SOME MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND WASHINGTON OFFICIALS ARE OPENLY EXPRESSING CONCERN ABOUT WHAT THEY SAY ARE WEAKNESSES IN THE CONGRESSIONAL CONTROL AND MONITORING OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY'S COVERT ACTIVITIES OVERSEAS.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100080039-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: June 1, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100080039-1
14ltTTCLZ AP .
ON PA!SG E
NEW YORK TIMES
1 ruNPE 1978
Congress Is Accused of Laxi
k
Co
Special Coordinating Committee, his new
Cabinet-level group that reviews and as-
sesses all clandestine activity. The coor-
dinating committee is headed by Zbig-
niew Brzezinsld, the national, security
adviser.
To Cover the Watertront'
By SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Some members of Congress and Wash-
ington officials are openly expressing
!concern about what they say are weak-
nesses in the Congressional control and
`monitoring of the Central Intelligence
,Agency's covert activities overseas.
' They cite. as evidence the willingness
of the Senate and House intelligence com-
?mittees to approve clandestine operations
in such sensitive regions as the Middle
East and Africa without serious question
v
uz At least three such operations involving -
the shipment of communications equip-
ment to Egypt and the Sudan and an anti-
Cuban propaganda program in the Horn
of Africa, were approved by the commit-
tees last fall, according to well-placed
sources.
I Some legislators were known to have
had subsequent misgivings about at least
one operation, but no objections were
voiced at the time, the same sources said.
There is no legislation barring the C.I.A.
from engaging in covert activities abroad,
but the quick endorsement by the Senate
and House intelligence committees last
year of the three covert operations dis-
concerted some members of Congress
who had already raised questions about
the various command-and-control mech-
anisms set up in the wake of the C.I.A. -
domestic spying scandals, The Times's
sources said.
The C.I.A.'s operations were approved,
as they must be before being submitted
to Congress, by President Carter and the
Members of the:- Senate Intelligence{
Committee acknowledged in recent intend.
views that the process- of gaining the)
right to complete oversight over the!
C.LA.'s activities was a slow one and
not yet been completed. But they insisted,
!as one senior aide said, that "in every
ar t
th
comm
lli
enc
I
e
ea o ue
e
g
..- New U.S. Role in Angolan War seen 'so he could convnunicatC wfth his'per-
to cover cover y,
Itee wiII be able thewaterfront ISO aides without others--presumabl
I
ifrom top to bottom." Senator Dick Clark, Democrat of Iowa, y
The broad question of Congressional told reporters last week that the believed! in the Egyptian military-being able to t
control over the C.I.A.'s covert activities' the Carter Administration was consider-1 eavesdrop.
has been raised repeatedly since the spy- ing a re-entr3'`unto the Angolan civil war ! ` The equipment was said to have cost
1i scandal. One immediate solution was by clandestinely supplying ing arms, through.i - less than $500,000 and perhaps as little
the French, to a pro-Western faction; as $350,000. It was described as part of
gressional committees entitled to briefings i there. And the President was quoted as ! a five-year or six-year multimillion-dollar
on such activities. In practice, however, thaving made clear to some senators that cammuaications program, now in its final
an inquiry by The Times showed that he would support a repeal of legislation stage
while the full membership of the Senate barring the United, States from aiding a Similar equipment was reportedly
faction in Angola. provided earlier to leaders of the Israeli
and House intelligence committees was p
-briefed,. only a few members of the other The covert operations, all approved Government.
six committees were informed of the i sometime last fall, included the delivery' Administration officials explained that i
:covert operations and usually after the of clandestine radio and other communi-' Mr. Sadat considered the C.IA. quip-
,,fact. cations equipment to President Anwar el- ment as "very personal' and it wea4 at
Because of the past controversy over Sadat of Egypt and to President Gaafar his direct request .that it was provided
the agency's involvement in Chile- and al-Nimeiry of the Sudan. secretly. elsewhere, some-members of Congress In addition, the C.I.A. . organized an
end AA-;i e?,.sf;nw sir ;rnnwr, -: a ..L-~ .. .......i . _*.n.. .i"A.-I
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100080039-1
For example, the-existencd of the clan- As explained by Adniiinistration offici-
als, the equipment provided to Mr. Sadat
destine operations ,in the Middle-East and I
Africa was disclosed as President Carter last year was part of a continuing C.I.A.
and key Administration aides are becom- p
roject to supply him with a. f ersonal
ing involved in an increasingly public communications system for safety. i
debate over Congressional restrictions The Administration officials said that'
and prohibitions on foreign involvements. Mr. Sadat had requested the equipment