'CHAOTIC PERSONAL LIFE' CASTS PALL ON DURENBERGER INTELLIGENCE ROLE
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320054-6
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
3
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
October 4, 2012
Sequence Number:
54
Case Number:
Publication Date:
March 13, 1986
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
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CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320054-6.pdf | 348.54 KB |
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320054-6
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WA3'IINGTON TIM
13 March 1986
`Chaotic personal life' casts pall
on Durenberger intelligence role
Second of two parts.
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
There is growing concern in the
intelligence agencies that Sen. Da-
vid Durenberger's tortuous and tan-
gled private life has seriously dam-
aged his ability to effectively lead
the Senate Select Committee on In-
telligence, which is charged with
overseeing the way the American in-
telligence system operates.
Since taking control of the panel
14 months ago, Mr. Durenberger, 51,
Minnesota Republican, has achieved
national attention not only as a high-
profile, activist committee
chairman, but for his chaotic per-
sonal life as well.
Revelations about Mr. Durenber-
ger's marital problems and subse-
quent affair with a former employee
have strengthened the arguments of
critics who complain that Mr.
Durenberger is not the best man to
head the sensitive panel.
Professionally, Mr. Durenberger's
critics say the senator has moved
away from the laissez-faire ap-
proach adopted by his predecessor,
Sen. Barry Goldwater, and has tried
to use the intelligence post to influ-
ence the course of U.S. foreign
policy.
As a result, some observers say
the panel's new aggressive style is
reminiscent of the late 1970s when
Sen. Frank Church headed the com-
mittee and regularly pilloried the in-
telligence community in public
hearings.
"He still has the attitude that what
we want to do is restrain things and
have a Church-style approach '[to-
oversight]," said one committee staff
member who declined to be named.
During his tenure Mr. Durenber-
ger has opposed the Reagan admin-
istration's use of covert action pro-
grams, openly feuded with CIA
Director William Casey, made sev-
eral controversial staff changes,
faced criticism that serious leaks
about U.S. covert action programs
came from Congress, and started a
committee public relations program
that some experts believe is hazard-
ous for intelligence work. Mr. Duren-
berger declined to be interviewed
for this article.
The 15-member committee, first
constituted in 1976, was set up to be
the exclusive Senate body mon-
itoring the CIA.
Always a hotbed of controversy,
the committee has wavered over the
years from operating in relative ob-
scurity to being the focus of national
attention. Its first chairman, Sen.
Daniel Inouye, Hawaii Democrat, is
little remembered, in contrast to the
flamboyant style of former
chairman Church.
Now, the committee's public pro-
file is on an upswing. Mr. Durenber-
ger's direct criticism about how the
administration handles intelligence
issues is raising the hackles of pro-
fessionals in the community and fel-
low senators who believe the best
thing to say publicly about sensitive
intelligence matters is nothing at all.
Mr. Goldwater, who left the com-
mittee in January 1985 to take over
the Senate Armed Services Commit-
tee, has opposed the existence of the
oversight committee since its estab-
lishment.
.When I was chairman, I couldn't
prevent the members from using"
the classified information they came
across, Mr. Goldwater said,
criticizing the use of the committee
as a vehicle to influence the admin-
istration's foreign policy. "But I tried
to point out to them that it was an
abuse of senatorial privilege"
Sen. Malcolm Wallop, Wyoming
Republican, who lost a political ma-
neuver in January 1985 to become
chairman of the panel, remains
critical of the committee's work.
"There is a great need for exper-
tise and continuity" on the commit-
tee, said Mr. Wallop, who spent eight
years on the committee - the maxi-
mum allowed under law. "There are
too many people, too many leaks, too
much involvement, too much turn-
over on the staff, and no real ap-
praisal of what it is that we seek to
achieve in oversight:'
For the last year, Mr. Durenberger
has lived at the Cedars, an evangeli-
cal Christian fellowship house in
Arlington after splitting up with his
wife of 14 years. He is also undergo-
ing psychological counseling in Bos-
ton.
Several experts interviewed
about the general problem - with-
out specific reference to Mr. Duren-
berger - gave mixed answers about
the potential security problems
posed by the mental health traumas
he faces.
