EXCERPTS OF SPEECH BY GEORGE BUSH DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BEFORE WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL HARTFORD, CONN. 12 OCTOBER 1976

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000100060001-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 12, 1976
• Content Type: SPEECH

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EXCERPTS OF SPEECH BY
GEORGE BUSH
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
BEFORE
WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL
IIARTFOR1), CONN.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
It has r.oiw, been about nine months since I was sworn in as
Director of Central T_ntel.:ligence. ibis afternoon I would like
to c1-i.sct.css cti.i.tn you some ()E the things we are doing in iritelligence,
particularly r,.t. CIA; some of the changes that have taken place
at the direction of the President which I believe have
strengthened our intelligence community; and, finally, some of
the concerns that are stilt with us.
Intelligence as we know it today goes far beyond some of
the traditional concepts and impressions of int:c:t.:-_:i Bence
historically, of course, mostly associated With military affairs.
What we are concerned with today are all aspects of the
capabilities, intentions, and activities of foreign -powers and
organiza.ti.ons. and the impacts of political, economic,
sociological, technological., and other trends and developments.
To provide the kinds of accurate evaluations and estimates we
need, information is gathered from a wide variety of sources
some perfectly open, others quite confidenti.al. This information
is collated by intelligence analysts, ' a corps of scholarly experts,.
and evaluated by the National Intelligence Officers who are
responsible for the best: intelligence estimates we can possibly
make, based on all the information we have gathered and the analyses
we have completed. The guidance and 'direction for the
intelligence community comes from the National Security Council
composed. of the President, Vice President, Secretary of State,
and Secretary of Defense. The NSC conducts regular reviews of
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intelligence policies to make certain are properr. supporting
foreign policy objectives. The Pre_ ic!e;it and the ::- need the
most accurate and informed jtidgment~ pos:;_i~ie -- :;l ess
ingredient 'or decision-Iriaking in the ;" i~~ 1, L _onal
defense and foreign policy.
An Executive Order issued by the Prosid_: in t=e1) 17 1=ary
made several organizational changes that I think hive already
proved significant and will do much to pro ide cohesiveness in.
our foreign intelligence effort. Especially It eaningful for the
effective collection and production of intelligence is the
Committee on Foreign Intelligence -- ti..: CFL f s ablished to
strengthen the supervision of the Director Central Intelligence
over the intelligence community -- the intelligence coiponents
of the various national security agencies. This Committee, which
I chair, establishes policy priorities for the collection and
production of national intelligence as well as the budget
preparation and resource allocations for foreign intelligence,
Also established was the Operations Advisory Group. This
Group provides for the President recommendations on any
special activities by the intelligence cora;nunity in support of
foreign policy objectives and reviews sensitive ir_telli.gence
operations. This includes so-called "covert action" -- although
in fact we are spending a very small portion of our budget today
in this area, in the neighborhood of 2%.
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An Intelligence Oversight .Board. was also established which
has members from outside the government -- three prominent
citi.z.ens. This Oversight Board considers reports from the
Inspectors General and the General. Counsels of the intelligence
agencies on mattters of legality or propriety and periodically
reviews Procedures in this area.
My own rule in directing the intelligence comiaanity of the
U.S. government was buttressed by the provision of two
assistants: one, currently Admiral Dan Murphy, is Deputy
the Director of Central. Intelligence for the Intelligence
Co711.unity -- a new position. The second is the: Ueptzty Director
of Central Intelligence ---. w i..th an explicit mandate of
responsibility for the clay.-to-day operations of the CIA. This
position is currently held by Jlenry Knoche, a veteran
intelligence officer with extensive experience on the analytical
side of CIA. -
At the same time, the President recognized that measures
intelligence
employed to acquire/ informatio-n should be responsive to
legitimate needs only, and must be conducted 'in a. manner that
respects the established concepts of privacy and civil liberties.
Executive Order 11905 is a remarkable document, for all
the modesty of its dry language of administrative instruction:
In the most open society in the world it sets down rules _-
openly and publicly -- by which the U.S. conducts a vital, difficult
and necessarily partially secret function. These rules
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document the expressed determination of Americans to permit
no governmental function to extend beyond the limits of
established national interest and to allo:r no interest to be
hi ;her than the rights of individual) assured to each of us
by the Co asttitution.
