Doc ID 6571846 - -- r fEMORANDUt1 TO Members of the Senate Select Committee FROM Fritz DATE September 19 1975 SURJECT The Executive S ession on Friday September 19 $ch vaLz The executive session will focus on the proposed public hearings next week about monitoring by the National Security Agency NSA of international lines of communications This monitorin has included some questionable practices in the past rCf ardin p U S citizens and NSA's technology and size provide it with the capability unless better controlled to engage in such practices in the future General Lew Allen the Director of NSi Jill brief the Committee for about 30 minutes on the functions and operations of tIS1 1 Je 'ttlil1 then address the issue of what' can appropriately be presented in public hearings This executive session has been preceded by staff negotiations with NSA on what can be made public Attached a t Tah A is a Table which provides a summary of the matters still at issue along with the arguments on both sides Attached at Tab n is a saP'lple of some oF the n tP 1es from NSA's biographic files and watch list' and some examples of the product disseminated to other agencies ' You are also receiving a briefing book with more extensive back ground materials The Table of Contents should be self-explanatory ' cc Vi 11 i am v1 i 11 e r Curtis Smothers - l 'f8r 3ECN B'f 'OOtfIN'f Page 1 NSA HEARINGS ON MONITORING OF INTERNATI0NAL LINES OF COMHUNICATION ILte Issue Select Cornmitb e Proposal NSA Informal Response I Procedural A Public Hearings B NSA v litnesses II Substantive ere should be public hearings that discuss NSA in very general terms and what NSA has done improperly regarding U S citizens domestic targets not about-how NSA does it nor about forei targets -- There should be none Sen Church could issue a highly limited statement about NSA practices regarding U S citizens after negotiating declassification of some material with the Secretary of Defense orne NSA officials should be witnesses Offiials with as much sensitive information as NSA fficials aopear before Congressional commitees -- e g Secretary Schlesinger Qirector olby Admiral Rickover No NSA witnesses NSA officials prefer anonymity since 1 they are not as well compartmented as -at CIA 2 they know ma ny technical details A Practices 1 75 000 files on U S citizens others on U S organizations Do not-disclose at all The one-time existence of the files Disclosure of the existence of fi es and especially of specific names will lead to titiga tion under the Freedom of-InformatioTILAct and the Privacy Act 1 Files exis'ted on e g Senators Church and Art Bucht'lald Gregory Peck et al e a B '-w-a- the Substantive information was in them They were used by NSA and other agencies li f d e as the CIA had almo t They were destroyed in 1974 Both sides have agreed that certain parts of the fil s the non-substantive information were used in helping break codes and we do not propose disclosure of that aspect of the files - ' - J' -' - -- 'fOP SECR 'f 'eOHIN'f Page I-A Issue Select Committee Proposal NSA Informal Response 2 Delivery to NSA of all international paid telegrams by telegraph companies ' Disclose Do not disclose at all 1 Volume 155 000 telegrams month to NSA analysts Hhen the program was set up in 19t the U S Government including President Truman promised to protect the companies from public disclosure 2 Use from 1965 on was for all NSA uses including the nwatch list activity of 1967-73 see II A 4 below economic intelligence The fallacy of this position is 1 The operation and purpose of the program changed in the mid-1960s Instead of the companies selecting out messages containing cipher traffic or addressed to or from a foreign embassy the companies began supplyin NSA with magnetic tapes containing all their international paid messages And NSA began to use this material not only for diplomatic intelligence but also for all its intelligence collection activities -- including the watch list and rreconomic intelligence As' a result the agreement in 1945 was no longer apolicable ' 2 Alternatively if the 1945 a reements were still applicable then thev very Section 605 of the Fe era Commun1cat10ns Act U S C o w ic rna e 1t un aw u or personne 0 commu nications common carriers to divulge the existence or content of communications aveling via these carriers and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution as interpreted in 1967 because this was an unreasonable search and seizure of messages as to which there was a justifiable expectation of privacy