Federal guidelines, which apply
only to executive branch employees,
but not to members of Congress or
their staffs, normally would disqual-
ify an individual from working in a
security-sensitive area if they are
believed to be mentally unstable, ac-
cording to George Woloshyn, an as-
sociate director of the office of Per-
sonnel Management who is
responsible for overseeing federal
background investigations.
"Basically a person who is psy-
chologically unbalanced ... is not
fully in control of his faculties," Mr.
Woloshyn said. "Where there is sus-
picion that an individual may not
have a sufficient sense of personal
responsibility to safeguard informa-
tion ... there's no doubt in my mind
that that person ought not gain
access to sensitive information:'
A senior administration intelli-
gence expert said CIA guidelines
outlining conditions under which a
Sensitive Compartmented Informa-
tion clearance - the highest level
security clearance - can be with-
drawn include such personal prob-
lems as separation or divorce, extra-
marital affairs, psychiatic care or
unorthodox social behavior, accord-
ing to an adminstration security ex-
pert.
While Mr. Durenberger, as a
member of Congress, is not required
to have a security clearance he is
granted access - as a committee
member - to Sensitive Compart-
mented Information.
"Durenberger's case easily meets
the standards for which a security
clearance would be revoked, at least
until his problems are resolved:'
said the official who declined to be
identified.
Psychiatrist Fredric Solomon -
who has studied ways to prevent dis-
turbed persons from attacking pub-
lic officials for the U.S. Secret Serv-
ice - said the fact that a person is
seeking either psychological or psy-
chiatric counseling does not consti-
tute a danger to secret intelligence
work.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320054-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0302320054-6
"It's not a flag of great risk;' said
Mr. Solomon, who declined direct
comment on Mr. Durenberger's
case. "I worry about people who are
troubled and never ask for help."
OPM's Mr. Woloshyn, however,
said if someone with mental instabil-
ity is found working in a sensitive
executive branch job, "that person
essentially should be transferred to
another job which is less sensitive -
where the potential for damage is
not as great."
Mr. Durenberger's closest confi-
dant on the panel, committee staff
director Bernard McMahon, said
he's unsure if Mr. Durenberger's
personal problems have intruded on
the committee work.
"I don't know whether it's affected
him or not," Mr. McMahon said. "I'm
just saying that as far as the way this
committee functions, I don't see any
difference:'
But some congressional and ad-
ministration officials disagree, with
several expressing frustration that
Mr. Durenberger and Mr. McMahon
are meddling in foreign policy is-
sues, including attempts to block
military support for resistance
forces in Marxist dictatorships.
Sources say that at least four intel-
ligence committee senators, as well
as key players in the intelligence
community, believe Mr. Durenber-
ger's personal problems have shifted
too much political power within the
Senate intelligence committee to Mr.
McMahon.
A White House official familiar
with Mr. Durenberger's problems
said Mr. McMahon wields "a fair
amount of clout" over intelligence
policy while another intelligence of-
ficial put it more bluntly: "The ex-
ecutive branch believes Bernie sets
the committee's agenda."
The intelligence official said the
chairman and staff director trav-
elled to Europe last year to meet
overseas intelligence officials and
several came away with the impres-
sion that Mr. McMahon guided the
agenda while "Dave seemed mildly
interested"
One senior administration policy-
maker charged Mr. Durenberger
and Mr. McMahon - once executive
assistant to former CIA Director
Adm. Stansfield Ilirner - share a
bias against paramilitary covert op-
erations. And as a result of Mr.
Durenberger's reliance on Mr.
McMahon, he said, the committee
has been influenced against covert
operations in the Third World.
Covert action can involve a range
of intelligence techniques from
planting news articles in foreign
publications, to financial support for
political parties, to large-scale par-
amilitary operations involving the
transfer of weapons or training - all
without showing U.S. government in-
volvement.
"There is no bias against covert
action in this committee or on the
staff," Mr. McMahon said. "We re-
view many, many covert actions
other than the ones that are dis-
cussed in the newspapers. Every co-
vert action is different and ... is
judged on its own merits in terms of
its cost benefit and in terms of its
risk."
