98 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
98 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
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To: activists@seurat.Eng.Sun.COM, dave
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Subject: The CIA's "Openness" Is Laughable
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The following article was in the "San Jose Mercury News," May 12, 1992:
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The CIA's ``Openness'' Is Laughable
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By David Corn
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"Openness"--that's a term that Robert Gates, director of the
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Central Intelligence Agency has embraced. When his nomination came
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before a skeptical Senate Intelligence Committee last year, he
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promised to promote Peristroika in Langley. After being confirmed,
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he convened a Task Force on Openness, which recommended how the CIA
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could be more forthcoming. (Only under outside pressure did the CIA
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make public the task force's report, which proposed among other
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things, that the agency release material about its successes, admit
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when it is wrong, and "preserve the mystique".)
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Gates has called for greater declassification of decades-old
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documents and more background briefings for the press. From a
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distance, his reforms may seem sincere.
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For several years however, I have been working on a book about the
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CIA. Like many researchers, I turned toward the Freedom of
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Information Act for assistance and found that when it comes to the
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CIA, it is almost worthless. The act allows scholars, reporters, and
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just plain folks to petition various executive branch agencies for
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documents. There are numerous exceptions to what the government has
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to release, and amendments to the act in 1984 made it easier for the
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CIA to withhold some records.
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Still, the FOIA could be of some small and important value to
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those seeking to understand what the CIA does, were it not for the
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way the agency handles FOIA requests--a process that belies the "new"
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CIA of Gates.
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Agency responses to FOIA requests are routinely discouraging,
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marked by long delays and puzzling answers.
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Here's one example: I asked for material on the Hmong, an
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indigenous tribe in Indochina, which the CIA armed and directed in
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the 1960's and 1970's as part of the so-called "secret war" in Laos.
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This was one of the biggest agency paramilitary operations in
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history; its existence is not a secret. The CIA said that it had
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searched and found not one piece of paper relevant to the request.
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Operational material detailing the ins and outs of the agency's
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programs is automatically exempt. But I hoped to find intelligence
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reports that covered the tribes and its leaders. Surely if the
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agency supported the Hmong for so long it must have at some time
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looked at its ally. But there was, the agency said, absolutely
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nothing.
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It is hard to argue with the CIA. Who know's what's in the files?
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But such responses are hard to accept at face value in light of other
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Langley decisions. In 1987, the private and non-profit National
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Security Archive requested under FOIA an index of all the documents
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that the CIA had previously released.
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After initial denials, the agency sent the archive 12 volumes of
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about 450 pages each that listed the documents in completely random
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order. Documents released as part of a single request were scattered
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through the books. This is certainly not how the FOIA office
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maintains its records, and one can reasonably surmise that it had to
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program its computer to devise such a random and mean-spirited dump.
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When I requested the index information in electronic form--so it
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could be arranged coherently--the agency told me to get lost. The
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National Security Archive is still fighting the CIA to obtain the
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index in computer form.
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The only way to use the index is to plow through the volumes. I
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went through one book and found several documents that looked
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intriguing. (Almost all the good stuff was released prior to 1981,
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the year Ronald Reagan assumed office.) I filed a request with the
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agency for these papers and received the material in three weeks--
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Olympic speed by FOIA standards.
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I then went through the rest of the set and filed subsequent
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requests. When the CIA realized what I was doing it seems, it put in
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what some researchers believe is the forget-you category. After six
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months, only one of my other requests has been fulfilled--and that
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only occurred after the intervention of a lawyer.
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The FOIA calls for agencies to respond to requests within 10 days.
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But that standard has become a farce. Usually it means that the
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agency acknowledges the receipt of the request within 10 days. Then
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the request goes to the end of the line, and is some instances years
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will pass before you hear back. Such delays dilute the power of the
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FOIA. Few book authors or journalists have the luxury of waiting so
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long.
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===========
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David Corn is Washington Editor of "The Nation" magazine and is
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working on a book about the CIA. He wrote this article for "The
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Washington Post."
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--
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daveus rattus
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yer friendly neighborhood ratman
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KOYAANISQATSI
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ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life
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in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating.
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5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
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** End of Article **
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Don
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* Origin: HomeBody BBS (407)322-3592 Sanford, FL (1:363/81)
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