IN CIA'S DEFENSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R001200760001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 22, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-
PROVIDEdNCE, R.I.
13ULLETIN
k,Alp.221911
E - 149,463
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In CIA's
Richard Helms, director of the Central Intelli-
gence Agency, was persuasive i:t his defense of the
CIA the other day against the generalized charges
'that it is an "invisible government." Obviously, he
operates under a great handicap, in that the demands
of secrecy preclude him from explaining the
t agency's work fully and candidly.
Most Americans, we suspect, want to believe
-him when he says that the CIA makes no foreign
policy or that the CIA does not "target on Ameri-
can citizens." But any agency spending so much
money as the CIA, dealing in espionage as well as
more routine intelligence gathering, and shrouding
its work in great secrecy, is bound to raise sus-
picions. Mr. Helms told the American Society of
Newspaper Editors that the nation "to a degree must
take it on faith that we, too, are honorable men de-
1 voted to her service." There is little ' question that
s`he and his colleagues feel under attack when the
ittendencies or the potentialities of the agency are-
't; criticized.
Still, a secret intelligence agency, controlling
1; a huge bureaucracy, could be subverted to tyrannical
purposes by a government that was .so minded.
That is the fear inspired among lovers of in-
dividual freedom when the exigencies of interna-
tional conflicts impinge on their lives. The CIA is
monitored, in a general way, by the Foreign Intelli-
gence Advisory Board and by members of some sub-
committees on defense and appropriations in the
Congress. Even though the public has no way of
knowing how much is revealed to those senators and
congressmen, there has been no serious proposal that
- - -
tivities
Proposals have been made from time to time that
the agency's activities be supervised by a joint con-
gressional committee similar to the one that covers
the Atomic Energy Commission. S a corr:.zit:ee
would be useful directly and p;:rha,ra eveii uno_c is
giving citizens generally the ass lance th t the CIA
is not operating on its orwn, with little direction or
control.
- Basically, the best protection of American citi-
zens against any agency that would usurp the func-
tions of normal governmental bodies is a sharp de-
fense of constitutional freedoms by the courts. Gov-
ernnnent cannot function entirely in the open :'..lien
it comes to national dc_`ense in an r.ge of nuclear
giants. Tyranny cannot flourish so Ion.: as n:.n are
protected against bureaucratic ste mroilcrs and e::-
ecutive fiat by a court system that is sen 3i tive to
the erosion of freedom. Meanwhile, it is encoura; irg
to hear the CIA director disown any attempts at
making high policy or at diverting the foreign focus
of the agency's attention.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001200760001-8
 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001200760001-8
Available
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R001200760001-8