COMMENTS ON SENATOR PROXMIRE'S LETTER OF 12 JUNE 1973 TO THE ACTING CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00380R000200040020-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2001
• Sequence Number: 20
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2001/08/28 : CIA-RDP75B0038OR000200040020-8
Comments on Senator Proxmire's Letter of
12 June 1973 to the Acting Chairman of the
Senate Armed Services Committee
In his letter, as in his statements regarding his bill (S. 1935),
Senator Proxmire infers that there is something illegal, unethical, or
"dirty" insofar as any domestic activities of the Central Intelligence
Agency are concerned. We would point out here as we pointed out in our
comments on the Senator's bill that existing law does not preclude the
CIA from engaging in "domestic activities" as such. Furthermore, if
the Director of Central Intelligence were so restricted in the conduct of
his office he would be unable to carry out the foreign intelligence
responsibilities imposed upon him by the Congress under the provisions
of the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, and the Central Intelli-
gence Agency Act of 1949, as amended.
Senator Proxmire's letter states that the Agency is not given any
direct authority to engage in covert operations overseas. We would not
argue with this, but we would point out that this was not an omission on
the part of the drafters of the Agency's legislation. The authority is
indirect or general. (For instance, the authority in Section 102(d)(5) of the
National Security Act stating that it shall be the duty of the Agency under
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the direction of the National Security Council "to perform such other
functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security
as the National Security Council may from time to time direct. " It was
felt unadvisable to provide a specific statutory authority for the conduct
of espionage and related activities.
We note that the Senator's letter says the Agency is specifically
prohibited from engaging in any domestic police law enforcement or internal
security functions. The word domestic does not appear in the law. (This
is another instance of inference that anything that the Agency does on the
domestic scene is prohibited. )
The Senator also says it is apparent that CIA's charter is not totally
contained in the National Security Act and that the Agency's responsibilities
have been broadened and detailed in a series of National Security Council
Intelligence Directives (NSCID). We would agree that the Agency's
responsibilities have been made more specific or "detailed" by the
NSCIDs, but we would argue that they have not been broadened by them.
In our opinion, this situation is not unique to CIA. Executive Orders and
other Executive instructions are frequently written to detail the functions
of various Executive departments and agencies. It is true that Executive
Orders are unclassified in nature, but we would submit that there are many
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instances of Executive instructions to departments and agencies which are
not published documents. The Senator says he would not ask that specific
operations or that sensitive matters be disclosed, adding that that would
be imprudent but that is precisely what is covered in the NSCIDs.
Senator Proxmire further says he is writing to inquire if the
oversight committee could obtain copies of the Directives and review
them for public release. Since the NSCIDs are National Security Council
issuances and not CIA documents, his request for access to the documents
would have to be directed to the NSC.
Finally, we would point out that while the Chairmen of the CIA Sub-
committees have not placed the Director of Central Intelligence in the
awkward position of having to respond to a request for NSCIDs, the Agency
has never failed to respond to any request from its Subcommittee Chairmen
regarding the authorities under which it operates and in fact the thrust of
NSCIDs is frequently contained in briefings given the Agency's Subcommittees
on the Director's exercise of his responsibilities with respect to the
intelligence community.
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