ERVIN BILL - S. 782

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000400030084-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 2006
• Sequence Number: 84
• Publication Date: February 21, 1969
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/08/09: CIA-RDP72-00337R000400030084-0
21 February 1969
MEMORANDUM FO.R: :he Dir ector
SUBJECT: Ervin Bill - S. 782
Bill Woodruff, Scoop Jackson, among others, have suggested you
might want to mention at an early Subcommittee session the problem of
the Ervin bill (S. 732 to protect the constitutional rights and privacy of
Government employees). I hope you find a chance to do this and if so
suggest you make the following points:
1. Our Subcommittee is certainly well aware of the sensitivity .
of the kind of =, aterrial we handle and the kind of operations we
engage in.
2. It is also aware of the Director's statutory responsibility
to protect our sources and rtkzods.
3. We need only look at some of the past experiences of
U. S. agencies (NSA cases for example) and cases of friendly foreign
countries (Philby, Flake, Rune. Imre, etc.) to see the incalculable
damage dono by successful Soviet penetrations of free world intelli-
gence organizations.
4. Indeed we have a mass of evidence tlut one of the highest
priorities of the KGB is the penetration of U. S. intelligence agencies.
One successful such penetration night enable the Soviets to identify
and neutralize many of our own operations; learn what we know and
don't k.-Aow about Soviet capabilities and intentions; gain insights
.enabling them to confuse and deceive us; and acquire vital info rn-,a tion
about U. S. policy, capabilities, technology, etc. with which our
own personnel become familiar in the course of their work.
Approved For Release 2006/08/09: CIA-RDP72-00337R000400030084-0
 Approved For Release 2006/08/09: CIA-RDP72-00337R000400030084-0
5, For these reasons we are vary sarioualy concerned
about the implicationo of certain provisions of the Ervin bill.
a. As you know, over the years we have developed a
thorough system of screening and assessing our personnel.
If we didn't carefully chock their security and suitability,
we wouldn't be doing our duty. The Ervin bill would severely
limit us in this regard. It apparently would forbid us to
question an employee regarding his association with known
Communist aenta.
b. Perhaps even n ore serious, provisions of the bill
grant any employee whose performance has been brought into
question, the right to bring in private counsel at the very
outset of an inquiry and to appeal his case to a U. S. district
court. in such c"-acs w ve would be Laced with the problem of
either lotting cord-nand authority and discipline fall apart,
or going to public trial and being forced to reveal a great
want. raore about the Agency and its operations than we would
!Y art.
Especially troublesome too is the provision allowing any Esc lica.rst
the right to file Quit in a district court for alleged violations or threatened
violations of the provisions of the bill (1. e.. questioning an applicant about
his personal life). Under these provisions, leftist organizations, dissident
youth groups, etc., could launch a campaign of litigation virtually paralyzin
the Agency recruitment program and severely straining its administrative
resources,
JOHN M. 1v1Al'r1'It
Legislative Counsel
Approved For Release 2006/08/09: CIA-RDP72-00337R000400030084-0