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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


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.

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

Files within the Directorate of Science & Technology

Files within the Security Center