Highlights of Activities of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel
May 1996 - April 1997
Executive Order 12958, "Classified National Security Information," signed by President Clinton on April 17, 1995, and effective on October 14, 1995, is a major departure from the secrecy policies of the past. The first order to revise the security classification system since the end of the Cold War, E.O. 12958 includes major changes which should result in fewer secrets being created and significantly more information being declassified.
Among the milestones established in E.O. 12958 was the creation of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel, or "ISCAP," only the second interagency appeals panel in our history. The President has asked the ISCAP to perform several critical functions in implementing the Order's provisions. These include: (a) deciding on appeals by parties whose requests for declassification of information under the mandatory review provisions of the Order have been denied by the classifying agency; (b) approving, denying or amending agency exemptions from the automatic declassification provisions of the Order; and (c) deciding appeals brought by individuals who challenge the classification status of information that they lawfully possess. The work of the ISCAP is crucial to the implementation of E.O. 12958, because its decisions will ultimately establish the cutting edge between what information is declassified and what information remains classified.
Senior officials appointed by the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Attorney General, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Archivist of the United States and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs make up the six voting members of the ISCAP. The President appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roslyn A. Mazer to serve as the ISCAP's chair. The Director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) serves as its Executive Secretary, and ISOO provides its staff support.
The ISCAP first convened at the end of May 1996, and voted to declassify its first document at its second meeting in July 1996. To date, the entirety of its decision caseload has consisted of mandatory review appeals, most involving documents from presidential libraries. The ISCAP has decided appeals seeking the declassification of 34 documents totaling approximately 5,000 pages that remained fully or partially classified upon the completion of agency processing. Of these, the ISCAP has voted to declassify 27 documents in full, to declassify significant portions of six others, and to affirm the agency's classification action fully for only one document.
Among the documents declassified by the ISCAP in their entirety are the following:
- Three documents from 1966-67 pertain to trilateral negotiations
among the United Kingdom, West Germany and the United States regarding
the levels and costs of troop deployment in West Germany. Two are messages
to President Johnson from Prime Minister Wilson, which had been classified
in their entirety; the third, partially declassified in the past, is an
internal White House memorandum to President Johnson listing alternative
strategies for the United States' position in the negotiations.
- Four documents, all partially declassified in the past, highlight
the substance of meetings between President Eisenhower and Prime Minister
Nehru of India in the period 1956-60. They pertain to a range of subjects
of bilateral interest, including Indian-Pakistani relations, the Indian
border dispute with China, Sino-Soviet relations, and the United Nations'
role in resolving African conflicts.
- A document from September 1960, partially declassified in
the past, highlights the substance of a meeting between President Eisenhower
and Prime Minister Macmillan. Among the diverse subjects discussed are
the basing of Polaris missiles in the United Kingdom; reconnaissance overflights
of the Soviet Union; and an exchange of views about other national leaders.
- Four annual National Security Council "Progress Reports"
(1954, 1955, 1956 and 1959) are titled "United States Policy Towards
South Asia." These White House reports, previously declassified in
part, offer country by country synopses of current geopolitical situations
as viewed from a United States policy perspective.
- Three 1973 documents, all partially declassified in the past,
pertain to a letter to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger from
former National Security Adviser Walt Rostow, in which Rostow outlines
a recent conversation between him and British Prime Minister Heath. In
the conversation the Prime Minister is stated to have been critical of
the United States' position on certain matters relating to Europe.
- A 1974 memorandum to Secretary of State Kissinger, previously
classified in its entirety, concerns a White House official's critique
of the United States' position at the Washington Energy Conference.
- A 1947 Air Technical Intelligence report entitled, "Current
Foreign Aeronautical Developments," describes in great detail the
military airplanes and missiles being developed by other nations.
- Eight White House documents, seven of which had been partially declassified in the past, concern the Dominican Republic presidential election of June 1966 and its aftermath. Most pertain to keeping President Johnson informed of developments in the pre-election campaign, and prognostications of its outcome.
Of the six documents in which the ISCAP has declassified additional portions, two pertain to United States' political, military and intelligence options to deal with the Berlin crisis in 1961; one pertains to the minutes of the second meeting of the White House Committee on Nuclear Proliferation, which took place in 1964; two pertain to the Dominican Republic presidential election in 1966; and one is comprised of the remaining classified technical manuals of the Office of Censorship, a World War II agency. Except for the nuclear proliferation minutes, the portions that remain classified pertain to information, the release of which "should be expected to reveal the identity of a confidential human source, or reveal information about the application of an intelligence source or method, or reveal the identity of a human intelligence source when the unauthorized disclosure of that source would clearly and demonstrably damage the national security interests of the United States." (E.O. 12958, sec. 3.4(b)(1)). The relatively small portion of the White House Committee on Nuclear Proliferation minutes that remains classified pertains to information, the release of which "should be expected to reveal information that would assist in the development or use of weapons of mass destruction." (E.O. 12958, sec. 3.4(b)(2)).
The only document to date in which the ISCAP has not voted to declassify additional information reveals the actual identities of individuals who provided the allies with intelligence information during World War II. All other portions of this document, including the intelligence provided, have previously been declassified. These identities remain classified for now as information, the release of which "should be expected to reveal the identity of a confidential human source, or reveal information about the application of an intelligence source or method, or reveal the identity of a human intelligence source when the unauthorized disclosure of that source would clearly and demonstrably damage the national security interests of the United States." (E.O. 12958, sec. 3.4(b)(1)).
*The database of decisions rendered by the ISCAP between May 1996 and April 1997 is available from ISOO on Microsoft Access 2.0 or in hard copy.
*The aforementioned database is not longer utilized or maintained by the ISCAP. Please contact ISOO for more information.
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