EACH JUSTICE AND STATE WORKER FACES FULL PROBE

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Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP57-00384R001200230005-1
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RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
November 17, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 5, 2000
Sequence Number: 
5
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
October 8, 1953
Content Type: 
NSPR
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PDF icon CIA-RDP57-00384R001200230005-1.pdf201.81 KB
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Approved For RelTase 2000/0 Off to a. Slow Start Each Justice and State Worker Faces Full Probe By ANTHONY LEWIS Every full-time employe of the Justice and State departments-from the $1810-a-year maintenance worker on up-faces a full field investigation by the FBI and other probers under the new security program for Federal workers. But at other civilian depart- ? ments the chances that an em- ploye will have to undergo a full- scale security investigation are as low as1 in 10. To guide Federal agencies In drafting their own security rules, the Justice Department last spring published a set of sample depart- mental regulations. the, still' developing picture of the U. S. citizen permanently em- Eisenhower Administration's secur- ployed in the agency be given a ity set-up, under which each Federal copy of any charges against him, department and agency makes its be permitted to answer and be own standards and operates its own given a hearing before a three- security clearance system. man board drawn from a central The executive order which junked Civil Service Commission panel. the old Truman loyalty-security At the hearing the accused em- standards and established the new ploye was to have legal rights, set-up was issued last April. The Including the privilege of calliing Justice Department at the same time witnesses. issued sample regulations to guide Justice further set out these each agency in drafting its security bev cou ted against emp oyes uin rules. h k t ALL BUT ONE Since then department lawyers, security officers and assorted high officials have been trying to shape the Justice sample to each agency's particular needs. All the Cabinet departments but one - Interior - have now published security regula- tions. In most cases the department rules closely follow the Justice sam- ple on security standards, proce- dures for evaluation of each case and employe rights of appeal. The big difference among the depart- ments is in the extent of investiga- ting. Justice and State have several reasons for requiring full field in- vestigations of all employes. Both departments handle a large I ft n e y c ec s. securi (1) Lying, criminal acts, a,lco- holism, drug addiction, sexual per- version, insanity or susceptibility to coercion. (2) Sabotage or espionage. (3) Friendly association with a spy or traitor. (4) Advocating overthrow of the Government by force. (5) Membership or association In a subversive group. (6) Violation of security regu- lations. (7) Acting In the interests of a foreign country instead of the U. S. tistics on the number of Federal em- ployes dismissed or cleared-figures which the Loyalty Review Board amount of security materaa , o dealing with communist problems. But these are the broad differ- While some employes--janitors, for ences in the actual security regula- example-would not ordinarily han- tions published so far: die such material, security officers h, k 't' safer to be sure about i s t Defense tral Civil. Service panel for appeal hearing boards. Instead it will use its own men-but with the rule that an employe of one service must be heard by men from another, for ex- ample an accused Army worker by a Navy man. State In addition to demanding full in- quires of every employe, State's rules add this somewhat stern warning: "A former course of conduct or holding of beliefs shall be presumed to continue in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the con- trary." Justice The regulations exempt the FBI, which will continue its own security system. They let the Deputy Attor- ney General decide which employes must have full investigations, but a spokesman said in practice all would. Justice's rules show some minor changes from its own sample draft- ed last "spring, including this para- graph: "If during the course of a hear- ing . an employe, or his counsel, or any of his witnesses, is guilty of misbehavior or contemptuous conduct , the (hearing) board is authorized to exclude said em-'- ploye ..." Treasury Full investigations down to "Se- cret" level only. Provisions follow the Justice sample closely, but add this paragraph: "Any clearance granted .. - will be rescinded should information subsequently be received which in- dicates that the retention of the em- ploye is no longer clearly consis- tent with the interests of the na- -tional security..?' Post Office, Commerce, Labor Full investigations thru "Confi- dential" level. No significant chan- ges from Justice sample. Health-Education-Welfare Follows Justice sample closely, full field Inquiries to "Secret" level only. Agriculture Full investigations only to "Se- cret" level. Agriculture, with its vast network of part-time agents, also exempts from all investiga- tions temporary workers, foreign- ers employed in their own coun- tries, unpaid agents and persons working on the hoof-and-mouth.dis- ease control program in Mexico. Atomic Energy Commission The AEC has always had its own security set-up, dictated by law, and it is staying aloof from the new program except possibly forty som e a n everyone. Its regulations are the only ones t ' the u m t COMMON SENSE Then again State and Justice have born the brunt of Congressional at- tacks during the last few years on disloyalty and dishonesty charges. Security officers at other agen- cies told The News they would prefer requiring full Investiga- tions for all their employes, but expense and common sense ruled that out. Some Cabinet departments other than State and Justice have ordered full field investigations for employes who have access to information rated Confidential, Secret or Top Secret in the classification scale. Others, narrowing it even more, association is probable. uiries only for ll i f nq u require the ? Acts of a reckless ...nature those with access to Secret or Top Secret material-less than 10 per which indicate . . the Individual cent of department personnel might ... assist ... deliberately or In all agencies employes who inadvertently in activities inimical have had full field investigations in to the security of the United States." the past must be re-evaluated under ? Presence of a relative in an the new standards and possibly re- unfriendly country where he might investigated. be used to bring pressure on the In any case, the Eisenhower employe- executive order requires that every A Defense Department spokesman agency make . at least a routine said these criteria were added be- check of schools, churches and previ- cause "the more specific the stand= ous employers before hiring any- ards, the easier It is for security one. officers to do their job." SLOW START FLEXIBLE Because of the widely distributed But the Defense regulations them- authority on security matters, it is selves insist on some flexibility. difficult to get any overall picture They say the various misdeeds fisted of how the Eisenhower program is are "of varying degrees of serious- ness," so security men must use cedurefor setting the elyds an pap- ?' over-all common sense." peals for setnng w st arias and ap? The new regulations also spe- peals has been slow starting. The Civil Service Commission has cifically reassure civilian employes the job, under the executive order, at Defense that "national secur- of looking into all the agencies' se- ity" will not be used as an excuse crafty programs and reporting to for firing people without "normal 1 S ?t Council on Civil Service procedures." ecurr rules. :Centr-al :Inte Agency outfit took the opposite tack and drafted new rules which follow the Justice sample closely, with these two major exceptions: III ? CIA will have to clear by its own security system any hearing board member drawn from the anel to hear a CIA ice Ci il S y the Natrona their effectiveness and fairness. Defense requires full field inves- s co e d a f' t t' dog n to the "Confidential" h ,c11.' nw ~$ carne Nf x1 ~~;tew a.. 1 of"'rt"'tiY central see rk~ce of sta?. fence ~iil r-';,?c1 a din a o to change the criteria se Justice Department sample. To the basic seven, Defense adds these 10: ? Participation in a front outfit when the accused employe knew it was subversive or was being infil- trated by subversives, or when the accused employe "should reasonably have the knowledge." (Ignorance is no excuse.) ? "Sympathetic interest in totali- tarian, fascist, communist" or simi- lar movements: ? Current association with a per- son who would be barred from De- fense employment under these rules, or past association "if the circum_ p erv v case. ? CIA Director Allen Dulles and his deputy reserve the right to fire an employe summarily if they think q anger national j y , L h gave assur- ~ hllk ohole ,would .be used ~a~~i~''a~~l' .