FOIA: A GOOD LAW THAT MUST BE CHANGED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89B00236R000200130021-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2008
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: October 29, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

o Law.
s
Changed
e
Must
That
Although it started out as a commendable strengthening of the people's right to know, the
st of millions per year, now protects the "right" of radicals,
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HUMAN EVENTS
29 Oct. 1983
Page 10
sensitive U.S. government agencies-and to use such in.orma
otherwise impede law enforcement agencies in their efforts to prosecute criminals for their acts.
Freedom of Information Act, at a co
criminals, left-wing organizations and even hostile foreign go t on to hare-c-q- hamstring -and
By'FRANCIS J. McNAMARA
ot
munist party member Angela Davis (right) called demonstrations demand ng Ch. m.,d,
release whits Cheslmard was being hold in connecMon with the murder of a state trooper.
After her escape from prison (she is ON at la
to have had In her d Meek ndlcal Joanna Chssima-d 4 was found
Possession hundreds of FO/ ri
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it sounds great. But when prac-
tical applications of the law are ex-
amined, it becomes, clear that there
are very real dangers to Americans
and the nation In It:
Why? Because as presently written, it
fails to balance the government's right
(i.e., the public's interest) in-the cdentiality ? of certain material against
any one individu clearly limited by the
right -that is very
Mr. McNamara served as executive secretary
Board and,
director the Subversive of. the House i committee on Un-
Amrj.
e grantfrom the article
sible through a a g Fu? for 04JOctive
News Reporting.
Constitution, the law and .. the general
welfare.
Consider the case of Joanne Deborah
Chesimard, also known as Assata
Shakur:
In the pre-dawn hours of May 2,.
1973, State' Trooper James Harper.
pulled a car off the New Jersey Turnpike
for speeding and radioed for a backup
before approaching it. Trooper Werner
Foerster responded and, while Harper
talked to the driver at a patrol car (there
was a license-registration discrepancy),
spoke to the passengers. The one
woman in the car pulled a gun and shot
Foerster. About 30 rounds were fired in
the gunfight that followed. Harper,
wounded in the shoulder, managed to
walk several hundred yards to the Turn-
pike administration building for help.
The car was gone when other troopers :
arrived. Foerster lay on the ground, dy-
ing. Four handguns were recovered in
the area.
A few minutes later, some miles to
the south, another trooper saw a car
pull off the Turnpike and a man flee in-.
to the woods. In the car he found James
F. Coston Jr., former deputy minister
of information for the Black Panther
party, dead-and 'Joanne Chesimard
with bullet wounds in both arms and a
shoulder. The car contained a large
quantity of false indentification papers
(passports, birth certificates. credit and
Social Security cards).
The man who fled into the woods,
Clark Squire, was captured the next
day. He and Chesimard were Indicted
for killing Foerster.
It was not Chesimard's first violent
crime. When the FBI, in September
1972, had issued a wanted poster for
her based on her alleged participation
(with five others) in. a Queens, N.Y.,.
gunpoint bank robbery in August 1971,
the poster noted that one of her identi=
fying marks was a'gunshot wound scar
on her abdomen. Only. 25, she had
already used seven aliases. And. he was
even known as the "soul" of the Black
Liberation Army (BLA), a terrorist
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The Freedom of. Information rma a highly
(FO1A), in many
desirable law. The Supreme Court itself
has written approvingly - of the free-
dom-preserving principles on which it is
based. `'
FOIA's basic concepttp is that tive
preserve their free,
government. and the rights iAnCricans
tution confers on. them, ica n-
must be informed about that and why
ment - what it is doing, bow vote in -
it is doing it.. How .can they
.telligently if they are not so informed?
How can they learn of inefficiency or
corruption and peact to rform the many other
How can they p
duties of good citizenship?
The logic of the case for a right-to-
information law is unassailable.
The FOIA obliges all government
agencies to provide you with docu-
mentary evidence of their activities
when you request it. If an agency denies
your request, claiming..-- you believe.
unjustly-one of thex information
law provides for types that should be held confidential, you
may take it to court. A federal judge
will review the matter.
1f ' the agency claimed a national
security exemption, for example, he
can examine the withheld. classified
documents in secret, and he will lhweigh
gan agency affidavit explaining why
how the documents . were property
still
classified originally and why they f
cannot be revealed. The burden ud croon
will be on the agency.
order the documents declassified and
released toy ou.
