[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  HOSTAGES AND SECRETS: A MODERN FARCE

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, each year the Information Security 
Oversight Office keeps a tally of the number of secrets the United 
States Government classifies. Last year they reported the creation of 
6,408,688 secrets. Absurd. This strikes at the heart of our republic. 
As James Madison once wrote:

       A popular Government without popular information or the 
     means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce of a 
     Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern 
     ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors, 
     must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.

  Let me relate a recent ``Farce'' of the kind which Madison foresaw.
  Terry Anderson, the Associated Press correspondent who was held 
hostage for 7 years in Lebanon, is now writing a book about his ordeal. 
For almost 1,000 days during the course of his captivity I kept the 
Senate apprised of his situation by making daily statements in the 
Record. This also served to signal those responsible for Terry 
Anderson's captivity that we would not forget his plight.
  In order to complete the work on his book, Mr. Anderson has made 
Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] requests to numerous Government 
agencies for documents they may have relating to his captivity. The 
response has been, to put it mildly, less than satisfactory. In some 
instances he has received copies of published articles he himself wrote 
prior to his kidnapping. Other documents he received were even less 
informative. Many had large sections which had been reacted. One 
response he got from the Air Force contained 36 blank pages.
  Most of the documents withheld or censored, I believe, were done so 
on national security grounds. However, Mr. Anderson has been informed 
that some of the documents cannot be released because that would 
violate the privacy of the terrorists who held him captive all those 
years. This boggles the mind.
  After battling for the release of these documents for several years, 
Terry Anderson has now chosen to take this matter to the courts. I 
cannot comment on the legal niceties of Mr. Anderson's FOIA case, which 
is pending in U.S. District Court here in Washington. I merely wish to 
convey my initial response to the news: there must be some mistake. Mr. 
Anderson has been told that he must obtain a notarized waiver from his 
captors so as not to invade their privacy, or he must go without vital 
pieces of the story of his captivity. The Freedom of Information Act 
presumes that Government documents are accessible to the people and 
that the burden is on the Government to justify the need for secrecy. 
Furthermore, the Privacy Act, which is separate but related to FOIA, 
does not apply to foreigners. Thus it is difficult to comprehend 
withholding documents from Terry Anderson on these grounds.
  Certainly there are legitimate national security needs which would 
prevent release of certain documents. Unfortunately, considering the 
vast number of documents classified each year, and the experiences of 
citizens such as Terry Anderson, the public perception is that 
Government is, in general, over secretive.
  I have introduced a bill to create a commission to look into this 
precise question. I am pleased to note that this was signed into law by 
the President last April. The Commission on Protecting and Reducing 
Government Secrecy will for a period of 2 years examine how documents 
are classified and make recommendations for improvements. It is my hope 
that the Secrecy Commission will help to alleviate some of the problems 
faced by the current system and restore the confidence of the American 
people.
  I ask unanimous consent that an article from the Washington Post by 
Kathleen Day concerning the Terry Anderson FOIA request be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Oct. 3, 1994]

             Ex-Hostage's FOI Quest Takes a Ludicrous Turn

                           (By Kathleen Day)

       It could be a skit from ``Saturday Night Live.''
       A U.S. citizen is taken hostage in the Middle East and held 
     for nearly seven years. After his release, while researching 
     a book on the experience, he asks his government for its 
     files on his captors.
       The government says sure, but there's a catch. He must 
     first get written permission from the terrorists who held him 
     so that their privacy is not invaded.
       That's exactly what the Drug Enforcement Administration has 
     told former hostage Terry Anderson he must do before it will 
     release files under the Freedom in Information Act about 10 
     men who kept him prisoner or were involved in doing so. 
     Seeking the documents, Anderson last month filed suit in the 
     District against the DEA and 12 other agencies.
       ``Before DEA can begin processing your request,'' the 
     agency, a unit of the Department of Justice, told Anderson in 
     a 1992 letter, ``it will be necessary for you to provide 
     either proof of death or an original notarized authorization 
     (privacy waiver) from that person.''
       Without that authorization, wrote John H. Phillips, chief 
     of the DEA's Freedom of Information Section, ``to confirm the 
     existence of law enforcement records or information about 
     another person is considered an unwarranted invasion of 
     personal privacy.''
       Anderson argues instead that privacy rights under the 
     Freedom of Information Act do not extend to foreigners living 
     abroad.
       ``It would be funny if this weren't so serious a matter,'' 
     said Anderson's attorney, Stuart H. Newberger of Crowell & 
     Moring. ``Terry Anderson wants to know what the government 
     has on the people who kidnapped and tortured him for years.
       DEA spokeswoman Sylvia Morin said last week she would call 
     back if she could comment. She did not call back.
       John Bates, chief of the civil division of the U.S. 
     Attorney's office in the District, which is coordinating the 
     case for the agencies being sued, said that he could not 
     ``comment specifically about DEA's response at this time.''
       But he said the responses of all the agencies will be 
     reviewed in light of the Clinton administration's policy of 
     releasing documents whenever the law permits.
       Anderson has requested documents from 13 agencies, 
     including the CIA, the State Department and the Department of 
     Defense. Some have released some documents, though they are 
     ``so heavily censored as to be nearly useless,'' Anderson 
     said in a written statement last week.
       Others are mostly publicly available congressional 
     correspondence and news articles, including stories Anderson 
     wrote as a reporter for the Associated Press before his 
     capture.
       But each agency has refused to release hundreds of pages of 
     relevant documents that Anderson believes would not damage 
     national security by being released.
       With the exception of the State Department and DEA, all 
     invoke national security as the reason to deny Anderson's 
     request for information, Newberger says.
       That argument may or may not prove valid--Anderson thinks 
     it won't. But even Newberger concedes it's not laughable.
       In addition to national security, the State Department 
     invoked violation of privacy; it also asked Anderson to 
     obtain written permission before it will release documents. 
     Only the DEA's denial of Anderson's request rests solely on 
     the violation of privacy argument.
       ``When I got out, I was flying higher than a kite. I could 
     have taken on the world and not even paused,'' Anderson told 
     reporters three years ago, shortly after his release from 
     captivity.
       That, of course, was before he ran up against federal 
     bureaucrats.

                          ____________________