NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 5505
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 5505
24 October 1955
SUBJECT: Constitution of a Special Authority for the Conduct of Matters Arising under the Program Heretofore Known as BRAVO-CHARLIE
There is hereby constituted, by direction of the President and upon the recommendation of the National Security Council, a special authority for the conduct of matters arising under the program heretofore known as BRAVO-CHARLIE and such further matters as may in due course be assigned to it. The authority shall be known by such designation as it shall itself adopt and shall report to the President through the Special Group of the National Security Council.
The direction of the authority is vested in W. Seaton, who shall hold the appointment during the pleasure of the President. The said officer shall have such deputies, staff, and consultants as he shall determine, and shall be responsible to the President, through the channel above specified, for the proper conduct of the matters committed to the authority.
The authority shall have access, upon presentation of the control markings hereinafter referred to, to such funds as it may require for the conduct of its work. Requisitions in respect of the same shall be honored by the Department of the Treasury without reference to the procedures ordinarily applicable to the appropriation of funds, and shall not be the subject of report to the Congress save upon direction of the President. The accounting of the authority shall be rendered to the President alone, through the channel above specified, at such intervals as he shall determine.
The authority shall have access, upon the like presentation, to such personnel of the executive departments and agencies as it may require. The departments and agencies are directed to give effect to requisitions of personnel without reference to the ordinary procedures of detail and assignment, and to refrain from inquiry into the nature of the duties to which the personnel are to be assigned.
The authority shall have access, upon the like presentation, to such materiel, facilities, and installations as it may require, of whatever department or agency, and shall have authority to acquire, construct, or commission such further materiel, facilities, and installations as it may require, without reference to the ordinary procedures of acquisition.
The Office of Scientific Intelligence and the Western Europe Division of the Central Intelligence Agency are relieved, with immediate effect, of cognizance of the program heretofore known as BRAVO-CHARLIE. The files, materiel, personnel, and installations heretofore attached to the said program are transferred to the authority hereby constituted, and shall be made available to it upon its application. The Director of Central Intelligence shall give such directions to the said Office and Division as are necessary to give effect to the present transfer.
Knowledge of the existence of the authority hereby constituted, of the nature of its work, and of the matters committed to it, shall be confined to such persons as the direction of the authority shall specifically read in. The Director of Central Intelligence and the Chief of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency shall be informed of the existence of the authority but shall not be informed of the substance of its work save as the direction of the authority shall determine. No officer of the Government below the level of the Director of Central Intelligence shall be informed of the existence of the authority save upon the direction of the authority itself.
Control markings to be applied to communications and materiel of the authority shall be such as the direction of the authority shall specify, and shall be promulgated under separate cover to such persons as require to know them.
The present Directive enters into effect upon signature.
For the President
Copy: The Director of Central Intelligence; the Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission; W. Seaton.