He can also rule that the government
will pay all your court costs 'and at-
torney fees and that, because the docu-
ments are in the public interest, you will
not have.to pay the normal costs of
researching and reproducing them.
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group that grew. out of the Eldridge .
Cleaver faction of the Black Panther
party and specialized in killing. '
policemen.
The poster on Che'simard warned
that she was "closely associated with
persons who are alleged to be armed
with explosives and a variety of guns,
including automatic rifles and hand-
guns. She should be considered armed
and dangerous."
The FBI's 1973 annual report stated
that, since the beginning of that year,
the killing of two policemen and injur-
ing of nine others had been attributed
to the BLA, and- that two months
before the Turnpike incident the BLA
had issued a communique:
"Yes, we take credit for killing pigs,
bank robberies, jail breaks, sky-
jackings, etc. We also take credit for.
the recent-ambushes on the pigs."
The Bureau's 1974 report said the
BLA had netted about $500,000 from
"expropriations" robberies to
finance revolutionary activity.
Shortly before Chesimard's capture,
it was announced that New York City
police were looking for her and five
others for questioning in .the killing of
two policemen in January 1972. While
in jail waiting trial for killing Foerster,
she and eight other BLA members were
indicted for a series of attacks in which
obtained by a simple FOIA re-
quest. She had been studying them
before her escape.
about herself and the BLA she had
1,700 pages of FBI Information
four policewere killed; she and two BLA
fugitives were.indicted for robbing a
Brooklyn bar and kidnapping the bar-
tender, and she was alsomindicted for a
robbery-killing at a Brooklyn social club
in January 1973.
After she recovered from her
wounds, the first effort to convict her
of killing Foerster ended in a mistrial
because she had pregnancy compli-
cations. Her co-defendant, Clark
Squire, was sentenced to life in prison.
Communist party leader Angela
Davis, also a Black Panther, meanwhile
had . called for demonstrations on
Chesimard's . behalf. Several defense
committees werelormed and, as her sec-
ond trial began, demonstrations were
held outside the heavily guarded court-
room. (Singer Harry Belafonte had
chaired an earlier rally for her in New
York City; a criminal court judge ad-
dressed it.) Chesimard, too, was given a
life sentence.
The BLA tried to break Clark' Squire .
out of prison on Jan..19,. 1976. The
five-hour gun and homemade bomb
fight involving him and about 40 other
prisoners left one inmate dead, and
another and three officers seriously
wounded. Squire did not escape.
But Chesimard did-on Nov: 2,
1979. She had three "visitors" that
day, all of whom matched descriptions
she had previously provided prison
authorities and carried appropriate
false identification documents. With
guns they had smuggled into the prison,
she and .they seized two prison guards,
commandeered a minibus used to shut-
tle visitors onto the prison grounds and,
with the guards as hostages, drove to
the parking lot of a nearby school for
the mentally retarded where two escape
vehicles awaited them. They released
the guards and took off. She is still free.
What does the FOIA have to do with
this incident of revolutionary terrorist
robbery, murder and cop-killing?
Authorities found in Chesimard's
prison cell 327 documents totaling
The head -of the New Jersey State
Police, Col. Clinton Pagano, had an
analysis made of the documents and
sent copies of it to FBI Director
William Webster and Atty. Gen. Ben-
jamin Civiletti, in addition to' personal-
ly . calling Webster. Pagano's conclu-
sion:
Chesimard not. only learned the
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names of governmen ormants from
the documents, but "nt to the very
heart of the operations of the Bureau
and other enforcement agencies. She
learned our techniques; she learned
how to anticipate what we would do."
According to Webster, Pagano also
told him that the knowledge Chesimard
obtained from the FOIA papers im-
paired FBI and state efforts to appre-.
hend her, that "without question,
Joanne Chesimard has an in-depth
knowledge of the procedures of your
agency," and that "the working.
relationship between the New Jersey
State Police and the .FBI has suffered
accordingly. "
Can Pagano be blamed for deciding
to end the former free flow of criminal
and domestic securi ty intelligence the
New Jersey State Police had provided
to the FBI? His first duty was to the
welfare of his state, the police force he.
heads, its troopers, and all their sources
of information. He could not protect
them as he should if he continued giv-
ing detailed investigative information
they collected to the FBI, when a
federal lawomeant that it must turn
much of this information over to killer
terrorists.
