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Statement on the Release of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Updated
Executive Order 12333 Procedures
18 January 2017
In furtherance of the Intelligence Community’s transparency initiatives,
today the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is releasing to the public updated
procedures governing the collection, retention, and dissemination of
information concerning United States persons. These updated procedures, like
the superseded procedures, are designed to balance the CIA’s intelligence
responsibilities with appropriate protections for the privacy and civil
liberties of United States persons.
Timely, accurate, and insightful information about the activities,
capabilities, plans, and intentions of foreign powers, organizations, and
persons, and their agents, is essential to informed decision-making in the
areas of national security, national defense, and foreign relations. Collection
of such information is a priority objective that the CIA pursues in a vigorous,
innovative, and responsible manner. This mission is accomplished while
remaining respectful of the principles upon which the United States was
founded, and consistent with the Constitution and applicable statutes and
Presidential directives authorizing the CIA’s activities, including the
National Security Act of 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, and
Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities.
Under Executive Order 12333, the CIA’s collection, retention, and
dissemination of information concerning United States persons in furtherance of
its statutory mission are governed by procedures approved by the Director of
the CIA and the Attorney General, after consultation with the Director of
National Intelligence. These procedures are often referred to as the CIA’s
“Attorney General Guidelines.”
Earlier this month, the Director and the Attorney General approved new
Attorney General Guidelines consolidating and updating the CIA’s procedures,
some of which had not been significantly updated since 1982. In the intervening
decades, the CIA implemented a number of additional changes in internal
regulations and policies to address changes in law and technology not
contemplated in the 1980s. The new, consolidated Attorney General Guidelines
now incorporate many of these intervening changes, thereby providing a more
unified and comprehensive set of procedures that permit the CIA to use and
share intelligence information to support national security objectives in a
manner that protects the privacy rights and civil liberties of all Americans.
Important aspects of the revised Attorney General Guidelines include:
- Protections for
Unevaluated Information: When the Attorney General Guidelines were first
promulgated in the 1980s, a clandestine operation may have resulted in the
CIA collecting a limited number of hard copy documents. Today, in addition
to traditional intelligence scenarios, a single storage device may contain
the equivalent of millions of pages of information, hours of video,
thousands of photos, or more. This volume of information requires longer
periods of time, and more personnel, to evaluate. The new Attorney General
Guidelines include specific approval requirements for handling any data
set that cannot be promptly evaluated for its intelligence value,
including a requirement to take reasonable steps to limit the collection
of information to the smallest subset of data necessary to achieve CIA’s
authorized intelligence objectives, and develop appropriate plans for
ensuring that the data is properly handled and queried.
- Restrictions on
Queries: Relatedly, the revised Attorney General Guidelines specifically
address the querying of CIA’s data holdings, requiring both that such
queries be conducted only in relation to CIA’s authorized intelligence
activities and that, where practicable, queries of particularly sensitive
data sets, such as the contents of communications, be accompanied by a
statement explaining the purpose for the query when retrieving information
concerning a United States person.
- Exceptional Handling
Requirements for Electronic Communications and Other Similarly Sensitive
Information: The CIA complies with Executive Order 12333’s prohibition against
conducting electronic surveillance in the United States, but may in the
course of its authorized intelligence activities acquire electronic
communications through other means. In recognition of the heightened
privacy concerns surrounding electronic communications, the revised
Attorney General Guidelines impose exceptional handling requirements on
unevaluated electronic communications. The Attorney General Guidelines
limit access to such communications, require training in the handling of
such communications, and with limited exceptions, require the destruction
of communications subject to these more stringent handling requirements no
later than five years after it has been made available to CIA intelligence
professionals. Certain other sensitive information is subject to these
same exceptional handling requirements.
- Limitations on
Undisclosed Participation: Executive Order 12333 also authorizes the
Intelligence Community, including CIA, to participate in organizations in
the United States without disclosing their intelligence affiliation in
limited circumstances. While CIA officers generally disclose their
affiliation with the Agency when engaging with United States
organizations, in certain situations CIA officers may be allowed to
withhold such information in order to, for example, maintain their cover.
The revised Attorney General Guidelines provide clear rules concerning the
CIA’s undisclosed participation in organizations in the United States. For
example, under the Attorney General Guidelines, CIA employees may not join
or participate in an organization for the purpose of influencing the
organization without disclosing their affiliation unless the organization
is composed primarily of non-United States persons, is reasonably believed
to be acting on behalf of a foreign power, and the CIA
employee has received the approval of the Director of the CIA.
- Compliance and
Oversight: To ensure compliance, the Attorney General Guidelines impose a
number of authorization and documentation requirements on activities that
may result in the acquisition of United States person information. The
Guidelines also require periodic auditing. These requirements build on the
extensive oversight already conducted by Congress, CIA’s Office of
Inspector General, and other executive entities, which include the Privacy
and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and the President’s Intelligence
Oversight Board.
While the revised Attorney General Guidelines provide the framework for
ensuring that the CIA continues to engage in its foreign intelligence,
counterintelligence, and covert action missions in a manner that respects
Americans’ privacy rights and civil liberties, the Attorney General Guidelines
represent only one aspect of the authorizations for and restrictions on CIA’s
intelligence activities. In addition to the Attorney General Guidelines, the
CIA has numerous other internal regulations and policies to ensure its
activities remain in compliance with the law and focused on our critical
national security mission. The CIA conducts intelligence activities in response
to requirements levied by the President and the CIA’s other intelligence
customers, and governed by a number of statutes, to include the National
Security Act, the Central Intelligence Agency Act, the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, and the Privacy Act, and presidential directives, such as
Presidential Policy Directive 28.
The CIA today releases the revised Attorney General Guidelines to increase
transparency for the American people regarding how the CIA handles information
concerning United States persons as the CIA pursues its lawfully authorized
activities. While the CIA’s specific activities, as well as its specific
sources and methods, must remain classified to protect our national security,
the revised Attorney General Guidelines are being released without redaction.
In addition, CIA is also releasing the attached detailed overview of the
Attorney General Guidelines to further explain how these Attorney General
Guidelines protect our national security and our civil liberties. These
Guidelines become effective 18 March 2017, 60 days after signature by the
Director of the CIA and the Attorney General.
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Posted: Jan 18, 2017 03:44 PM
Last Updated: Jan 18, 2017 03:44 PM
