ee
To maintain a uniform policy to avoid compromise of program information through
declassification of several separate but related items by different organizations, the Director, LASL, and his staff continue to be the channel for forwarding material to AEC
Declassification Branch for final action.
During the last three years, there has been a considerable increasein the number of
technical items considered for release by Sandia Laboratory.
Many of these items have
been processed as declassifiable scientific information but might readily fall within the
more recent Industrial Information program.
With the policy of classification boards at various field installations, there has been
a lesser tendency to overclassify with subsequent declassification required. However, there
has been a continuing program to review previously-issued material for downgrading or declassification.
In the three-year period of this report it is estimated that there has been formal declassification on approximately 585 items from LASL and 16 items from Sandia Laboratory.
In addition, 34 Los Alamos items have been reduced to Official Use Only. There have not
been many items for formal declassification from the other SFO contractors, but it is anticipated that in the future, particularly in viewof the Industrial Information program, there
will be a sizable quantity of items from them.
The publication of ''The Effects of Atomic Weapons" by the Los Alamos Scientific Lab-
. gratory early in 1950 and the release of information involved in the Rosenberg-Greenglass
cases has madeit feasible to consider for public release many items previously considered
classified. However, it is recognized fully that on the newer developments the classifica-
tion of the information might be even stricter than that applied to the wartime and immedi-
ately postwar data.
Security
The report of the Office of Security operation is presented separately later in this
chapter.
Public and Technical Information
Staff supervision and certain operating functions at the headquarters and the national
levels are assigned by the General Manager to the Division of Information Services. Basic
assignment in GM-O&M-23, Serial 107, April 24, 1950, is still applicable although there
have been various changes not yet formalized ina GM. Organization Chart, DIS, January
21, 1952, is the most recent expression of functions and supporting activities, although it
is not current. Similar assignment of both staff supervision and of operating functions,
and of supporting activities, prevails in Operations Offices.
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By organizational division at the Washington level, there are two formal supporting
programs: Technical Information and Public Information. Technical Information is concerned with the preparation and official dissemination of classified information and with
preparing, controlling, and making publicly available to specialized audiences non-classified
-scientific, technical and industrial (including management) information; with the industrial
(or technological) activity actually being a separate sub-program placed under Technical
Information. Public Information is concerned with the controlled public release of scientific, technical, and general information.
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