LETTER TO HONORABLE SAM J. ERVIN, JR., CHAIRMAN FROM [UNSIGNED]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00818R000100060047-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 2005
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: May 17, 2000
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2005/03/24: CIA-RDP81-00818R000100060047-7
DRAFT:llm/17 may
Honorable Sam J. Ervin, Jr. , Chairman
Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, D. C. 20510
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We wish to submit our views on a bill you introduced on 2 May 1973, S. 1688,
"To protect the civilian employees of the executive branch of the
U. S. Government in the enjoyment of their constitutional rights and
to prevent unwarranted governmental invasions of their privacy.
This Agency is deeply committed to enhancing the morale,
discipline and professionalism of Agency employees and to the extent
that these qualities are dependent upon a proper regard for individual
privacy, we are in agreement with the underlying principle of the bill.
However, certain of its provisions could seriously impair our capability
to protect intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure.
In this connection, the National Security Act of 1947, as amended,
provides:
". . . That the Director of Central Intelligence shall be
responsible for protecting intelligence sources and methods
from unauthorized disclosure;...." (50 U. S. C. 403(d)(3) ).
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In addition, the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 provides:
"In the interests of the security of the foreign intelligence
activities of the United States and in order further to implement
the proviso of section 403(d)(3) of this title that the Director of
Central Intelligence shall be responsible for protecting intelligence
sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure, the Agency
shall be exempted from the provisions of section 654 of Title 5,
and the provisions of any other law which require the publication,
or disclosure of the organization, functions, names, official
titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel employed by the
Agency.... " (50 U. S. C. 403g).
S. 1688 specifically authorizes adversary procedures which pose
a serious paradox--the Agency must either remain silent in the face of
unfounded allegations (with the alleged offending officer taking the
consequences of the sanctions embodied in the bill), or it must divulge
information which it is obligated by statute to protect, and disclosure of
which might damage the national intelligence effort.
Enactment of the bill in its present form would be a most serious
obstacle to the effective protection of intelligence sources and methods.
The bill would seriously weaken the Agency's efforts to prevent penetration
by a hostile intelligence service, to ensure that its employees are suitable
in all respects for employment in this sensitive Agency, and in general
make it much more difficult for the Director of Central Intelligence to
discharge his responsibilities under existing law.
ILLEGIB
We wanted to let you know of our concern and to request that the
'
Agency be exempted
4rom the bill. care at your disposal to disc-uss
ILLEGIB
s---urt er if you wish. - ,:' I - -
ILLEGIB
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