Mr. Wallop, still a careful ob-
server of the committee's actions,
said the panel has moved away from
"a certain pretense of oversight
[and] is now involved in manage-
ment. Now you have a chairman an-
nouncing legislative plans when the
administration says something
about covert action."
Mr. Goldwater, a former commit-
tee chairman, praised the use of co-
vert activity while decrying recent
public debate over its use.
"Covert action is the secret of in-
telligence success, but the more you
publicize the action of intelligence,
the less attractive you make it," Mr.
Goldwater. "I even went so far as to
approve expenditures of funds to
train people in covert action."
Last October, Mr. Durenberger
showed how he wanted to be an ac-
tivist - and showed his colleagues
how he differed from their view -
by publicly stating: "In the case of
covert action ... if it involves signifi-
cant or controversial military action
overseas, it will with certainty be-
come a matter of public debate"
The Minnesota Republican re-
newed the public attack in February
by charging that the Reagan admin-
istration's covert support for Nic-
aragua's anti-communist resistance
was wrong and that he would pro-
pose legislation to block the $70 mil-
lion "covert" portion of the aid pack-
age. He said the $70 million aid
package "is a threat" to the security
of the United States should U.S.
forces become "bogged down in
Nicaragua."
However, in an apparent contra-
diction to his professed opposition to
covert action, Mr. Durenberger last
October threatened then-Philippines
president Ferdinand Marcos with a
U.S.-sponsored program of subver-
sion.
"If Marcos refuses to deal with
the reality of the problem in the Phil-
ippines it may well be in the national
security interest of this country to
take intelligence another step be-
yond its information-gathering cap-
abilities," Mr. Durenberger told Na-
tional Public Radio.
Mr. Durenberger was apparently
suggesting a covert action plan, but
when asked to clarify his remarks,
said, "I don't intend to make it clear
to you because it wouldn't be within
the rubric of intelligence nor in the
authority of the chairman of the in-
telligence committee to discuss that
sort of thing."
In still another instance, one ad-
ministration official said Mr. Duren-
berger acted on political instincts in
reversing his opposition to covert aid
to Angolan anti-communist resis-
tance fighter Jonas Savimbi.
Following a CIA briefing on the
covert aid program late last year, Mr.
Durenberger ordered a poll of com-
mittee members on whether they fa-
vored overt or covert assistance to
Mr. Savimbi's forces, the official
said.
The results were 13-2 in favor of
overt aid, but the vote was recast in
a letter to President Reagan indicat-
ing that 13 members of the commit-
tee "opposed" covert aid, the official
said. The committee and the White
House both refused to release the
letter, although its existence has
been widely reported.
According to the official, the let-
ter outraged several committee
members who felt the survey failed
to account for the fact that some fa-
vored both overt humanitarian assis-
tance and covert military backing.
Mr. Durenberger ended his oppo-
sition and began favoring aid for Mr.
Savimbi's forces shortly after a
meeting with Charles Black, a part-
ner in the high-visibility political
consulting firm of Black, Manafort,
Stone and Kelly.
Mr. Black, in 1982 was a political
campaign adviser to Mr. Durenber-
ger, and last year was paid $600,000
to represent Mr. Savimbi's UNITA
group.
According to the source, Mr.
Black was supposed to conduct a
low-key effort to "reduce the inten-
sity of Mr. Durenberger's opposi-
tion" by letting the senator know
that his opposition to covert Angolan
aid would reduce his standing
among Minnesota Republican lead-
ers and could complicate the sen-
ator's re-election campaign in 1988.
While Mr. Black said there were
"no discussions" of Minnesota poli-
tics with Mr. Durenberger's meet-
ing, shortly afterward committee
staff director McMahon passed
word to the White House that the
senator would not try to block the
UNITA aid request, the source said.
Mr. Durenberger's seemingly
contradictory position on covert ac-
tion appears to fit within the larger
framework of his overall desire of
playing a major role in foreign
policy.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0302320054-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320054-6
"I've never heard anybody even
afludi; to the fact that the intelli-
gence committee ought to be playing
any kind of a foreign policy role in
any way," said Mr. McMahon,_with
the exception of funding covert ac-
tion. "The confusion has only arisen
because the Congress as a whole has
become more sophisticated, and in
their effort to understand the facts
behind foreign policy decisions, they
have become more hungry for facts."
