(2006-1016-F) Randy W. Deitering - PFIAB

The materials in FOIA 2006-1016-F are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. Researchers should consult the archivist about related materials. On December 2, 1998 President William Jefferson Clinton appointed Randy W. Deitering Executive Director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). Deitering was a long time staff member of the PFIAB. In April 1988, he was named Assistant Director; a position that he held, with breaks in service, until April 1990. In August 1990, Deitering was named Deputy Executive Director. Following the departure of Eugene F. Yates in 1995, Deitering was named Acting Executive Director. Deitering holds a Master of Arts in comparative politics from New York University. He has had a long career in the intelligence field, over twenty years. Deitering worked as a staff member for the PFIAB under at least four presidents and more than eight Chairmen. President George W. Bush retained Deitering as Executive Director after the Clinton Administration. The President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 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 Randy W. Deitering consist of Automated Records Management [Email]. Deitering did not regularly use e-mail for communication and the majority of responsive emails are to Deitering or courtesy copies. Automated Records Management System [Email] (ARMS) e-mail records responsive to this FOIA originate in the following agencies: Office of Policy Development (OPD), Office of the White House (WHO), Council of Economic Adivsors (CEA) and Default e-mails belonging to no specific agency. These e-mails are wholly administrative in nature relating to Deiterings’s service for the PFIAB. Records from the White House Staff and Office Files are adminstrative in nature. There are a few routine memos associated with the appointment of Deitering to the position of Executive Director of the PFIAB. Some of the material consists of standard forms containing personal information and relate to the issuance of a security clearance. Other records consists of timesheets compiled for administrative review. A large percentage of these administrative records contain personal information for which the release would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, and as such, many of the records have been closed completely or in part. Records which may also be responsive to this FOIA request were previously processed pursuant to FOIA requests 2006-0995-F.