EX-C.I.A. DIRECTORS URGE SENATE PANEL TO PROTECT SECRETS AND AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600230081-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2004
• Sequence Number: 81
• Content Type: NSPR

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Ex-C.I.A. Directors Urge Senate Panel to Protect S.
By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK 1 on a proposed law to direct domestic
S:peeia4 to'Phe New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 5-Three former
heads of the Central Intelligence Agency
told a Senate committee today that it
needed to tighten proposed charter legis-
lation covering intelligence activites so
as to protect national security informa-
tion and the lives and operations of se-
cret agents.
William Colby, who served as Director
of Central Intelligence from 1973 to 1976,
said, "Any overall revision of the charter
of American intelligence today would be
irresponsibly deficient if it did not recog-
nize the urgent necessity to improve the
legal structure for the protection of se-
cret sources and techniques which are
vital to Americanintelligence."
He said that recent disclosures of the
identity of some agents and operations
of the C.I.A. had caused the United States
to lose the services of key foreign espio-
nage contacts and had harmed its rela-
tionship with foreign intelligence serv-
ices.
Mr. Colby's position was echoed by
George Bush, who served as the Director
in 1976, and by E. Henry Knoche, a veter-
an intelligence officer who served as the
Acting Director in the transition of the
Ford and the Carter Administrations.
In this second day of hearings by the
.Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
and foreign intelligence activities, it was
clear that the clamor by Congress and
by the public to halt improprieties by
the intelligence community had waned.
Both the members of the committee
and the witnesses concentrated on the
organizational factors of intelligence and
the dangers of national security leaks
and gave little attention to whether the
proposed law corrected alleged abuses.
'Condemnatory Language'
Mr. Bush said that he was concerned
that the bill contained"condemnatory lan-
guage" concerning past intelligence ac-
tivities. "Mistakes were made," he said.
"They have long since been corrected,
but this bill connotes, to me at least,
that the Congress feels the problems may
still exist."
Mr. Bush's testimony followed a pattern
set yesterday by Clark Clifford, the for-
mer Secretary of Defense, who urged the
committee to delete language in the bill
that prohibits political assassination, tor-
ture, germ warfare and the violent over-
throw of a democratic government.
He said that he felt such language wag
"demeaning" to the United States and
that properly authorized , operations
would not use such techniques.
Mr. Colby told the committee today
that he supported the inclusion of these
specific prohibitions because they provid-
ed strong guidance to the C.I.A. man in
the field on what was unacceptable ac-
tivity.
May Last Into 1979
Mr. Bush and Mr. Knoche said that
they were concerned that the proposed
legislation would hamper the agency's
ability to operate. "There is too much
reporting" called for by the bill, Mr. Bush
said. "I believe there are more than 50
references on reports to committees. The
Congress should be informed, fully in-
formed, but I don't believe it ought to
micro-manage the intelligence business."
Mr. Knoche said that the large number
of internal regulations engendered by a
detailed, restrictive bill would "wrap the
officers in red tape" and would inhibit
their imagination in carrying out intelfi
gence-gathering assignments.
This week's hearings open a debate
on regulating the intelligence agencies
that committee members have speculated
may last into 1979. The nation's intell i-
gence agencies, largely unregulated, a;. e
now governed by an executive order i -
sued in January by President Carter ar. l
by sections of the National Security Aet 1
of 1947.
Widespread support has been expressf.d
for a charter that would set out specifa
controls over intelligence-gathering met; r-
ods, and the Carter Administration h=s
backed the theory of the proposal.
No witness in the first two days h=.s
)pposed the idea of a charter in principal.
the criticism has centered on individual
)rovisions of the bill.
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81M00980R0006002300a1-2