NEW WATCHMAN OVER CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780008-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 4, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/17: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780008-5
IVIAT
EL PASO, TEXAS
TIMES
0 M. 60,111
S. 81441
, 0-MAY 4 1961
, ew Watchman Over CI
\
DR. JAMES R. KILLIAN, TOP. map at Massachusetts
institute?of 'Technology, has been called back to Gov-
ernment service?this time to head, for the second
time, the citizen cpmmittee whiCh. watches over the
Federal chiefly Chiefly the CIA.
The CIA is under firg;"ig.ti, tesulfiTthe'anti-Castro
fiasco in Cuba, and President Kennedy is making
some changes as a result. The President also has sum-
moned Gen. Maxwell Taylor to do an independent
investigation of the CIA's role in the Cuban flop.
The committee Dr. Killian will head was set up in
1956 on the recommendation of the Hoover COmmis-
sion. Some of the ablest men in the country are mem-
bers. It serves a useful purpose. But it is a part-time
job. The committee reports only once every six months,
and is supposed to keep an eye also on some 30 other
intelligence agencies in the Government.
This committee was only half of the Hoover Com-
mission's recommendation. A task force headed by
Gen. Mark W. Clark also urged a joint committee of
Congress to keep tabs'on the CIA and the other cloak-
and-dagger outfits. Congress never set up the com-
mittee.
? Now that the CIA is being badly faulted, a new
move to create a joint committee is under way. This
time it ought to succeed. Congress, in the last analysis,
is responsible for how well the CIA functions, and it
should have a competent group of its own members
who would know what's going on.
When the Hoover Commission made its study, it
said the CIA was badly in need of an internal reor-
ganization, that it wasn't getting "adequate" informa-
tion and that nobody knew whether it was functioning
or not. Nobody yet knows whether the reorganization
was undertaken, or with what results if it was.
We dent want. to know. what the, CIA is doing. But
somebody ought to know?somebody wilo. isn't_ easily
enchanted by the sheer itystery of the operation. The
appropriate "somebody" would be a small, select bi-
partisan committee of the House and Senate, knowl-
edgeable enough and diligent enough to see that we
have the best intelligence system in the business.
The above editorial also appeared
in the following other newspapers:
INDIANAPOLIS TIMES, IND. ? MAY 4, 1961
EVANSVILLE PRESS, IND. ? MAY 4, 1961
DURHAM SUN, N.C. ? MAY11, 1961
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/17: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780008-5