THE TRIAL OF CASEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100050004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: September 19, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100050004-3
Essay
WILLIAM SAFIRE
The Trial of Casey
STAT
WASHINGTON
On Nov. 10, 1982, the day Leonid
Brezhnev died, as all the sages of
Congress and media thumbsuckers
were speculating on the Kremlin suc-
cession, Director of Central Intelli-
gence William J. Casey sent a C.I.A.
assessment to President Reagan.
The last sentence of that memo
concluded with the Director's person-
al judgment: "As for me, I bet Andro-
pov on the nose and Gorbachev
across the board."
Horseplayers know that on the nose
means "to win," and across the board
is a hedged bet "to win, place and
show," or to come in among the first
three. Bill Casey's intelligence judg-
ment was sound: the K.G.B.'s Andro-
pov won, and his protege, the little-
known Gorbachev, was placed in the
line of succession after the apparat-
chik Chernenko.
That's the sort of valuable predic-
tion that we pay Directors of Central
Intelligence for. Casey was extraordi-
narily good at that, but you would
never know it from the ghoulish im-
peachment trial now going on in the
guise of Senate confirmation hear-
ings of Robert Gates.
Looming in the background is the
contemptible charge that this lifelong
Impeachment
in absentia.
patriot, while running the 1980 Rea-
gan campaign, conspired with Ayatol-
lah Khomeini to delay the release of
American hostages lest credit go to
President Carter. That's a late hit by
political sore losers.
His widow, Sophia Casey, has
shown me documents about his suspi-
cions that Mr. Carter would pull an
"October surprise." In a Nov. 2, 1980,
memo to Reg~gan, Casey dismissed a
potential Cali ransom effort as
likely to be seen as "a desperate last
attempt to manipulate the hostages
again for political benefit"; Casey's
judgment was that "we should say
very little and leave it that way."
As C.I.A. chief, did he comprehend
the Soviet threat and incipient eco-
nomic rot? Yes to both: when he
reported at the outset that Moscow
was behind state-sponsored terror-
ism, doves clucked indulgently - but
now we're getting the evidence of how
right Casey was. And even when
C.I.A. analysts led the dovecote to
misread the Soviet economy, he was
on target with his personal assess-
ment of Kremlin economic weakness
and inability to cope with our arms
spending pressure.
What about the diversion of profits
to the Nicaraguan contras from sales
of arms for Iran? I have no doubt that
Bill Casey personally supervised Ol-
lie North's illegal operation, backdat-
ed findings, wrongfully misled Con-
gress and brought deserved shame on
his agency and President.
My old friend and I had a severe
falling-out about that time, but now I
believe this arrogance and degenera-
tion of judgment in his final years had
much to do with a tumor destroying
his brain.
In the Gates hearings, we are hear-
ing only of the diseased, tempera-
mental Casey, not of the healthy, in-
sightful hard-liner who contributed so
much to the victory over Commu-
nism. Nobody, not even Senator War-
ren Rudman, is willing to provide
such perspective during the Senate's
first posthumous impeachment trial.
Mr. Gates cannot defend his old
boss and patron if he wants to be
confirmed. On the contrary, he must
distance himself from Casey's con-
cluding lawlessness, despite pockets
of guilty knowledge all around. The
nominee properly admits he should
have known more of the illegal diver-
sion, should have told his boss he had
a need to know; frankly the likelihood
that he would then have blown the
whistle is remote.
Let's assume Mr. Gates has an
excellent torgettery and was deft
enough to stay on the frayed fringe of
guilty knowledge. Assume also this
frustrated careerist will keep his
sworn word to resign rather than
obey a Presidential order to pull the
wool over Senate oversight - a prom-
ise he refused to make last time up.
Should he be confirmed?
Yes. He's a cold fish but he knows
his stuff about economic intelligence,
and if anybody's eyes have been lifted
to the necessity of truth in covert
action, it's 0. Ye Gates. Unlike the
bad Casey, he has little political back-
ing to be arrogant about; like the
good Casey, he remained vigilant to-
ward the Soviet Union when even his
colleagues went starry-eyed.
Casey's impeachment in absentia
is not the American way. The time for
Senate overseers to kick a man is
when he is up and causing trouble, not
when he is safely in his grave. 0
The Washington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Date
W.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100050004-3