This Is just one of many documented
cases in which, because of the FOIA,
the FBI has lost the full cooperation of
state or local police or other law en-
forcement-security agencies, and of
numerous individuals (including even
judges), who no.longer provide it with
the kind of information it must have to
carry out its duties successfully.
There is more to the Chesimard-
FOIA story. The October .1981 robbery
of $1.6 million from a Brink's armored
car in Nanuet, N.Y., led to the killing
of two police officers and .a Brink's
guard, the recovery of the loot, the ar-
rest of Weather Underground fugitive
Kathy Boudin, and revelation of the ex-
istence of the May 19 Communist
Organization, a terrorist "expropri-
ation" conglomerate which has also
benefited by the FOIA. The group is
composed of members of Chesimard's
BLA, the Republic of New Africa,
Weather Underground- Organization
(WOO), Prairie Fire Organizing Com-
mittee (aboveground support group for
the WUO) and, possibly, the FALN.
The Republic of New Africa (RNA)
is a violence-addicted black separatist
group which wants to establish an inde-
pendent black republic in certain
southern states. RNA members killed
one policeman in a 1969 shootout in
Detroit; they killed another, and
wounded one policeman and an FBI
agent, in a 1971 shootout in Jackson,
Miss. Individual members of the RNA
have been involved in other killings.
The RNA, like Chesimard, has used the
FOIA to get FBI information about the
group and its members - following up
its initial request with a lawsuit.
Of the. WOO members charged in the
Brink's robbery-murders, five had
filed FOIA requests for FBI infor-
mation on themselves and four of them
had obtained files; two were actually in-
volved in FOIA suits against the FBI,
trying to get additional files, at the time
of their arrests.
From 1975 to 1981, over 70 WOO
members * former members filed
FOIA requests with the FBI. Attorneys
for one fugitive filed an FOIA request
for all records of the Bureau's
"Weatherfug," code name for the
FBI's effort to locate and apprehend
the 20-odd WUO leaders and members
who were fugitives in the early 1970s. In
addition, an FOIA request compelled
the FBI to give over 60,000 pages of
Bureau information on the group to a
West Coast attorney representing peo-
ple associated with the WUO.
Authorities are looking for Chesi-
mard in the Brink's case. Seven of those
charged in it have also been indicted for
plotting her prison break, and four of
them for taking part in it. Two have
been convicted of helping her escape.
FBI Director Webster has stated that
those involved in the Brink's case
"have made thorough use". of the
FOIA. He wonders about just how
much FBI FOIA documents aided them
in the Brink's and other expropriation
robberies the group is now suspected
.of. "We never know what use groups
and individuals may be making of
information released under the
FOIA," he has testified.
Not only revolutionary killer
terrorists, but organized crime and
drug traffickers profit by the
FOIA.
Gary Bowdach, who had spent his
life in organized crime, and five years in
the' penitentiary, revealed that, while in
prison, he had used the FOIA to find
out whether the government had other'
investigations pending against him and
in an effort to discover who had in-.
formed on him. He did not learn the
identity of his informant, but believed
he succeeded in learning who had in-
formed on a friend - and passed on the
information. What happened to the in-
formant?
4 "I don't think the man is among the
living any more," he said. A "jailhouse
lawyer," Bowdach filed FOIA requests
with every government agency he
thought would.have a file on him-the
FBI, IRS, Drug Enforcement Agency,
U.S. Attorney's office, and Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He
also filed requests for other convicts.
Organized crime, he testified, made
widespread use of the FOIA for the
same reasons he had. He had no per-
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R9rolutlonary lttaffy @9y4?n (left), a member of the Weather Underground Organization and one of
several Involved In the New York Brink's murder-robbery, (iced requests lot FBI r;card; under
FOIA. Gary Bowdach (right), with a record of Involvement In organized crime, had used the FOIA
while in prison In an effort to learn who had Informed on him.
sonal knowledge of informants iden-
tified and killed as a result of these re-
quests, but believed the effort was very
successful. "With these [organized
crime] people, people tend to
'disappear,' " was the way he put it.
