8 December 1999

Yesterday the Department of Defense announced in a regular press briefing that Secretary of Defense Cohen would be speaking in the evening at the Council on Foreign Affairs (CFR) in New York City.

We telephoned CFR (212-734-0400) and was told by the Office of Communications that the event was closed to non-members and the media. We asked for reports or transcripts that may be released about Secretary Cohen's remarks.

This morning we called CFR to see if a transcript of Mr. Cohen's remarks would be made public. Jessica Vandersalm in the Office of Communications (212-434-9537) answered: "No, it was a closed session, no transcript of Secretary Cohen's remarks would be released, especially the Q&A with members."

We asked if there was a formal arrangment with DoD or other governmental agencies to withhold information on what the officials said at CFR events. Ms. Vandersalm said no, it was a policy of CFR, as a private organization, to decide case by case whether to publicize information provided at such events, and that the government did not have a say in it.

We asked about a reversal of that decision with respect to Mr. Cohen's talk yesterday so that information provided by a government official could be made public. We cited a previous talk by the secretary last year in which CFR provided us a speech transcript. We asked if it would help to make an inquiry at a senior level at CFR? Ms. Vandersalm snapped, "it is not open to debate."

We then called the DoD Office of Public Affairs (703-697-9312) to learn about its policy on closed appearances by Mr. Cohen and were referred to Mr. Brian Whitman (703-695-3886).

Mr. Whitman said that there was no formal policy on closed appearances of Mr. Cohen. "Secretary Cohen makes many open and closed appearances at organizations and it is up to the organizations to decide about releasing information presented at the events," he said.

We asked if that was the official policy of DoD.

Mr. Whitman aggressed, "no, don't put words in my mouth, those are my words."

We asked if he was saying that his words are DoD official policy.

Mr. Whitman: "Those are my words."

We asked Mr. Whitman if he could direct us to someone who knew official DoD policy.

He: "Those are my words, that answers your question."

We said no, we asked about official policy of DoD on withholding information provided by a Department of Defense official in a closed, non-governmental, setting.

Mr. Whitman: "Look, even the President meets with Congressional members in private."

We said that is government-to-government activity, not a government-to-private session like that at CFR. Mr. Whitman said, "such closed sessions go on all the time, Secretary Cohen appears at a wide variety of open and closed events and it is up to sponsors of closed events to release information."

We asked if we can quote him as saying that is DoD official policy.

Mr. Whitman: "No you cannot, those are my words; this conversation is over."

We asked Mr. Whitman his title.

He: "Call me a spokesman for the Defense Department."

We said thank you.

Mr. Whitman: "Thank you."

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CFR Website: http://www.cfr.org

Department of Defense News site: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs): kbacon@pagate.pa.osd.mil

Speech given by Secretary Cohen at CFR in September 1998: http://jya.com/wsc091498.htm

Attendees at that session: http://jya.com/dod091498.htm

Our request to interview Secretary Cohen about encryption policy and the impact of Echelon on building trust with allies: http://jya.com/cohen-rfc.htm. Which never produced results, even as late as November 26, 1999, but still trying, hence this birddogging update.