LETTER TO HONORABLE GEORGE BUSH FROM BELLA ABZUG

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78M02660R000300010014-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 27, 2006
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: March 26, 1976
• Content Type: LETTER

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BELLJ. S. %B2UG, N.Y.,.CHAIRWOMAN SAM STEIGER, ARIZ
LED J. RYAN, CALIF. CLARENCE J. BROWN, OHIO
'JOHN CONYERS, JR., MICH. PAUL N. MCCLOSXEY, JR., CALIF.
TORBERT H. MACDONALD. MASS.
JOHN E. MOSS, CALIF.
MICHAEL HARRINGTON. MASS.
ANDREW MAGUIRE. N.J.
ANTHONY MOFFETT. CONN.
Honorable George Bush
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
March 26, 1976
Thank you for your response of March 1, 1976 to questions we sent
on September 26, 1975 regarding the application of security classification
policy in Executive Order 11652 to CIA operations.
Comments you supplied regarding four of our questions seem to require
further attention. Would you please furnish us additional information
as requested below:
Question 2: The Agency's response to the question regarding the
criteria for determining whether an item of information is "official in-
formation" and subject to possible classification, shows that all informa-
tion received by CIA, including classified information, is consid_erT_e _
by it to be "official data and the property of the U.S. Government."
. What is the basis in law for CIA to state that each of the types
of information referred to below becomes property of the U.S. Government
and subject to classification as Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret under
Executive Order 11652?
(a)
Information published under a copyright.
(b)
Information received by CIA from an individual who has already
made this information known to others without secrecy restriction.
MORI/CDF Pages
(c)
Information received by CIA from an individual who
to make it known to others without secrecy restric
ep expected
o .
CCoUgre.o of the initeb
totesi
3ouge of 3aepreventatibeo
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
SUBCOMMITTEE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, Room B-349-B-C
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515
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Honorable George Bush
March 26, 1976 Page 2
(d) Privately generated information received by CIA from an individual
who assigned a marking of Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret to
it without any authorization from a Federal agency, and who has
disseminated or can be expected to disseminate the information
outside of U.S. Government channels.
(e) Information received by CIA regarding people, organizations, or
things which does not lend itself to the secrecy control procedures
in Executive Order 11652 for information requiring protection
against unauthorized disclosure.
Question 3: The question requested a statement of criteria established
by CIA for its use in determining whether items of official information require
protection under Executive Order 11652 against unauthorized disclosure in the
interest of the national defense of the United States. (Use of the term
"national defense" reflects the fact that the Freedom of Information Act,
5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1), makes a distinction between "national defense" and
"foreign policy". Executive Order 11652 also uses the term "national defense".)
Your reply did not cite any criteria established by CIA, or otherwise
respond to this question. CIA regulation HR 10-23, which your letter referred
to as containing classification criteria and guidance for intelligence
sources and methods information, provides nothing other than the general
classification policy promulgated in Executive Order 11652 for all agencies.
Apparently, the CIA has no instructions specifying the type of damage
to the national defense that the Agency should strive to preclude through use
of the classification system. Nor is there any indication that CIA has
placed restrictions on using the designations "intelligence source" and
"intelligence method" as catch-alls for keeping information secret.
If CIA has in fact issued instructions which augment the general policy
statements in Executive Order 11652 for determining whether official in-
formation requires protection against unauthorized disclosure to preclude
damage to the national defense, please furnish them to this Subcommittee.
Question 6b: This question referred to the requirement in Executive
Order 11652 that authority to assign information to a classification category
be exercised only by officials who are properly designated in writing.
According to the CIA's reply, CIA considers that restriction to be unsatis-
factory for the performance of its functions and responsibilities.
Your answer is truly amazing. People everywhere are deeply concerned
about the fact that procedures currently promulgated in Executive Order
11652 permit the designation of many thousands of government officials to
exercise censorship authority over information which rig`tfully belongs to
the public. This Subcommittee is reexamining its support of the provisions
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Honorable George Bush
March 26, 1976 Page 3
in subsection (b)(1) of the Freedom of Information Act which validate
existing classification policy in the Executive Order, including the wide-
spread delegation of classification authority.
Will you please furnish this Subcommittee:
(a) The details of such problems as have occurred in CIA since the
effective date of Executive Order 11652 (June 1, 1972), due to the
fact that classification authority may only be exercised by
officials designated in writing pursuant to the order; and
(b) Your recommendations for policy on the question of exercising
classification authority which Congress could include in security
classification reform legislation.
Question 14: The response to this question shows that the CIA strives
to protect information revealing intelligence sources and methods even
when the information does not qualify for classification and protection
under Executive Order 11652 in the interest of the national defense or
foreign relations. As indicated by the last sentence of your answer, all
information that could be considered as revealing some sort of intelligence
source or some sort of intelligence method apparently is viewed as having
been born into secrecy and can be released only.if CIA regulations
specifically permit disclosure.
Before sending you our letter, we had been advised that section 9 of
Executive Order 11652 provides for protecting intelligence sources and
methods under the security classification system if protection is necessary.
Section 9 provides: "The originating department or other appropriate
authority may impose, in conformity with the provisions of this order,
special requirements with respect to access, distribution and protection
of classified information and material, including those which presently
relate to communications intelligence, intelligence sources and methods
and cryptography."
Our question 14 reflected the possibility that the President might
have issued revised instructions without publishing them. But after we
reviewed the President's recent recommendations for criminalizing unauthorized
disclosures of intelligence sources and methods (embodied in H.R. 12006),
we concluded that no change in Executive Order 11652 had been made, since
his proposed legislation w)uld only protect sources and methods information
assigned a security classification pursuant to an Executive Order.
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Honorable George Bush
March 26, 1976 Page 4
Therefore, would you advise us whether CIA regulations do in fact pre-
scribe criteria andgrocedures for protecting non-classified intelligence
sources and methods, and, if so, please send us a copy.
Sincerely,
BELLA S. ABZUG
Chairwoman
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EXECUTIVE. SECRETARIAT
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STAT
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CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS SUBCOMMITTEE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515
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Directail,~. F4 e0
Ceralce Agency 11 . Wash; 15. C.