Bowdach explained how informants
might be identified, even though the
FOIA provides for the deletion of their
names from released documents.
Usually it's a case of human error.
"In some instances, deletions are not
totally complete. They would leave one
letter, [you):take the amount of space
that was- deleted. . . take that letter,
backspace, see what position that letter
is placed in the name, and from that let-
ter [you] are able to determine the name
of the informant."
Even when deletions are complete, he
said, "just details of the report could
also reveal the identity of the infor-
mant...: If I know that I had a
meeting with you on such and such a'
date, and in a certain restaurant in
Miami, and I got a *report a year later.
and it said a confidential informant
who met with Bowdach at such and
such a restaurant on such and such a
date, revealed to us that such and such
happened, I don't have to know your
name. I've just got to think, remember
who I had a meeting with at that time
and that place, and I come up with
you."
To capitalize on the human error ele-
ment, Bowdach would sometimes file
identical FOIA requests with the same
agency several times-on the theory
that one person would handle the first
request, another the next one and, if he
was lucky, each would make some error
that would result in his getting'infor-.
mation he should not have.
FBI officials have repeatedly con-
firmed Bowdach's testimony about ex-
tensive organized crime utilization of
the FOIA to hamper law enforcement.
Director Webster testified in 1982, for
example; that organized efiine elements
in Detidit had eailier been instructed to
file egtie?ts and that, as of the time he
testified; the Bureau had received 38 in
iespi hse t6 those orders; The list of re-
giiesteis;'he said; wa? "like a Who's
Who in Orgnnit+.ttd crime to Detroit."
Their requests resulted in over 12,000
pages of FBI information on. organized
crime operations in that area being
turned over to them.
Sixteen per cent of FBI FOIA re-
quests, it Is estimated, come from
prison Inmates. The Drug En-
forcement Agency gets 40 per cent
of Its requests from convicted
felons, many of them serving time
when they file them.
The case of Philip Agee reveals
another aspect of the dangers in the
FOIA.
Sinc"penly- proclaiming his inten-
tion? to? destroy the,CIA in 1974; Agee'
,has-worked-diligently at that task' via
books (one written with the help of the
Cuban Communist party), personal.
appearances, foreign travels and two
publications, CounterSpy and Covert
Action Information Bulletin (which
Castro helped him launch). The
Supreme Court has found that his activi-
ties threaten the security of this and
other nations.
Ageeno dumbbell-filed an FOIA
requestwith the CIA and other agencies
in 1977, asking for all the information
they had on him. Unsatisfied with their
responses, he had his ACLU attorneys
file FOIA suits for him in 1979 (he was
then in Germany-after being expelled
from England and other countries for
his contacts with hostile intelligence
agents).
His suit compelled the CIA to scnreh
for 8,699 documents in its files covered
by his request. After carefully analyz-
ing them, it refused to release 8,175 of
them in their entirety, citing various
FOIA exemptions -- and gave him 524
in part only.
District 'Court Judge Gerhard Gesell
upheld the CIA position in July 1981,
ruling that its denials were justified
(except for five letters from congress-
men he ordered delivered to Agee on
the ground that the FOIA did not pro-
tect them). Gesell commented as
follows on the case in his decision:
eCJA?"suit' total. By the time his suits
against the State and Justice depart-
ments, the?FBI and the supersecret Na-
tional Security Agency (NSA) are settled,
the costs will be enormous.
"It is amazing that a rational society
tolerates the expense,. the waste of
resources, the potential injury to its
own security which this process
necessarily entails."
He. footnoted this concluding com-.
ment with these facts: The CIA, at the
beginning of =1981, had'spent 25,004`-
man-hours on Agee's request; the
salaries involved totaled $327,715 and
computer costs, $74,750. He added,
"The costs now far exceed this sum."
., And they will go far beyond Agee's
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. The congressional committee largely
responsible for the 1974 amendments to
the act which created the many dangers
now inherent in it, estimated that those
changes would cost only $50,000 the -
first year and $100,000 for each of the
next five years. But FOIA now costs the
government about $50 million a year.
