F-2004-01956 Appeal

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N Approved for Release: 2022/08/29 C01333876
B'ryant’s0 View
No Glass Act. The FBI Dossier on Philip J. mass
by Larry W. Bryant
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss
events; small minds discuss people.
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, USN
We may never know if the late, consummate character
assassin Philip Iulian Klass ever knew that the U. S. Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation was keeping records of his
activities and associations. And even if he knew, would
he have wondered whether his demise would trigger the
birth of a freedom-of-information request for public ac-
cess to those records?
As soon as l’d learned of Klass's death on August 9,
2005 I fired off an FOIA request to FBI headquarters in
Washington, D. C. Sure enough, the Bureau, known for
its having compiled dossiers on such UFO researchers as
Stanton T. Friedman, Leonard H. Stringfield, William L.
Moore, and Larry W. Bryant, had made no exception for
the notorious king of the UFO debunkers.
By its transmittal letter of Ianuary 19, 2006, the Bu-
reau sent me a package of 56 responsive documents from
Klass’s dossier, a portion of which was declassified from
its original protective marking of SECRET, while several
pages were redacted in whole or in part on grounds of—
you guessed it—national security. .~
Let's jump right into the dossier’s contents and analyze
the documents, as best we can, right here. The very first
document, dated November 9, 1964, consists of a partially
censored, two-page memorandum from FBI director Iohn
Edgar Hoover to the director of the U. S. Central Intel-
ligence Agency, marked: Attention: Director of Security.
Subject: Philip I. Klass. I
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Approved for Release: 2022/08/29 C01333876
In responding to the CIA director's apparently SECRET
letter of October 26, 1964, I-Ioover’s rnemo’s last paragraph
states:
In Ianuary, 1958, a matter was referred to this Bureau .
for investigation by the~District Commander, 4th; »
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District Office of Special Investigations, Department =
of the ¢5\il"FO1'C6‘_,'BOl..llI1gJAiI Force Base-, Washington;
D. C.. This matter involved the unauthorized disclo-. ,
sure of information classified1“Secret” in “Aviation.
I
Week Magazine}? article entitled.‘fExcIusive Report on
Counter 1\_/Ieasures" by Philip I. Klass in 18 NOV9Il'1b9l.',w.'§;
1957, and 25 November, 1957', editions. No investie '
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gation was conducted, in this matter by this BureanQ ‘A
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inasmuch as this Bureau was advised by Department“ ~
of the-jAir Force that suchclassified information as 2. I,
was contained in the article could not be declassified :
forpurposes‘ofp1;osecution;.
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The memo concludes:
No additional pertinent inforrnation regarding Klass’ _
is contained in the files ofthi'sgBureau.: Any: pertinent
information developed at a later date will he fur- I
Hiflhfldw you: .
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The executive branch’s decision not to prosecute Klass
and/or his magazine, which today enjoys the dubious
distinction of being unofficially labeled Aviation Leak,
has much relevance to today’s politics of secrecy. Will
the leaker of the National Security Agency's electronic-
surveillance net entrapping American citizens daring to
communicate internationally, along with the New York
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