LAST WORD ON THE CIA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700070011-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 12, 2005
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: May 3, 1976
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Release 2&? :,CIA-RDP91-00901 RO
3 May. 197o
Rudy Smith-Omaha World-Herald
'Mr. Intelligence': Church in Nebraska
L or d 0% H
Ift
CIA?
The
The nation's intelligence community
was braced for yet another round of
revelations and recommendations this
week-a two-volume final report from
Sen. Frank Church's select committee.
But from the hints that seeped through
the committee's tight security blanket,
there was little cause for concern. Gener-
ally polite and cautious throughout its
investigation, the committee was expect-
ed to produce only the mildest of shock
waves. The big question was whether its
long-awaited report could really rekin-
dle the passion for reform of U.S. cloak-
and-daggering that had first been
aroused by the disclosures of
CIA and FBI improprieties
almost eighteen months ago.
For committee chairman
Church, a more personal
question loomed: Did the
debate over intelligence still
have enough energy to fuel
his late-starting Presidential
campaign?
Church had clearly under-
gone a significant change of
mind since the days when he'
said the CIA might,44frU e
be a "rogue elephant on a
rampage." In the areas of
ot forig and domestic
report was expected to propose a
multitude of procedural changes
(scores in the area of foreign oper-
ations alone) but conclude that the
agencies involved still deserve
more praise than blame. "It will
argue that it is absolutely essential
for the agencies we have to contin-
ue," said a White House source
close to the Church committee.
And while the intelligence agen-
cies themselves might not be com-
pletely satisfied with the report, its
proposals were generally expected
to be ones they could live with.
Control: Those familiar with the
committee's work said that Church
and company had already suc-
cumbed to the arguments of the
CIA-and a cautious new attitude
toward intelligence in the Capi-
tal-by avoiding any mention of
failures, abuses or covert oper-
ations not previously disclosed.
More than half the volume on
foreign operations was said to be
concerned with tightening up re-
porting and control procedures,
mandating the creation of clear
lines of responsibility and of writ-
ten records showing that the Presi-
dent had approved critical covert
actions (and notified Congress,
when possible). The volume on
domestic intelligence was expect-
ed to say that operations targeted on U.S.
citizens should not be the province of the
CIA or military intelligence agencies but
solely a responsibility of the FBI or
another justice Department branch. "It
doesn't mean there would be less of it,"
said another source, "but it would get the
CIA out of the business."
The report was also expected to stress
top-level coordination of all U.S. intelli-
gence functions, and last week new CIA
boss George Bush already seemed to be
moving in that direction. Bush nau}Ted
veteran agency analyst and administrator
Henry E. Knoche, 51, to replace retiring
Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters as his chief
aide. Knoche will run the CIA's day-to-
day operations and free Bush to better
mesh the efforts of all eight foreign-
intelligence agencies.
Whether Congress, too, would fall into
step with the Church proposals was far
less clear. This week's report
was expected to praise the
.executive limits placed on
intelligence operations by
Ford, but call for legislation
to back them up. Also sought
would be a strong Congres-
sional oversight committee,
but insiders doubted that the
report could provoke suffi-
cient public sentiment to
force longtime intelligence
watchdogs such as Senators
The baf't"fe t r intelligence reform is
scheduled to begin in eaniest on the
Senate floor next week, but Church
himself is increasingly an absentee lead-
er ' I [is time is now spent mostly on his
long-delayed Presidential effort, an ef-
fort that Church. and his followers hope
will gain glamour and attention from. his
much-publicized chairmanship of the
Senate's intelligence panel. At the least,
aides say, the release of this week's
report-and the ensuing debate--should
boost Church's name recognition and
media coverage in a string of Western
states--Nebraska, Oregon, home-state
Idaho and Nevada--where he makes his
first primary races. Success there, he
hopes, will give him enough momentum
to collect liberal support for a credible
showing in the California, New Jersey
and Ohio races on June 8. And that,
conceivably, could be just enough to
make him an attractive rising star among
the Presidential----or Vice Presidential-
contenders if the party is deadlocked
come the convention.
But much of Church's appeal, inevita-
bly, would be as the Senate's "Mr.
Intelligence," and given the new, hands-
off mood in Washington and around the
country, it was not clear whether
Church's long months of investigation
and report-writing would have any great-
er impact on the nation's Presidential
politics than on the reform of its en-
trenched intelligence establishment.
-DAVID M. ALPERN with ANThONY MAA:kO acid EVERY
CLARK in Washingtorr
MUM ING1 4WP94x009-R000700070011-5
Stennis to yield to any new
panel. The result, said one
source- mic*ht well he new