A STEP BACKWARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606260032-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: June 8, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT' Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606260032-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE C _ ~3 E N J YORK DAILY iT71S
8 June 1981
.EDITORLU. S`
A ste va
One of the" .tew-.Americans who hasn't gotten
President . Reagan!s message that the. govern-
ment-ought to, get off our backs seems'to be his j
own- attorney general, William French Smith. -
Lately; Smith has- been busy tampering. with
the Freedom of Information Act=the law under
.which -anyonecan request documents-from a
government. agency, and, IL -he- is refused. them,'
.sue the government for their release:
Because=of- the?Freedom of Information-Act;-:
bureaucratic skullduggery has become- :a -lot
harder to hide--particularly- since 1977 when=all.`
federal . agencies: got .a: Carter - adtninistrstfon f
directive to hand over documents without a legal
battle unless -publication of the information In
them would be "demonstrably harmful"..
Now, Smith -has cancelled that directive and
ordered --the agencies, to.fight freedom of In-
formations suits whenever they have any techni-
cal grounds for doing so-.. That's a - clear: signal to- the bureaucrats to
keep as- much ':Information undert: wraps asI
possible
On top of that; Smithy wants to rewrite-tlie
Freedom of - Information -Act to tighten It up:
There's-even talk of exempting the CIA and FBI'
,from its provisions completely..
So far as.we know;-there's not a single solid
piece of- evidence that the Freedom of Informa-
tion Act has. ever interfered with CIX--or FBI
operations.. But there have been plenty-.of, well-' I
documented cases where bureaucrats have wrap
-ped themselves -in "the- national. interest"- to:
cover up- fraud orincompetenee
. Nobody, argues that defense secrets; for exam-''.
ple, should, be made" public. But throughout
history, concealment in government has always
led to abuse of power ,=,r
For-that-reason,. we -strongly -urge President'
Reagan to call-Mr. Smith in and tell him to stop
fooling with. the peoples right to know
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606260032-8