Since the amendments became effec-
tive in 1975, the FBI alone has spent
over $55 million on FOIA work; its an-
nual costs now run about $12 million
and it has over 300 of its personnel
(who should be fighting spies, crime,
terrorists and subversion) working full-
time on FOIA. It receives about 20,000
requests per year, compared to a few
hundred pre-'75 when less than a dozen
employes worked on FOIA at a cost of
about $160,000 per annum.
Over 23,000 individuals and groups
have filed FOIA requests with the CIA.
Many have filed multiple requests, so
the total is much greater than that
figure. In 1980, the CIA received over
1,200 new requests and its backlog of
2,700 unanswered demands grew by
400, although it had assigned addi-
tional personnel to FOIA work.
The CIA is fighting 200 FOIA
lawsuits designed to pry sensitive
secrets from its files; has 200 people
(who should be doing vital intelligence
work) assigned to FOIA matters and is
expending over 250,000 man-hours and
about $3 million per year complying
with the law.
NSA, engaged in. highly sensitive
code and signal intelligence, gets about
400 FOIA requests per year, although
much of its information is barred from
disclosure by statute. It is involved in
about a dozen FOIA suits and spends
about $500,000 per year on FOIA.
DIA-the Defense Intelligence
Agency receives about 90 requests per
year from foreign nationals. The CIA
receives "many" 'requests for docu-
men"i; in iti files" ff6 ft al;foad-f&etg
that emphasize an amazing feature of
the FOIA: it is a law that can be used by
anyone in the world to obtain docu-
ments from the files of U.S. govern-
ment agencies, including those dealing
with the most sensitive defense, intel-
ligence and foreign policy matters. The
American taxpayer foots the bill for
this global boondoggle through a law
that actually serves as an instrument of
lawful espionage against this country.
The, Implications of what
Joanne' Chesimard and her BLA,
the RNA, WUO and organized
crime have learned from the FOIA
are frightening; what hostile na-
tions' can learn poses a much
greater danger.
The FBI knows that the KGB is using
the FOIA to its advantage. The highest-
ranking Soviet official to defect to the
U.S., Arkady Shevchenko, former
assistant secretary general of the United
Nations, ha. stated that Soviet jour-
nalists have used American "friends"
to file FOIA requests for them-and it
is a matter of public record that the.
Soviet news agency Tass (long used as a
cover for spies), has filed. FOIA re-.
quests with the State `.Department.
Shevchenko has branded the FOIA as
"stupid," because it gives Moscow
information "on a golden plate."
Judge Antonin Scalia of the U.S.
Court of Appeals has revealed that
when he was assistant U.S. attorney
general in the mid-'70s, NASA was
concerned because it was getting a
"regular series" of FOIA requests
from the Soviet trading company, Am-
torg (which has been used for Soviet es-
pionage since the 1930s). NASA offi-
cials contacted the Department of-
Justice to see if there was anything they
could do to avoid supplying the infor-
mation Amtorg asked for. The answer:
A left-wing group that has made ex-
tensive use of FOIA and is fighting any
changes in it recently published a sum-
mary of 500 FOIA request cases which
allegedly demonstrate the great benefits
of the law for the American people. In
most cases the summaries contain the
identity of the requester. it had the gall
to include one which, though somewhat
vague, was revealing: "Representatives
of the Soviet Union."
Most media representatives 'and
many members of Congress are staunch
FOIA defenders. They oppose any
changes in the law, insisting that its ex-
emption provisions provide adequate
protection for sensitive information..
That is not true.
The * human error element which
Bowdach mentioned and counted on
cannot be eliminated. Any person who
has to sit all day long, day after day,
endlessly screening thousands of pages
of closely typed reports, inevitably
becomes ,somewhat fuzzy-minded and-
makes errors. Moreover, there are
other factors that make error certain.
FOIA requires that agencies respond
to a request in 10 days and an appeal
from a denial in 20-a time limitation
no sensitive agency has been able to
meet (all have been flooded with re-
quests) and which has led to hundreds
of suits. These suits remove control of
the screening from the agency, turning
it over to judges who too often have lit-
tle appreciation of security needs. What
happens.then? A few examples:
In one CIA case, the judge ordered
that 50,000 pages be screened and
released in four months.
The sons of executed atom spies Ethel
and Julius Rosenberg requested, and
then filed suit, for FBI documents on
their parents. The FBI had to screen
over 480,000 pages of documents in
response to this suit. When the judge
ordered that they be released at the rate
of 40,000 per month, it was necessary
to assign more than 50 agents to the
task. About 160,000 documents on this
major espionage investigation became
public as a result of the suit.
In the RNA FOIA suit, the FBI
almost begged the judge to allow it
70,000 pages of documents involved.
Richard' Dhoruba Moore, convicted
killer and thief, while imprisoned, had
his attorneys file suit, following up his
request for information on the New
York chapter of the Black Panther par-
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Philip Agee, long Involved In efforts to destroy the effectiveness of the CIA, flied an
FOIA suit with the agency demanding the records It had on him. Later, the CIA esti-
mated 23,000 man-hours and almost $400,000 had been expended In connection with
his suit.
ty, of which he had been an official. At -
one point in the trial of the case, the
FBI, releasing 2,000 to 3,000 pages per'
week to Moore's attorney, asked the
judge to grant it 39 more weeks, at the
rate of 2,000 per, to complete turning
over to Moore all the documents he ob-
tained.
is proper screening possible when
documents must be released in such tre-
mendous quantities and at such a
speed? Obviously not.
There are other built-in error factors..
The most expert CIA intelligence of
ricer or FBI counterintelligence agent
can never know how much the KGB or
some other foreign Intelligence agency
knows about the situation or individual
on which he is screening papers. He can
therefore never tell whether or not
information he is clearing. for release
will fill in some gap in its knowledge,
providing it with extremely valuable in-
formation.
And how could anyone working on a
huge release recall some little detail on
page number 12 or 37 that just might tie
in with some other details on pages
3,968 or 5,169 with the same result?
And when, as is often the case, a
number of people must work on a re-
quest, how can adequate cross-
checking of such items be done?
Even the classification of documents
does not protect :adequately. In the
Agee case, Judge Gesell noted that of
the 8,699 documents found, 8,127 were
classified and that 8,324 actually con-
cerned CIA sources and methods
(which must be protected at all costs).
This means that 197 documents about
sources and methods' lacked the protec-
tion of classification. Moreover, seem-
ingly non-sensitive information can be
dangerously revealing. Gesell went to
the CIA's headquarters to secretly in-
spect many of the documents at issue in
the Agee case. He stated in his decision:
Specific instances illustrating how
readily identity of sources, for exam-
pie; may be compromised by release of
datanot itself sensitive were noted by
the Court during its in camera inspec-
tion.
Finally there Is the fact that
unqualified judges, arrogantly
overruling the carefully considered
judgments of concerned, highly
professional Intelligence-security
officials, can order documents
declassified-and have done so.
The international effects of FOIA
are the same as the domestic and for the
same reasons. Top officials of every
U.S. intelligence agency-the CIA,
NSA, DIA, DEA, FBI and State
Department - have testified that
FOIA is drying up-their sources of
information, that their ability to do
their jobs and the security of the United
States have been heavily damaged
because of it. Those within the intel-
ligence community fear that they, or
their sources, will be compromised by
its compelled revelations.
Deputy CIA Director Frank Carlucci
testified in 1980: "The chief of a major
foreign intelligence service sat in my of-
fice and flatly stated he could no longer
fully cooperate as long as the CIA is
subject to the Freedom of Information
Act."
CIA Director William Casey testified
in 1981 that 15 friendly foreign intel-
ligence services had taken the same
position. Because the best intelligence
services in the world are those most
careful about. protecting? themselves
(and their sources), it follows not only
that the quantity loss to the U.S. but the
quality loss has been tremendous.
The same is true of individual agents,
whose reputations, and lives, and those
of their 'families are threatened. Our
agent network, Casey declared, is "in
jeopardy." He offered to give "many
examples" to illustrate this in secret
congressional hearings.
Even the government's own officials
.and employes are "drying up."...,
Remember Jonestown, Guyana, where
over 900 Americans were either shot to
death or induced into agonizing
cyanide suicide in 1978 by the Com-
munist ""Reverend" Jim Jones and his
lieutenants?
Two. official investigations blamed
the FOIA for contributing to the
tragedy. State Department officials in
Guyana knew Jones was filing FOIA
.requests to get copies of what they
reported to Washington about him.
