Sunday, February 6, 1972
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Rage Seven
Sunday, February 6, 1972 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Seven
HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE
The cloak of federal secrecy
My decisions are confidential,
often top secret,
Made in the interest of the
nation's security.
I shall never breathe a word of the
government's way of working
For what the public doesn't know
can never hurt me!
Anonymous Federal Bureaucrat
WASHINGTON OP)-The In-
ternal Revenue Service, over-
seer of President Nixon's wage-
price-rent controls, refuses to
disclose the names of landlords
and businesses which violate
those controls. The names of the
violators become public only
if legal action is filed against
them, and to date the govern-
ment has filed only a few such
legal challenges.
A New York labor union has
challenged this information
blackout in court, contending
that an individual who has been
illegally overcharged has no way
of knowing a refund is due him
unless the violator chooses to
tell him so.
This is just one example of
bureaucratic secrecy found in a
study of how much of the feder-
al government's business is con-
ducted behind closed doors and
classified top secret.
While IRS has indicated it
might change its policy on nam-
ing wage-price control violators,
there are plenty of other exam-
ples:
-When the Supreme Court
renders a decision, the work-
ing papers of individual jus-
tices are carefully kept secret,
although the papers could pro-
vide an insight into how the
court reaches decisions that af-
fect millions of people:
--Congress passed the Free-
dom of Information Act in 1966
to give the public greater ac-
cess to information. But the
act is limited to the executive
branch. Congress itself is totally
excused;
-The Senate and the House
conduct at least one third of
their hearings behind locked
doors. Of 504 hearings held dur-
ing one month last year, 167
were in executive session;
-Although the House Bank-
ing Committee has made pub-
lic evidence of corruption in the
appraisal of homes sold under a
Federal Housing Administration
program, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development
refuses to divulge the names of
its appraisers; and
-The Department of Health,
Education and Welfare fre-
quently uses advisory boards of
outside specialists to help for-
4 mulate policy, yet the trans-
cripts of- board meetings are
strictly confidential. Last year,
for example, HEW set up an ad-
visory board to help write air
pollution regulations. The de-
partment refused to release
transcripts of- board meetings,
and even declined to identify
board members.
The issue of secrecy in gov-
ernment, a recurring one, sur-
faced last year in the debate
over publication of the Penta-
gon Papers, and again this year
when columnist Jack Anderson
published excerpts of minutes
from National Security Council
meetings on the India-Paki-
stan war.
While there are reasons for
secrecy on such matters as na-
tional security or delicate inter-
national negotiations, the gov-
ernment is frequently accused
of suffering from a secrecy syn-
drome that results in unneces-
sarily covering up decisions and
actions that the American voter
has a right to know about.
The feeling that the bureau-
cracy will" opt for secrecy is
* fueled by such incidents as that
involding the Air Force chief of
staff who sent a memo to his
subordinates ordering them to
U of M Students,
Faculty and Staff
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quit stamping so many docu-
ments "top secret." Someone
along the line put a "top sec-
ret" stamp on the memo.
An Air Force officer has es-
timated that the Pentagon
spends $50 million a year just
guarding classified papers, 992
per cent of which don't even
warrant a "confidential" stamp.
"Stamping a document 'top
secret' to them is just like put-
ting a period after a sen-
tence," he said.
Former White House Press
Secretary James C. Hagerty has
estimated that th Defense De-
partment is still holding, on a
classified basis, 160 million
pages of documents from World
War II and 75 million pages
from the Korean War.
While that means they are
not available for public scrutiny,
it doesn't necessarily follow that
they are secret in any real sense.
According to Pentagon figures,
687,834 persons hold top-secret
security clearances, including
some employes of private busi-
nesses doing defense work.
The Pentagon made the fig-
ures public after the White
House called for all govern-
ment agencies to submit the
names of persons holding top
secret security clearances. That
White House order, by the way.
was stamped "administratively
confidential."
In an attempt to ease nublic
access to government informa-
tion, Congress passed the Free-
dom of Information Act (FO)
in '1966.
The law was designed to shift
to the federal eovernment the
burden of proof for classifica-
tion of information rathr than
placing the hurden of arumnt
for de-classification on the pri-
vate sector.
But creating a law and mak-
in, it work ar two differnt
things. A combination of nub-
lic apatvh and burucuratic r-
sistanc^ hs knt al but a rea-
tive handful of secrets locked
in aovernmrnt fi~s.
From the 0v the et beenm
law probern er'nnprd iPn. W'Qch
federal .aency issujd its own set
of remllations riultin in a to-
tal lack of uniformity overning
the release of information.
There also i no uniformity in
the cost to the public of obtain-
me' information. Some aneie.
eharee search fees. Others
charge nhotoconyne'fe-s ran:-
me' from 5 rents to V a naire.
despite a Fhdrral Power Coni-
mission study chowin that the
fees won't cover the cost of bl -
Ino' the customers.
