i a 4 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY ROCKCOM 3w 5 1781000210076 AGENCY RECORD NUMBER RECORDS SERIES FILES AGENCY FILE NUMBER B-G-G II-Z MEMO FROM STAFF D0CUMENT INFORMATION FROM CLAPPER PETE TO BELIN DAVID - TITLE PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONSIDERATIONS IN REPORT DATE 05 02 75 PAGES 7 SUBJECTS ROCKEFELLER COMMISSION CIA - ASSASSINATIONS FOREIGN DOCUMENT TYPE PAPER TEXTUAL DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTIONS CURRENT STATUS 3M DATE OF LAST REVIEW 06 30 93 OPENING CRITERIA COMMENTS - Unmarked but probably contains classified information - ITEM IS RESTRICTED RELEASED PER JFK ACT Dato 06 30 93 Page- - -- May 2 1975 Th David Belin From Pete Clapper e Sde Public Affairs Considerations in Report- Like it or not we are ungeged largely in a public relations job attached are some considerations which might be helpful at this_ point together with my own rather drastic shopping list of- recommendatione - You may gather from the recommendations that the CIA is not high on my list of trustworthy agencies I would like to reserve the right to add to these propoeale if'l feel so moved - - - The buokshot approach reeulte from the feet that I am making recommendations for the eteff to make to the Commission to make_ to the President who is under no obligation to accept any of them So I feel free in letting my thoughts browse Contentedly in the fertile fields of CIA reform I would appreciate it if the'attaohment can be preserved in the staff files as my contribution to your dedication to the idea that we are here to serve neither the President nor the CIA hut the emerioan peop1ea - DECLASSIFIED r31 KAsoaes Rec Collection Act f1992 man once a me Home monotone F i h b a-m oze JFK-ACT some AFFAIRS ween Eomarmo RECWENDATIONS There are important public affairs considerations which should be kept in mind as recommendations are formulated for the Report of the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States Considerable public suspicion exists about how objective a job the Commission will do The CIA itself of course suffers from the credibility gap which stretches between the public and many government agencies Unfortunately the Agency has also been a factor from time to time in widening that gap and by its secret nature is particularly suspect in a free and open society Barriers which the CIA might place'in the way of a thorough investigation the limitations of time the size of the staff and other considerations all add to the difficulty of convincing the public that the report is valid Certain facts will be assembled which will be impressive indicators of the thoroughness of the job which the Commission has done Numbers of witnesses pages of testimony and investigative hours are among the measurements which might be mustered Obviously the perceptiveness of the report and the dramatic nature of some findings will weigh much'more heavily in the public's - judgement Host important in evaluating the performance of the Commission however will be the wisdom of its recommendations In formulating the recommendations several rulesnof-thumb might well be followed l Wherever there is a finding of domestic misbehavior by the Clan there should be firm recommendations to prevent any recurrence It will not be enough to say that the Agency has ceased such activity 2 Gander should be the watohword The more specific facts that the report marshals the more believable it will be People will rec- ognise and will be turned off by unclear or cute evasions They are expecting a coverhup and will view that kind of language as evidence of it 'It would be foolish to_refrain from using the names of top CIA officials or to avoid identifying the various-major directorates offices and project code names The reporters already-know many of them - 3 The tone of the heport should be hard-hitting and blunt wherever possible Some of the language in the drafts which I have seen is pretty soft Readers may ask whether the Commission was co opted by the Agency'unless the tone remains stern throughout - he 9 - page lwa li uses 'a Givens ans moss monomeric - In mu-n Care must be taken to respond to every serious charge against-the which has appeared in the press 5 Cosmetic changes will fool nobody but symbolic changes will be a cosmetic change might be a new name for a division or the transfer of a division within the Agency A Symbolic change would be the transfer of leadership or of'a major office to another agency 6 Internal changes volunteered by the on itself will do nothing to assuage public suspicion 7 The Commission should guard against the tendency to worry that nobody will read a long report The lead sentence in virtually every'news story when the report is released will read In its umptyaump page report made public today the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States urged President Ferd to One cf-the most impressive statistics will the the length of the report itself In the public mind If it's long it's got to be thorough A two-page or two-hundred page summary is fine but the-volume itself will be valued to a large extent on the basis of its size alone 8 The Commission should take pains to make the report available to' all publishers who-may be interested in immediate reprinting of the volume in paperback This is an established procedure and will assure widest distribution to the public at least government expense 'Advance copies should be provided the publishers no later than they are supplied to the media As a member in good standing of the staff I wish to propose- consideration a number of recommendations which I feel are warranted would have a positive_impact on the public and would in the long run he most beneficial to the CIA Legislation The consistion should recommend_amendments to the existing statutes on the Agency There is no other way to assure the public that past - misbehavior will be corrected If the President does not make legislative proposals he will lose the initiative'to the Senate Select committee which surely'will make them Some of the suggestions which follow could be framed as legis- 1- lation some as executive orders and some as regulations All are aimed at rendering the work of the Commission more credible and restoring public confidence in the CIA -'Lesdership' -The present leadership of the CIA should-be discreetly dismissed Mr Colby has demonstrated imagination in proposing improvements in the CIA and revamping its image However -more than any other person in the Agency he personifies the darker side of its work H9 15' KEV-dan uses '3 cusses am Hose semen I 1 forever tarred with-the memory of the Phoenix program His apparent manipulation of the press in the Glomar Explorer episode has simply widened the credibility gap between him and the public 'Covert Operations The objective in this transfer is to cleanse the Agency of one of its dirtier activities in order to make the CIA more acceptable to its critics Such a transfer will also reduce the CIA bureaucracy External Oversight You may'receive as many suggestions on this subjectv as there are