THE KKK MEETING THAT NEVER WAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880044-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: June 26, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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NSanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/13: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880044-8
WASHINGTON POST
26 June 1986
The K--"-- Mee" That Never Was
CIA Classifies Report on What Is Now Called a `16steless Joke'
By George Lardner Jr.
w.Yunron Pat Sed( write
The Central Intelligence Agency,
which has recently thrust into the
limelight its efforts to prevent leaks
of national security information, has
classified as "confidential" the de-
tails of a mock Ku Klux Klan meet-
ing at the agency that is now being
dismissed as "a tasteless joke."
The incident occurred around
Christmas last year when a CIA
officer and an outside consultant
walked into a room called the "Ruff-
ing Center" in the headquarters'
computer services area, sources
said.
According to the sources, the
two were astonished at what they
saw: There were perhaps 15 to 20
people in the room. Some wore
cone-shaped hats made out of com-
puter paper and they had a black
man up against a wall. They ap-
peared to be intimidating him.
After a few
moments, the board earlier saying she was a
sources said, they let the black man seamstress willing to take on some
go. The two interlopers asked what work, the sources said, and one of
was going on. According to the the putative Klansmen told her they
sources, the two were told, " 'This needed robes or costumes.
is a Klan meeting. We're connected The consultant, the sources con-
with the Baltimore Klavern,' or tinued, was also told that the pur-
something to that effect."
Thus began what one intelligence pose of the group was "to keep
official has described as "a tasteless blacks and ethnics which she
joke" that got out of control. But the took to be a reference to Hispanics
incident and subsequent remarks and Asians-"in their place."
were taken seriously enough at the The CIA officer with her also
time that they led to complaints to took the matter seriously, the
the CIA inspector general and an sources said, and lodged a com-
internal investigation, and finally to plaint. Later, when the officer
inquiries from the Senate Select asked about the status of his inqui-
Committee on Intelligence. ry, he was reportedly told not to
Several weeks agog the CIA sub- worry, that the targets of his com-
mitted a report to intelligence com- plaint were no longer "doing any-
mittee Chairman David F. Duren- thing that's dumb."
berger (R-Minn.) and Vice Chair- That was interpreted by some to
man Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) but mean that the supposed KKK unit
classified it as "confidential." was no longer holding meetings at
"I can't talk about it," Leahy said agency headquarters, but CIA and
when asked about the report. "It's Senate officials are emphatic in say-
classified." ing there never was a real Klan
Durenberger said he was not fa- "meeting" to begin with.
miliar with the details. He said as he "We are completely satisfied that
understood it, "There was some- there is not any KKK klavern or
thing there, but it wasn't what it unit out there," intelligence com-
was cracked up to be." mittee aide David Holliday said for
According to the sources, the Leahy.
"joke" became an extended one. Under a 1982 executive order
They said the outside consultant issued by President Reagan, "Infor-
was asked, possibly in a subsequent mation may not be classified ...
discussion, whether she wanted to unless its disclosure reasonably
participate in KKK activities. She could be expected to cause damage
had put a note on a CIA bulletin to the national security." The con-
There were '15 .
to 20 people in
the room. Some
wore
cone-shaped
hats made out
of computer
paper and they
had a black
man up against
the wall.
fidential stamp "shall be applied to
information, the unauthorized dis-
closure of which reasonably could
be expected to cause damage to the
national security."
CIA spokeswoman, Kathy Pher-
son said, "About all I an do for you
is tell you the allegations about
KKK activity were made in a Vien-
na [Va.] newspaper .... I think it
was sometime last month. The al-
legations are completely false. They
were investigated by the [CIA's) in-
spector general and shown to be
without foundation."
The allegations, however, were
not aired first in a Vienna newspa-
per. They first appeared in an ar-
ticle by former CIA,official Victor
Marchetti in the May 12 edition of
Spotlight, a right-wing weekly tab-
loid published in Washington. Mar-
chetti maintained that the Klan
"meeting" was real and that the CIA
was apparently "attempting to
stonewall the story" until it could
"come up with a plausible and hope-
fully acceptable explanation."
Bernard F. McMahon, staff di-
rector for the intelligence commit-
tee, said he understood that the in-
cident took place "in a small office
where everybody is friendly with
everybody else. I don't remember
what triggered the activity, but it
was something innocuous. It was
not a slur or a fight or anything."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/13: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880044-8