THE LETTER OF THE FETTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100340001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-00
nn.anll~u 1 Vl~ 111'ICJ
20 August 1985
The letter of the fetter
Is Common Cause the most powerful
lobby in Washington? Could be. No other
lobby has successfully ordered Congress to
investigate the legality of a major foreign
policy action by the administration.
In response to a letter from CC, the House
Intelligence Committee has decided to hold
hearings next month on assistance the
National Security Council gave the Nicara-
guan "contras" during the time when Con-
gress was refusing to fund them. An NSC
aide, it has come to light, gave tactical advice
to "contra"leaders and provided information
m private donors who asked how they could
help the resistance in view of Congress's
refusal to do so.
The CC letter asks the committee to inves-
tigate "whether the NSC activities violate the
letter or the spirit of the law" This sort of
"spirit" usually means the law in question
distilled to its ideological essence as per-
ceived by the ideologue doing the distilling.
The letter of he law - in this case the
Boland Amend_mpnt - is that "no funds
available to the CIA, Department of Defense,
or any other a~encs- or entit~- of the U S
inw-rued in in~Ii'aence act~viti ? mAV be ,
o ted ore ded for the purpose or
wmcn wouta save the effect o su rtm
direc or m rec to or ar-
..tart' operations m icaragua aa~
nation o tion movement o '
m ~ Y 6rammati
congressionalese is broad, but not as broad
as the "spirit" that CC and others would like
to conjure up, which decrees that no person
or agency associated with the U.S. govern-
ment shall take any action which might have
as its result the welfare of the Nicaraguan
resistance movement.
Congress's power over foreign policy is an
effect of its power over the purse, which is
the only kind of foreign policy oversight it
should exercise. It can tell the administration
not to spend money on the "contras; but it
should not forbid phone calls to them, and
indeed it did not. If an NSC aide found a way
to pursue the interests of the wee World
While staying within the letter of the fetters
that came from up the avenue, he is greatly
to be praised.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100340001-2