Foreign Affairs: Scope of Our Review of Palestine Liberation Organization Finances

GAO discussed its classified report on the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) finances, focusing on: (1) major cooperation issues; and (2) its efforts to have the report declassified in response to congressional requests. GAO noted that: (1) it generally received good cooperation from federal agencies in conducting its review; (2) the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that it would not share information with GAO, either because the requested information was not available or could not be discussed due to its sensitive nature; (3) although it encountered limited access to records and some cooperation problems with the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the problems did not materially affect its final report conclusions; (4) members of Congress requested that the report be declassified to facilitate public discussion of PLO finances; (5) it does not have the authority to declassify the report without the originating agency's consent; and (6) CIA stated that with certain minor exceptions, no CIA material used in the report could be declassified, while State has not yet commented on the matter.