DRAFTING 'REFORM' LAWS ON INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES WON'T BE EASY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090077-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 77
• Publication Date: January 14, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

SST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-R
Yl1J1111Y 171 V1Y 011A[L
14 JANUARY 1976
By Martha Angle
Washington Star Staff Writer
President Ford and CIA Director
William Colby think some members
of Congress will do anything for -a
headline, including spilling every-
thing they know about, covert CIA
projects abroad to the nearest avail-
able journalist.
Some members of Congress, on the
other hand, think the President and
Colby invite disclosure of supposedly
classified information about the
CIA's operations by refusing to give
Congress any other means of block-
ing covert programs.
The controversy over American
involvement in the Angolan civil war
and new revelations of planned CIA
funding for anti-Communist politi-
cians in Italy have served to spot-
light the weaknesses of congression-
al oversight procedures.
And both developments have
raised questions on Capitol Hill and
within the executive branch about
the future usefulness of covert activi-
ty as a tool of foreign policy.
"YOU CANNOT have this kind of
.short-circuiting of the normal demo-
cratic process of debate and review
and expect Congress to sit still for it
any longer," said one Senate-source.
"On the other hand, I think we've
also seen that a covert operation
which fits with the'general political
consensus in "this country either
doesn't leak or else doesn't create
any stir if it should become public."
STAT
(C]
After a year of investigation of the
American intelligence community,
special congressional committees
headed by Sen. Frank Church, D-
Idaho, and Rep. Otis Pike, D-N.Y.,
are hammering out recommenda-
tions for reform of the oversight
process.
. But both committees are finding it
easier to identify. the problems than
to solve them.
The Senate committee - but not
the House committee -- has agreed
to sit down with the executive branch.
and try to work out some reform
legislation.
That plan evolved during confer-
ences between Church and Sen. John
Tower, R-Tex., ranking Republican
on his committee, and senior White
House officials. Ford has approved
the plan, but Pike declined to join in
these conferences.
IN ESSENCE, there are four
fundamental questions confronting
the select committees:
? Should the American government,
through the CIA or other agencies,
conduct any covert military or politi-
cal activities in other countries?
? Who in Congress should know what
the intelligence agencies are doing
abroad, and when should they be
told? 1 -
? What power should Congress have
to force a halt to covert activities
ordered by the President but consid-
ered unwise by the legislative
branch?
? What sanctions, if any, should Con-
gress adopt to keep its members
from disclosing classified informa-
tion?
For the better part of the 28 years
the CIA has been in existence, Con-
gress has preferred to know as little
as possible about the less savory ac-
tivities of the agency.
Only a few senior members of the
House and Senate Armed Services
and Appropriations Committees were
privy to the agency's secrets, and
these were conservative and cautious
men with little inclination to question
executive branch decisions on for-
eign policy and national security.
BUT A LITTLE over a year ago,
Congress took its first gingerly step
toward stronger oversight. An
amendment to the Foreign Assist-
ance Act for fiscal year 1975 required
the CIA to report all of its covert
overseas operations "in a timely
fashion" to the "appropriate com-
mittees," specifically including for
the first time the Senate Foreign
Relations and House International
Relations committees.
The Armed Services and Appropri-
ations committees continued to limit
CIA briefings to a handful of.seniQr
members, but the two foreign rela-
tions panels allowed all of their
members to obtain access, either di-
rectly or indirectly, to the informa-:.
tion provided by the CIA.
The result was dramatic. For the
first time, members of Congress with
little sympathy for the CIA and its
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090077-8