Even 40 years later CIA briefings to stay secret

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency may refuse to release documents from 40 years ago to the public to protect long-held secrets, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the CIA did not have to give up the documents under the Freedom of Information Act aimed at opening up government activity to the public.

Larry Berman, a California political science professor, had sought two documents, one from 1965 and another from 1968, known as the President's Daily Brief (PDB), in which the CIA briefed then President Lyndon Johnson.

During those years, the United States was waging war in Vietnam and engaged in a tense stand off with the Soviet Union.

"The extreme sensitivity of the PDB enhances the plausibility of the CIA's assertion that disclosure of the requested PDBs could cause harm even 40 years after their generation," Raymond Fisher wrote for a three-judge panel.

"Potential sources may be frightened off if they believe promises of confidentiality are subject to an implicit time-based sunset clause at the discretion of the judiciary."