chairman identified certain passages that Agency substantive
experts considered classified over and above those marked by DIA
and DOE.
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(U) CIA heard nothing further until 11 April 2001, when
the PRB received a facsimile from Ms. Laurie Kelly, Chief,
Public Affairs, DIA. Ms. Kelly noted that the DOD's Directorate
for Freedom of Information and Security Review "concluded that
DoD's position would be to object to open publication of the
manuscript." Since Mr. Stillman had retained legal counsel in
light of DOD's objection and had asked for DOD's response on
several issues including why the manuscript was forwarded to CIA
and other federal agencies for review, Ms. Kelly wanted to know
if CIA wished to provide any further information for DOD to
incorporate into its response to Mr. Stillman's counsel.
--(-S4. The Chairman of the PRB responded on 19 April 2001 and
made several points:
� Mr. Stillman submitted the manuscript to comply
with the terms of his Classified Information
Nondisclosure Agreement with the United States. This
agreement was with the Government as a whole, not with
a particular agency.
� CIA review was proper since the manuscript
contained CIA information and such coordination is
consistent with the "third-agency rule" set forth in
Executive Order 12958.
� Nonetheless, CIA thought it would be difficult to
prevent publication absent a compelling articulation
of how the manuscript as a whole revealed classified
information and why Mr. Stillman could not revise it
to remove all references to classified information.
(U) In accordance with your request, I have included a
copy of the complete contents of the PRB's file on
Mr. Stillman's manuscript, excluding the manuscript itself, as
Enclosure A. Several DOD documents in CIA's possession have been
referred to DOD/OGC for review consistent with the Executive
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The Honorable Bob Graham
Branch's third-agency rule. Upon clearance by DOD, we would
provide those documents to the Committee.
(U) You also requested a list of the publications the PRB
has denied within the past 10 years. Enclosure B provides this
information in tabular form. It contains the
author's name, title of the submission, date on which the PRB
reached its decision, reason for disapproval, and final
disposition. You will see that from 1 January 1991 to date, the
PRB has disapproved only 13 manuscripts. Four authors rewrote
their submissions to remove the Board's objections and
subsequently were able to publish their work.
(U) The PRB does not make disapproval decisions lightly
and considers a manuscript unpublishable as written, only if
classified material is so integral to the author's story or so
pervasive within the text that separating it is either
impossible or would leave the author with nothing to publish.
These situations are rare. Indeed, the disapprovals represent
only a minuscule percentage of the 3,059 manuscripts reviewed
during the ten-and-a-half year period your request encompasses.
(U) I hope that this provides you the information you
need.
Sincerely,
5ranley mosKnwt,tz
Director of Congressional Affairs
Enclosures:
A. Copy of the Contents of the
PRB's file on Mr. Stillman
Book
B. List of the Publications the
PRB has Denied Since 1 January
1991
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