A.C.L.U. REVIEWS SUPPORT OF INFORMATION BILL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100060005-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: September 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100060005-9
ARTICLE APPEARED NEV YORK =S
_
ON PAGE_Af2~;y
9 September 1984
'A.C.L,U. Reviews Support of Information Bill
ft DAVI? DUINHAM'` '
f *CW to 11! I1sw Yset 11ar
WASHINGTON ?- The Ame:icaa
Ctvu 48_ _
ort for legislation that would ex-
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most of.tio
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esta er or-
Una W, Fr
ma .
Norman Doreen, president of the .
civil liberties ~u , said the decision
to sttkdy the Dill f was reached
after a lawyer tng the south-
ern California aof the organize-
don detailed his opposition at an Aug.
18 ,meeting of the union's executive
committee. The meeting followed a
volve the three lawyers who act as the
A.C.L.U.'s general counsel.
,
Dint ss the n~f to Tread almosi all County lawyer representing tae organi.
Government documents. , nation's southern California affiliate.
Ira Glasser, executive director of the were found to be valid, he would with.
national A.C.L.U., said he had asked draw the union's backing.
lawyers in and outside his group who "If everyone convinces me that we
specialize in cases of freedom of infor were all wet in our first position, that's
mation to assess these objections. "I'm the end of it," he said in an interview.
trying to do a serious review of their' Mr. Glasser said the general counsel,
claim," be said. "This is a process that Frank Askin, a law professor at Rut,
is quite normal." gers University; Lawrence Berman, a
vote by the California affiliate several
months ago to oppose the national
group's position on the issue.
The intelligence agency and the
liberties union have both testified in
support of the House version of the bill,
and this harmony has played a major
'role in the bill's progress through Con-
grass
The California affiliate's obieiiIlAaS
Center on provisions
contends would almost eliminate the
-fight es to review ad-
ministrative decisions of the C.I.A.
A second criticism is the belief that if
the D sons so-
~Ts number oof-other intelligence
a aw orcem t - -AA
request same kind of eLemption
from the information act, a law estab-
e ene Tar-p-nn-ciple that the
agency is reailired t4 seirch *all' of rte I
files when it UM -a "MM under the j
Freedom of Informs ion Act. The.;
agency is than permitted to delete cer-
tain kinds of classified information. a
Under the House proposal, the agency
would be excused from searching sev-
specific files from which informa-
eral
tion is rarely, if ever, released.
Sunoorters of Wele lcllatinn cYmtpnd
that exempting the C.I.A. from
main t are usually fn>itless
searche e ads in answering
otber raauests would be redunwri Crit-
ics, however, argue that if the legisla-
tion becomes law, the intelligence
agency would avoid disclosure of more
and more information by placing It in
exempted files.
Mr. Glasser said that if the questions
raised by Meir Westreich
an Orange
net Pilpel, a lawyer in private practice
in New York City, were trying to com-
plete their review quickly.
liberties group on the freedom of infor- The legislation has not attracted
mation law, characterized the review wide criticism. Among those' who op-
as a preliminary inquiry. He said the' edit, however, were Jack Landau of
group would reconsider its stance on' the Reporters Committee for the Prey
the bill only if the criticism was found door of the Press and Samuel IL Gam-
to be merited. mon, a former ambassador who spoke
' for the American Historical Associa-
"It is unlikely there can be any criti- tion. .
cism that has not been considered," he
said.
The legislation exempting the intelli-
gence agency from some provisions of
the information act has been approved
by the House Intelligence Committee
and the House Government Operations
Committee. It may come to the floor
soon under a procedure that requires
approval of two-thirds of the members
to pass. The Senate already has passed
its version of the bill.
Under w the ' ce
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100060005-9