ROGUE OPERATION LEAVES MANY POLICIES IN TATTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560019-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: November 27, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560019-6
STAT OM MK
LOSS ANGELES TI ."ES
November 1986
Rogue Operation Leaves
Many Policies in Tatters
-By PATRICK LEAHY
With stunning abruptness, disarray in
the Reagan Administration's foreign-
policy apparatus has been revealed to an
astonished world.
The country is shocked to learn that an
obscure colonel, Oliver North, working out
of the White House basement and, alleged-
1v with little or no knowledge or supervi-
sion by anyone else. has been running
operations that are certainly impropc, and
maybe illegal. For at least 18 months this
man has been channeling arms to Iran
through Israel and funneling the profits to
the Nicaraguan contras.
Straining credulity beyond the breaking
point. the Administration would have us
believe that North could do this without
anyone in the White House, the CIA, the
State Department or the Defense Depart-
ment being aware of it.
Whatever the truth, the reality is that
the President's ability
to function effectively
in foreign affairs is now
in jeopardy.
Consider just some of
the costs of this rogue
operation:
-U.S. anti-terror-
ism policy is in tatters.
-U.S. policy and in-
fluence in the critical
Middle East is sorely
damaged. and our best
friend, Israel. is left
holding the bag.
-Allied govern-
ments that associated
themselves with U.S.
policy on terrorism and
Iran are embarrassed
and weakened.
-Our Central
America policy has
become a debacle.
-The President's
relations with Con-
gress have been badly
shaken.
There now is graphic
proof of what some of
us have been saying for
several years: This Ad-
ministration regards
Congress not as a co-
equal partner to be in-
formed and consulted but as a public-
relations problem to be manipulated and
evaded.
How have we reached this appalling
situation? Just as important, how do we get
out of it quickly?
The Reagan Administration's style in
foreign policy made a crisis like this
almost inevitable. To an amazing degree,
years of good luck and skillful public-
relations management have masked funda-
mental deficiencies in the Administra-
tion's whole method of conducting foreign
affairs.
Distrustful of Congress, fearful of the
press, driven more by ideology than by a
hardheaded calculation of U.S. interests.
the Administration has chosen to substitute
covert action and tightly compartmented
secret operations for constitutional means
of conducting foreign policy. It has pre-
ferred to pursue some of its most important
activities without the checks and balances
of the American political system.
The entire country, not just the Adminis-
tration, is paying the price for the Iran-
contra fiasco. The President is saddled with
what could be a long-running crisis at the
very time when we need strong, confident
presidential leadership.
Hopes for a new arms-control treaty
with the Soviets are threatened by contin-
uing internal warfare within the Adminis-
tration. Only a President in complete
control can silence the divisions and set the
arms-control process back on track.
A firm counterterrorism policy must be
urgently reconstructed. Only the President
can accomplish that. But, if he is weakened
in his last two years, there is little chance
that Reagan will be able to reunite Con-
gress and persuade our allies and friends
not to attempt their own backdoor deals
with terrorists and terrorist nations.
The United States needs a coherent
Middle East policy. However, only vigor-
ous leadership by the White House offers
any real prospect of reviving the moribund
peace process .end of preventing dangerous
Instability among our friends in the Persian
Gulf area. There is grave danger that such
leadership may not be forthcoming.
Getting this crisis behind us quickly
should be an overriding national priority. It
is in no one's interest, Democrat or Repub-
lican, to see this affair drag on, becoming an
obsession in the White House. mesmerizing
the press. crippling the President and
preventing restoration of bipartisanship in
foreign policy.
There must be prompt, full disclosure of
all information. Congress should conducb
its own independent, expeditious inves -
tigation. Any official. however high in
rank. who is shown to be involved in
improper or illegal activities or in derelic -
tion of duty must be removed. Anyone
found to have violated criminal statutes
should be prosecuted.
The entire foreign-policy structure of
the Administration should be thoroughly
reviewed, reorganized and subjected to
the checks and balances of responsible
executive-branch and congressional over-
sight. The National Security Council must
be returned to its original role of advice
and coordination, but not implementation.
of policy.
Finally, I believe that the President
himself should reconsider his own way of
doing business.
The unpalatable truth is that President
Reagan has carried the "chairman of the
board" approach to management too far.
He has delegated too much power and
responsibility, and he has remained too
aloof from the details of what his subordi-
nates are doing in his name. He has been
repeatedly embarrassed publicly by his
lack of knowledge of important specifics
of major foreign-policy programs. He has
relied too much on ideologically driven
"special assistants," and not enough on his
Cabinet heads.
Above all, it is time that Harry Truman's
well-known adage-"The buck stops
here" -reemerges as the guiding principle
in the Oval Office.
Patrick Leahy (D- Vt.) is vice chairman of
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303560019-6