,,. 

CIVILIAN .DAPLOJ.UEN'l' OOARD 

Minutes ot Meeting Held 1300 hours, 8 June 1948, Room ll7, Headquarters 

PRltSENT: 

Lt. Colonel Paul E. Nett 

Lt. Colonel John .M. Libby 

Lt. Colonel R. D. Barros 

l!ajor Hamill D. Jones 

Major 11.aurioe H. .Klein 

let Lt. H. s. Buchanan 

let. Lt. Cyrws B. i'lill 

Mr. ~filliam F. Friedman 

Mr. Harry- L. Clark 

Kr. Alf'red \f. Rose 

Mr. John L. Sullivan 

l. DISCUSSION OF SECURtTY INVESTIGATION AND CLEARANCE: 

Mr. Sullivan briet]Jr reviewed the discussion held on this subject at the previous meeting ot the Civilian &lployment Board on 11 Utq 

l.948,, at which time Major Jones was appoint.&d. as a committee ot one to 

discuss the subject with Colonel Hqea and. secure the desired 

cla.ritication. · 

Major Jones said that atter further consideration ot the problem he had decided Colonel Hqes or Colonel Nett should discuss the 

subject with the Board. Major Jones went on to say that when he had 

talked with Colonel Hayes regarding the establishment of a policy on 

clearances and. asked that the Board be advised of the polic.v, he found 

t.hat the policy ot the Agency is eet by Intelligence Division. Exceptions to the policy are made occaeion&lly,, but are on an individual 

basis and cannot be put down in writing. .Major Jones said he had also 

mentioned the possibility of a conm:ttee of three people to review 

individual oases with AS-27. 

Colonel Nerr sald he had viewed with some concern and alarm 

the discussions at the last meot.ing of the Board. Cloarance ot personnel is one ot the moat difficult of security problems. Aa-27 is the 

Security Control Section or Staff and its decisions are based on command decisions. Details of clearances are guarded more closely' than 

classified material. He continued. to say that he \Vas even more concemed over the extreme and. intense interest :l.n what and why certain 

actions were reco.11111ended by AS-27. This is purely a matter bet.ween 

the Chief and Assistant Chief ot the Agency am Lt. Lowry, Chie.t of 

AB-27, and not within the cognizance ot the Board. Colonel Nett said. 

he had come to the meeting to answer arq questions he thought appropriate. He added that be felt the proposed conW.ttee of three was out 

ot order. 

eclassified and approved for release by NSA 

n 04-17-2014 ursuantto E.O. 13526 
.. 

In replT to a question raised by Mr. Clark, Colonel Neff stated 

that the clearance stand.ants at the Anny Security Agency were identical 

to .those established. in the NJ lCJtter on cryptographic clearances. In 

addition, the Al'D\Y Security Agency published a manorandwn on tqe evaluation ot reports 0£ investigation to aid commanders in the field in 

interpreting the AG letter. The AG letter may be interpreted but 

waivers to the letter cannot be made. Mr. Clark said there waB presently a proposal in the Joint Con'dnunications .Board tor a joint agreement on standards tor cryptoBraphic clearances and that the standards 

wore going to be stated much more specifically. 

The problems of interpretation or the directives of Intelligence 

Division were brief~ discussed and Colonel Nett aaid that he bad been 

stressing security more than operations. 

Ur. Clarie pointed out that if everyone at the Agency were reconsidered., the percentage of people unclearable 11ould be very high 

because practically everyone has relatives ot some sort. in a foreign 

country. Colonel Ne.tr said that was true, but. that nothing could be 

done about the people who have alread,y been hired and cleared. Mr. 

Clarie contrasted the case of an officer who is cleared and working at 

the Agency and thon marries a foreign-born girl to the case of an officer who marries a foreign-born girl and is then assigned to t.he Agency. 

Colonel Nefr said fundamentally both officers would be unclearable. Mr. 

Friedman sa.i.d he .i'elt in cases v1here a person had relatives in a roreign 

countr,y, and had had no contact with them tor a lone period of time, a 

little discretion was worth considering. Colonel ?Jett said that certain 

latitude and discretion were being used and have been extended recently 

due to discussions between Colonel HayeB and i.•r. Sullivan. 

Major Klein pointed out the extreme difficulty in obtaining 

people in any or the exotic. languages who were critically needed by 

AS-90. In practically all cases these people have relatives in foreign 

countries. He also b:rought up the fact that AS-90 was unable to interview af\V of these people until a clearance decision had been rendered. 

