BLAME FOR IRAN OPERATION/DIRECTOR CASEY TESTIFIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201400001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 21, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201400001-7
-'7
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE. MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM NBC Nightly News STATION W R C- T V
NBC Network
DATE November 21, 1986 7:00 P.M. ciTy Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT Blame for Iran Operation/Director Casey Testifies
TOM BROKAW: White House feuding tonight about who is
responsible for the Iran operation, as Congress opens hearings on
the controversy.
BROKAW: For two weeks now the White House has been
trying to contain the damage from its secret Iran operation. But
tonight, if anything, it is worse than ever. Administration
officials are blaming each other. Republican and Democratic
Congressmen and Senators are even more outspoken in their
criticism. And Iran officials are crowing.
We begin with reports from the White House and Capitol
Hill tonight. First NBC's Chris Wallace, then John Dancy.
CHRIS WALLACE: The President headed for Camp David this
afternoon, leaving behind an Administration that is being torn
apart by factional disputes. Sources tell NBC News Mrs. Reagan,
considered a powerful influence on her husband, is furious that
top aides seem more interested in protecting themselves than the
President. She is said to be especially angry at Secretary of
State Shultz, viewing his effort to distance himself from the
Iranian arms deal as disloyal.
Shultz was also the target of former National Security
Adviser Robert McFarlane, who last night contradicted the
Secretary's claims that he was not involved.
ROBERT MCFARLANE: It was not kept from the Secretary of
State. I'm somewhat surprised at the portrayal that it was, for
I told him repeatedly and often of every item that went on in
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this enterprise.
WALLACE: Today Shultz acknowledged taking part in two
discussions of the Iranian operation last winter, but said, since
then, he was not involved, noting those who were involved are
appearing before Congress.
SECRETARY OF STATE GEORGE SHULTZ: The people who have
been closest to that subject have been testifying in Washington.
And I think it's best to let it rest there.
WALLACE: There are other disputes. McFarlane, who was
an architect of the Iranian policy, now says it was a mistake to
send arms there. That angered White House Chief of Staff Donald
Regan, who complained to colleagues, "It was Bud's idea. When
you give lousy advice, you get lousy results."
Congressional leaders are deeply worried this back-
biting is damaging the government's credibility.
SENATOR ROBERT BYRD: This situation is really creating
a creeping paralysis.
WALLACE: Their view: that the President must order his
aides to stop bickering and just admit the Administration made a
mistake.
SENATOR ROBERT DOLE: I mean every day it's another
story and somebody else is out saying something else. And it
seems to me they ought to be -- if my staff were running all
over, I think I'd call them together.
WALLACE: But officials here say they don't expect the
president, who dislikes confrontations, to start knocking heads
together. Instead, one top adviser said, the current strategy is
just to wait, hoping the furor, both inside and outside the
Administration, will simply run its course.
JOHN DANCY: CIA Director William Casey was on Capitol
Hill today, still maintaining the Administration was within its
rights to keep Congress in the dark about the Iran operation. He
insisted the law does not always require notification when the
President feels national security is at stake.
Have you broken the law?
DIRECTOR WILLIAM CASEY: No, no.
DANCY: If the Administration had hoped the Casey
mission would put out the fire in Congress, it was wrong. The
anger came not only from Democrats, but from Republicans, like
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman David Durenberger.
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SENATOR DAVID DURENBERGER: It is my opinion that they
had no intention of informing us about this until, for some
reason or other, it went public.
DANCY: One new fact came out: that unidentified
countries other than Israel were involved in the shipments.
SENATOR BYRD: We have learned about people who are
citizens of other countries and residents of other countries wh o
have been involved in shipments.
DANCY: Casey's disclosures pleased almost no one. Some
of the descriptions of the Iran deal after Casey briefed the
Intelligence Committees:
K SENATOR SAM NUNN: I11-conceived and ineptly imple-
mented.
REP. JIM WRIGHT: Clumsy.
SENATOR DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN: I can't believe what I
heard, and I don't.
D A N C Y : The Administration did not brief Congress
because it feared leaks. But both Senate and House Intelligence
Committees have elaborate clean rooms in the Capitol, rooms with
sophisticated anti-bugging devices that would have allowed
intelligence agencies to brief them on the Iran deal in secret.
Rut they did not. Some senators say that has damaged the
relationship of trust carefully built up between Congress and
intelligence agencies.
SENATOR MOYNIHAN: The damage here is to our intelli-
gence community. They need the support of these committees.
They need the support of the Congress. They need its confidence.
They had -- you know, it was working out, this relationship, ten
years.
Oh, what a crash.
DANCY: Many senators say the inevitable result of that
crash will be new legislation putting further restrictions on the
intelligence agencies, as well as the National Security Council.
BROKAW: Congressman Wright, who will be the next
Speaker of the House, also disclosed today that Iran paid $12
million for those American arms shipped by the White House,
including more than 2000 anti-tank missiles and more than 200
ground-to-air Hawk missiles.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201400001-7