VERIFICATION FEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400390036-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 3, 2004
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: April 23, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12 :CIA-RDP88-01315R000400390~0~}670~-? ~,
Art:i.cle appzared
on page 4 A
THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION
23 April 1979
Signing a Strategic -Arms Limitation lacked pretty .fair that the Senate .would go
Treaky with the Soviets is vitally important alcng. But now the opposition in the Senate'
to the future peace of the world. It trill tom-- has a new lease on-rife. And antiSALT sena-
mit the two superpowers to reason and re- tors strengthened kheir hands even mare
straint in piling up the weapons that could when CIA chief, Admiral. Stansfield Turner, ,
blow us all up. testified at a briefing that it would take five
h t Iost in
good. guys who will scrupulously observe
each and every provision of the treaty. For''
that reason it is vitally important, and the
.treaty itself recognizes this, that we be able
to check up on them (and them on us). 'this
problem of "verification" is more of an issue
in the U.S., probably, than in Russia because
we are an open society and they are not.
Neither side trusts. the ?otther, both make full
use of "spy-in-the-sky :satellites and other
surveillance techniques. But Russian intelli-
Bence agents ran otters obtain important and
sometimes s?ecrek information by reading our
newspapers and magazines. You can safely
bet that situation doesn'k obtain in Russia.. .
solve atl the problems. Nar will st snstantly
persuade Americans.. that the Soviets are
But the SALT agreement is cot going to Years for us to make up w a we
those Iran listening stations. One critic, Sen.
The takeover of Iran recently by a reIi-?
gious fanatic and his lawless revolutionary
kangaroo courts anti execution squads com~
plirates the SALT treaty's chances. -That
.treaty must be ratified by the U.S. Senate.
And. the thing that worries many senators
. mare than anything else is precisely this
question of verification. How do we know the
Russians will keep their part of the Bargain?
5 We bad-two important.. monitoring facilities
in Iran, sophisticated electronic listening
posts that -were key elements in our iatelli-
Bence gathering system. Now they are gone.
I?Iow badly does this fact damage our ability
` to keep tabs on the Russians? `.
Before Iran went the way of the Ayatol-
fats, President Garter was saying that a
- :SALT agreement was practically ready for
,his and Brezhnev's signatures. The chances
Jake? Garn} R-Utah, saw the situation . as .
desperate: "There is nothing. the United
Stakes -can do," he said, "in either the near or
long term to camperssate for the loss of elec-~~:
tronic listening, posts in Iran, making veri- ~
fieation of a new SALT treaty an impossibie -
task." ~ : "~ -
Ttie administration immediately sent in- ~
T~fense Secretary Harold Brown to see if he
could calm the fears of Sen. Garn and those
who thinly as he does. Brown said it would I
take us about a year to regain the verifica- ?
tion ability we had lost, and added that the
Russians didn't have the means to set up in
that time a system in violation. "It is my ~
judgment," he said, "that our monitoring will -
be such as to provide adequate verification .~
as to :,Quiet compliance wits the curbs on ;
new or modified ICB;VIs:' . , ...,;r_... .. .
Assd. State ..Bepartment. ~ spokesrnasi
'Thomas Ffeston added further reassurance:
"Nothing Admiral Turner said contravenes
the basic judgment of this admiristratiosr !
that the terms of the treaty will beode-
~quately verifiable. The president would not
.sign an agreement unless he was firmly con- ~~
vinced That it is adequately verifiable." ,~ .
Except for crossing T's and dotting ~Ts;'
.the administration has said, .the long. and:;
tortuous negotiations with -the Soviets are ~
about to come to a successful.conclusion. But
one Iast.big huldle remains--the U.S. Senate?~.
.and its vote on ratification. And that hurdle I
- looks a lot bigger today than'it.~ dsd a-?few,
weeks ago.
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 :CIA-RDP88-013158000400390036-0