RHall
40,000 pages of POW/MIA Documents
Sat Oct 20 11:54:37 2001


40,000 pages of POW/MIA Documents

In September 1998 the CIA tried to get the Freedom of Information Act case for POW
documentation dismissed. One set of documents we asked for was the 40,000 pages of
classified documents the CIA gave Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. Those
documents were being held at the National Archives where I had also requested their
declassification under the Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR).

The CIA's tactics was that they would review the documents under the MDR and
have the FOIA case dismissed. This would have left their declassification without any
means of appeal. The CIA stated it would take them two and a half years, Judge
Friedman stated that was to long. Later the CIA told the court that they had turned
over all their POW/MIA documents to the Senate and could not find any additional
material, and that the documents were now the property of the Senate and not
subject to the FOIA. We objected and in October 2000 the court ordered the CIA
to find their copies of the documents and declassify them. The CIA then had
possession of the Senate documents from the Archives and could have made
copies if they still could not find their originals. The CIA is the only agency that
can declassify CIA originated documents.

As of September 2001 the CIA had not declassified a single document for the
court case. In September 2001 they did return the reviewed 40,000 pages of
POW/MIA documents to the Archives where they are being processed. The
documents will not be available to the public until the end of November. This
release of documents will not relieve the CIA of my FOIA requested documents;
And as previously stated I or the public will not have any appeal rights of the
documents as I do under the FOIA. I have also been informed that the CIA
is redacting the agency identification from these documents under E.O. 12958.
This is in conflict with E.O. 12812 ordering the declassification of all POW/MIA
information except for national security reasons, sources and methods.

I realize that many people get disgusted with the years a court case takes, but
that is what the CIA intends. Many cases are cut short because the defendant the
CIA makes a deal and the party that brought the suit wants an end to it and settles
for less or fewer documents in this case. We believe the US government settled
for 591 POW in 1973 and that the communists held back others as they did after
agreement to end their war with the French in 1954. We seek and demand all
POW/MIA documents.

RHall8715@aol.com