I can assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that CIA is abiding
by the directives of the President and by our own administrative
regulations. le will not abuse our authority, and at the same
time we will continue to produce the intelligence --- the' analyses
and estimates -- that our national leaders require.
}, Y Y *
One o [ my Continuing concerns is the lack of M~nowiedge
that exists about what CIA does. and the kinds of things that
CIA is g-iving attention to which are important to all of us in
terms of national security.
There are, for example, our concerns about Soviet po:.e'x . -
CIA has the responsibility for keeping the President, the
`rational Security Council, and other elements of government
advised on such matters as what the Soviets can do, what their
r:ilitary capabilities are, -.and what they intend to do.. How far
and how fast can their bombers go? What's their missile strength?
.ere do we stand on Soviet compliance with SALT -- that is,
:-.-hat are the Soviets actually doing in term of the things th.t
have been agreed upon? Much of this work falls to the CIA.
Then there is nuclear proliferation. You don't need to
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h :ve grandchildren to he concerned about what nuclcear-
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proliferation means to the coming; generations. t'~e must
kno.,? where nuclear weapons might be produced and what nations
are doir( ; in this respect..
Thera; hee matt: er of international te-cr orism. a sub j oct
if; t:
of grawing concern to nations throughout the world. We must
keen) track of what ter ror-! st groups overseas are up to in
their planning, particularly as it might impact on American
citizens and property. We work very closely or, this by providing
foreign intelligence to an inter--agency task force.
Therels also world traffic in narcotics. We must try to
identify major source Cori r r:LC=s f_o -r n 1arcot e_c_~ and the I-)redo-minant
routes for transporting narcotics. Although CIA is not in the
law-enforcement business, we must collect foreign itt6lliuence
that impacts on how we combat the flow of narcotics to this
country.
In recent years economic intelligence has become. even more
important -- joining political, military, scientific and
sociological intelligence as areas where CiA must provide special
attention. Suppose OPEC plans to raa.i-se its prices? WWhat are
the impacts on our allied countries, or on the lesser developed
-countries? These are questions Cl."', nust try to answer.
What are the long-range political trends? While much of. our
work is devoted to analyzing spot developments -- producing
current intelligence -- CIA also has an office that devotes
itself exclusively to longer-term political trends in foreign
countries.
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No, it's not all clandestine collection of information -
although there are still traditional methods of collecting
intelligence abroad from people whose sympathies are with us.
Much of the ,. ork at CIA -- the so--called production of
intelligence -- is a detailed collection and analysis of
information from all sources -- including such open sources
as the foreign press and radio.
I can assure you also that CIA is not just a paper mill.
A constant effort is made to make certain that reports are
responsive to the needs of the policymakers. And, to the
extent possible, unclassiffied. reports are made available to the
public through the Library of Congress.
So I submit. to you that intelligence production in the
modern world is indeed essential, vital to national security.
When some people claim we don't need a CIA, I consider this
simply unconstructive cynicism. When people who would do away
with CIA talk about freedom, democracy, open society, I say
that we in intelligence are doing more to preserve the reality
of these-words than those who attack us.
* Y .. Y
I can assure you we have an intelligence capability second
to none in the world. We have an alert and warning system that should prevent any "Pearl Harbor" surprises. I think the
great majority of the American people know and understand that-
They t~?ant us to be competent -- to do our job, and do it well,
withiB the constitutional restraints of the American system.
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l~aat_ 7 think they are sometimes confused by what they read
in the press, and. hear and see on. television --- reports which
co little to explain the true role of CIA in the government.
Sonsationalism in some of the mcd.ia - -- masquerading as
d to distract the
ir?_-v-esti.=_;~a.t:ive journalism _.- has ser~-..
att-e nation of the American people from what intelligence really
is and really does --- which is to p omote our national security.
This kind of sensationalism ignores what has been done to
provide both executive and congressional oversight on U.S.
intelligence activities. And some of the allegations in the
nedia seem to have simply come from whole cloth..
There a_re m