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1704-10331-10076

2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

SECRET

CSI-0042/95

27 June 1995

MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence

Deputy Director of Central Intelligence

VIA:

Executive Director

General Counsel

FROM:

Brian Latell

Director

Intelligence

center for the study of

SUBJECT:

REFERENCE:

JFK Review Board Actions on CIA Records

Letter to DCI fr Executive Director.

ARRB da 21 June, 1995, Same Subject

1.

Action Requested. That you disapprove the Do recommen-

dation for you to sign the attached letter to the President.: The

letter recommends that the President postpone the release by the

JFK Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) of the names of two

CIA employees who retired under cover. (C)

2 ..

Background.

On ? June 1995, the ARRB made a formal

determination to release in full to the National Archives 16

CIA documents from Lee Harvey Oswald's 201 file. The President

John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992

stipulates that the President has 30 days after written notifica-

tion of such determinations to either request the disclosure or

postponment of disclosure of documents.

Appeals procedures also

require that the Agency advise the White House Counsel within

seven days of notification of Board actions, if we wish to

appeal.

The Agency was notified on 21 June 1995 (see reference).

OGC will unofficially notify White House Counsel within the

seven-day period of the Do objection to release. (U)

3.

This Center has worked closely with the Board and its

staff and has declassified about 220,000 pages of Agency records

that have been sent to the National Archives. A large percentage

contain redactions, however, and it is those excisions that are

now beina systematically reviewed by the Board which has full

access to the unredacted records.

The Board will meet more or

less monthly and is likely to press for lifting a significant

percentage of CIA's redactions.

The pending determination is the

first taken by the Board involving Agency records. (U)

CL BY:

DECL:

| 195387

OADR

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SUBJECT: JFK Review Board Actions on CIA Records

4. The DO Position: The Acting Deputy Director for i

Operations reluctantly acquiesces to the release in full of the

16 documents with the exception of two that contain the names of

two Agency employees who retired in covert status. The DO argues

that acknowledging these officers could expose them to physical

danger, possibly threaten past operations and individuals with

whom they worked, and abrogate our agreement to protect their

identities.

two documents (#104-10015-10052 and #104-1005-

10153) and

the Do's argument for the continued protection of the

two former employees are attached. (S)

5

CSI Position: After consultation with OGC, weido not

believe the DO's damage argument would merit Presidential

reversal of the Board's

decision. The Board's staff has advised

that in the absence of "clear and convincing evidence" of a

threat to the personal safety of a retired officer if his or her

employment were revealed, the Board does not believe the JFK Act

permits withholding names.

The DO does not cite evidence that

the two officers would be in physical danger.

Furthermore, OGC

advises that the DO's current policy of liberally rolling back

cover for career covert officers who ask to be retired overt

would seriously undermine the credibility of such an appeal.

(S)

6. Recommendation:

That you not appeal the JFK Board's

decision to the President and thus that you disapprove the Do's

recommendation. (U)

sie fatell

Brian Latell

Attachments:

A.

: 104-900-10035-10052

and 104-1005-10153

B. DO Document

DISAPPROVED:

Director of Central Intelligence

Date

2

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SUBJECT: JFK Review Board Actions on CIA Records

DCI/CSI/BLatell:aw/30214 (27 June 95)

Distribution:

Original - Addressee (w/atts)

1. - DDCI (w/atts)

• EXDir (w/atts,

- Executive Registry (W/at/atts)

Executive Secretariat

General Counsel (w/atts)

ADDO (w/atts)

D/Cst (w/atts)

- C/HRG/CSI (w/atts)

C/HS/CSI

w/atts

-

CSI

file

watts

- CSI

chrono (w/atts)

3

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Central Intelligence Agency

Washington, D.C. 20505

The President

The White House

Washington, D.C.

20500

Dear Mr. President:

Under the "president John F. Kennedy Assassination Records

Collection Act of 1992," this agency has been reviewing and

forwarding to the National Archives all of its records relating

to the assassination of President Kennedy.

process,

shose records an spect eternation within records

which were determined to require continuing protection were

postponed from release under the guidelines of the Act.

The Assassination Records Review Board appointed by you is

responsible for reviewing the postponed materials not only of

this agency, but all government departments involved in this

effort.

The Board then makes a determination that a particular

postponement was justified under the Act or that it was not.

If the latter occurs, the agency then has thirty days in which

to present its case to you and ask you to concur in the continued

postponement.

We are now at the point where the Board has made a deter-

mination to release the names of two former Agency officers who

served in a covert status during their Agency careers in a number

of overseas posts.

The position of the Acting Deputy Director of

operations and one in which I concur, is that release of these

two names would do harm to the Agency and its operations and,

postponement is proper under the Act. In addition, the revela-

tion of these two names would not add to public understanding of

assassination issues in any substantial way. Thus, I recommend

that you direct the continued postponement of the two names.

On behalf of the Agency, I thank you for your consideration

of this reguest.

Sincerely,

John Deutch

Director of Central Intelligence

Enclosure

Unclassified When Separated

From Enclosure

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The President

DCI /CSI/HRG/BHarrelson:pn/*30210

(27 Jun 95)

Distribution:

original - Addressee (w/enc)

1 - DCI (w/enc)

1 - - DDCI (w/enc)

1

- ExDir (w/enc)

1

- Executive Secretariat (w/enc)

1

- Executive Registry (w/enc)

1

- General Counsel (w/enc)

• - ADDO (w/enc)

1

- D/CSI (w/enc)

1

- C/HRG/CSI (w/enc)

1

- C/HS/CSI (w/enc)

1

-

csI file (w/enc)

1

- csI chrono (w/enc)

2

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26 June 1995

MEMORANDUM FOR:

FROM:

SUBJECT:

L. Kay Oliver

Brian Latell

William H. McNair

DO / IRO

JFK Information Release

Per SA to ADDO, please consider this as the official DDO

response and include it in your memo.

The DDO reluctantly acquiesces to release of documents cited

in ARRB Memo of 21 June 1995 with the following exceptions:

Document No. 104-10015-10052, CIA Cable, DIR 74673:

C. Bustos, originated the cable and testified about it using

her pseudo.

She retired in a covert status and resides in

the United

States.

Release of her name as a CIA employee

will damage cover credibility, expose her to the public as a

CIA employee subject to any physical threats which might

ensue, and abrogate our agreement with her as to our

willingness to protect her identify in return for her

willingness to engage in clandestine operations on behalf of

the CIA.

We would also point out that she was later

assigned in several overseas locations including Mexico City

and

a posting as COS in Trinidad. Exposure of her as a CIA

employee would also endanger any operations in which she

might have been engaged.

Substitution of her pseudo in lieu

of true name would allow the identification of a person yet

protect the persona itself.

Document No. 104-10015-10153, CIA Cable, DIR 85039:

R.W. Herbert was

chief of WH Div at the time

and signed off

on this cable as authenticating officer. He was an

"integrated State Officer" who retired in a cover status.

His present residence is unknown but his overseas

assignments as an U.S. State Department officer would be

compromised by exposure of him as a CIA officer. It is

believed that exposing him as a CIA officer would not only

endanger his operations and those associated with the

operations, but would also place him in physical danger in

that his field of operations involved anti-cuban operations.

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