CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030049-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: September 21, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030049-5
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
21 September 1983
WASHINGTON
CIA
BY EL? R W. LA.TNNI
Former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said Wednesday a bill calling for
advance congressional approval of secret military operations abroad would be
unconstitutional and might endanger the lives of U.S. agents.
The retired admiral, who headed the intelligence agency under President
Carter, said the bill clearly transcends the intent of the Constitution' by
requiring the president to get the consent of Congress for covert operations.
Testifying in the House Intelligence Committee, Turner said it also would
endanger agents by increasing the risk of leaks by members of Congress and their
staff members.
But Rep. Wyche Fowler Jr., D-5a., the bill's author, said the requirement
would be limited only to secret paramilitary and military operations, and would
not affect normal intelligence gathering.
HE assured Turner he will seek changes in the bill to ensure secrecy for the
identities of agents.
Fowler also agreed with another witness, former Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., that
leaks are Just as likely to occur in the executive branch as in Congress.
Bayh, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he had
been "very frustrated' by executive branch leaks during his chairmanship of
the panel.
He said he did not know of any leaks from Congress at that time.
" The real place where you have leaks is the executive branch, " Bayh said.
hay, also agreed with Fowler that it would be impossible to keep secret the
k?no of military aid now being provided Nicaraguan insurgents, even if there
were no leaks from Congress or the executive branch.
THE former senator Said it was important for Congress to have more voice in
the authorization of covert military operations because members are closer to
the public and better able to weigh what impact the operations may have on
public opinion.
Bayh also expressed some reservations over a provision in Fowler's bill
allowing the president to order a covert operation without the advance consent
of the House and Senate intelligence panels.
Executive branch lawyers, he said, will "find a loophole in it.
Morton Halperin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, urged
support of the proposal that paramilitary operations must have prior approval of
Cong ress .
Halperin said congressional foreign affairs committees as well as both the
House and Senate intelligence committees should be kept fully informed, and that
any "questionable actions'' should be brought to the attention of Congress.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030049-5