National Security Information
Concerns EO 12356
Not the real thing
[Presidential Directives and Executive Orders]
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON
SUBJECT: National Security Information
BACKGROUND
With the end of the Cold War, we should re-evaluate our securlty classification and safeguarding systems, as articulated in E.O. 12356, to ensure that they are in line with the reality of the current, rather than the past, threat potential.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this tasking is to review E.O. 12356 and other directives relating to protection of national security information with a view toward drafting a new executive order that reflects the need to classify and safeguard national security information in the post Cold War period.
QUESTIONS
The following sets forth the questions that should be addressed during this review. The resulting answers should serve as the basis for the drafting of the new proposed executive order which will be submitted upon completion of the review.
- In the post Cold War era, what types of information
continue to require protection through classification in the
interest of our national security?
- What steps can be taken to avoid excessive classification?
- What steps can be taken to declassify information as -
quickly as possible?
- What steps can be taken to declassify or otherwise dispose
of the large amounts of classified information that currently
exist in Government archives and other repositories?
- What steps can be taken to reduce the number of, and to
provide adequate oversight and control over, special access
programs?
- What steps can be taken to control unnecessary distribution
and reproduction of classified information?
- What steps can be taken to enforce the "need-to-know"
principle?
- What steps can be taken to increase individual accountability for the operation of the classification system?
IMPLEMENTATION
This review should be conducted under the chairmanship of the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) in coordination with the National Advisory Group for Security Countermeasures. Representatives of the agencies which comprise the NAG/SCM shall be included in the task force. It is further directed that this review be coordinated with the joint DCI-Secretary of Defense Security Commission.
The Chairman of the task force shall report to me through the NSC staff, Office of Intelligence Programs. The review should be completed no later than November 30, 1993, at which time a draft executive order guperseding E.O. 12356 should be submitted for formal coordination.
/ s /
Anthony Lake
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs