The General Counsel at one point in time needed the Bufkin materials because other Federal agencies had an interest in Mr. Bufkin and their point of contact with the Agency was the Office of the General Counsel. As to the file itself, it contains only official documents or copies of official documents. At present the file is being held with all of the other papers relating to Angola. As I indicated above, this is to facilitate an investigation being conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. When there is no longer any need to retain the Angola papers in a single place for the convenience of some review, all of these papers will be sorted in accordance with Agency regulations. Papers required to be kept as official records will be made part of the official records. All other papers will be destroyed. Since Mr. Bufkin is not an Agency employee or agent of CIA, all of the information concerning him will probably be destroyed. Correspondence with other Government agencies or with Congressional committees concerning Mr. Bufkin may be kept, not because of any interest in Bufkin, but only as incidental to the historical recording of correspondence with these organizations.

You also refer to the MKULTRA case where working papers which should have been destroyed at the end of their use were inadvertently kept and filed, and you request procedures that would guarantee that working papers be destroyed at the end of a project and that official documents be removed and put in the regular filing system before destruction of the file. I believe your concerns indicate the need for some explanation of the record-keeping system in CIA. First of all, there is no single overall "official" file. As with any large organization performing many functions, our papers tend to be kept in functional files such as personnel, finance, medical and operations. Furthermore, the nature of intelligence work requires compartmentation of portions of functional files so that much of the operational or project files are kept by the organizational subcomponent responsible for specific operations. The working file of this subcomponent provides the material which is selected for retention in an official file of record. Other working files held by organizational components may duplicate much of the material held in the working file of the responsible subcomponent in order to facilitate their input into an operation. Some of the material in these working files may also be retained as an official file of record by these functional offices. When an activity ceases, attempts are made to clean up the paper debris. All working files are reviewed to determine what must be kept for historical purposes and what should be destroyed for lack of historical value. However, if working papers are inadvertently kept instead of being destroyed, we see no damage except in terms of the burden on our archives. And certainly whether working papers are kept deliberately or inadvertently, they are still subject to FOIA requestors. While I am in total agreement with you that our recordkeeping rules should be well administered, I do not believe the keeping of the MKULTRA files demonstrated any intention to mislead the Congress or the public nor did it interfere with public investigations.

Finally, you close your letter by stating that the possibility existed that "soft files" could have been used to avoid disclosure to FOIA requestors and to Congress, and ask what CIA procedures exist to prevent this abuse. In response I am enclosing our regulations governing FOIA searches in the Agency. These regulations do not exclude papers from FOIA searches because they are working papers or held in working files. These regulations are reenforced by the audit and inspection functions of the Agency and by CIA Congressional oversight committees. Consequently, the potential for any employee to deliberately withhold information from any authorized review is procedurally no greater than it is in any other Federal agency. Furthermore, we believe that the responsibilities which this Agency carries require a high standard of conduct which is understood and accepted by CIA employees.

I hope these responses are helpful to your Subcommittee. We are prepared to continue to cooperate in any way possible. Sincerely,

Enclosure.

1 See p. 534 of the Appendix.

JOHN F. BLAKE, Acting Deputy Director.

[Exhibit 57e]

Hon. JAMES ABOUREZK,

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY,
Washington, D.C., December 13, 1977.

Chairman, Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: I have received your letter of 7 December 1977, and by now you should have my letter of 8 December 1977, addressing the same subjects. I hope you will find my responses of the 8th adequate to meet the needs of your Subcommittee. We are prepared to assist you in any further manner required. Sincerely,

JOHN F. BLAKE, Acting Deputy Director.

STATUTES

[Exhibit 58]

EXCERPT FROM CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ACT

(50 U.S.C 403(d))

POWERS AND DUTIES

(d) For the purpose of coordinating the intelligence activities of the several Government departments and agencies in the interest of national security, it shall be the duty of the Agency, under the direction of the National Security Council

(3) to correlate and evaluate intelligence relating to the national security, and provide for the appropriate dissemination of such intelligence within the Government using where appropriate existing agencies and facilities: Provided, That the Agency shall have no police, subpena, law-enforcement powers, or internal-security functions: Provided further, That the departments and other agencies of the Government shall continue to collect, evaluate, correlate, and disseminate departmental intelligence: And provided further, That the Director of Central Intelligence shall be responsible for protecting intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure;

[Exhibit 59]

EXCERPT FROM CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ACT

(50 U.S.C. 403(g))

§403g. Same; protection of nature of Agency's functions

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: Provided, That in furtherance of this section, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall make no reports to the Congress in connection with the Agency under section 947 (b) of Title 5. June 20, 1949, c. 227, § 7, 63 Stat. 211. (533)

21-656-78- -36

1900.11 Freedom of Information Communications: Requirements as to Form. 1900.21 Option to Request Records.

1900.23 Pre-Request Option: Estimates of Charges.

1900.25 Fees for Records Services.

1900.45

Reviewing Records.

