AGENCY RECORD NUMBER RECORD SERIES AGENCY FILE NUMBER ORIGINATOR FROM TO TITLE DATE PAGES SUBJECTS DOCUMENT TYPE CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTIONS CURRENT STATUS DATE OF LAST REVIEW OPENING CRITERIA COMMENTS HW 55157 DBocld: 32404031 Date: 05/19/00 Page: 1 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY INFORMATION CIA 104-10330-10044 ARRB-CIA, 1995 PROJFILES- CORRESPONDENCE DOCUMENT INFORMATION CIA CHIEF, OFFICE OF CENTRAL COVER ~ JFK ASSASS RECORDS REVIEW BOARD MEMO: PROPOSED CIA NAME RELEASE 12/07/95 : 5+ NAME RELEASES PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT SECRET 1A, 1B RELEASED WITH DELETIONS 02/03/00 JFK-M-15:F2 2000.02.03.13:02:59:780054: Page 1 va
OCC-95-149 07 DEC 1995 MEMORANDUM FOR: JFK Assassination Records Review Board VIA: Associate Deputy Director for Operations Associate Deputy Director for Operations/Human Resources and Programs FROM: SUBJECT: Proposed CIA Name Release ‘ \ 1. The Agency strongly objects to the release of names of individuals presently under cover, whether active employees or separated employees. As described below, this action would breach Agency commitments to these individuals’ who agreed to work _under cover in addition to breaching our obligations to the cover providers. a i 2. Employees Sign a secrecy agreement (Attachment A) upon entering on duty with the Agency. This’ agreement pledges the employee’s secrecy to information which is Classified and has not been publicly acknowledged by the Agency and requires the employee to protect such information from unauthorized disclosure. This secrecy agreement, as long as it ‘remains in force by. mutual agreement, obligés CIA to protect the identities of Agency employees, our cover providers and covert activities. 3. Because this secrecy agreement creates a moral as well as legal bond between the Agency and the employee, it is Agency policy to protect the namés of former employees ‘who have Separated under cover unless the Agency and the employee mutually agree to remove the cover. Identifying as CIA those employees who are mandated b the Agency to use a cover story, i.e., gency career as well as into their years after separation from _the Agency, jeopardizes: * the personal safety of former employees; WARNING NOTICE CL 0489932 INTELLIGENCE SOURCES , CL REASON: 1.5 (c) OR METHODS INVOLVED . DECL ON: X1 DRV FROM: COV 2-87 HW 55157 DBocld:32404031 Page ?
SUBJECT: Memo to JFK Assassination Records Review Board © JFK Act 6 (1) (A) JFK Act 6 (1) (B) SECRET .the second careers of former employees; f the cover and identity of other employees who worked with the covert employee whose name is released as _ CIA; and, & f ie _ the protection of sources and methods (what. | a individual would agree to a clandestine relationship with American intelligence knowing the secret = association would become ‘public knowledge?) . 4. Examples of: how identifying covert employees as CIA will affect individuals follows: HW 355157 sr.[ retired under cover and is currently workina g his name would damage his re ationship with his current employer, his position with the firm and would be awkward at best re arding the host countries. Attachment B is acknowledgement that he was aware he would be denied as a CIA employee and Attachment C is his signed secrecy agreement. : | Attachment Disa signed ackowledgement from Mr. John Whitten who retired under cover in 1970 which Shows that he was aware that he would be denied as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency from the date he entered on duty through the date of his departure. Attachment E is a personal letter received from Mr. Whitten after he was notified that his name might be released in connection with declassification of CIA documents. Attachment F is Mr. Whitten’s signed secrecy agreement. It should be noted that Mr. Whitten resides in) Attachment G is a Summary of Agency Employment (SAE) written by Mr. }and approved by the Agency. Attachment H is a certification by Mr. [that he will abide by what is contained in his SAE and understands disclosure of other information would be in violation of his secrecy 2 —SECRET— DoclId: 37404031 Page 3
SUBJECT: agreement. Attachment I is Mr.[|signea secre agreement. It should be noted that Mr. [| resides in a fof S. Our relationship with cover providers would’ be jeopardized if it became publicly known that they were providing cover to CIA employees. The }could very well raise objections to our future use of cover. Of increasing importance to the Agency at this time is the critical use of private sector (nonofficial) cover providers. The private sector would no doubt drop contact and avoid future dealings with us if we reveal a covert relationship. Identifying covert relationships with cover providers would paralyze Agency operations which in turn could severely damage national security. In addition, in the past it. has exposed CIA to legal liabilities and substantial monetary damages. f 6. Headquarters Regulation (HR) 240-1 is the Agency's regulation on cover. It states that “cover is required for all | Agency operations, activities and installations abroad, including personnel in PCS or TDY status.” HR 240-2, the Agency’s regulation on cover after Separation, states that “the determination that an employee will retain all or a part of his | or her cover after separation from the Agency will be based upon » the judgment that Separation in an overt status could result in | damage to the national security by compromising intelligence sources, methods, activities, and/or information, or cause harm 7 to foreign relations. This determination will be made _ on a case- eicease basis.” Please note thet 7. Release of names of former employees who separated under cover will make the entire Agency cover program vulnerable and detract from our continuing efforts to enhance cover and conduct sometimes dangerous activities necessary to carry out the Agency’s mission. We can accept the purpose of the JFK Assassination Records Review Act to declassify documents for public consumption; however, we submit that the release of true names of former Agency employees adds no value to the documents in addition to risking physical harm to these individuals from our public detractors. We propose and emphatically encourage that pseudonyms, aliases or generic job descriptions such as desk officer be used in place of true names which would not diminish the impact of the documents. HW 55157 DBoclId:32404031 Page 4
SUBJECT: Memo to JFK Assassination Records Review Board é fs? 8. After your review and consideration of the above information, “we would appreciate notification of your’ final decision prior to taking any action. Oe 7 Attachments: As. stated above CONCUR: Associate Deputy Director for Operations/Human Resources and Programs Associate Deputy DirecPor for Date Operations HW 55157 DBocld: 32404031 Page 5