AN OPEN AT ON THE FIRST AM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505350004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: July 29, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505350004-1
L C Ap-
r `,1 077; I'E (~~I')
29 July 1931
B v Chuck Fager_
. e . i ana a ongresslona.l
co c are trying to stop th
p blic t on of unclassified
Ellen Ray feels that one way to help stop
ongoing CIA abuses is to blow its agents' 'i
cover; so along with Louis Wolf and Bill '
Schaap, she edits Covert Action Infor-
mation Bulletin, which among other
features. regularly publishes the names and
locations of covert CIA agents.
Congressman Ed Boland thinks that
Covert Action's "Naming Names" column
is an intolerable outrage; so as Chairman of
the House Permanent Select Committee on
intelligence, he is sponsoring a bill, the
intelligence Identities Protection Act, HR4,-,
which is intended to put Schaap, Wolf and
Ray out of the naming of names business,
or failing.that, behind bars.
Boland isn.'t kidding; either. He intends to
stop Covert Action;': even if ` it' means
knocking a hole in the First Amendment.
Which is exactly what it does mean.
Edward Patrick - ?Boland,' ' is an
archetypal congressional insider. - Secure
in his solidly Democratic Springfield,
Massachusetts, district, he has maintained`'
so low a profile in the House during his
nearly three decades of service, as to be all
but invisible. He makes few speeches, rarely
deals- with the press (1. was only able to
interview him by mail, submitting written
questions to which he sent written replies),
and-1 as, no famous programs or statutes
named 'after him. Even so, he, is a figure of
considerable stature in the House, having.
apparently staked his career on two basics
political maxims: First, Stick With' the.
'
Leadershio: and Second: Follow the Monev.?
The leader in this- case is House Speaker Boland took .the job professing high I
Tip O'Neill, his close friend since both regard for the committee's role as a watch-
served in the Massachusetts legislature 4, dog over the CIA. "This committee was
nearly 50 years ago. He has followed the created to insure effective congressional
money from where. it-counts-the House oversight of intelligence activities,". he
Appropriations Committee, on which he has announced at its first oversight hearing. "It
risen to the number two Democratic spot, will not become the unquestioning ratifier of
ready to assume formal command when all that the intelligence community
Chairman Jamie. Whitten of Mississippi I proposes." He was careful, however, to add
falters or steps aside (unless the Republicans .-1 that the committee's "duty to insure a
capture the House next year). . For that strong and dedicated intelligence service is
matter, the money has also followed him, as ? just as strong as its obligation to prevent
it has a way of doing with influentialabuse."
members: last year, for instance, he raisedThis rhetorical balance between oversight
almost $45,000 in contributions for a-j and support of the CIA has been a
campaign in which he `was essentially frequently repeated motif in Boland's
unopposed. .. , F.,t . statements over the past four years.. But the
Tracking Boland . in. the Congressional", committee's record-does not show a similar
Racord index shows him rarely indulging in balance. Instead, the thrust of its hearings
that packaged poiitical bombast with which and publications, especially in the-past-two
its issues are fattened; rather, he turns up -'; years, suggests that the Agency; bouncing~_
most often where a key insider should, as an , back from 'the scandals of Watergate-and its .
appointee to crucial conference committees aftermath, has turned it into a congressional
with the. Senate, where, away from the showplace for its interests.- Recent. hearings
iimelighk, so much of Congress's real. work retailed the intelligence community's
actually gets done. - complaints about the Freedom of Infor-
Such appointments are a measure of the mation and Privacy Acts; hardline analyses
esteem and confidence of the leadership. of Russian intentions, strategic forces'and
And so was Boland's selection as Chairman -i military spending; calls for more electronic
of the new Permanent Select Committee on I' bugging, and demands :to stop-espionage
Intelligence in 1977. The Committee was "leaks."
created in the wake of the CIA scandals of ' By last year, in fact,- thecommittee had
the mid-1970s, when a long string of ex- become the staging area for counterattacks
posures of illegal and counterproductive.. against the CIA's critics and the restrictions
intelligence operations had rocked the CIA. { they had managed to place on it, ~;;...
and produced demands.. for . better ,I "
Congressional oversight of the agency. The
post demanded someone-.who was smart,
loyal and unspectacular; 'it made perfect
CO1 2-VUEQ
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505350004-1