INTELLIGENCE LAW: WHAT NOTICE DOES IT REQUIRE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504210002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 21, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504210002-1
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e'er ;"'`u 21 December 1986
By Ruth Marcus
J 'WV i?iunyron P',.t Stiff Writer
Intelligence Law: What Notice Does It Require?
In return. Congress won lan-
guage tightening the reporting re-
quirements to require prior notice
of covert activities in all but the
most unusual circumstances, and
making clear that, even in those
rare cases, the intelligence commit-
tees were to be informed promptly
after the fact-
Six years ago, Congress and
the executive branch struck a
bargain called the intelligence
Oversight Act of 1980.
The subject was congressional
oversight of intelligence activi-
ties: what the president had to
tell Congress about the activities
of the CIA and other intelligence
agencies, and when he had to tell
them.
Disclosure of the Reagan ad-
ministration's secret shipment of
arms to [ran and the diversion of
profits to aid the Nicaraguan reb-
els has made the meaning of the
act again the subject of sharp de-
bate.
When the law was signed by
President Jimmy Carter, the ex-
ecutive branch was chafing under
a 1974 law known as the Hughes-
Ryan Amendment. Enacted after
revelations of such CIA abuses as
its plot to overthrow the govern-
nient of Chilean President Sal-
vador Allende, the Hughes-Ryan
Amendment required the Central
Intelligence Agency to report its
covert operations to eight con-
gressional committees.
Congress, on the other hand,
was concerned that Hughes-Ryan
gave the intelligence agencies too
Much leeway by requiring only
that congressional committees he
notified of covert activities "in a
t:niely fashion"-a loophole that