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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
Honorable Richard L. Thornburgh
Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division
Department of Justice _
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Mr. Thornburgh:
This is in response to your letter to me dated September 7, 1976,
in which you request that we furnish you originals of ll documents
which will be subjected to fingerprint analysis in the Federal Bureau
of Investigation laboratory. Mr. Edmund Cohen of my office noted to
Mr. George Allen Carver, Ir. of your office that up to this point the
Agency has not released originals of documents and has not made
available documents prior to deletion of certain sensitive information.
Mr. Cohen also expressed concern that a large number of Agency
employees under cover who are unconnected with the investigation
might have handled the documents. Fingerprint analysis could compro-
mise the cover of such individuals. An agreement was struck between
the two attorneys as to the procedure which might be followed in order
to satisfy Agency concerns and at the same time meet your requirements.
Mr. Carver proposed that an armed Office of Security employee accompany
the documents to the FBI facility. While the security officer waited, the
~documer.ts would be photographed and FBI officials would only seek to
determine whether the fingerprints of certain selected Agency officials
appeared on the documents. After this had been done, the originals
and any photographs and photographic negatives would be returned to
the Agency by the security officer.
This procedure is acceptable to us, and pursuant to these conditions,
we stand ready to make the requested documents available.
Sincerely ,
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Anthony A. Lapham
General Counsel
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