(2006-1002-F) Harold W. Pote - PFIAB

The materials in FOIA 2006-1002-F are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. Researchers should consult the archivist about related materials. Harold W. Pote was re-appointed to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board by President William Jefferson Clinton on September 30, 1993. Previously he served on the PFIAB under President George H. W. Bush. He was reappointed yearly, serving on the PFIAB through Clinton’s eight years in office. Pote died, June 26, 2007 while on vacation in Turkey. Pote, also known as Hal, received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1968 and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard in 1972. Considered by many to be a successful banker, he was a founding partner in the Beacon Group, an investment services company which was purchased by Chase Bank. He was also Chief Executive Officer of Fidelcor, Inc., a major regional bank holding company in Philadelphia, and a former founding partner of PBS Properties of Pennsylvania. His expertise in banking led to a position as Executive Vice President and Head of Chase Regional Banking. He was later appointed Vice Chairman of retail financial services for J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. At his death in 2007, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of American Financial Reality Trust. Pote was a Trustee of Drexel University for seventeen years and on the board of Drexel University School of Medicine. He was also on the boards of a number of civic organizations including: Museum of Arts & Design, New York City Ballet, and the Spina Bifida Foundation. The President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) was created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. Executive Order 10656, signed February 6, 1956, created the President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities. Eisenhower believed that this board of respected and knowledgeable citizens could provide him with unbiased and candid appraisals of United States’ intelligence activities. President John Kennedy, by the signing of Executive Order 10938 on May 4, 1961, renamed the Board of Consultants, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Though the name was changed, the board continued to operate in much the same fashion. Executive Order 11460, signed by President Richard Nixon on March 20, 1969, again changed the name of the PFIAB to the President’s Advisory Intelligence Board. President Jimmy Carter abolished the board in March of 1977. Carter did however, retain the Intelligence Oversight Board. The IOB was created by President Gerald Ford in 1976 following a post Watergate investigation by Congress into potential illegal activities of the intelligence agencies. The IOB was tasked with reporting potential illegal activities to the Department of Justice for review. As Ford told Congress in 1976, “I believe [the changes] will eliminate abuses and questionable activities on the part of the foreign intelligence agencies while at the same time allowing them to get on with their vital work of gathering and assessing information.” President Ronald Reagan modified the role of the IOB in 1981 and re-established the PFIAB in 1985 by signing Executive Order 12537. President William Jefferson Clinton combined the IOB and the PFIAB, making the IOB a committee rather than an independent organization. President George W. Bush radically modified the role of both the IOB and the PFIAB following the creation of a Director of National Intelligence. The newly named President’s Intelligence Advisory Board was designated to oversee the intelligence collection activities of any Federal agency engaged in the collection of intelligence or the production of intelligence policy. President Barak Obama more clearly defined the role of the PIAB and strengthened the IOB with the passage of Executive Order 13516. Under President Clinton the PFIAB had between eleven and twelve members, by law it could be no more than sixteen, whose terms were established by the President. Members were chosen for their independence, knowledge, and experience. The members of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board serve as unpaid observers of United States intelligence community. Much of their work is highly secret in nature though Presidents have chosen on occasion to make the Board’s reports, or portions thereof, public. The members of the Board are appointed by the President and the Director serves at the leisure of the President. Clinton Presidential Records relating to Harold W. Pote consist largely of personnel files relating to Pote’s appointment as a member of the PFIAB. As such, many of the records produced for this FOIA have closures related to personal privacy. Also the nature of the work undertaken by PFIAB resulted in many records closed for national security reasons.