IN THE BACKGROUND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040117-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 117
• Publication Date: October 15, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

"?=v O CT 1 5 1963
Sanitized - Approved For Relea
^ IN THE BACKGROUND
CPYRGHT FOIAb3b
A QUESTION OF STATE
e storm blown up around Otto U. to a o t e State
Department's Security Office Ea' been Tonng -brewing. More
than two years ago, they whisper in Foggy Bottom, Otepka
recommended withdrawal of Harlan Cleveland's security
clearance. The recommendation was overruled, and Harlan
Cleveland, unsung Hero of the Katanga War, is still
Assistant Secretary of State for UN affairs. And Otepka
has been, since then, marked for slaughter.
For months the Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee
has been looking into the security climate in State, es-
pecially in relation to Castro's rise to power, Latin Ameri-
can affairs in general, and U.S. conduct in the Congo.
The inquiry has been sharp and apparently painful: sharp
enough to prompt the Attorney (;enernl +., +t,.. -?---?...--,
procedure of attending one particular session as an "ob-
server"; and painful enough to keep the Secretary of
State away from the August 30 hearing even though
subpoenaed-and no State employee has consented to
appear since August 30.
Now the reprisal: State's High Command has summoned
Otepka to the mast on the charge-relayed to the press
for preliminary trial by headline-of conspiring with the
Subcommittee's veteran counsel, J. G. Sourwine. Otepka
is alleged to have committed the crime of lose-Bureaucracy:
communicating "confidential" and "for official use only"
data to Sourwine.
Thus begins one more episode in the perennial clash be-
tween the Executive's will to unchecked power and the
Legislature's duty to know how the laws are administered.
Under every President of this century (see Clark R. Mol-
lenhoff's Washington Cover-Up) the issue has.been openly
joined at least once. The Otepka case may be the occasion
for the test battle of the Kennedy regime.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040117-6