There are no accurate figures
on the number of POI renuests
made to the novernment or the
number the eovernment has re-
fused to fill. althouoh the House
Government Information sub-
committee chaired by Rep. John
E. Moss (D-Calif.) is doing
such a survey. However, the
success of court fiahts over
freedom of information can be
measured.
The Justice Department main-
tains a Freedom of Information
committee to advise all federal
agencies on FOI requests, par-
ticularly those which might re-
sult in court action. In addition,
most agencies are defended by
Justice Department lawyers
when FOI cases do wind up in
court.
Jeffrey F. Axelrad, a depart-
ment lawyer who has supervised
most FOI court cases, estimates
there have been about 200 since'
1967 and that decisions have fa-
vored the government "some-
what more than 50 per cent of
the time."
James Kronfeld, a special as-
sistant on the House Govern-
ment Information subcommittee
agrees. Of 24 cases he picked at
random, private interests won
nine total victories and two par-
tial victories while the gov-
ernment won 13.
"If you've exhausted all other
appeals and have no choice but
to go. to court, assuming you
can afford the cost of a legal
battle, the public's chances are
still less than 50-50," Kronfeld
said.
A special problem has cropped
up in suits over information
classified for national security
reasons. Some judges are refus-
ing to rule on the ground that
they are not qualified to decide
national security questions. That
was the ruling recently when
Rep. Moss sued the DefenseDe-
partment in federal district
court for four volumes of the
Pentagon Papers being withheld
on national security grounds.
Robert L. Saloschin, chairman
of the Justice Department's
FOI committee, agrees with the
judge in principle.
"With all due respect to the
public's right to know, and the
public does have a right to
know, the people have 'elected a
President and a Congress to
protect the national security and
judges should, in my opinion,
exercise great i'estraint in rul-
ing on questions of defense and
foreign policy," Saloschin said.
"Our usual position," said
Axelrad, "is that once a docu-
ment is shown to be classified,
the case is over."
Both agreed that this posi-
tion could, and probably has, led
to abuses.
"If something is deliberately
misclassified it is reprehensible,"
Saloschin said. "But a lawsuit
is not the proper forum for a
vast overhaul of our system of
classification."
While all available odds seem
to favor the government, the
public can take heart in one
Moss subcommittee finding. The
subcommittee sent question-
naires to all federal agencies
seeking statistics on requests
made under the FOI law.
The Central Intelligence Ag-
ency, a super secret organiza
tion which won't even identify
itself on the telephone, respond-
ed surprisingly that it had re-
cnived two FOI r-quests and
answered one of them.
Ac eollegeprofessor wanted a
copy of a study on an obscure
Philippine dialect. The CIA gave
it to him.
W 3
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FULL DINNER WITH WINE
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
COMPLIMENTARY FRUITS, SNACKS
COMPLIMENTARY OPEN BAR
CANCELLATION PRIVILEGES
' DEPOSIT HOLDS SEAT
* FINANCING ARRANGEMENTS
UNIVERSITY OF M!CHIGAN FLIGHT SCHEDULE
SEATS
99
186
186
186
186
186
93
120
240
40
40
40
40
40
250
186
40
126
252
40
AIR
CRAFT
DC-9
707
707
707.
707
707
707
DC-8
747
707
DC-8
DC-8
707
DC-8
DC-8
707
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
AIR
CAR
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Cal-
Cal
Cal
Cal
Cal
Cal
Uni
Uni
Cal
Uni
Uni,
Cal
Uni
Uni
Cal
Uni
Uni
Uni
Uni
FLT.
NO.
005
593
515
517
555
523
525
527
553
511
613
539
503
545
529
531
729
519
521
627
ROUTING
DET-NAS-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
NY-LON-NY
NY-LON-NY
DET-ATHENS-DET
DET-LON-DET
NY-LON-NY
DET-AMS-LON-DET
DET-PARIS-LON-DET
NY-PARIS-LON-NY
DET-AMS-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DET-LON-DET
DEPART/RETURN
3 '3-3/10
3/6-3/13
5 2-6/2
5/3-6/24
5 22-6/27
5/16-8/15
5/31-8/16
6/8-8/8
6/10-8/10
6/17-9/3
6/19-8/25
6/26-8/29
S6/27-8/31
6/28-9/3
7/2-8/30
17 /2-9/1
7/5-7/25
7/11-8/11
7 /31-9/ 1
8 28-9/15
COST CHG.
150
150
150
150
180
170
170
300
210
180
190
225
185'
190'
210
190
190
190
180
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
26
15
15
19
15
15
19
19
19
19
10
19
TOTAL
159+1
169
169
169
169
199
189
189
326
225
195
209
240
200
209
229
209
209
209
199
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