CAN CONGRESS KEEP A SECRET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00338R000400560002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2008
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 24, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

- -~~ Approved For Release 2008/09/15: CIA-RDP86B00338R000400560002-7
 Approved For Release 2008/09/15: CIA-RDP86B00338R000400560002-7
a 4P
INTELLIGENCE PROBLEMS / HENRY J. HYDE
CAN CONGRESS KEEP A SECRET?
THE FUROR IN Congress over the
mining of Nicaraguan harbors high-
lights a question of overwhelming
importance: Is Congress capable of
practicing responsible oversight of in-
telligence activities, once those activi-
ties are viewed as an integral part of
a foreign policy that has become the
subject of partisan political debate?
The current situation derives, ulti-
mately, from the aftermath of Vietnam
and Watergate. Panels headed by then-
Congressman Otis Pike and the late
Senator Frank Church carried out ex-
tensive investigations of U.S. intelli-
gence activities in the mid-Seventies;
in the wake of these investigations,
both Houses of Congress decided to
establish select committees on intelli-
gence. For a while, both of these
committees appeared to conduct their
business in an amicable and bipartisan
manner with little evidence of politici-
zation. Unfortunately, that state of af-
fairs was too good to last, and for
the past two years or so, the House
Permanent Select Committee on In-
telligence, in particular, has become
radically politicized. So much so, in
fact, that one of the intelligence com-
munity's most illustrious and respected
alumni, retired Admiral Bobby Inman,
resigned in 1982 as a consultant to
the committee because he felt it had
becoihe politically partisan. Inman, a
former director of the National Se-
curity Agency and deputy director of
Central Intelligence, explained that the
oversight committees must be nonpolit-
ical to earn public credibility. "If the
country doesn't establish a bipartisan
approach to intelligence, we are not
going to face the problems of the next
fifty years," he added.
The calculated, politically motivated
leaking of highly sensitive information
has become a Washington art form.
Mr. Hyde, Republican representative from
Illinois, is a member of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee.
This art was practiced to great effect
during Congress's consideration of the
mining of Nicaraguan harbors. A num-
ber of senators who knew about the
mining when they voted additional as-
sistance for the Contras turned around
after the leaks and voted for a resolu-
tion prohibiting the mining. This flip-
flop called into question the integ-
rity of the whole oversight process,
and jeopardized the President's Central
American aid program. Senator Patrick
Leahy and I have strong differences of
opinion regarding the United States'
involvement in Nicaragua, but the sen-
ator was right on the mark when he
said, "There were senators who voted
one way the week before and a differ-
ent way the following week who knew
about the mining in both instances
and I think were influenced by pub-
lic opinion, and I think that's wrong
and that is a lousy job of legislative
action."
As the publicity spread, the integrity
of the oversight process deteriorated
yet further. A cardinal rule in intelli-
gence is not to comment on news ac-
"Frankly I'll be glad when that one's
extinct. "
counts regarding sensitive operations.
Yet, we saw Representative Edward P.
Boland (D., Mass.), chairman of the
House Permanent Select Intelligence
Committee, do just that before the
House Rules Committee, and subse-
quently on the House floor. Ironically,
according to one press account, Bo-
land's disclosures were partly motivated
by a desire to counter charges that the
CIA had not fully briefed the commit-
tee on mining activities. That's a com-
mendable reason, but at what cost to
our intelligence capabilities?
Then, in a move that must have left
foreign intelligence services gaping, the
CIA issued a press release acknowledg-
ing its involvement in the mining by
citing 11 occasions when it briefed
congressional intelligence committees on
the matter.
What an unseemly spectacle then
unfolded! Senator Goldwater, the chair-
man of the Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee, excoriated the CIA for not
being forthcoming. Shortly thereafter,
Senator Moynihan, the committee vice
chairman, announced his resignation
from the committee, claiming that he
had not been properly briefed on the
mining matter either. That charge was
particularly perplexing inasmuch as
Senator Moynihan had reportedly re-
qupted a legal opinion from the State
Department on the mining question a
week before the Senate vote on as-
sistance to the Nicaraguan resistance
forces. Nevertheless, CIA Director Wil-
liam Casey (in a triumph of discretion
over valor) apologized to the Senate
Intelligence Committee for his per-
ceived sins, and Senator Moynihan de-
cided to remain on the committee. The
upshot of this bizarre scenario has been
a serious deterioration in relations be-
tween the CIA and Congress.
