LETTER TO MR. JOHN WILLIAM WARD FROM JOHN F. BLAKE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01048A001100090004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 29, 2005
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 1, 1977
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP80M01-048AO01100090004-9
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON,D.C. 20505
Mr. John William Ward
President, Amherst College
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
Please accept my apology for the tardiness of my reply to your
letter of February 2, 1977.
Your appeal from CIA's previous denial of your Freedom of Infor-
mation request and all related correspondence have been very carefully
reviewed by the CIA Information Review Committee which, as you may
know from our regulations published in the Code of Federal Regulations.
[Paragraph 1900.51(a) of Chapter XIX, Title 32], is composed of the
Deputy Directors of the CIA. After due consideration of all questions
involved in this matter, including. specifically the points raised in
your letter, as well as the Freedom of Information Act itself, the
relevant case law, and the responsibilities of the Director of Central
Intelligence pursuant'to the National Security Act, the Information
Review Committee has decided to affirm the decision communicated to
you in the September 24, 1976, letter of Gene F. Wilson, the Information
and Privacy Coordinator.
In your letter of May 17, 1976, you said that you wished to know
"whether any intelligence operations-conducted by the CIA has involved
any faculty member, student or employee of Amherst College, including
but not limited to paid or unpaid agents or informers." Your letter
also stated that, while you did-not request the names of any specific
individuals, you wished to- know "whether and to what extent any indi-
vidual at Amherst College may have been involved in covert relations
with the CIA."----As you know, the Freedom of Information Act provides
that a requester may be given access to government records but does
not oblige the government to reply to specific questions. Nevertheless,
inasmuch as the letter by former Director George Bush, dated June 5,
1976, apparently did not satisfactorily resolve your questions, in the
spirit of the Freedom of Information Act we have interpreted your
request as a request for records that might exist which would be
responsive to the questions you have asked in your May 17 letter.
U
its
Approved For Release 2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP80M01048AO01100090004-9
:,OLUTfON
v7>>6-1910
 Approved For Release 2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP80MO1048AO01100090004-9
The CIA can neither confirm nor deny that it has any records which
might be responsive to your request. Pursuant to the National Security
Act of 1947 [50 USC 40d(d)(3)] the Director of Central Intelligence
(DCI) has the responsibility to protect intelligence sources and methods
from unauthorized disclosure. To acknowledge the existence of records
which document the type of relationship you have described would be in
violation of the DCI's statutory responsibility. Your request, then,
is denied pursuant to exemption (b)(3) of the Freedom of Information Act.
I wish to emphasize that this answer does not, by any means, imply
that any sort of covert relationship exists between the CIA and any
faculty member, student or employee of Amherst. You will understand,
of course, that the CIA must consistently refuse to confirm or deny the
existence of covert relationships whether, in any given instance, such
a relationship exists or does not exist. To deny that such relationships
exist in those instances where none exists and then to refuse to confirm
or deny the existence of such relationships only in those instances where
such do exist would make the refusal tantamount to confirmation. -Thus,
the CIA must in all cases refuse to confirm or deny the existence of
covert relationships. (You may be interested in an opinion of the U.S.
District Court in the Central District of California which addressed
itself to a similar problem; Stanley D. Bachrack v. CIA, a copy of which
is attached. In that case, the Freedom of Information requester had
requested records concerning the relationship between a named individual
and the CIA, and CIA had refused to confirm or deny whether it had records.)
Records I ho indicate past contact
with Amherst College. a gh such contacts were neither covert nor
clandestine. I lopenly collects foreign intelligence from
American citizens who voluntarily and without compensation provide infor-
mation to their government. The most common example of this activity is
the debriefing of an American citizen who has travelled abroad and who,
because of his itinerary or particular field of knowledge, acquires
foreign intelligence information. As stated in Mr. Bush's letter, these
relationships are kept confidential, usually at the individual's request.
The individual is free to acknowledge this type of relationship openly,
but for CIA to do so would be a violation of his or her right to privacy.
Pursuant to paragraph (4)(B) subsection (a) of the Freedom of
Information Act you have the right to seek judicial review of this
determination in a United States district court.
Sincerely,
ionn P. a e
Chairman
Information Review Committee
Approved For Release 2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP80MOl 048AO01 1000900.04-9