REAGAN SHELVES REQUIREMENT FOR POLYGRAPH TESTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100020137-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 137
• Publication Date: February 16, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Y Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020137-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
16 February 1984
Reagan Shelves
Requirement for
Polygraph Tests
By David Hoffman
waahingwn Po.IBtatt writer
President Reagan, acting at the
behest of chief of staff James A.
'Baker III and other White House
aides, has suspended key parts of a
controversial national security direc-
tive he signed last March to step up
use of polygraph tests in investiga-
tions of leaks and impose lifetime
censorship on government employes
with access to highly classified infor-
mation.
Congress last year blocked imple-
mentation of the provisions until
April 15. Administration sources said
they will probably stay shelved now
at least until after the Nov. 6 elec-
tion, and possibly permanently.
In place of the canceled provi-
sions, spokesman Larry Speakes said
the White House now wants to ne-
gotiate a "bipartisan solution" with
`Congress "to the problem of safe=
guarding classified information"
An aide to Sen. Charles McC. Ms.
'Was Jr. (R-Md.), who lgd the effort
to block the Reagan order, yesterday
.said a compromise was possible but
could not include any "pre-publica-
tion review" of the sort that Reagan
proposed.
The president's decision; which
Speakes said was made in the last
.few days, comes as the Senate Ju-
diciary Committee is preparing to
begin hearings Feb. 29 on the nom-
ination of White House counselor Edwin Meese
III to be attorney general.
Administration officials said previously that
they feared the security directive would become
an issue in the Meese hearings. Mathias, a ranking
member of the Judiciary Committee, had indi-
cated his intent to make the order an issue''in the
proceedings.
.. Meese had been a supporter of the Reagan ef-
fort to stop news "leaks," but chief of staff Baker
was opposed to the restrictive polygraph provi-
sions and lifetime censorship provisions that
would have been applied to government employes
in sensitive positions, even after they had left the
government
Officials said Baker played a key role in Rea-
gan's decision to suspend the two provisions,
which had drawn fire from members of Congress
and civil liberties groups.
The White House announced that Reagan was
suspending two parts of the controversial order a
requirement that 127,500 government workers
who deal with highly classified material clear all
writings and prepared speeches with government
censors for life, and a provision that greatly ex-
panded the use of polygraph tests in unauthorized
disclosures.
In taking the action, Speakes said Reagan was
not abandoning his insistence that tighter controls
be placed on national security information and
remains "convinced that at present there are in-
sufficient protections ' for . classified information
and that as a result our national security is poten-
tially compromised."
The president last fall ordered a Justice De-
partment investigation of members of his senior
staff to try. to find the source of news reports
about the Mideast that some aides claimed had
endangered national security. The investigation
i ended inconclusively.
A White House official said yesterday that Rea-
gan is stall convinced that there are not enough
protections for "sensitive compartmentalized in-
formation," which is among the most secret the
g o v e r n m e n t has. . 4
. .
The official said Reagan wanted Congress to
"join with us in developing more adequate mea-
sures to address -the serious and continuing prob-
lem of unauthorized disclosures," but he could cite
no examples of the problem.
Reagan issued National Security 'Decision Di-
rective 84 last March. It would have required
about 128,000 government.workers to sign agree-
ments to submit their public utterances to censor-
ship for life.
This requirement has been in effect in the in.
telligence community. 'Reagan. would have ex-
panded it.
The order disturbed some senior White House
officials, none of whom signed it The Republican-
-rnntrolled Senate voted 56 to 34 last October to
delay the plan for six months. Hearings are sched-
uled on the issue Feb. 23 in the Senate.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/21 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100020137-8