CIA Lie

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   The Washington Post, February 20, 1997, p. A22:

   Domestic CIA Snooping

   The CIA's assertion on its Web page that the agency does
   not keep files on Americans is not in fact true ["In the
   Loop," Federal Page, Feb. 12]. The agency opened a file on
   my client, Daniel Tsang, a political activist and librarian
   at the University of California at Irvine, in the 1980s and
   recorded his constitutionally protected activities.

   When we sued the agency, we discovered that no agency
   directives prohibit the maintenance of such files and the
   CIA lawyers made the extraordinary claim that it is legal
   for the agency to keep files on Americans, including on
   citizens' First Amendment activities. The CIA claimed that
   it is exempt from Privacy Act restrictions on such
   practices.

   While the CIA eventually agreed to expunge Mr. Tsang's file
   and promised to refrain from opening such files on him in
   the future, it refused to acknowledge any limitation on its
   authority to keep files on other Americans. It should do so
   now.

   Kate Martin
   Washington

   The writer is director of the Center for National Security
   Studies, a project of the Fund for Peace.

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