Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505

28 June 2005

Mr. Mike Meermans
Staff Director
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mike:

SUBJECT: Notification

COUNTRY: None

ISSUE: Decennial Review of CIA Operational File Exemptions

Enclosed is a background paper regarding the subject mentioned above.

Should you have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to call.

Sincerely,

Joe Wippl
Director of Congressional Affairs

Enclosure

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SUBJECT: Decennial Review of CIA Operational File Exemptions

1. Background: From the time it was signed into law on 15 October 1984 until the 21 April 2005 effective date of its amendment by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-458)¹, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Information Act (50 U.S.C. 431) authorized the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to exempt CIA operational files from the search, review, publication, and disclosure provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The CIA Information Act also required that not less than once every ten years, the DCI review the operational files exemptions then in force to determine whether such exemptions could be removed from any category of exempted files or portion of those files, and whether any new categories of files should be designated as exempt. The DCI completed the first such review in March 1995.

¹ Effective 21 April 2005, section 1071(a)(6) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 amended the CIA Information Act, to provide that the Director of CIA (D/CIA), with the coordination of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), may exempt CIA operational files from the FOIA search, review, publication, and disclosure provisions; and that not less than once every ten years, the D/CIA and the DNI shall review the exemptions in force, in order to make the determinations noted above.

2. On 13 April 2005, based on the decennial review required by and conducted in accordance with the CIA Information Act of 1984, and taking into account the review criteria set forth in the Act, the then-DCI designated the following categories of CIA operational files as exempt from the search, review, publication, and disclosure provisions of the FOIA:

Files within the Directorate of Operations

• Personality Files
• External Organizations Files
• Operational Interest Files
• Operational Activity Files
• Policy and Management Files (Including Clandestine Service History Program Files)
• Cover Arrangements Files

Files within the Directorate of Science & Technology

• Signal Intelligence Activities Files
• Operational and Technical Support Files
• Intelligence Collections Systems Files
• Imagery Analysis and Exploitation Files

Files within the Security Center

• Covert Security Approval/SECRET Files
• Provisional Covert Security Approval/SECRET Files
• Operational Approval Files
• Provisional Operational Approval Files
• Anonymous Personnel Actions Files
• Approval To Polygraph for Operational Purposes Files
• Diversified Cover Officer Files
• Contract/External Files
• Covert Security Approval/SECRET Files
• National Resources Division and Name Check/Operational Program Files
• Industrial Special Security Approval/Covert, Industrial Security Approval/Covert, and Industrial Special Security Approval/Covert Reinvestigation Files
• Internal/Covert Files
• Consultant External/Operations and Consultant Internal/Operations Files