SUPERVISING THE C.I.A.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100840003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 2, 1998
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 3, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

SEP 2 196
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-60
CPYRGHT
Sanitized -
:.Supervising the C.I.A.
The case of the Singapore bribe attempt raises seri-
ous questions about the Central Intelligence Agency-t'
and its role in American foreign policy.
Initially, the State Department flatly denied Prime
Minister Lee Kuan Yew's disclosure that in 1960 a
C.I.A. agent had offered him a bribe to cover up an
unsuccessful C.I.A. effort to penetrate Singapore's .:s
intelligence service. Only after Mr. Lee released a A
1961 letter of apology from Secretary Rusk-and.'
`threatened to put incriminating tape recordings on .E
Radio Singapore--did the State Department's embar- ? -
sassed spokesman confirm the incident.
f' The spokesman explained that the State 'Depart-_
ment officials responsible for the initial denial were ';
.not fully aware of "the background" of the incident..,-'
And the C.I.A:, as The Times diplomatic correspondent
Max- Frankel reported yesterday, "apparently relayed
the denial of wrong-doing that it customarily. issues
to the rest of the Government when confronted by
.'.?
such charges: '
All-this is dismally reminiscent of the false State 1
Department denials in the-1960 U-2 case that broke, ?'
up the Paris summit conference with Russia. After*-`
the Bay of Pigs. disaster, President Kennedy ordered
new procedures established to assure that the State:,;?
',Department would be' adequately informed of C.I.A.
l activities so that it could exercise policy supervision
The Killian watchdog committee, originally appointed.,,-
ar ` k
by President Eisenhower, was revived, given a far'.
? more vigorous role and, in 1963, placed under the'-
chairmanship of former White House adviser Clark ?
Clifford.
Evidently some or all these safeguards have now`.:
broken down. What is most disturbing is' not the cer- ;t
tain damage done in Singapore, but the possibility of .'J
more. serious delinquencies. The country can no"longer
be sure that either the State Department or the White
{House is exercising the requisite supervision over?an 4
agency about which the public knows almost nothing
at. all. - {.
The Clifford committee evidentl
? y is already looking
into the case. A Congressional. Investigation is also -
in order. Congressional supervision of the nation's
intelligence activities Is obviously inadequate. A joint
committee, similar to that which watches over .atomic; ?~
energy, has been urged by many members of Con .~
gress;' it Is badly needed. ~?S
Seriqus damage has been done to American rela }.
Lions with many governments by C.I.A. activities in -
I the past, particularly in Asia. In Jakarta last Spring,
!-President Sukarno and many members of his cabinet
were reading'a new American book, "The' Invisible
Government," and using its confirmation of C.S.A.
'intervention in the 1958 Sumatra uprising to justify 1i
,;their hostility to the West and increasing friendship ..F
,'with Communist China; Similar hostility exists in
Burma and Cambodia.-. It. is vital 'that. Washington
establish the. kind" of firm supervision :of the, C.I.A.::",
that 'can prevent such blunders in the.future. ?
Approved For Release : CIA=RDP75-0014
FOIAb3b
R000:1:d084Q003-9