INTELLIGENCE: SECOND THOUGHTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090041-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: February 9, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST A T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090041-7
INTELLLGENCE:
Second Thoughts
For the past year, it had seemed nearly
certain that the Congressional investiga-
tions into abuses by the CIA and FBI
Would lead to at least one solid reform:
the creation of a strong Congressional
oversight committee to watch over the
nation's intelligence community. But re-
cently enthusiasm for reform has cooled
in the Senate. And last week, in a
surprising turnabout, the House voted,
246 to 12.1, to bar release of a report by its
select committee on intelligence until it
had been cleared by the Administration.
The main reason for Congress's change
of heart v, as the growing realization that
investigating the CIA has become bad
politics. "My constituents keep asking,
bellishments of stories that had been tatiqpfth" o itics with the execu iv ,,
printed months or even years ago.ch and his inability to stop the leaks.
.t _ i esti
ati
ns re
ro-
g
o
p
leaks in a well-calculated fury. Partly,
the Administration's outrage was
prompted by a genuine belief that the
stream of leaks from Congress-if not
stopped-would endanger the nation's
security. Quite clearly, however, the
President also sensed that the time was
ripe for a counteroffensive.
Stung: To drive home his point, Ford
made a special visit to CIA headquarters
in Langley, Va., for outgoing CIA direc-
tor William Colby's farewell speech to
his troops and the swearing-in ceremo-
nies for his successor, George Bush.
"We cannot improve this agency by
destroying it," the President told a
cheering audience. Stung by the Presi-
dent's criticism -end by the House's
Dav{d Simurxf-7'~+ISa Mbune
'Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to "I Had a Secret"'
NIFUSWEEK
9 February 1970
.
'Why are you giving all our secrets to the
Russians?' "said Ohio Democrat Wayne
Hays. In recent months the public's ini-
tial worry over the "in tell igenc a horrors"
ofthe CIA apparently has been overtaken
by its concern at the Christmas Eve mur-
ts Athens station chief, Richard
der of its-
Vetch-and the subsequent publication
in foreign journals'of the names of other
suspected CIA agents. Furthermore, the
leaking of most of Rep. Otis Pike's intel-
ligence committee's top-secret draft re-
port toThe\ew YorkTinmes over the past
two weeks has raised doubts in Con-
gress's own mind about its ability to keep
secrets.
Leaks: The leaks themselves were gen-
erally unspectacular. Most of them, in-
cluding the CIA's gift of military aid to
the Kurdish rebels as a favor to the Shah
..r rr.,., .,.,.t tt,., ~~~.,~V?< sRnn n00 nav-
decision to submit his committee's re-
port for clearance to the White House-
Pike threatened to jettison the entire !
report, asserting that the vote in the
House made his committee's investiga-
tion "an exercise in futility."
That assessment was probably unduly,
harsh. After decades in which Congress
studiously ignored the activities of the I
CIA and FBI, the Senate and House f
committees on intelligence had finally
shed some light on a few of their darker
deeds. Sen. Frank Church's committee
documented the CIA's flimsily author- !
ized assassination plots against foreign
leaders and the FBI's harassmentofMar-
tin Luther King Jr., while Pike's panel
zeroed in_on the intelligence that taxpay
ers were getting for their money. The in-
,~estigations were admittedly flawed-
1
Church was damaged by fruitless so
sented a start at Longressmonam scruuny.
The Pike committee's embarrassment
at the hands of the House dealt a severe
and possibly fatal blow to the creation of
a permanent oversight panel in the
House. Eventually, the Senate will prob-
ably establish some sort of an oversight
committee of its own. And at the urging
of the CIA, which would prefer to reveal
its secrets to one Congressional commit-
tee rather than the half dozen it reports to
now, Ford himself was expected later
this month to recommend a joint over-
sight committee, with limited powers to
proscribe or reveal the agency's covert
operations. In the end, Congress and the
President would probably reach some
compromise; the irony was that Con- i
which a year ago ripped into the
intelligence agencies with such gus-i
to, might not give them as much'
oversight as even they desired. I
d ANTFfCNY
-SANDRA SALMANS with EVERT CLARK an
. MARRO in Was"ton ? .. t
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090041-7