INFORMATION AND PRIVACY STAFF WEEKLY REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-00498A000600070001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 23, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 30, 1976
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 200.1%O370 -: CIA.RDP79-00498 i
30 August 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Intelligence
Deputy Director for Operations
Deputy Director for Science & Technology
Assistant to the Director
Comptroller
General Counsel.
Inspector General
Legislative Counsel
John F. Blake
Deputy. Director for Administration
Information and Privacy Staff
Weekly Report
The continuing senior interest in our administration
of both the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act
is such that I believe it might be helpful if addressees'
received a copy of the weekly report made to me by the
Chief, Information and Privacy Staff, DDA. The first such
report is attached. I propose to send these regularly to
your attention unless you indicate to me they serve no
useful purpose.
John F. Blake
Distribution: 1 - AI-DDA & C/IPS w/att
Orig - DDI w/cy Att A-- DDA Subject w/att
1 - Each Additional Addressee DDA Chrono w/att
w/att 1 - JFB Chrono w/o att
DDA:JFBlake:der (30 August 1976)
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27 August 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
STATINTLFROM
Chief, Information and Privacy Staff
SUBJECT IPS Weekly Report (20-27 August)
1.
The Week 'in Review
20-26 August
1976 Ave'ra e Week
a.
New cases logged
51
72.9
b.
Cases closed
67
83.0
c.
Appeals logged
6
6.9
d.
Appeals closed
1
4.0
e.
Manpower (man-weeks)
91.5
88.8
2. 'Spotlight'ed Requests
a. Assoc. Prof. Frederick P. Bunnell, Vassar College,
requested copies of all CIA documents pertaining to Indonesia
which were provided to the Senate Select Committee by the
Agency during the course of the Committee's investigation of
the CIA. Professor Bunnell, who is preparing a book on US-
Indonesian relations, has previously submitted numerous re-
quests for the mandatory classification review of CIA records
held by the Presidential Libraries. This is his first request
to the Agency, however, under provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act.
b. Theodore R. Grevers, a private detective from Grand
Rapids, Michigan, asked for access to all CIA files concerning
the downing of a PB4Y-l on 8 April 1950 in the Baltic Sea,
about 37 miles from Libau, Latvia.
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c. Flying saucers are always a popular topic for
requesters. This week, requests were received from Brad C.
Sparks of Berkeley, California, who asked for OSI's sub-
ject file on UFOs, and from Dolores Tomashevsiza of
Prairie du Sac, 1'Jisconsin, who requested specific documents
related to CIA's interest in investigations of the phenomena.
Mr. Sparks has been in frequent contact with us in the past.
We have had only two previous letters from Ms. Tomashevska,
who is affiliated with the Wisconsin Division of an organi-
zation known as "Ground Saucer Watch."
d. Requests for records dealing with CIA experimenta-
tion with drugs as a means.of behavior control were received
from Dr. Jerone Stephens, Bowling Green State University,
and Ginger Dyal, San Mateo, California. Both would like
copies'of the documents previously released to John D. Marks
in connection. with an FOIA. appeal.
3. .Spotlighted Responses
a. An interim reply to Jack Anderson's PA request was
sent to Mr. Anderson's attorney, William A.'Dobrovir. This
is the second partial response. The first increment, which
was comprised, of the surveillance logs compiled by the Agency
in monitoring Anderson's movements, was sent several weeks
ago. Inasmuch as there has been no mention of this material
in Anderson's column as yet, it must be assumed that he is
waiting until processing of his request is completed before
exploiting its rather considerable news potential. The docu-
ments included in our latest reply were, by comparison,
innocuous.
b. Two requesters were provided copies of ADP-related
contracts negotiated by the Agency. Donald L. Poling, ltel
Corporation, obtained a copy of Amendment No. 2 to Contract
No. XG-4301 with IBM; and Maurice B. Lewis, Federal Leasing,
Inc., was given a copy of Contract No. XG-4512 with Comdisco,
Inc., covering the rental of IBM disk drives.
c. In partial response to a request from i?Iorton Halperin,
a letter of agreement between the CIA and Arnold & Porter
regarding remuneration for the legal services of 'Mitchell
Regovin was sent to Ilalperin's attorney, ?':illiam A. Dobrovir.
The search is continuing for additional records concerning
attorney fee retainers which may be responsive to the request.
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d. Fred Graham, CBS News, was provided copies of
four documents responsive to his PA request. One of them
was a report of an interview, dated 16 December 1952, by
an Agency recruiter when Mr. Graham was attending Yale
University.
e. Fifteen documents concerning US actions with respect
to countering Soviet influence in the Congo--nine of them
sanitized--were released to Madeleine G. Kalb, wife of news-
man Marvin Kalb. Eleven cables were denied in their entirety.
4. Analysis
a. During the three-week period, 6-26 August, 24 FOIA,
PA and EO appeals were received by the Agency, whereas only
14 appeals were closed out. As of cob 26 August, our appeals
backlog totaled 176-cases--an alltime high. The average
response time far exceeds the 20 working days stipulated
in the Freedom of Information Act for FOIA appeals. For exam-
ple, the one final appeal response sent out during the current
reporting period was to an appeal received last February.
b. The request backlog was reduced by a modest 15 cases
during the past week. The closed cases included one request
withdrawn by the requester, two requests canceled because of
the failure of the requesters to provide additional identi-
fying information, and 12 requests canceled because of the
requesters' failure to send advance fee payments. For CY
1976, we have now closed out 344 more requests than we have
logged.
c. Messrs. attended a meeting, held
at CIA Headquarters on 25 August, with FOI/PA officers
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforce-
ment Administration, and the Secret Service. This was the
second such get-together, and the next meeting is scheduled
for 27 September, with DEA as the host agency.
During the course of the meeting, an FBI representative
disclosed that the Bureau had been instructed by a Congres-
sional committee to devise a plan for eliminating the FOI/PA
request backlog (now in excess of 8,000 cases) so as to be
operating on a current basis within one year. The plan, as
yet not approved, calls for nearly doubling the size of FBI's
permanent staff. (The Bureau now has an FOI/PA staff T/O of
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220, with `202 persons actually on board.) In addition, numer-
ous agents will be detailed to Headquarters from various field
offices for 2-3 month tours to work on backlogged requests,
supplementing the efforts of the augmented permanent staff.
The estimated cost of the year's crash program is $10 million,
and, if implemented, the Congress will be asked for a
supplemental appropriation.
In the past, the Agency's backlog of approximately
1,200 cases and the ensuing delays in answering requests
have been largely overlooked by critics. Our difficulties
were dwarfed by those of the FBI, and it was the Bureau
that was pointed out as the agency disregarding the mandate
of the law. If the FBI's plan is implemented, however, and
the organization is able to become current within one year,
the critics in Congress and elsewhere may then turn their
attention to the CIA's deficiencies in providing timely re-
sponses to requests from the public. The resources which
might then have to be diverted to FOI/PA activities could
very well cause an impingement of other, more basic, CIA
programs.
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