EACH JUSTICE AND STATE WORKER FACES FULL PROBE
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP57-00384R001200230005-1
Release Decision:
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
File:
Attachment | Size |
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CIA-RDP57-00384R001200230005-1.pdf | 201.81 KB |
Body:
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' .