LETTER TO BARRY GOLDWATER FROM WILLIAM J. CASEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00158R000300030005-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2009
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: August 9, 1983
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2009/07/16: CIA-RDP85MOOl58R000300030005-3
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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington. D. C. 20505
9 August 1983,
The Honorable Barry Goldwater
Chairman, Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Barry,
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I have your letter of August 3, 1983, and am sorry that you don't
share with me the merits of having the principle line organization in the
United States Government responsible for the hostile intelligence threat
here in the States act as Chairman of the new Counterintelligence Com-
mittee.
For years now the Intelligence Community has worked very hard in
bringing the FBI into the fold, and I must say that I am gratified in the
progress that the Bureau has made in assuming its rightful role within
the Intelligence Community. Who better to discuss the hostile threat,
and what is more important than that threat here in the United States?
We are also anxious to bring analysis associated with that threat to bear
on the problem here in the States. Having the FBI chair the interagency
committee, which will funnel the experiences, assessments and analysis
throughout the Community to that forum, will ensure that the Bureau has
the best counterintelligence information which the Communkity can offer.
I don't share the view that would suggest that a staff organization
that is off-line and not involved in the process itself carry that
burden. I will look to the Commission, which we have established, to
provide me with the overall guidance and assessment of how the Committee
and, for that matter, the Intelligence Community, is doing on the counter-
intelligence issue.
The key purpose in forming the Committee is to ensure a free flowing
exchange within the line organizations of the Intelligence Community on
counterintelligence assessments, analysis, techniques and experiences.
Having line organizations involved on a Committee reporting directly to
me-will- bring proper attention to that purpose.
I am confident the new Committee, under the chairmanship of the FBI,
will make the United States a safer place from a counterintelligence
standpoint.
Distribution:
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