Some intelligence professionals
accuse Mr. Durenberger of damag-
ing the trust involved in the delicate
congressional oversight process by
publicly criticizing the CIA for lack-
ing "a sense of direction" and for
failing to adequately interpret Soviet
policies.
The published remarks prompted
a bitter response from CIA Director
Casey, who sharply criticized Mr.
Durenberger for conducting "off-
the-cuff" oversight which he said
has caused "repeated compromises
of sensitive intelligence sources and
methods" and "unsubstantiated ap-
praisals of performance."
"It is time to acknowledge that the
process has gone seriously awry;"
Mr. Casey wrote in a Nov 14 letter.
Mr. McMahon would not com-
ment about the Casey-Durenbeger
exchange.
Sen. Frank Murkowski, Alaska
Republican, has criticzed the ex-
change.
"I am a little perturbed at the row
we see," Mr. Murkowski said. "I don't
see the necessity of this committee
involving itself so much in the public
relations process we seem to have."
Some of Mr. Durenberger's critics
have accused him of restructuring
the 46-member intelligence commit-
tee staff to give it a more liberal ideo-
logical spin.
Several former committee staff
professionals said Mr. Durenberger
and Mr. McMahon placed a former
Berkeley, Calif., "radical" in charge
of the committee's covert action sec-
tion.
These staffers said other liberals,
most of them opposed to covert ac-
tion programs, have been placed in
key posts on the committee. These
aides refused to comment.
Angelo Codevilla, a former pro-
fessional staff member who worked
for Mr. Wallop, said he was forced to
resign when Mr. Durenberger be-
came chairman. Mr. Codevilla said
the senator drove out aides who dis-
agreed with his views.
"This is fair enough, but his pre-
tense of carrying out the purge in
the name of professionalism is dis-
honorable;' Mr. Codevilla said.
One former committee staff
member charged Mr. McMahon
forced the resignation last year of
Thomas Blau, a long-time commit-
tee aide, after a dispute.
Mr. McMahon, who took over the
committee staff in February 1985,
said that he has worked with Mr.
Durenberger to reshape the staff
into a "more professional" team.
Senate records show that since
Mr. Durenberger became chairman,
eight professional staff members
left the committee and seven new
professionals were hired, but Mr.
McMahon attributed the turnover to
new senators joining the committee.
Normally, 15 of the committee's staff
are designees - individuals who
work directly for a single senator.
The rest are considered professional
staff assigned to the committee.
"Some of the staff members left
because some of the senators who
supported them left;' Mr. McMahon
said. "Nobody re-appointed them as
designees and we didn't rehire them
as professional staff, so they had no
other choice but to leave. But that's
the way the process works."
Now committee staffers are split
into four areas: intelligence oper-
ations, budget, legal oversight - in- I
cluding covert action - and "intelli-
gence process;' which includes Mr.
Durenberger's interest in develop-
ing a sb-called "national intelligence
strategy." Mr. McMahon said the new
organizational structure involves
"specific assignments."
However two Republican senators
on the committee say the staff
structure limits their ability to
understand intelligence issues,
partly because only senior commit-
tee staff members have access to rel-
evant information.
Sen. Chic Hecht, Nevada Republi-
can, said most of what he learns
about intelligence issues is obtained
from meetings with intelligence
community people outside of the
Senate.
"Often times I feel I don't get
enough advice," said Mr. Hecht, who
spent 18 months in East Germany as
an Army intelligeece officer during
the 1950s. "I meet nights, I have
breakfast with people on weekends."
Mr. Murkowski added: "If you
don't know what's happening, you're
not going to know what to ask be-
cause it's not necessarily their ob-
ligation to keep you informed"
A third committee member, Sen.
Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, is
also apparently frustrated by the in-
telligence committee staff, accord-
ing to a source close to the senator.
Last year, when the administra-
tion approached him in an effort to
restore budget cuts that eliminated
some U-2 reconnaissance flights,
the source said Mr. Hatch "could not
obtain the information from either
McMahon or Durenberger that
would allow him to be effective:' Mr.
Hatch declined to be interviewed.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320054-6