Executive Order 12958

CIA's Response Process

The Office of the Information and Privacy Coordinator

The Office's Mission

The Coordinator's office has overall responsibility to:

• Uphold citizens' rights to US Government information and to protect their privacy under federal law and regulations.
• Maintain external relations and internal management pertaining to some 6,000 information requests arising under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Privacy Act (PA), and the Executive Order (EO).
• Justify Agency denial or release decisions before various federal district courts and courts of appeal.

How the Office Processes Your Declassification Request

As outlined above, the CIA Coordinator's Office serves as the primary interface between the public and the Agency's internal components that originate the information sought by you. The office processes your formal requests by following EO provisions (for more details see Full Text of EO, or the Code of Federal Regulations, Central Intelligence Agency, 32 CFR.):

• Records incoming initial requests.
• Analyzes requests.
• Acknowledges receipt to requester in writing.
• Tasks appropriate CIA internal components.
• Refers any outside federal agency records to the appropriate agency or coordinates CIA information surfaced by other agencies with internal CIA components.
• Maintains and searches the database of "Officially Released Information" to determine if information has already been released to the public.
• Prepares the final response letter to the requester after all processing is complete.
• Advises requesters of their right to administrative appeal if any records are denied.

Although the processing of requests is managed and directed by the Coordinator's Office, the CIA's record systems are decentralized and compartmented. Records are decentralized for security reasons and to organize them so each component can perform its intelligence responsibilities in the most efficient way. Therefore, the Coordinator's Office must analyze incoming requests and determine the appropriate components for tasking. Once the request reaches the internal CIA component, professional intelligence officers with specialized knowledge and experience perform the following often in addition to their normal operational or analytical duties:

• Review documents usually provided by NARA or Presidential libraries.
• Determine application of EO exemptions.
• Approve disclosures of all non-exempt records, in whole or part.
• Forward to the Coordinator all records approved for release or requiring coordination or referral within the Agency and to other federal agencies.

How the Office Processes Your Historical Access Request

As outlined previously, the CIA Coordinator's Office serves as the primary interface between the public and the Agency's internal components that originate the information sought by you. The office manages your formal requests by following EO implementing regulations:

• Records incoming initial requests.
• Analyzes requests to ascertain if they meet general requirements.
• Acknowledges receipt to requester in writing.
• Tasks appropriate CIA internal components.
• Prepares final response letter to requester after all processing is complete.

Because CIA record systems are decentralized and compartmented for security and administrative reasons, the Coordinator's office manages the overall request. The Coordinator will task the appropriate components within the Agency, and each component must analyze the request. The responsibilities of the components are outlined as follows:

• The Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI)--which manages the historical programs at the Agency--will analyze the request to determine if the researcher has presented a serious professional or scholarly research project.
• The CIA office with the appropriate records or the office that originated the information determines the impact access could have on national security.
• The CIA office with the appropriate records, or that originated the information, and CSI will determine:
  • If the information is reasonably accessible (that is, can it be located and compiled with a reasonable effort).
  • The extent and substance of the documents or information that could possibly be declassified and released for publication.
  • If the necessary resources are available for administrative support to the researcher, given current demands on the office.
• The personnel security office and the Office of General Counsel will require that the researcher sign a non-disclosure agreement, pass clearance requirements, and sign a pre-publication agreement.
• The office with the relevant records, CSI, and the Coordinator's office will analyze the feasibility of obtaining the same information under FOIA, PA, or the mandatory declassification review provisions of the EO.
• The Coordinator's office will present the case to the Agency Release Panel that will decide whether to grant access.

How Quickly Must the Office Respond to Your Declassification or Historical Access Request

Although Executive Order 12958 provides no time limits for federal agencies to complete initial requests, the Agency gives its best effort to complete processing as soon as possible. The Agency processes these requests along with the PA and FOIA requests on a first-in, first-out basis with due consideration to the normal duties of the tasked components. However, many Executive Branch agencies, including the CIA, have experienced backlogs, given the volume of requests and the need to conduct reviews of sensitive information.