Fearing suits or other action by him,
they limited their reporting and Wash-
ington never received full indications of
the possible dangers in the situation
there.
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?
International terrorist incursions m-.
to the United States have concerned
security officials for years. The FOIA is
so poorly conceived that it has compelled
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) to release a series 'of security
studies that would assist both interna-
tional and domestic terrorists in
sabotaging nuclear power plants, caus-,
ing deadly radioactive leakage, or in
stealing uranium for a homemade
"basement" nuclear bomb.
One released study, for example,
contains detailed information ion the
best. tools (including explosives) to use
to break through 32 different types of
fences and barriers used to protect U.S.
nuclear plants, along with the time
requirements. A former NRC inspector
has said that, with this information,
terrorists could break into a plant,
sabotage vital equipment and cause
radioactive release "in as little as 10
minutes."
Three years ago, CIA Deputy Direc-
tor Carlucci pointed out "the very real
possibility that an orchestrated. effort by
persons hostile to the Agency FOIA
literally swamp the Agency
requests... [they] could perfectly legal-
ly make unlimited requests and follow'
up with litigation ... entirely within the
U.S. legal framework they could
'
sabotage the normal mission of the
Agency.
And, of course, what. they could do
to the CIA, they could. do to other agen-
cies'.
Obviously, changes are needed in the
FOIA-urgently. The Carter Admin-
istration wanted them. The Reagan'
Administration has proposed some.,
Bills were introduced in the last Con=
gress and have been introduced in this
one. Hearings have been held.
Arkedy Shevchenko, who defected
from the USSR; has -Stated that Soviet
journalists have used American
friends to file FOR requests for them
to obtain highly classified infor-
mation.
But there will be no changes If
certain elements-so far successful
in blocking proposed amendments
- have their way.
What elements are these? They are a
mix of groups and individuals who
launched an orchestrated FOIA-
exploitation campaign against intel-
ligence agencies years ago, long before
Carlucci mentioned the possibility of
one. The campaign actually had its
origins in 1970, when the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched..
a nationwide drive against U.S. intel
ligence collection. That same year,
the ACLU set up a front, the-Commit-
tee for Public Justice (headed by the
unrepentant ex=Communist; Lillian
Hellman, , and Ranisey Clark), to
spearhead the anti-FBI and anti-.
Department of justice aspect of its? '
campaign. It also hired a thrice-identi-
fied Communist still a supporter of
Communist causes though he had
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Community. This coalition surfaced in
1977 as the Campaign to Stop Govern-
ment Spying, with 30-odd group af-
filiates. The ACLU man who had suc-
ceeded Borosage as CNSS director,
Morton Halperin, emerged as its leader
(he has also been associated with the
ACLU's Committee for Public Justice,
the 1PS and Philip Agee).
The FOIA became a major focus of
the National Campaign to Stop
Government Spying which, since its
formation, has worked closely with the
ACLU's CNSS. With Morton Halperin
directing both operations, this is hardly
surprising (while the Fund for Peace.
still helps finance the CNSS, it has in ef-
fect been taken over by the ACLU).
From the beginning, the Campaign
- rechristened the "Campaign for Po-
litical Rights" (CPR) in late 1978-has
consistently urged its affiliated groups
(now numbering about 80) and their in-
dividual members to file FOIA requests
and lawsuits. Today, like the. ACLU
and CNSS, it is also engaged in an in-
tensive effort to block any changes in
the FOIA that would weaken it as an
anti-intelligence weapon.
Though the ACLU has obviously
played a major role in FOIA-exploiting
anti-intelligence ? activities, it has not
done it all alone. The National Lawyers
Guild, the officially 'cited "legal
bulwark" of the Communist party, has
also been prominent in the operation,
supplying (along with ACLU at-
torneys) much of the legal talent for
FOIA lawsuits.
Groups such as the National
Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
(another cited Communist front for
which Kathy Boudin's father, Leonard,
serves as general counsel), and the
Center for Constitutional Rights, set up
by William Kunstler and other ultra-
radical NLG attorneys, have also made
significant contributions.
