Secrecy News -- 02/16/01

[Steven Aftergood]

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
February 16, 2001

**	NSC WITHHOLDS NEW PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE
**	NEW STATE DEPT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES
**	GARFINKEL TO CHAIR WAR CRIMES WORKING GROUP


NSC WITHHOLDS NEW PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE

The National Security Council is refusing to release the unclassified text
of the Bush Administration's first "National Security Presidential
Directive," the New York Times reported today:

	http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/16/politics/16SECU.html

This is a disappointing reversion to a past practice that had been
partially overcome in the Clinton Administration.

Presidential directives are a largely unaccountable instrument of executive
authority.  They are used to establish and implement national security
policy, and they often authorize the commitment of government
resources.  Yet they are usually classified and Congress is not routinely
notified of their existence or contents.

According to a 1992 General Accounting Office study (GAO/NSIAD-92-72), the
previous Bush Administration did not declassify any of its presidential
directives in its first three years.  (Several have been declassified since
then.)  Although most Clinton Administration directives, known as
"Presidential Decision Directives," remain classified, President Clinton
did authorize release of his first two directives in 1993 with no fuss at all.

The new Bush Administration's withholding of its unclassified first
directive suggests an unwelcome affinity for indiscriminate secrecy.

A compilation of some past presidential directives that have been
declassified is available online here:

	http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/direct.htm


NEW STATE DEPT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES

The State Department Historical Advisory Committee, which oversees the
production of the official Foreign Relations of the United States series,
on Monday approved several new sets of minutes from its quarterly meetings.

Following internal and external protests over the scanty presentation of
the minutes of its September 2000 meeting, the Committee has returned to a
more ample, though still somewhat muted format.

The minutes of the April 2000 meeting were reissued with an extended
account of the closed session on "The CIA and the Foreign Relations
Series."  Topics included CIA's categorical refusal to declassify any
issues of the President's Daily Brief, the role of the so-called High Level
Panel in declassifying covert actions, and the declassification of covert
action budgets.  See:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/state/hac0400.html

These issues were explored further in the July 2000 meeting, which reported
that "Director of Central Intelligence Tenet remains firm in his position
that the President's Daily Brief may not be released for publication" no
matter how old or historically significant it may be.  Meanwhile the
retrograde President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board continues to
claim that it "owns" the documents of its predecessor agencies and opposes
the documents' release.  See:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/state/hac0700.html

The latest meeting minutes, from December 2000, are posted here:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/state/hac1200.html


GARFINKEL TO CHAIR WAR CRIMES WORKING GROUP

Steven Garfinkel, Director of the Information Security Oversight Office,
has been named chair of the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial
Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG). He replaces Acting
Archivist Michael J. Kurtz in that role.

The former Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group was expanded by
legislation last year to encompass declassification and release of
documents concerning Japanese Imperial Army war crimes during World War II.

The redoubtable Garfinkel will continue to serve as ISOO director, a post
he has held for over 20 years.  A National Archives press release
announcing his new appointment by the Archivist of the United States is
posted here:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2001/02/iwg.html

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___________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
http://www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
Email:  saftergood at igc.org



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