MEETING OF THE ICRC SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN DOCUMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP77-00389R000100070012-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2002
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: June 22, 1973
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For jease 2002/06/05 : CIA-RDP77-0038910100070012-6
22 June 1973
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Meeting of the ICRC Subcommittee on Foreign
Documents
1. The ICRC Subcommittee on Foreign Documents met
this morning at the National Archives Building. In attendance were
Dr. James E. O'Neill of National Archives, Richard C. Tufaro of
the White House Staff, Mark Speigel of the State Department, and
the undersigned.
2. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss guidelines
prepared by Dr. O'Neill for declassification of 30wyear-old foreign
classified information and material. After considerable discussion,
however, it became clear to all of us that a number of legal questions
had to be resolved before we could reach the problem of guidelines.
3. We unanimously agreed that we would submit to the
Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice a set of
questions dealing with the U. S. Government's authority under the
Freedom of Information Act to declassify and disclose documents
received from foreign countries.
4. Mr. Tufaro agreed to prepare a draft of the questions
as we had considerable difficulty agreeing among ourselves as to the
appropriate wording of these questions. The draft questions will be
circulated next week for coordination. Essentially, however, as I
see it, the questions are more or less as follows:
(a) Does the Freedom of Information Act apply to
information received from foreign governments?;
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(b) If so, does the U. S. Government have the
legal authority to declassify and publicly disclose
such information without the prior consent of the
originating foreign country?; and,
(c) If so, do executive agreements between the
U. S. Government and the various foreign countries
supersede the provisions of the Freedom of Informa-
tion Act?
5. We recognized that much of the information received
from foreign countries is probably exempted from public disclosure
under one or more of the exemption categories of the Freedom of
Information Act. Nonetheless, we felt that until the above legal
questions are resolved, the Subcommittee could not proceed in its
assigned task.
6. Mr. Tufaro is leaving the White House on June 29.
In his absence Mr. Speigel and the undersigned have been requested
to prepare the necessary papers and backup materials for the
Department of Justice.
Assistant General Counsel
cc: -6AIC
ES/CIA/MC
Approved For Release 2002/06/05 : CIA-RDP77-00389R000100070012-6