WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE, QUERIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100280002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 13, 1991
• Content Type: LETTER

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100280002-0
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100280002-0
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100280002-0
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Top Aide to Casey at CIA
Backs Gates Nomination
By a WALL STREET JO VRNAL Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON - John McMahon, a
former top Central Intelligence Agency
officer with broad respect in Congress,
said he will testify next week in support
of Robert Gates's nomination as director
of the CIA.
Mr. McMahon's support is a major
boost for Mr. Gates. whose credibility
with lawmakers suffers as a result of his
performance as deputy director during
the Iran-Contra scandal in 1986. "It's
very plausible that Gates didn't know
what was going on." said Mr. McMahon. who had held the same post under Di. -
rector William Casey. "I think he's
pretty clean on this. I'm going to push
for Gates.
Among major CIA veterans, few
have the same standing in Congress as
Mr. McMahon, who preserved close ties
with senior lawmakers even as he
served in the stormy period of covert ac-
tion in the early 1980s. His forceful im-
age presents a striking contrast to Mr.
Gates's failure to more aggressively
pursue warnings of the Iran-Contra op-
eration.
Mr. McMahon defends Mr. Gates in
i large part because the Iran?Contra oper-
ation was run more from the White
House than from the CIA. But his
broader account of the deputy's job is at
odds with those who now argue that Mr.
Casey so compartmentalized informa-
lion that he prevented his deputies from
knowing what was going on in the
agency.
A former special assistant to Mr.
Casey. now Pied overseas by the CIA,
has been interviewed by the Senate In.
telligence Committee in regard to Mr.
Casey's admlaistrative style. But Mr.
McMahon
a swinging door between us. I knew
3verything I wanted to know."
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100280002-0