Bowler-ga is on the right track but it looks like getting a copy of
this memorandum will be tough. According to this 1994 bulletin, the
Pentagon denied an FOIA request for it on May 3, 1994. This statement
is contradicted by a later remark in this bulletin saying, "A copy of
the memo is available from S&GB." It looks like it's going to take
some digging.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/bulletin/sec38.html
SECRECY & GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
Issue Number 38, August 1994
Overcoming Non-lethal Weapons Secrecy
As the Defense Department program to develop so-called "non-lethal
weapons" gathers momentum, Pentagon officials are tightening controls
on public information about the program accordingly.
Late last year, Greenpeace submitted a FOIA request for a copy of one
of the early policy documents in this field, a 1991 memorandum from
Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) Paul Wolfowitz entitled "Do We
Need a Nonlethal Defense Initiative?"
The Pentagon denied the request in its entirety on May 3, claiming
that the memo was "deliberative in nature" and therefore exempt from
the FOIA.
But unauthorized disclosures of government information are growing
almost as fast as the secrecy system itself, and Greenpeace was able
to obtain a copy of the document through unofficial channels.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memo are the comments
handwritten in the margin apparently by then-DepSecDef Donald Atwood
who noted that "non-lethality may be a misnomer." And where Wolfowitz
had indicated that "Nonlethal weapons disable or destroy without
causing significant injury or damage," Atwood wrote: "This claims too
much."
A copy of the memo is available from S&GB. |
