INTELLIGENCE CHIEF WITH NINE LIVES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570086-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 86
• Publication Date: November 5, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570086-1
'7
US NEWS $ WORLD REPORT
5 November 1984
WILLIAM CASEY
Intelligence Chief With Nine Lives
The hounds of controversy once again
are baying at his heels, but his job as
America's spymaster is as safe as ever.
For the third time since Ronald Rea-
Still another furor en-
sued when White House
Chief of Staff James Baker
gan put him in charge of the Central swore under oath that Casey, while
Intelligence Agency, lawmakers are running Reagan's 1980 campaign, gave
demanding that William Casey quit or him a copy of Jimmy Carter's debate-
be fired. Walter Mondale endorsed the briefing book. Not so, said Casey as the
new call for Casey's scalp, a clamor controversy faded into a still unre-
that erupted upon word that the CIA solved mystery.
had prepared a kidnap-and-assassina- Last spring saw Casey's toughest
tion manual for anti-Communist guer- test-a messy dispute over CIA mining
rillas in Nicaragua. of Nicaraguan harbors. That operation
Althouzh National Security. Adviser was aborted under fire from Congress.
Robert McFarlane vowed that whoev- Do the storms that envelop Casey
er was responsible for the controversial bother Reagan? As recently as Septem-
primer w i l l be punished, no one ex- ber, the CIA chief received this message
pects Casey to step down. According to from the White House: "You're my man
aides, the 71-year-old lawyer never at the CIA as long as I am President."
read or even heard of the manual be- Casey has done exactly what Reagan
fore it hit the headlines. wanted him to do: Reversed setbacks
The rumpled and irascible grandson suffered in the anti-CIA wave that
of an Irish immigrant has swept America after Watergate.
feuded with Congress Casey's exploits as a coordinator of
since he came to Wash- spy operations against Nazi Germany
ington in 1971 to head in World War II gave him a lifelong
Richard Nixon's Securities respect for the usefulness of covert ac-
and Exchange Commis- lions, and he eagerly rejuvenated the
sion. Much of the bicker- CIA's clandestine operations.
ing involved the for- The spyrnaster won budget hikes of
tune-last estimated at up up to 25 percent a year for the CIA,
to 14 million dollars-that sharply boosted its covert-action sec-
Casey made as an investor lion in staff and money and increased
and author of mak
e-mon-
ey books.
Not "unfit." Nearly ev-
ery committee that has
checked his qualifications
for public office-first as
chief of the SEC, then as
under secretary of state,
head of the Export-Im-
port Bank and director of
the CIA-has complained
of misstatements, . lapses
of memory and reluctant
disclosures of assets and
clients. At one point, a
Senate panel declared
that the most it could say
was that he was not "un-
fit" for the job.
Disclosure that Casey,
in his first two years as
CIA chief, made millions
of dollars playing the
stock and bond markets,
produced an uproar. That
storm subsided only when
he put his investments in
a blind trust.
intellience-estimate pa=
pers from a scant dozen a
year to nearly 60.
"Get it done." One key
White House official says:
"When I ask Bill Casey for
something, he will get it
done and what he gives
me will be as timely and
short as it can be." Casey's
own credo, outlined in a
recent speech to CIA staff
members: "Set tasks: Set
deadlines. Make deci-
sions. Act. Get it done and
move on."
Declares Senator Barry
Goldwater (R-Ariz.), chair-
man of the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee: "Casey
has built the agency up
until today young people
are standing in line to join
the CIA."
Other lawmakers chal-
lenge the "outstanding"
rating Goldwater gives
Casey. The CIA's Nicara-
guan activities, says Sena-
tor Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
have hurt the crucial bi-
partisan support that the
CIA needs in Congress.
But it's a waste of time,
Leahy says, to seek Ca-
sey's removal. "The Presi-
dent likes him ... no mat-
ter how many screw-ups
they make. So he's going
to stay, and it becomes a
moot point." p
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570086-1