MOYNIHAN'S RESIGNATION SMACKS OF GRANDSTANDING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440096-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: April 17, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440096-2
\11 YORK POST
17 Apr. it 1984
Moynihan's resig n
smacks of . grandstanding
Sen. Moynihan. protests too much. He
is an old hand in the grey goings on of
intelligence and has been a prominent-
member of the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence since he was first elected
to the Senate in 1976.
As vice chairman of the committee
since 1981, and very often as acting
chairman in Sen. Goldwater's. many
absences, he has always known when
a guarded statement by CIA officials
needed to be probed by further confi-
dential questioning.
HOST OF QUESTIONS _
Jack McMahon waiting in an, ante- nationalities andcargops,.,{.,,,ts,
- There has .fieen some: cpmplaint ~ =
chamber while he made his resignation ..
statement to the ABC-TV cameras? ,.:about some other body (the Senate
Further, when he then received committee) not keeping pace with
Casey and McMahon to review the what was happening," he said. "I
briefings, why did he not tell them know what my responsibilities are
that he had just made his statement and members of our committee knew
resigning as the committee's vice what their responsibility was to the
chairman? membership of this House."
His highly publicized resignation as
committee vice chairman - filmed
in his office last Friday but. broadcast
by ABC-TV "This Week"only on Sun-..
day - raises a number-of questions.
Why did Moynihan keep CIA director
William J. Casey and deputy director
Ij Moynihan s restgna.twn was fat to =
be given to a TV camera crew would it
not have been common decency, to say -
nothing of politeness, -to have in-
formed Casey at the same time?
Why did his New York constituents
have to wait two days, courtesy of a
TV program, to learn of their Sena-
tor's resignation when he could have
made it known last Friday?
If Moynihan is as offended as he
makes out, why did he not resign im-
mediately when he felt he a been
inadequately informed by the CIA?
Moynihan says he was briefed on the
mining operation-by his senior commit-
tee aide just before he voted, on April 6
to approve continuing U.S. support for
the Nicaraguan democratic forces, in-
cluding the mining operations.
Why.didn't he resign then? Further,
having waited- a week to resign the
vice chairmanship why didn't he go
all the way and resign from the full
committee?'
FEW SUPPORTERS
Moynihan's sense of outrage about the
CIA's briefings is not shared by Rep.
Edward Boland (D-Mass.), chairman
of the House intelligence committee
and an opponent of the mining.
Presumably the House committee
gets the same basic CIA briefings as
the Senate committee. Yet Boland told ?
the House last Thursday that his com-
mittee had been given the most exact
details of ' the mining operation by
Casey and that his committee had
closely monitored the activity from
its start last January. V
Boland's committee even recalled'
Casey to keep itself up with-the opera-
tion. Thus, on March 27, Casey provided
details not only of the ports seeded with
the non-lethal "acoustic" mines but the
.names of ships. hit together with their
AND FURTHERMORE
Nor is Moynihan's righteous indig-
nation shared unanimously by mem-_
bers of his own committee.
Sen. Bentsen (D-Tex.) says there was
precise reference to - the mining opera-
tion in the CIA briefings. Senators
Durenberger (R-Minn ), Chafee (R-R.L),
Cohen (R-Me.) and. Biden (D-DeL), do
not feel the briefings were adequate.
On the other hand, Sen. Garn
(R-Utah) is completely satisfied and
.says:. "We were informed -twice in
? March. There are ways and means, if
a Senator or Congressman is not lazy,
to become informed."
-
Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.), who voted
against the mining, says: "Any Sena-
tor, whether he is on the Senate intelli-
gence committee or not, can be as well
informed as he wants to be. Any Sena-
tor can go to the Senate intelligence
committee and read as ? much as he
wishes to read from the classified
transcript."
-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440096-2