PANEL LIKELY TO SEEK TO REDUCE CASEY'S POLICY-SETTING ROLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490039-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2012
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: November 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490039-5
14 November 1985
Panel Likely to Seek to Reduce Casey's Policy-Sett',, ,g
Proposal Would Dilute CIA Director's White House Influence and Broaden Pn..er,
Y MICHAEL WINES. Times Staff Writer
;
WASHINGTON-The Senate
Intelligence Committee is likely to
recommend next year that Presi-
de gt Reagan reduce the CIA direc-
to xs role in setting policy and
instead limit his duties to "profes-
sional intelligence work," Sen.
Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), the
~cot~ittee chairman, said Wednes-
Irrk'. a lengthy luncheon session
with reporters, Durenberger sug-
gested that the job of recommend-
ing policy changes such as secret
operations against other govern-
ments should rest with the Presi-
dent's national seet'jt7 adviser,
while the director of ventral intelli-
gence should carry oqt the chang-
The proposal apper(itly would
dilute the White House role of
Reagan's Close Mend and political
strategist, CIA Director William J.
Casey, and broaden the powers of
National Security Adviser Robert
C. McFarlane. It was revealed
against a background of growing
criticism of the way top CIA offi-
cials handled Vital; Yurchenko,
the Soviet KGB officer whose
much touted defection to CIA
hands embarrassingly backfired
last week.
"One of the things we ought to be
sorting out," Durenberger said, "is
whether or not maybe effectively
in the present situation, McFarlane
shouldn't be the President's right
hand on intelligence input through
policy and Casey ought to be the
pro who runs the organization."
Although the senator said that
Casey had sought to make the CIA
a policy-setting agency early in his
tenure-citing the agency's advo-
cacy of top-secret operations in
Central America such as the min-
ing of Nicaraguan harbors-he
added that Casey has "matured" in
the top CIA post and strongly
praised his management of the
organization.
A Senate intelligence aide down-
played the thrust of Durenberger's
remarks late Wednesday, saying
the committee does not intend to
recommend that the President shift
any of Casey's current duties to
McFarlane. Instead, he said, the
panel hopes only to force McFar-
lane and other "consumers" of the
CIA's intelligence to specify their
needs so that the intelligence agen-
cy knows what type of information
to gather.
The aide said that Casey occa-
sionally "may give some personal
advice to the President" but exer-
cises no major policy powers. The
Senate panel's proposal envisions
"no fundamental role change, just
an exercise over the reinvigoration
of the way the system should be
operating," he said.
Durenberger's proposal, he said,
calls for "more clarification of the
current responsibilities" of the CIA
director and policy-makers "and
acceptance on both sides of those
responsibilities.
"It's not that Bill Casey doesn't
do that now, but it's not done in a
very well organized and orches-
trated way," he said. He said the
prcposal has been in the works for
several months and is unrelated to
criticism of the agency stemming
from the Yurchenko affair.
However, Durenberger's re-
marks appeared to suggest a less-
ening of the White House role now
played by Casey, the only director
of central intel iigencifi ffa post
in a President's Cabinet.
Casey, widely regarded as the
most powerful intelligence chief
since the post was created in 1947,
is credited by some with helping
devise the Reagan Administra-
tion's strategy of covert operations
against Nicaragua and in support of
struggling Central American na-
tions on its borders.
Durenberger strongly praised
Casey's "professionalism" and said
that he is responsible for a general
improvement in the agency's mo-
rale.
"I'm giving him a plus on the job,
despite all the things I've got to
swallow ... to do that," he said.
However, some senators on the
intelligence panel believe "that the
national security adviser to the
President ought to really be the
person responsible . . . for the
linkage between intelligence and
policy, and the (director of central
intelligence) ought to be a person
who does professional intelligence
work."
Some intelligence experts said
Wednesday that the adoption of
Role
\lcFariane
Durenberger's proposal might have
little effect on either Casey or
federal intelligence policy, partly
because Casey's central role in
White House intelligence affairs is
based on his close personal links to
Reagan.
Additionally, the director of cen-
tral intelligence-who not only
heads the CIA but also oversees
some duties of the National Securi-
ty Agency and the Defense Intelli-
gence Agency-has budgetary and
advisory powers that could not.be
diluted without Congress's ppeermis-
sion. And Durenberger s~fggested
no changes in law.
While Durenberger did not di-
rectly criticize Casey on Wednes-
day, he voiced concern about the
agency's performance in some key
areas, including intelligence as-
sessments of the Soviet Union and
South Africa.
He also sharply criticized the
agency's assessments of the future
of the South Africa government,
saying there is a "vacuum" of
independent and unbiased infor-
mation about the country's prob-
lems.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807490039-5