DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AT THE KENNEBUNK-KENNEBUNKPORT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000100040009-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2001
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 1, 1976
• Content Type: SPEECH

Approved For Release 2006/10/17: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000106,a4Q0d9-6
Director of Central Intelligence
at the
Kennebunk-Kennebunkport
Chamber of Commerce
September 1, 1976
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George Bush, the Director of Central Intelligence, said
today that secrecy is as important to intelligence as
effective accountability and oversight.
In an informal. address to the Kennebunk-Kennebunkport
(Me.) Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Bush said: "I challenge those
who claim that secrecy in intelligence work is inconsistent
with freedom and democracy to give us a realistic preview
of what this nation's freedom and democracy would look like
if we alone in this imperfect world decided to abandon this
essential protection against our adversaries."
"We now have a fully effective oversight mechanism
defined by the President's Executive Order of last February
and comprehensive accountability to the Congress," Mr. Bush
said, "and we are committed to making these procedures work.
What we do not have is a fully effective way of protecting
the secrets that are -- like oversight and accountability an essential element of this nation's intelligence."
He was alluding to sensationalist public disclosures of
names of intelligence officers and intelligence operations
in the wake of the recent Congressional investigations.
"I do not take issue with the need for investigating
and correcting past errors," Mr. Bush said, "but I will oppose
forever those who seek to destroy us outright ands those
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who, in the name of informing and protecting'the public,
hunt for yet another headline even if it be at the expense
of American lives and of our national security."
Mr. Bush also took issue with what he called "fictional
notions of what intelligence is all about." "I realize
that dirty-tricks artist James Bond is far more fascinating
than a scholarly analyst of foreign political or economic
trends," Mr. Bush said, "but in seven months as Director
of Central Intelligence, I have never met anyone remotely
like James Bond. Yet, during any lunchtime visit to our
Headquarters cafeteria, I may be sharing the room with
enough scholars and scientists who hold enough advanced
degrees in enough disciplines to staff a university."
He described modern intelligence as "much more than
the sometimes romanticized and often misunderstood clandestine
work. "t
"Modern intelligence," he said, "is the gathering of
information both open and hidden, the transformation of
that information into knowledge, and the conversion of that
knowledge into a finished. product that represents the best
possible tool the nation's policymakers can use in their
deliberations and decisions."
Contrary to public belief, Mr. Bush said, this process
requires the painstaking and sometimes even tedious work of
"a great and dedicated corps of thoughtful and scholarly
experts."
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Mr. Bush, a former Congressman from Texas, noted that
he himself has been a user of the intelligence product as
ambassador to the United Nations and as U.S. representative
in Peking.
"I have found that product to be excellent," he said.
"And I continue to think that it is entirely consistent
with our nation.'s desire for peace and security that we
must have and that we do have intelligence ,second to none
in the world."
Approved For Release 2006/10/17: CIA-RDP91-00901 R000100040009-6