members of the staff Effective external oversight is essential and does not exist at the present time The job might be assigned to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board It might go to a Congressional group My own feeling is that a unit should be established by law with members appointed the the president and the Congress They would be provided with staff and funding adequate to continuously observe all of the nation's intelligence and oounterintelligence efforts They would be required to report several times each year to the President and the Congressional Committee chairpersons with cognizance over the Intelligence Community This unit would have direct access to every office station file employee meeting and communication of the Community at all times The purpose of this unit is to provide the public with assurance that the Community is under scrutiny by persons under no obligation to it Antiehurder Amendment It should be specified in law that no agency of the U S Government will assassinate or plot to assassinate foreign leaders in time of peace Mr Bundy's comments notwithstanding the legislation might define peacetime as any time when there has been no declaration of war The statute should prohibit employees and contractors of all agencies in gathering foreign intelligence from consideration of-murder in peacetime 'Witholding Intelligence Legislation should be recommended asserting that-no CIA finding may be suppressed altered or witheld from the President because of political considerations or possible adverse public reaction to the finding if it should become public Pressure for suppression alteration or witholding-will be a violation of the law In cases of unresolved differences in findings by two agencies all findings 1 be reported - 26 KHZ HDHE cuog - Limited Cooperation The report must make it clear that the Agency did not in every case cooperate fully with the Commission I will not be easily convinced that the week-long delay-between the time when I requested - to see certain Helms files and the time when I was allowed to view them was not used by the Agency to cull from those files potentially damaging material The files which I viewed contained numerous chronological gaps which increased my suspicions The fact that-the Inspector General has assigned to leaf through the files with me and that I did not view than privately'furthered the impression that I was being spoon-fed - - The value of reporting the limited cooperation lies in its reinforcement of the need for external monitoring on a continuing basis - written Records Some regulatory mechanism should be created to prohibit the destruction or written records and to require the drafting of written records on all programs requiring the expenditure of funds and on all meetings at the branch level or higher Harassment It should he made a violation of law for any CIA employee_who has knowledge of the harassment of a U S citigen to fail to report the information to the President the DUI the IG or the independent investigative unit proposed earlier Harassment of v 8 citizens should be outlawed as an Agency'policy Harassment should obviously include surveillance wiretapping break-ins etc Inspector General The Office of the Inspector General CIA should be enlarged and enhanced It was appalling to learn at the onnal briefing by the CIA for the staffuof-che Gomission that the 120's office has been downgraded to the extent that it is inoapable'of ins all segments of the GIAEwith routine frequenc ' I range Id be restored to a position of real power He should be provided with a larger staff of first-rate workers not castoffs-from other offices HHe should be accorded the highest possible rank stature salary leverage and complete access to every corner of the Agency nous mansions issuer sees '21 causes am RELEASED PER P L -102-526 JFK ACT Management and Budget should be ended so that there is atleast one full-time staff member at 8 211 or the following offices at Langley and DD I Intelligence Branch International Programs i I Branch members should rotate among these offices to minimize I I the threat of their being co-opted by particular offices They f' should be required to monitor all expenditures will have to come out strong on this problem or lose an important initiative to the Congress i I You may wish to recommend that the one staff quietly'be augmented 3 I even before the release of the final report in an effort to minimize a ii the inevitable adverse reaction which dill follow publication of 3 information on current limited role '3 Eg El Civil Rights of Defectors Regulations should be promulgated within the Agency to assure that the civil rights of foreign citizens who defect to the - United States are protected Provisions should be made for periodic review and evalution of pending cases by a group composed of representatives of several directorate so that no person may be held inde nitely without a trial Hail Gounr and Files on U 8 Citizens citizens and the unsuspected size and duration of the mail cover operation there will be great public interest in these subjects Whether they are adequately treated under existing law is not clear to me - Because of the still undisclosed size of the files on 4 In any case recommendations to prevent mail covers and to limit collection of files to legitimate needs should be forceful The Conuuission's criticism of the Agency on these points should be Additional Suggestions It has become a cliche to defend the refusal to describe any CIA successes by saying that they cannot be reported without compromising sources and methods The Agency is now almost 30 years old Its history is continuously corspiled by its employees The suggestion should be made PER President that early portions of that history-might sell now be released without'damaging sources and methods I volunteer to supervise the Job _ Sometimes common sense seems conspicuous by its absence in the process of classifying documents Some kind of continuing de- classification unit should be established within the Agenc - if one does not already exist If one does exist it should be given the incentive to set A steady trickle of declassified information in the form or press releases briefings articles reports magazines and papers would be a reassuring form of oommunication with the public to the State Department those elements of the Agency now engaged in the production of reports on a wide variety of subjects not directly related to intelligence Such a change could be made by changing the lines on an organizational chart and making such reports available to the public through the State Department The result would be a less monolithic CIA and another channel of communication by the Government to the people Peter R Clapper Director or Public Affairs a Game ass Hons n- - 'r-au I If 1 - 4 52ffh' 1 flli 13-3-- 11 it gii i344 ea - Mis t u I'd -- I Rockefeller Commission From Pete Clapper to David Belin Public Affairs Considerations in report 1975 05 02 Source JFK Assass Recrds GRFL Rock Commission Belin Gray Greene files Correspondence Box 8 f II-Z memo from staff