The Campaign for Political Rights
(CPR) numbers among its affiliated
organizations, in addition to the
ACLU, CNSS, CPJ, NLG, IPS, CCR
and NECLC, such groups as Amer-
icans for Democratic Action, the Black
Panther party, CounterSpy, Covert
Action Information Bulletin, a-string
of other Communist fronts and openly
radical or revolutionary organizations,
Common Cause, the National Organi-
zation for Women, and about a dozen
church-related bodies.
One of the more interesting CPR af-
filiates is "FOIA, Inc."-the Fund for
Open Information and Accountability,
for Ed Asner ("Lou Grant"). Both the
group's president. and general counsel
have invoked the 5th Amendment when
questioned about Communist party
membership. The KGB once allocated
$10,000 to one of its executive com-'
mittee members. Its sponsors include
two convicted spies and a string of iden-
tified Communist party members. One
of its lawsuits compelled the FBI to
release 160,000 pages of -details on its
investigation of the Rosenberg es-
pionage case.
Spearheading the drive to block any
beneficial FOIA amendments, FOIA,
Inc., is conducting a National Cam-
paign to Save FOIA. Asner, one of its
initial financial contributors, and spon-
sors, represented FOIA, Inc., in 1981
House hearings in support of the Cam-
paign. Accusing intelligence agencies of
"massive illegal" actions, he vowed,
"We will not let that tool [the FOIA] be
ripped from our hands," and concluded
his presentation- with the exhortation,
"Do not let anybody det. exempted'
from the FOIA."
Those who wonder why there has
been-a hemorrhaging of U.S. intelligence
secrets through FOIA requests and law-
suits in recent years-with a consequent
serious weakening of U.S. security -
and why it has proved difficult to
amend the law in the national interest,
should look to the ACLU and the CPR,
and their friends in Congress.
The ACLU-CNSS-CPR combine
'has not succeeded in completely
sabotaging the mission of the CIA, as
Carlucci feared might be done-but not
for lack of trying. It has succeeded in
seriously impairing the capabilities and
security not only of the CIA, but of the
FBI. and other intelligence agencies as
well. Not wanting to lose what it has
found to be the most effective weapon
in its anti-intelligence campaign, it will
bitterly fight all positive changes in the
law. As Asner said, "We will not let the
tool be ripped from our hand." 0
Two official investigations blamed the FO1A for contributing to the tragedy of Jonestown, Guyana, In 1978. The "Reverend" James
Jones had been busy filing FOIA requests to force Washington to reveal what they had on his activities.
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denied recent party membership under
"oath-to direct the research end of its
campaign.
In 1972 and 1973, aware of the bene-
ficial impact they would have on its
anti-intelligence effort, the ACLU lob-
bied for proposed FOIA amendments
enacted in 1974, while continuing its
intelligence undermining efforts
through research, lawsuits against
local, state and federal agencies and use
of the FOIA.
In 1974, the year the FOIA amend-
ments were enacted, the Fund for Peace
set up an - anti-intelligence group in
Washington called the Center for Na-
tional Security Studies (CNSS), staffed
Largely by the Institute for Policy
Studies (IPS), Washington's far-left
"think tank." The following year, with
the FOIA amendments now in effect,
he ACLU joined the CNSS in a com-
,ined anti-intelligence project designed
:o capitalize on the irresponsible on-
going Church and Pike committee
hearings.
The FOIA became a major instru-
ment of their effort to obtain vast
quantities of documentation on Amer-
ican intelligence, establishing the CNSS
as the principal resource center of the
Left for information about U.S. intelli-
gence operations,
The ACLU-CLASS combine, in addi-
tion to filing numerous FOIA requests
and lawsuits with and against all intel-
ligence agencies, undertook an inten-
sive effort to induce others to flood the
agencies with similar actions. It did this
by widespread distribution of "how-to"
FOIA pamphlets and brochures, by
numerous FOIA articles in their proj-
ects periodical, First Principles; by
publication of a detailed FOIA litiga-
tion manual and holding annual nat-
tional FOIA litigation conferences.
In 1976, taking advantage of the im-
pact of the Church committee reports,
the first CNSS director, Robert
Borosage (a National Lawyers Guild
member, now back at IPS), set about
organizing a nationwide anti-intel-
ligence coalition with the help of the
ACLU, CNSS, IPS and a group Agees
CounterSpy helped create, the Public
Education Project on. the Intelligence