The Michigan Daily-Friday, September 25, 1981-Page 7
CIA requests inquiry exemption
Dan Fogelberg
Joe Vitale Kenny Passarelli Ross Kunkel
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WASHINGTON (AP)- CIA Director William
Casey asked Congress on Thursday to exempt all U.S.
intelligence agencies from the federal Freedom of In-
formation Act.
Casey told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that
the FOI law has seriously jeopardized U.S. relations
with other nations and put the intelligence agency's
network of covert agents "in jeopardy."
THE LAW-which permits scholars, journalists
and citizens to obtain information about government
operations-"has never been an effective method for
oversight of the intelligence community," Casey
testified.
Critics of efforts to partially or completely exempt
U.S. intelligence organizations from the information
act disagreed.
Morton Halperin, a former official of the National
Security Council, told the subcommittee that the CIA
"is a better institution and . .. is more responsive to
the dictates of the Constitution" because of the law.
HALPERIN, WHO testified on behalf of the
American Civil Liberties Union, said the information
act has brought public disclosure of valuable infor-
mation about the CIA, including new revelations
about the Bay of Pigs operations in the 1960s, use'of
mind, drug experiments and illegal surveillance of
Americans.
Halperin is now director of the Center for National
Security Studies, which publishes reports on in-
telligence abuses.
Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) has introduced
legislation to partially exempt the CIA and other in-
telligence agencies from FOI cOverage.
BUT CASEY, arguing that intelligence
organizations should be free of all requirements of
the act, said, "it has seriously impaired the operation
of the intelligence apparatus with no significant
public benefit."
Since 1974 when Congress enacted provisions
requiring CIA compliance with the law,'the agency
has been overburdened with the need to give sensitive
handling to an increasing number of requests for in-
formation, Casey said.
He said the agency has handled 1,212 FOI requests
at a cost of $3 million.
T
6
Mike Hanna
Mark Hallman
Barry Burton
Senate moves to halt
aid to El Salvador
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rejecting
appeals from President Reagan and the
president of El Salvador, the Senate
voted to stop military aid to the Central
American country unless it carries out
political, economic, and human rights
changes.
The Senate rejected, 51-47, an ad-
ministration-backed amendment to
turn (he conditions merely into goals.
THE CONDITIONS, set Wednesdays,
will halt U.S. military aid to El
Salvador unless Reagan certifies to
Congress that El Salvador is protecting
human rights, moving to control its
security forces, implementing
economic reforms and is committed to
free elections and willing to negotiate
for peace.
Calling the conditions "an unaccep-?
table imposition on a government
friendly to the United States," El
Salvador's President Jose Napoleon
Duarte wr9te the Senate, "The
rationale reflected in, the conditions
coincides with my own stated objectiv-
es, but the government and the people
of El Salvador would consider
legislative conditions as unwarranted."
Other features of the bill cleared the
way for the administration's planned $3
billion aid program for Pakistan,
removed a ban on U.S. aid to Argentina
and Angola, with a requirement that
the president report to Congress if he
decides to help Angola.
IN OTHER congressional business:
" The Senate Finance Committee
voted unanimously to restore the
minimum $122 monthly Social Security
benefit for current recipients, except
for those persons getting government
pensions over $300 a modh. The com-
mittee also voted to allow the main
Social Security retirement fund to
borrow from the disability fund, but not
from the hospital insurance fund.
* The Houise approved a limited ex-
tension of federal aid for- interstate
highway construction, 377-25, and sent
the bill to the Senate. The bill also gives'
the federal government authority to
withhold highway funds from states
that have weakened penalties for
violating the 55 mph speed limit..
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