REVISED FBI PROBE RULES SOUGHT - ABA PANEL WANTS ASSURANCE OF RESPECT FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740004-7
WASHINGTON POST
~- -
14 January 1985
Revised FBI Probe Rules t
ABA Panel Wants Assurance of Respect for Civil Liberties
By Loretta Tofani
Washington Post Staff Writer
An American Bar . Association
committee yesterday asked Attor-
ney General William French Smith
to revise the FBI's guidelines on
domestic security and terrorism
investigations to "give people assur-
ance that civil liberties will be re-
spected."
Despite its recommendations, the
ABA committee commended the
Reagan administration for its guide-.
Lines and for "upholding the idea
that intelligence investigations
must be conducted subject to the
rule of law," according to ABA
spokesman Gail Alexander.
The guidelines, released in
March, authorized the Federal Bu-
reau of Investigation to use inform-
ers and infiltration by undercover
agents in preliminary inquiries, be-
fore having enough evidence to
warrant a full investigation. The
guidelines also gave the FBI author-
ity to begin investigations, on the
basis of a group's political state-
ments, rather than only its actions,
when there is an apparent intent
and capacity to act-on the threat. -
The ABA committee recom-
mended that FBI supervisors ap-
prove use of informers for prelim-
inary domestic security and terror-
ism investigations. Now, supervi-
sors must approve use of informers
only for full investigations.
Preliminary investigations deter-
mine whether the elements of a
crime exist, while full investigations
develop information on the goals,
membership and beliefs of a group.
FBI agents can get warrants for
electronic surveillance for full in-
vestigations but not for preliminary
investigations.
. The ABA committee also recom-
mended that Smith change his
guidelines to make it clearer that
the FBI should investigate criminal
conduct rather than beliefs or op-
inions. It recommended that Smith
have the guidelines say that the FBI
can investigate groups with violent
activities rather than groups with
violent goals.
"It's a choice of-whether the FBI
looks at goals first or activities
first," said Eric Richard, chairman
of the ABA's subcommittee on do-
mestic surveillance. - -
"The Smith guidelines create ex-
plicit authority for the FBI to begin
investigations on the basis of poiit-
ical statements by groups," Richard
said. "We think there's some justi-
fication for that, but the FBI should
be limited to doing preliminary in-
vestigations in those cases and only
based on whether a crime is going
to be committed."
The Smith guidelines made it
somewhat easier for the FBI to con-
duct domestic security and terror-
ism investigations because they re-
placed 1976 guidelines formulated i
by then-Attorney General Edward
H..Levi after disclosures that the
FBI had engaged in widespread spy-
ing on Americans, particularly in
the civil rights and antiwar move-
ments in the 1960s and 1970s.
"We agree with the FBI and the
Justice Department , that some
changes were needed to protect the
American public from terrorism,
but we think some more changes
are needed to give people assurance
that civil liberties will be 're-
spected,' Richard said.
Smith called the ABA report an
"endorsement and said it recog-
nized "a critical public interest in
protection from terrorist incidents."
". Tlie report does express some
disagreement with the way partic-
ular portions of the guidelines are
worded, but such differences are
common among lawyers and reflect
issues of policy and style rather
than fundamental disagreements on
matter of law," Smith said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740004-7