PANEL CHAIRMAN ASSAILS PROPOSED SECRECY RULES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200970034-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: March 11, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30 :CIA-RDP90-008068000200970034-6
STAT
G`"
THE WASfIIhGTOPi POST
11 March 1982
~~~~~ 5~~~~~y ~e~
By Geo ae Lardner Jr.
Wauhington Falstaff Writer
The chairman of the ~ House gov-
ernment information and individual
rights subcommittee yesterday as-~
sailed a proposed presidential decree
setting up new security classification
rules as "a blank check" that could
be used to sanction an unprecedent-
ed increase in government secrecy:
Rep. GIenn English (D-Okla.) said
at the outset of hearings to which
the a~:ministration refused to send
~ritnesses that he was persuaded the
propa9al had been made "deliberate-
,!y vague" so government classifiers
could begin slapping a secrecy label ~
on virtually anything they want.
:; A representative of the American `
.historical Association said the new
.mood reflecied in the draft executive
order, now under consideration at
. the White House, has already had a
chilling effect on the, declassification
of Fr3I documents -going back to~
World War II.
' ? Anna Nelson, a George Washing-
.ton University history professor, said
the FBI had been steadily releasing
its wartime records on Nazi opera-
Lions in Latin America and with-
~. holding little under the current
rules, issued by President Carter in
1978. - .
"Recently, however,. the FBI -has
become unwilling to go into the [Na-
' tional) Archives and declassify the
rest of those documents," she told
the subcommittee.
"No doubt this pattern will be re-
~peated throughout the government
as those who read the documents of
Y0, 20 and 30 years ago bear in mind
.'the new yardstick: when in doubt,
cclassify," Nelson testified.::..._.,,...:~~
- The ~ proposed new` order ~ `pre-
scribes ~.a. new approach to the
stamping of government documents
as "Top Secret; "Secret" and "Con-
fidential" and that is, as Nelson said,
..when in doubt, classify. Even worse
from the historians' point ~ of view, ~
iVeIson said, is the elimination of the
current rule providing for automatic ~
declassification review of records as
they become 20 years old. '.~=~~~ ~ '
This, she protested, wily' "turn I
back the clock" some three decades
to the policies prevauing ? before
President Eisenhower began ~tr,~utg f
to reform the system and do some-1
thing about "the massive accumula-
tion of classified information" in gov=
A spokesman for the Society of
Professional Journalists, _ CBS News
correspondent Bob Schieffer, voiced:
his alarm at another provision in the
draft order, calling for -the classifi-
cation of :information ,concerning
"the winerabilities or capabilities of
systems..: relating to the-national
security." . ... - - .... _,~~~:
Schieffer? said that blanket could
easily have been used to. hide the-'
shortcomings of weapons such as the ~'I
expensive new Ml tank whfch, be-
~cause it lacks a digging ~ blade, is
:going. to need a 81 million bulldozer
to go along with it. `.:= :x: %." ;
"I fear that anything open to Grit;
icism~ary. vulnerability--in ~ a pro;
posed new plane or tank , or bullet:
would be ~ shielded from scrutinyi ~
under the new order and that ou>
ability to learn how-well our money
` is being spent to arm America_woulc~
:,virtually cease," Schieffer declared..
. Still other witnesses, such as.1`~Ior3
ton Halperin of the Center for Na;
tional Security Studies, complained',
that the draft order aIso~will broaden
greatly the presumption of `secrecy
for intelligence sources and methods;
`ostensibly to soothe apprehensions
of foreign intelligence serrices suc1~
'as Britain's IVII6. ~ ;
In response to complaints from
Rep. Thomas N. Kindness (R-Ohio
-about the one-sided nature of the
.hearings, English said he would keep
the record open. for a week an~
meanwhile dispatch a letter to Press
ident Reagan ~a~king him to reconi
`sides the administration's decision td
send no witnesses.: ;. - :: - _.... , ?~' ~
.. -: w..~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30 :CIA-RDP90-008068000200970034-6