Expeditious Action: Extension of Time.

1900.47 Allocation of Manpower and Resources: Agreed Extension of Time. 1900.49 Notification and Payment: Furnishing Records.

APPEALS

1900.51 Appeal to CIA Information Review Committee.

1900.53 Appeal to Interagency Classification Review Committee.

MISCELLANEOUS

1900.61 Access for Historical Research.

1900.63 Suggestions and Complaints.

AUTHORITY: National Security Act of 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), and Executive Order 11652.

§ 1900.1 Purpose and authority.

GENERAL

This part is issued under the authority of, and in order to implement, section 102 of the National Security Act of 1947, as amended (50 U.S.C. 403), the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, as amended (50 U.S.C. 403a et seq.), Executive Order 11652, as amended (3 CFR Revised as of January 1, 1974, p. 339) and the Freedom of Information Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552). It prescribes procedures for:

(a) Requesting records pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act;

(b) Requesting the declassification of documents pursuant to Executive Order 11652;

(c) Appealing any denial or refusal of any such request to an appeal authority with the Central Intelligence Agency, to the Interagency Classification Review Committee, in appropriate cases, and to the courts;

(d) The prompt and expeditious processing of such requests and appeals; and

(e) Requesting estimates and advice prior to actually requesting records, thus affording protection against unanticipated fees.

This part is also designed to assist Central Intelligence Agency management at all appropriate echelons, to allocate resources to perform the functions, duties and responsibilities of the Central Intelligence Agency prescribed by and pursuant to law, including in particular those situations where it is deemed necessary to choose among conflicting requirements, duties, and responsibilities. § 1900.3 Definitions.

For the purpose of this part, the following terms have the meanings indicated: (a) "Agency" includes any executive department, military department or other establishment or entity included in the definition of agency in subsection 552(e) of Title 5 of the United States Code;

(b) "Coordinator" means the Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Coordinator;

(c) "Expression of interest" means a written communication submitted by a potential requester pursuant to § 1900.23 to indicate an interest in requesting records;

(d) "Freedom of Information Act" means section 552 of Title 5 of the United States Code, as amended;

(e) "National Security Council Directive of May 1972" means the directive entitled "National Security Council Directive Governing the Classification, Downgrading, Declassification and Safeguarding of National Security Information" approved on May 17, 1972 and published at page 227 of Title 3A (The President, Appendix (1972 Compilation)) of the Code of Federal Regulations;

(f) "Potential requester" means a person, organization or other entity who submits an expression of interest in accordance with § 1900.23;

(g) "Records," with reference to records of the Central Intelligence Agency, includes all papers, maps, photographs and other documentary materials regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received by the Central Intelligence Agency in pursuance of federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and appropriate for preservation by the Central Intelligence Agency as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the Agency or because of the informational value of data contained therein. But the term does not include:

(1) Index, filing and museum documents made or acquired and preserved solely for reference, indexing, filing or exhibition purposes;

(2) Routing and transmittal sheets and notes and filing instructions and notes which do not also include information, comment or statement of substance or policy;

(3) Books, newspapers, magazines, and similar publications and clippings and excerpts from any such publications;

(4) Documents and records prepared or originated by an agency other than the Central Intelligence Agency;

(5) Documents and records furnished by foreign governments or international organizations and held by the Central Intelligence Agency on the understanding that the information therein or the furnishing thereof be kept in confidence.

(h) "Records of interest" means records which are the subject of an expression of interest or of a request;

(i) "Work days" means calendar days other than Saturdays and Sundays and legal public holidays.

§ 1900.5 Organization; requests and submittals.

The headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency is located in Fairfax County, Va. Functions are channeled and determined by regular chain-ofcommand procedures. Except as provided by this part, there are no formal or informal procedural requirements regarding public access to Agency records. Requests and other submittals may be addressed to the CIA Freedom of Information Coordinator, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C. 20505.