As for the Presidential approval in 1945 the Defense Department has admitted that President Ford did not know of the program and there is no evidence yet that any President since President Truman knew of it The Department of Justice' has opened a criminal investigation of this but has taken no action yet The Committee staff resolved Department of Justice concerns at a meeting on September 18 1975 And if the inves tigation continues and leads to indictments the program will be made public an ay NSA Informal Response' Issue 2 U S -South p erican Te1enhone Intercepts a Some intercepts for mainly economic' purposes- from late 1973 until 9 July 1975 Disclose Do net disclose 1 Fact of interceot without naming the specific links e g F ' EO 3 3b 3 PL 86-36 50 USC 3605 I 2 This JaS easy to do even for a ham'radio operator since the calls were carried by radio wave 3 fuen a frequency as intercepted every telephone call had to be listened to and at least part- ly recorded 4 The value was marginal nSA admitt ed this by terminating the interc pt 5 NfA dOeS not want to reveal that it was collecting economic intelligence Parties would review their 'past 'calls to'see what U S intercepte4 The interceTlt Has terninated Knowledge of tercination would lead peoPle to use these telephone lin1 s rather t an telegrams 'r I ' 1 I 't ' t o S me interce ts from late 197 to June 1973 mainly to eain infonnation about the drug watch list Both sides agree to disclose 1 2 Fact of this intercept Mainly for drug purposes r EO 3 3b 1 t ' ' i Disclose also Do not disclose further 1 Every telephone call had to be listened to and at least partly recorded Reasons unknown ' Response The specific links P eS'Donse vould not have to be identified No one could be sure that NSA ould not resume this o ' ' ' o o ' ' o -' - o - t - ' o o '- ' _ - ' _ r - oo f t' - ' - ' I Doc t II Issue Select Committee Proposal 1 I 3 Non-Voice Intercepts Watch List Activity including MINARET NSA Informal Response Both sides agree to disclose l Fact of 2 Exis tence of U S names 3 Informal 'procedures initially Over 1 200 total 4 Communications between 2 U S citizens might have been analyzed and disseminated f 5 r Disclose t E 11 It 'was terminated also Do not disclose this because Some of the names possibly put on the There would be litigation under 1 ' watch list such as the v lomen S Liberation Move- the Freedom of Information Act and II ment to demonstrate that such individuals enti- the Privacy Act ties were put on the list without justification ' 12 Some of the product disseminated to other agencies to demonstrate the wide reach of the process 2 See l above Also r this would be an invasion of individuals' privacy B Structure 1 Budget of over $1 billion or 2 times CIA's and manpower of 40-60 000 Disclose since Do not ' lisclose since 1 General range not specific Also this does not give a trend but only one point in 1 Might somehow tell other countries of NSA's capabilities time 7 8 - B1 c o ' lc o 1 1 _ _- - J' 1 - -- - --'-l r- ' w ' - ' t o ' o J ' ' -' l1Il 1 ' ' t 0' oo J o j Doc ID 6571846 1 L 8 COLLECTION OF UESSAGES AND BIOGRAPllIC INFORMATION CONCERNING U S CITIZENS AND GROUPS Biographic Files NSA collected and maintained substantive information on prominent individuals totaling about 75 000 U S citizens The card file information was destroyed in 1973 but the list of names is still stored in a computer The computer also stores past reports to other agencies containing the substance qf messages mentioning such people Some of the names contained in the files were Art Buchwald Arthur Burns Gregory Peck Otis Pike Thomas Watson Torn Hicker Leonard Woodcock Joanne Woodward Whitney Young The following members of the Senate Select Committee were also in the files Howard H Baker Jr Frank Church Barry Goldwater Tatch Charles McC Mathias Walter F Mondale Richard S Schweiker List St'arting in the early 19605 increasing in scope in 1967 and continuing until 1973 NSA maintained a list of U S citizens and groups totaling nearly 1 200 International messages to or from these individuals or groups were collected and 'analyzed by NSA Some of the individuals entities on the watch list were J o Muhammed Ali Roy Innis Donald Sutherland Women's Liberation Movement Women Strike for Peace Quaker Action Group Product of Communications Intercepts Examples of the product disseminated under Proj ct MINARET to other agencies within the Executive Branch include EO 3 3b 3 PL 86-36 50 USC 3605                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu