REPORTING ON CIA LIAISON RELATIONSHPS TO THE HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002300050022-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 22
• Content Type: MEMORANDUM FOR

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` JUL. 1978
MEMORANDUM FOR: ADDO
OGC
DDS&T (OSO)
PCS/LOC
FROM : Frederick P. Hitz
Legislative Counsel
SUBJECT : Reporting on CIA Liaison Relationships to
the House Permanent Select Committee on
,U. Intelligence
l.0 As addressees may recall, in November 1977 the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) requested that
CIA provide a briefing on its foreign intelligence liaison relationships..
While the DCI was prepared to brief the Committee during a December
1977 appearance, the time the DCI spent before the Committee on. that
occasion was devoted to other matters and the subject was never re-
addressed in a briefing context. Committee staff have now renewed
and refined the original request.
2. "On 6 July 1978 Thomas K. Latimer, Staff Director, House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, asked that the Committee
be briefed on "written agreements that are essentially government to
government agreements which have not been reported to Congress under
the Case-Zablocki Act." Mr. Latimer indicated that he and the Committee
understand that the Agency regards these relationships as both sources
and methods of intelligence acquisition, but said that the Committee has a
responsibility to. be apprised of formal relationships which carry with
them substantive commitments on the part of the U.S. Government.
He also stated that he was not interested in oral and essentially informal
arrangements carved out by present or former Chiefs of Stations with
chiefs of foreign intelligence services. No date has yet been set for this
requested briefing.
3. Reporting to HPSCI on written- agreem.ents. which are essentially
government to government in nature is probably the absolute minimum to
which we will be able, to limit a briefing, on Agency rel.ati_onships with
liaisons. There follows a proposed outline for addressees` consideration
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in attempting to meet the needs of the Committee while maintaining
the sense of confidentiality implicit in our rely?.tionships with the
various foreign liaison services .
4. FII believe the briefing should be oral and off-the-record
(i.e., that no transcript be taken) and that it should be stressed through-
out the briefing that these arrangements constitute some of our most
sensitive activities. In addition, it should be pointed out that our
reluctance to brief on such matters stems from= the fact that we could
very possibly lose the cooperation of foreign intelligence services if
they found out that we were briefing Congress on those relationships,
given the recent Congressional leak record. 1 propose the following
structure for the briefing:
a. Types of relationships:
SIGINT -- Limit geoa'rauhical descriptions to general
areas, i.e
a
Tell the Commi e WHIM x MUSE:
are and how we carry them out. The Committee should be
briefed in terms of funds expended, passed, material
provided, information passed as well as the benefits to
the USG from these relationships.
OPERATIONAL -- Again, limit geographical descriptions
to general areas and provide the Committee with descriptions
of the kinds of relationships encompassed, such as Exchange
of Information (what kinds), Ground Rules (such as), Operations
(what kinds and with what objectives), as well as the overall
benefits to the United States Government.
b. This might also be an opportune moment to discuss with the
Committee the overall benefits of liaison relationships; viz. , the
value of those relationships to the U.S. intelligence effort, the
basic philosophical position that there mist be net advantage to
the USG in order to justify the relationship, the kinds of product
that emanate from these relationships ani&i concluding with' some
kind of estimate on the number of man-ydzrs that these
relationships save the USG.
c. Once having concluded the opening remarks and briefing,
the Committee will most probably ask come specific questions
which the briefers will have to respond to in' as general terms as
the situation permits. Implicit in the proposed briefing outline
is that anything we tell the Committee will. be more than we wish
to give-up and less than the Committee will wish to receive. In
the latter contest it is worth remembering that the more financially
significant of these intelligence agreements have already been
exposed to the House Permanent Select Committee on.:intelligene e
in the course of budget mark-up.
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5 ~ ^ Once a briefing package has been worked out,. it will
have to be coordinated in scope with DOD and NSA, both of whom
are being tasked with similar requirements. Attached are proposed
guidelines for NFIB agency responses to Congressional inquiries
regarding liaison relationships. The proposed briefing is in general
consonance with the guidelines.
6 oQi propose that DDO, OSO and OGC representatives be
prepared to meet with of my staff, at 1030 hours on
18 July 1978 in 5E11. 'i ie purpose o this meeting will be to discuss
the above outline and create a briefing package which will be used in,
briefing the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Frederick P. Lutz
Attachments
As stated
Distribution
Orig - adsees
1 -? OLC: Subject
1 . OLC Chrono`
OLC:MMP:sf (11 July 1978)
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