PROTECTING THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070100-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 100
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070100-5
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Protecting the CIA
Tucked Into President Ford's- speech
tb?Congress, and ignored in the emo-
tional controversy over Vietnam, was
a,carefully worded warning that secret
operations of the Central Intelligence
Agency .(CIA) must be protected from
"altered" congressional oversigat that
threatens "essential secrets."
Mr. Ford's purpose: repeat of an
oversight provision stuck into a new
law last December. That provision
requires the President to notify "ap-
1propriate committees" including the
notoriously leaky Senate Foreign Re-
.ations and House International Rela-
ions Committees, before approving any
:overt CIA operation abroad. Such wide
listribution of this country's most se-
ret operations "makes the protection
of vital information very, very diffi-
cult." Mr. Ford said. '
t? This presidential concern comes not
a:moment too soon for the few friends
of the CIA still willing to buck the
Rowland Evans an
political lynch-mob psychology which Lion to .the separate, year-long probes
began with disclosures about the CIA's about to start in the Senate and House.
clandestine work In Chile and illegal Intimates say that when the assassina-
spying on American citizens. tion charge first came up, he refused
Indeed, the apparent reluctance of categorical denials on grounds that
both the White House and embattled these probers might turn up shreds of
CIA Director William Colby to shout evidence-unknown to him-tending to
their fears about destruction of the link CIA with summit murders.
agency has infuriated serious-minded
.. intelligence experts. "For the life, of.
me," one such expert, told us. "I can-
not figure out why President Ford and
Colby have handled this 'assassina- political climate, his job is to reveal
lion' issue so ineptly.". 'almost everything to any duly-consti.
? Asking anonymity, this uniquely tuted . congressional, committee and
well-informed official continued: "As claim executive privilege only in ex.
far as I know the CIA never killed traordinary cases.
any foreign leaders. Plotting may be Some former intelligence. officials
something else again, but if every believe he has no alternative. Within
thought a nian had were translated the agency itself, one group of officials
automatically into action, there would- has pressed for total exposure of ev-
be few of us out of jail or still alive. erything the agency has ever done and
Would you like to be hung for every for prosecution of officials who broke
nasty fantasy in which you indulged? laws.
But assassination, no.-sir, and I defy But another faction violently dig-.
anyone to prove differently." agrees. Their thesis: almost everything
'But when the charge of possible CIA the CIA has done was under direct
assassinations of foreign leaders sur-
faced, the instinctive White House re-
action was to hand that hot issue to
the presidential commission headed by
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
That only gave new wings to rumors
that CIA may, indeed, have been ex-.
ecutioner at high levels.
Colby, a straight arrow without guile,
is desperately trying to hold back the
floodgates-by offering his-full coopera-
STAT
Colby's policy is passionately de-
bated by him and top-level CIA offi-
cials with their own conflicting views.
Colby contends that in today's rancid
Sr Geoffrey itou Lor'rhe WaahSatton Post
deals with foreign intelligence agen.
cies are drying up and U.S. business=
men, acting for years as invaluable in-
formants and CI.A. fronts, have become
"impassioned" in' breaking off all-CIA
contacts.
Also evaporating are the highly use.
ful deals by, which a foreign nation's
intelligence service does field work
for the CIA in "coattail operations
financed by the CIA. When one such
foreign service demanded a signed
letter from the CIA that a particular
operation would never surface, the
agency could not give such assurance;
the operation was aborted.
Colby is well aware of criticism
against his policy of total cooperation
with the multitude of investigators.-
His aim is to avoid an "adversary rela
tionship" with congressional probers,
depending on their self-control-to prey
serve national security. But critics fear
that as the House and Senate" probes
get up steam, the penchant for leak-
ing long-burled secrets ' extremely
harmful to U.S. foreign policy will
orders from a President of the United prove irresistible.
States. Yet the agency is now asked to The President's signal that he in-
take the rap for extra-legal activity. tends to tighten the new scatter-gun
So, take the heat-but tell nothing that oversight role of Congress serves as a
could compromise the CIA's daily rou- somber warning to the two investigat. tine. - in- committees. If their-21 members -
In In fact, daily routine is already com- cannot keep the CIA's past and pres-
promised to a point that the agency ent secrets, Congress will not have a
is now engaging in a bare handful of long-range oversight role. The CIA will
covert "operations" abroad, none par- have died an unnatural death.
ticularly sensitive. Moreover, exchange .
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070100-5