He went, on to say that AS-90 would like t.o interview people in cert.ain 

special categories even af'ter they have been turned down by AS-'Zl, so 

that AS-90 might. be able to reG.uest certain exceptions. Colonel Nef'.t 

said he was afraid there would be too ma.qy requests tor exceptions. · After further discussion, it was decided that AS-90, alter discussion 

with Mr. Sullivan, will subnit a list or cert.ain types of specific jobs 

tor which Personnel and. Training Branch is unable to recruit personnel. i~'hen any of these people are turned down, AS-90 will be permitted to 

interview thera. If it is felt that a person has exceptional qualif'ications for a particular job, AS-27 mq be requested to make a special 

reconsideration 0£ the inc.livi~ual. 

2 
.. 

llr. Rose aaid that of the eight engineers recently recruited· 

.from Penn State on:cy- two were considered clearable. Colonel Nett' replied that that was an area problem. 

Mr. Friedman said he thought the members of the Board f'elt 

there had been too intlexibl.e an interpretation ot the standards. Colonel Nett said he did .not think the interpretation& were too rigid. Ile 

went on to sq that the AG letter on cryptographic clearances is presently being rewritt.en. It the Ageney cannot operate um.er the existent 

at.anda:rcls,, then the standards must. be changed and the AG letter re1rritten. ?!r. Qlark suggested that the latitude be expanded rather than 

rewriting the letter. Colonel Hetr said there had been cases where one 

Arrq Area would accept an individual,, but another would not and that he 

telt that. a sign ot too much latitude. 

Mr. Friedman said there was no stamard Arrn:r list of subversive 

organizations which made a person unacceptable. Colonel Neff replied 

that Lt. Lowr.r bad a complete list ot such organizations and 1ihat 1ihe 

Agency had not arbitrarily made up its O'Ml list. 

The probl• oE the long d.elay in th~ clearance ot personnel was 

d1scus11ed. Kr. Friedman suggested that the Agency establish its own investigat.ing statf or that. t."ie Agency temporariq assign some of its personnel to aid the investigating agencies. Colonel Nett said he did not 

think either ot these suggeatiQna practicalll.e because of decisions made 

by higher aut.horit7 on manpower and the agencies to do 1ihe investigating. 

Colonel Netr added that. the Agency was doing all it could to get clearances in the proper channels aa soon as possible. 

Mr. Boae said Dr. Kullback wished to know the criteria tor granting temporar.y clearances. Colonel Nett stated that such clearances were 

based. on a cri1i1cal need tor the personnel and consideration of the type 

ot work they a.re to do. It the people were going to be handling cryptographic systems ot the A1'ley' or arw other essential material they- \vould 

not be granted a t.emporar.v clearance. Temporary clearances are also 

based on careful review ot the personal histor.y statement.a and the likelihood that nothins derogatory will be uncovered 1n the investigation. 

Colonel Nett added that he hoped the DivisionB would not make a practice 

ot requesting temporary clearances just because the people were to work 

on unclassified material.. 

Mr. Sullivan aaid there was a possibU:J.t.7 that the Civil Service 

Commiaaion.in the near :f'uture will authorize the Agency to hire people on 

a six months temporary appointment basis. If' the people are cleared they 

can then be gi'Ven a regular appointment under Schedule "B". U they are 

not clearable,, then appointment can be terminated. at t.he end ot the six 

months period. 
• 

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REF ID:A66597 

8®00~~\ffi!Efi~AL e 

2. REQUESTS FOR L1iOP RJR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES: 

Kr. Sullivan presented. the tw tallowing requests tor :U\'OP tor 

educational purposes: 

Florence G. Kuipers (AS-93-B-6), Research AnaJ.T1;ic Specialist, 

P-2, from l3 Juq 19li8 through lJ August 1948,, to attend the 

summer oeasion at the UniversitT of lli.chigan. 

James M. Bunting (AS-93-B-5),, Research A118l.Tst (Cryptanal7tic), P-3,, .from 19 Jul.7 1948 through 27 August 1948,, to atteld the 

summer session ot the lrli.cldlebury Language School at Middlebury, 

Vermont. 

Jlajor Klein assured the Board that both applications had been very carefully considered. in AS-90. The Board unanimously approved both requests • 

.3. APPOINTMENT RE~~T: 

Mr. Sullivan presented the following appointment request: 

lat Lt. Cyrus B. Will {AS-80) 

Administrative Officer,, CAF-10 

(Position Number O-S-246) 

.Mr. Rose presented the names of Jessica s. Hunter and John W. Russell for 

consideration. flith the approval ot the Board,, Mr. Sullivan appointed a 

subcommittee of ~ .. Clarie, AS-SO,, and. J.tr. Rose, AS-70, and himself, to 

meet after t.he regular meeting and. review the qualifications of theses 

three people to determine ''hi.ch candidate ha4 the best qualifications and 

waa availabl.e for the position under consideration. 

Aft.or revie-,y of the records it was determined that Lt. Will was 

the beat qualified. and the recommendation was forwarded to the Chief', Army . 

Security Agency, tor his act,ion. 

l:::~v~ Chairman, 

Civilian Fmployment Board