The Nation - News from Jan. 27, 1988

The Administration will direct the Air Force and Navy, which circulated secrecy pledges to thousands of workers despite a month-old ban, to void any recently signed form if the employee requests it, a senior official said. Steven Garfinkel, a General Services Administration official who oversees the pledge program, said that he intends to send the one-paragraph order this week to 68 federal agencies. The Pentagon also will be instructed to direct private contractors to give similar treatment to their employees, he said. On Dec. 22, 1987, President Reagan agreed to the nine-month congressional freeze on use of fiscal 1988 funds to implement key portions of the secrecy agreements because of criticism that they have had a chilling effect on the flow of legally releasable data.