INTELLIGENCE BILL CALLED 'OVERREACTION' TO ABUSES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600080043-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2004
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: June 16, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For ReleXftftRFa~Vf 0980R00060
intelligence Bill . Called
'Overreaction' to Abuses
By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Former. U.S. intelligence officers
protested yesterday that a Senate
plan for restructuring the nation's in-
telligence community would come
close to stopping all covert operations.
Continuing a series of intelligence-
establishment complaints about the
omnibus bill, the Association of For-
mer Intelligence Officers assailed it
at a Senate hearing as far too restric-
tive, "an overreaction to a few abuses
of the past," In the face of a growing
Soviet threat.
Association President Richard G.
Stilwell, a retired Army general who
once served as the Central. Intelli
ggence Agency's chief of covert actions
for the Far East, said his organization
also feels that the bill is mislabeled
in being called "the National Intelli-
gence Reorganization and Reform Act
"The record shows that not only
have the intelligence agencies consist-
ently chosen to ignore the law in the
past and do the things which they
knew to be illegal; it also. shows that
they gave a broad, interpretation to all
of the authority which they did have,"
Halperin said.
But where the-Church committee
recommended that covert operations
be limited to extraordinary situations,
Halperin told the committee, the pro-
posed Senate measure, S. 2525, would
seek to control them largely by re-
quiring reports on such undertakings
to just one committee in each house
of the Congress, rather than the cur-
rent number of four in each house.
Under current law, covert opera
tions can be undertaken only on a
presidential finding- that- they are
"important to the national security."
of 1978." The Senate bill would require that
"The word `reform' has an unfortu- ; they be "essential to- the conduct of
nate connotation which is an affront to the thousands of dedicated em-
ployes of the intelligence community
who were never aware of, [and never]
participated in, the very few trans- ? -
gressions which led to the many sen-
sational charges of the past few -
years," Stilwell told the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee.
A dissenting voice came from Mor-
ton Halperin, director for the nonpro-
fit Center for National Security Stud-
ies, who protested that the bill al-
ready represented an unwise retreat
in many respects from changes advo-
cated in 1976 by the first Senate Intel-
ligence Committee under Frank
Church (D-Idaho). -
the foreign policy or the national de-
fense."
But while Halperin contended that
such a finding would be, more,.and
more lightly made, Stillwell charged
that the bill, as written, "is virtually a
decision to stop all clandestine opera-
tions, not only positive collection and,
counter-intelligence - but-- also covert
action."
In addition to other presidential ap-
provals required by the bill; all covert
operations "must be reviewed and
personally approved by the presi-
dent," Stilwell said. "We submit that
this mountain of red tape - .. is an
intolerable burden on the highest lev-
els of government."
The head of the retired spy group,
which claims more than 2,500 mem-
bers, was even more critical of
proposed controls on surveillance of
foreign intelligence operations in this
country. The Senate has already ap-
proved legislation to require the is-
suance of judicial . warrants for such
surveillance.
Stilwell denounced. the idea, inso-
far as it applies to "agents- of foreign
powers," as "incredible - - unneces-
sary" and even "unconstitutional" He
said it ought to be called "An Act to
Convey Fourth Amendment Rights on
the Soviet Embassy and all KGB Offi-
cers in the United States and All
Other Foreigners."
Committee Chairman Birch Bayh
(D-Ind.) said he was surprised to hear
such outspoken objections to bringing
the federal judiciary into the picture.
"Are you afraid we're not going to be
able to find a federal judge we can
trust?" Bayh wondered.
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600080043-1