What Is a GLOMAR Response?
Sometimes, U.S. Federal Government employees respond to a question such that they “neither confirm nor deny” anything about the inquiry. What is the history of this response?
A GLOMAR response is a non-committal reply used primarily by U.S. government agencies, especially in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, where they neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested information or records. It originates from a 1976 case involving the CIA and a journalist’s FOIA request about the Glomar Explorer, a ship involved in a classified operation called Project AZORIAN.
In 1968, a K-129 Soviet Golf II-class submarine carrying three SS-N-4 nuclear-armed ballistic missiles left the naval base at Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula patrol station the Pacific Ocean northeast of Hawaii. Soon after, the submarine and entire crew were lost, sunk 1800 miles northwest of Hawaii at a depth of 16,500 feet. The Hughes Glomar Explorer was secretly deployed to recover the submarine. The CIA’s cover story was that it was commercial deep-sea mining vessel ostensibly built and owned by billionaire Howard Hughes, who was conducting marine research at extreme ocean depths and mining manganese nodules lying on the sea bottom.
In June 1974, just before the Glomar set sail, thieves had broken into one of the Hughes offices in Los Angeles and stolen secret documents, one tying Howard Hughes to CIA and the Glomar Explorer. This turned into a scandal around August 1974, and the Los Angeles Police Department began an investigation. On 7 February 1975 the Los Angeles Times published an account that made connections between the robbery, Hughes, CIA, and the recovery operation, despite the CIA’s request that journalists leave the story alone on national security grounds.
Not wanting to lie to the American people, but also not wanting to jeopardize what remained of secrecy, the policy of the Ford Administration was to neither confirm nor deny any stories that came up about the Glomar mission.
Hence the name: GLOMAR RESPONSE–“We can neither confirm nor deny.”
