News

USIS Washington 
File

31 August 1998

TEXT: SELECTED COLD WAR DOCUMENTS DECLASSIFIED

(ISCAP declassifies 81 out of 96 documents) (1030)



Washington -- The Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel
(ISCAP) has declassified information in full or in part in 81 out of
96 Cold War documents, and upheld classification actions in the case
of 15 documents, the White House reported.


ISCAP is an interagency panel established by President Clinton that
resolves appeals from Executive Branch classification decisions. It
was established in 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."


"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," said Roslyn Mazer, chair of ISCAP.


Following is the text of the statement:



(Begin text)



THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

August 26, 1998



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 classification
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 25 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% 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%).


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 14 Ford administration documents (four in their entirety and
significant portions of 10 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@arch1.nara.gov, or through its Executive Secretary Steven
Garfinkel at steven.garfinkel@arch1.nara.gov.


(End text)