CONGRESS CLAMOR RAISED ANEW OVER SECRET CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100150007-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 26, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

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LOS ANGELES. lIMES
CPYRGHT
7m-1-lent
0
.Unsettled
in Deoacie
BY DAVID KRASLOW
WASHINGTON
it -almost chins the.
marrow of a man to hear
about" the clandestine ac-..
tivities of central Intelli-
gence Agency operatives,
Sen. Richard Russell,
(D-Ga.) told the Senate iw
1956.
Chilled marrow or not,,
many people feel Congress:
ought to hear a lot more
about what the CIA and the
rest of the government's
vast intelligence apparatus
are doing.
? They feel? Congress has
done a dangerously in-
adequate job of auditing,
the agency that operates in
"dark back alleys," as Se-
cretary of State Dean Rusk
once put it, all over the
world.
It is an old argument that
seems no closer to resolu-
tion today than it did a
decade or more a'r0. But it
CPYRGHT
jlas hen rmrivpri lig; 333.
1-N1
LJUJL
te--1
ings before the House rules
sommittee on bill span-
aored by 20 congressmen to.
sstablish a joint Senate-.
House watchdog committee
)ver the CIA.
CIA subcommittees have
'unctioned in the House
and Senate for years. But -
proponents of the joint ?
:..ommittee idea say the
?resent system is .lax, cur-
;ory, and far too informal
lor overseeing such a vital'
?art of the United State.4
government.
Need For Secrecy
They do not question tbs.
iced for secrecy, but they
nsist that a joint commi l-
ee, staffed by full-time
7rofessionals and adhering
o -'srmal procedures, Uri
io a much more effecti\
job of stipervision.
They' pointto the.work of
:he j of n t committee isn
atomic energy, which rides
lerd on'the Atomic Energy
?
-ommission and has not vet
sompromised any of its se-
crets.
But an agency that has
jurisdiction over the back.
alleys?in the never-never
land of spies, U-2 flights,
and mysterious coup d'e-
sats ? is; of course, a dif-
ferent :animal than the
AEC. -
There is a basic problem ?
in dealing: with the highly
sensitive n d vexatious
issue of congressional su-
pervision of the CIA. ?
'Pile CIA is so secret, and
the work done by the pre-
sent CIA- subcommittees is
so secret, that it is ex-
tremely difficult for outsid-
ers to -make an informed
judgment on how effective
an auditing job. Congress is
now doing.
Alleged Blunders
These outsiders include
the great majority in Con-
gress. And that's the rub.
Many of these outsiders
in Congress read Of alleged
CIA blunders: in Laos and
Vietnam and at the Bay of
Pigs and :wonder if Con-
gress shouldn't be doing
something more about the
CIA. They clOri't really
know all that ?-the CIA did
or is doing, and they won-
der if they Would know.
Some members of Con-
gress are certain they
should in order to fulfill
their constitutional re-
sponsibility of overseeing
the executive branch.
Last August, Rep. John
V. Lindsay (1-1-N.Y.) told
the House during a discus-
sion of the CIA and other
intelligence agencies:
" . . We are often
victim .of secrecy for sc-
cre,cy's sake. Things are
do'he to us and in our name
which we know nothing
of."
Sen. r.,ugene mcssartsy:
(D-Minn.), who has been
sponsoring joint committee ,
bills for some 10 years, told
the Senate last year:
". . . as espionage and
counterespionage ? have
become more pervasive and '
their techniques more
subtle, the need for secrecy
has, if anything increased.
"Nevertheless, I do not
think it right, that the
CongresS, which has the
?constitutional ? responsibi-
lity to . provide for .the
common defenSe and to
- oversee the operation of the
exectitive agencies which
operate in this area, should
be kept so largely ignorant
of what is going on in. the
'back alleys.'"
Ano this year? McCarthy
wrote that the ' CIA -"has
'taken on the 'Charatter -of
an -invisible: governMent
,answerine.? only. ? to ,
The. CIA must .be made
saccountable for its aetiVi-
ties, not only to the Pres-
ident but also to Congress
.t hrou g 11 a responsible
-committee." ? ?
Saltonsfall's View ?
McCarthys and the
IsincIssys-obviously do not
sl:the view expressed
b Iseverett Saltonstall
(I... s.) in 1960, after the
ss ss shot doWnOver the
Sovi,s ? ? ?
Cont2nu e
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'We.might obtain in-
formation which I person.?
