CASEY NEARS DECISION TO SLASH PUBLICATION OF CIA'S RESEARCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301300022-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2013
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: July 2, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/22 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301300022-8
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE_AIL?
THE WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LI
2 July 1981
Casey Nears Decision
To Slash Publication
Of CIA's Researc
By Henry S. Bradsher?.
Washington Star Staff Writer,,,.
CIA Director-William J..Casey iaringade-
cision to curtail sharply the agency's publication
.of unclassified documents,hut-he will keep,some-
one to answer, the phone at the old public affairs
- office despite a new policy of Curtailing Outside'
contacts, -according to,CIA
Publications;policy.has been under review at
the agency since-shortly after-President.'Reagan
named his campaign manager to run the intelli- .
gence. organization. Casey has taken the position ,
that his job is to keep the president informed 7
not the general public. : ? - ??? - ;.
Officials say there have been, several meetings
to discuss whether- to continue Making CIA stud-
ies available to. thepublic. These' officials say theI
nmeetings are now close to producing a decision
to cut back, or even- halt, the practice of distrib-
taing the results of some CIA research ? stripped
of classified material to other branches of the
government, the press, universities and others.
:n Some officials raised the possibility that the
State Department's bureau of intelligence and re- '
search might resume publishing limited kinds of .
. research materials that it used to issue before the:;
? CIA became active in distributing documents. The:
bureau and the agency work closely together, and
personnel often shift back and forth between
.?.
The CIA has made public two kinds of materials.
One has been research aids that are-simply handy,
compilations of openly available ? information,
such as directories- of government Officials'
throughout the World-The other has been sani--
tized versions of the agency'sresearch and analy-
sis On subjects that are more 'obscure or that re--;,-
quire secret 7 soUrces, 'such as Soviet military
expenditures or Chinese energy needs.
The agency also has one of world's best cartog-
raphy units, which has issued outstanding atlases'
on specialized Subjects, such as Sciviet agriculture;
and polar regions. These .and Some of the other
agency publications have beensold through goy-'
ernment bookstores: I '
The publication of CIA materials expanded un--
der Casey's predecessor as director, retired Adm.:
Stansfield Turner.?The ruling to Cut it back that
officials expeCt Casey to make.will probably re-
duce it to even less than was published before
Turner, when theagenty circulated some materi-
als to universities but did not offer them widely
in Washington;
?
Testimony by ager
sional committees w
public record.some o
ical conclusions, offili
notorious, on Capitol
ficult 'about reviewii
hearings before alio
A publications cutl
-by Casey twOr.montti
agency practice of se:
briefings to journalit,..--.
lowed by a decision to downgrade the:office that
arranged .the briefings and distributed: publica-.
tions..
This office of public affairs became More active-
tinder Turner, who brought in a retired Navy caP-
tain to head it. As Turner's man, Herbert E. Hetu
had been considered likely to be leaving the agen-
cy beforelong, but Hetu's own decision to depart
has' now been speeded up by tutting him off from,
direct access to the director. : ?
A reorganization has dropped the public affair' s
office from being directly under the director to:
being three levels down: It will be a branch of.a
new, external affairs staff, which also includes a ?;.
downgraded legislative affairs office, that comes
under a new office of policy and planning,
.. A veterari CIA man, Robert M. Gates,: who was
on loan to the Caner White House to work as an
executive assistant to National Security Adviser
2bigniew Brzezinski, Will head' policy, and plan-
ning. Gates was also briefly an executive assistant
to Turner when Turned was head of the agency's
Soviet analysis division. 7,?
, ? . . ? .. -
The public affairs staff will be cut roughly in
half, officials said,. but the same information of-
ficers will still be there to take questions There
will be, however, fewer and slower answers than
ever from an organization that has always been,
cautious about passing outinformation..
?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/22 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301300022-8