The "operational files" of the Defense Intelligence Agency would become
exempt from public access under the Freedom of Information Act if
legislation approved by the Senate last week is enacted into law.

DIA operational files are an exceptionally valuable and politically
significant category of government records.  The release of thousands of
such records under the FOIA in the last several years has proved
particularly important to official commissions examining human rights
violations in Central America.

The Senate action is incisively critiqued in a July 19 Washington Post
op-ed by Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive:

        http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3246-2000Jul18.html

The National Security Archive has posted several notable examples of the
kind of declassified HUMINT reports obtained under the FOIA from the
Defense Intelligence Agency that could henceforth become unavailable, along
with further analysis of the Senate legislation by Tom Blanton, Michael
Evans, and Kate Martin, here:

        http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB34/index.html

For good measure, the Senate approved two other provisions last week that
will further erode the FOIA:  A new exemption for unclassified foreign
government information, and an expanded exemption for Defense Department
"geodetic products."  The latter exemption is used by the Pentagon to
withhold unclassified imagery and maps from release under FOIA.  The text
of the new exemptions is posted here:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2000/sen-def.html

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___________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
http://www.fas.org/sgp/index.html