'ally \Vould rather not
? have," Saltoristall said in
? Warning the Senate not to
investigate ?the 'CIA :tab in-
tensely. '
it 2is probably an over-
simplification to sugge.ia.
that -the explanatioo for
the opposing viewpoints
lies in the fac; that the
RussellS and Sa tonslails
are "in" while the Mc-
'Carthys and Lindsays are
"out."
The CIA, a large
bureaucracy which spends
great sums And has eXtra-
:Ordinary' authority, an-
Swats to very few'mernhei's
?
of Congress. Its budget .and'
'number
'number of employees are
secret. ! ?
Russel/ and Soltons.tall
are in that select, group
because. of ?their member-
ship on the CIA subcom-
mittee of the Senate armed.
,services committee.. RusSell
is chairman and.Saltonstall
tin e . ranking Republican
They ?and an apparent
majority on Capitol Hill
Teel the present system
of Atdiriiir..?,' the CIA is satis-
,..faettory. . ?
, Once, in 1935, the joint
-committee issue was put to
a test in the. Senate. rrhe,.
Rw5sofis a n d. Saltonstalls
won, 59 to 27. ?
Voting with -Missed' was
the then Democratic ma-
'National Pastime'
When Mr. ? K en ii e d y
switched not only from the
"outs" to the "ins" but also
took charge of the CT as
President his views
eh tined .
Octoh:o., lir. 1,:crt-
Thedy discussed ata pross
con tercnce the p r es en t
congressional watchdog
system. lie also noted that
the President receives the
counsel of a civilian advi-
sory corn mitt';-' comprised.
of persons with expertise
in the intelligence field.
This group, the PrEls-
Merit's foreign initilligenco
advisory board, is an ant-
growth?of a Hoover ct ts-t-
misSion recommendation in
1955. . ?
"I am niell1-,isfied with
the present arrangement,"
Mr. Kennedy said'.
Rep. Leslie A rends of Il-
linois, the ranking Repub-
lican on a House CIA sub-
committee; and Sen., Tim-
rnas (P-Coon.), who
has hadsome dealings with
the CIA. in the -Senate
in-
ternal security ..subcom-
mittee, boil.: took the floor
this ye.ar.to'ciertounKto what
Dodd called the "popular
national pastime' of !'LTiii-
ifig the CIA." .
:The two staunch sup-
porters of the CIA said he
agency operates effietiently
and always- in accordance
with persidential policy
and under presidential cOn.-:
jority leader, Lyndon trol.
Johnson. The junior sena-
tor f ro m Massachusetts,
John F. Kennedy, voted for
a joint coenmittee.
SUrn(t. ITrge4
,tts to the charge that the
-CI A operates without
'acteqnate congressional
supervision, Dodd insisted
that the CIA "iE; probeltly
one of the most supervised
agencies in the govern-
. meat." One wonders -how
he can be co cet lain.
?
Dodd pointed Out ta:'t
even if a joint commit; t?e is
created, those congies
who, complain they (:o not
linow.what the CIA Li doing
? ?t:sti1I find thy?
precious little about it.
He said the same ituitA' of
secrecy that now a A.Ay to
the CIA sub - cormnittees
would apply to the joint
committee..
. Wheal er the bitt corn-
rniHc:e could do a roore af-
fective lob than tint: sub-
committees..DOdd said, is a
,"pure)Y f2C banical
,tion ; . of 'third-rate' im-
.port,a.nce."
There is no question that
, the Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba in 19B1 waSt incredibly
mishandled. 'As-sinning, for
the sake of 'argument that
CIA personnel Were largely
responsible for :the- debacle,
Would a full bridilig to. a
, joint :cOminittce adVante
of the invasion have made
any difference- in: the out-
come?
CIA'371n.swer
Would a changeform
--from the subcommittees
ti-ct a standing joint corn-
1))4, ttee?signiificantly affect
ti-' substance?
... ?
The CIA's answer ap- ?
pare,ntly is nil. it has pri- ;
v at ely told the Senat't
foreign relations c,ommittee
it believe:; the present sys-
tem is satisfactory.
But. it also says that the
manner in which Congress
organizes itself to assure
adequate information on
CIA activities is a matter
for Congress to decide.
The House rules com-
mittee, as it has done in the.
past, is :ott'tti, to pigeonhole
the joint committee pro-
. posal.
, But white a bill can be
pigeonholed, an issue can-
. not. And the kinds of ques-
tions raised by the Mc-
earth vs and Lind s a ys
cannot?and. s'hould not--
he brushed aside lightly.
Not. in a Democratic socie-
ty,
APR 26 1964
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APR 2 c) 1964
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