EXTRACT FROM H-DIPLO, 8/28/98

 

Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 23:26:10 -0400
From: H-DIPLO <hdiplo@YorkU.CA>
Subject: White House statement on declassified Cold War papers

From: Eric Fettmann <ef200@IDT.NET>

FYI, everyone:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today
by
the White House:
STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY
FEDERAL PANEL ORDERS DECLASSIFICATION OF
SELECTED COLD WAR DOCUMENTS
An interagency panel established by President Clinton has reversed
agency decisions and declassified Cold War records more than 80 percent of
the time, a new report shows. In the two years since it was created, the
Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) -- which
resolves appeals from Executive Branch classificati on decisions --
declassified information in full or in part in 81 out of the 96 documents
presented to it. Agency classification actions were upheld by ISCAP in the
case of 15 documents.
ISCAP was established on April 17, 1995, when President Clinton
signed Executive Order 12958, the first effort since the end of the Cold
War to reassess the balance between open government and the need to
maintain secrets vital to national security. The order requires automatic
declassification of information after 25 years, subject to very narrow
exceptions.
Until the 1995 order, information could be classified indefinitely
if it had originated with and been classified by a foreign government.
Now, information twenty-five years or older can remain classified for
diplomatic reasons only if disclosure would ``seriously and demonstrably
impair relations'' with a foreign government or ``seriously and
demonstrably undermine ongoing diplomatic activities.'' Twenty-five year
old information pertaining to the identity of an intelligence source can
only remain classified under the new Order if disclosure ``would clearly
and demonstrably damage'' national security.
ISCAP is chaired by the Justice Department representative, Roslyn
A. Mazer, who was appointed chair by President Clinton in January 1996.
Other representatives to the Panel were appointed by the Secretaries of
State and Defense, the National Security Adviser, the Director of Central
Intelligence, and the Archivist of the United States.
``ISCAP's record to date demonstrates both the wisdom and
practicality of the new Executive Order,'' Mazer said in releasing the
two-year report. ``The balance the President struck in the Order shows
that government classifiers can achieve maximum responsible disclosure.''
In applying the new standards, ``reflexive use of the old classification
categories has been replaced by healthy skepticism,'' she said. ``In our
new, infinitely more complex security environment, ISCAP's actions will
continue to protect our vital national security secrets but will make more
information available to our citizens, scientists, and historians so that
we can learn from the past and fashion a more secure future,'' Mazer said.
Since its inception, ISCAP has decided appeals seeking the
declassification of 96 documents that remained fully or partially
classified upon the completion of agency review. In the case of 81
documents, or 84.5 percent of the total, ISCAP declassified significant
information in whole (59 documents) or in part (22 documents). ISCAP has
affirmed agency classification actions fully for 15 of the 96 documents
(15.5 percent).
Examples of Declassifications
Examples of ISCAP declassifications include:
- Declassification in large part of documents from the Kennedy,
Eisenhower and Johnson Administrations regarding the deployment and
potential use of nuclear weapons in Europe, including information on
command and control, targeting, authorization for expenditures in
emergency situations, and consultations with allied governments.
- Declassification in full of two State Department communications
with embassies overseas during the 1967 Arab-Israeli ``Six Day War''
discussing Israeli nuclear weapons capabilities and intentions. ISCAP kept
two other messages classified in full and declassified parts of two
others, where disclosure would have seriously and demonstrably undermined
ongoing diplomatic activities in the Middle East or, in one instance,
would have revealed an intelligence source requiring continued protection.
- Declassification in full of a September 1967 memorandum to
President Johnson from National Security Adviser Walt Rostow speculating
about military options then available to the North Vietnamese army.
Portions of the memorandum had been classified to protect foreign
relations and intelligence sources or methods.
- Declassification in full of two 1962 letters from Indian Prime
Minister Nehru to President Kennedy that pertain to Indian concerns during
the border conflict between India and the Peoples' Republic of China.
- For information less than twenty-five years old,
declassification of fourteen Ford administration documents (four in their
entirety and significant portions of ten others) pertaining to diplomatic
initiatives concerning the potential development of nuclear weapons,
materials and processing by the Republic of Korea. Some information
continues to be classified because it reveals the identity of a
confidential source or an intelligence source, or because its release
could result in serious and demonstrable harm to U.S. relations with a
foreign government.
- Documents declassified by ISCAP are usually made available
through the organization that has permanent custody of them (in many
cases, Presidential libraries). The database of decisions rendered by
ISCAP is available from the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO,
which provides staff support to ISCAP). ISCAP's chair Roslyn A. Mazer can
be reached at 202-514-1013, or by e-mail at rmazer@usdoj.gov. The ISCAP
can be reached by e-mail at iscap(At)arch1.nara.gov, or through its
Executive Secretary Steven Garfinkel at steven.garfinkel@arch1.nara.gov.