All of this, of course, makes a
mockery of the oversight system and
of what must be the most overt covert
program in intelligence annals. If what
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 Approved For Release 2008/09/15: CIA-RDP86B00338R000400560002-7
up. But this could change literally o~ HYDE
night. Therefore, common sense would
suggest that, given the uncertainty of
supply and their common aims, the
U.S. a d Japan should cooperate more
closely. But Vernon thinks not. He
sees the ultural patterns of the two as
"extraordi arily disparate to the point
of incompa 'bility." On the other hand,
he doesn't oresee estrangement and
hostility ultim tely leading to divorce.
In Vernon's vi , the U.S. and Japan
are "the odd c ple, sharing little in
habits, values, an aspirations, yet un-
able to make any ther choice but to
accommodate one an ther's existence."
For a tight study of i rnational rela-
tions and commodity rkets, as well
as some sharp sociologica 'nights, Two
Hungry Giants is well wo reading.
JACK D. KIRWAN
The New Grove Mozart, by Stanley Sadie
(No n. 247 pp., $16.50,? $7.95 paper)
HE 980 EDITION of Grove's Diction-
T ary Music and Musicians, known
as The ew Grove, has been widely
acclaime as the single most compre-
hensive E glish-language musical refer-
ence wor ever published. It is also
horrendous expensive. For the benefit
of your ave' ge indigent musician who
would like t have easier access to so
marvelous a esearch tool, Norton is
bringing out a series of single-volume
composer biogr hies drawn from The
New Grove. Eac volume contains the
full text of the riginal article com-
plete with bibliog phy and work-list,
the whole correcte and updated in
the light of recent musicological re-
search. Of the first fi e volumes in the
series, Stanley Sadie's The New Grove
Mozart wins the honors by a nose: It's
the best short study of Mozart's life
and work ever to see print, and it
clearly deserved publican It as a sep-
arate volume. (Stanley Sadie, inciden-
tally, edited the complete New Grove.)
This is not to say that the other vol-
umes are less than excellent; Nicho-
las Temperley's ten-page discussion of
the Bach "revival" in The Ne Grove
Bach Family, for example, i exem-
plary in its compression and clarity.
Christoph Wolff is the principal uthor
of The New Grove Bach Family; oth-
er volumes in this initial release., in-
clude Winton Dean on Handel, Jens
Peter Larsen on Haydn, and Maurice
J. E. Brown on Schubert.
TERRY TEACHOUT
is at stake here were not so important,
we could pause and have a good
laugh at ourselves. But, unfortunately,
our intelligence contacts around the
world have taken note of this sorry
performance, as have thousands of Mis-
kito Indians and other Nicaraguans de-
pendent on us for continued support.
What they have observed cannot be
reassuring.
It appears the only way to mount a
successful covert operation these days
is for such an activity to have the
unanimous support of both intelligence
committees and the involved agencies
of the intelligence community. Any-
thing short of that is doomed to fail-
ure. With politics intruding so heavily
in the process, more debacles are a
distinct possibility.
Major surgery is in order.
It is time to give serious thought to
merging the existing intelligence com-
mittees into a joint committee com-
posed equally of Republicans and Dem-
ocrats who, in addition to the requisite
trustworthiness, competence, and re-
Wnsibility, can be depended upon to
subordinate political considerations to
the national interest. Such a committee
should be backed by a small cadre of
apolitical professionals with the same
exemplary personal qualities as the
committee members. Creating a new
joint oversight panel along these lines
would significantly reduce the number
of individuals having access to sensi-
tive information, thus minimizing the
risk of unauthorized leaks.
It would also address some practi-
cal problems. As we have learned in the
Nicaraguan affair, there is little in-
teraction or coordination between the
two intelligence oversight committees.
Moreover, the committees frequently re-
flect differing perspectives. For exam-
ple, it was recently leaked that the
House committee felt the CIA might
have overspent its budget in its covert
operations in Nicaragua. This view was
not shared by the Senate Intelligence
Committee. The result was confusion.
A joint oversight committee would
eliminate these problems, encourage bi-
partisan cooperation, and ensure a
more effective congressional oversight
arrangement. p
THE LEIGH BUREAU
(W. Colston Leigh, Inc.)
is the exclusive representative of
William A. Rusher
in the matter of speaking engagements.
Mr. Rusher, whom President Reagan described as "this ener-
getic and articulate spokesman for the principles that we be-
lieve in so deeply," has spoken professionally in all fifty states
during the past twenty years. He is in particular demand
just now on such topics as the 1984 campaign, "The Second
Reagan Administration," and "Do Businessmen Really Want
Free Enterprise?"
THE LEIGH BUREAU
Engagements are currently
being accepted for
the 1984-85 season-
1801 Avenue of the Stars, #619 ? Los Angeles, California 90067 [phone]
77 West Washington Street ? Chicago, Illinois 60602 [phone]
AUGUST 24, 1984 / NATIONAL REVIEW 61
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