FUTURE BLEAK FOR PROPOSALS IN CIA REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100040014-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 14
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Approved For Release 2007/06/21: CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100040014-5
THE I.T ISIil :
P7 April
consideration to recom-
mending an end to the secret
operations. "Presidents and
administrations have made
excessive, and at times
self-defeating use of covert
action," said the committee.
By Vernon A. Guidry Jr.
Washington Star Staff Writer
The Senate Intelligence Committee
has delivered a toned-down attack on
the CIA to a Senate that may have
grown spy-shy and unwilling to sia-
niiicantly tamper with the nation9s
intelligence apparatus.
A rebuff is expected today from
the Senate 1Z ,let" amnmittpe, which
marks up legislation creating a new
intelligence oversight committee.
The theme of the intelligence
panel's recommendations released
yesterday was the reed for greater
control by the executive and by Con-
gress through its oversight function.
Essential to that oversight function,
in which Congress has so far failed,
the committe report indicated, was
the power of the purse. Chairman
Frank Church, D-Idaho said the
. But it deleted the specific figure at
White House and CIA insistance and
voted 6-5 to let the full Senate decide
whether to release it.
The committee's 650-page report
had few revelations of the kind which
shocked in its reports on covert ac-
tions in Chile and on the asassination
attempts contemplated, attempted
and bugled.
But it did reveal that since 1961
there have been what were described
as 900 major covert operations and
thousands of smaller ones. While
these secret projects of influence or
action were pouring out, the commit
tee says there was no systematic re
view of either sensitive foreign
espionage or counterintelligence ac-i
tivities at the White House level. -
power to authorize the intelligence THE COMMITTEE Rave seriou3
budget was crucial.
That viewpoint was not expected to
prevail today, however. Insiders sup-
porting a strong new oversight body
were fiouring t9e best they might do
was a h-4 loss in the rules panel on
the question of purse-string power
for the new committee. Intelligence
committee staff members were tell-
ing reporters that the loss in the
Rules Committee would become a
victory in the Senate.
THE INTELLIGENCE panel itself
is in need of a Senate victory on the
question of the over-all intelligence
budget figure. It was the latest in a
series of deletions, some of them of
wholesale size, from yesterday's re-
port at CIA and White House insist-
ante.
The committee left in its -report
clear indications that the combined
budget of the CIA, Defense Intel-
lignce Agency, National Security
Agency and the national reconnat-
sance program is about $5 billion for
this fiscal year and that the total
costs, direct and indirect, for -all
I. 11; . .
t
t
But ultimately the
committee opted for
recommending dramatical-
ly reduced use of this most
controversial tool of foreign
policy and also recom-1
mena:ng that Congress be-
informed before, not after
the operation is run. "The
committee has concluded,.{
however, Gnat the United
States should maintain the
option of reacting in the fu-
ture to a. grave, unforseen
threat to United States na-
tional securitty through cov-
ert means,' the report
read.
Another key element was
the recommendation that
omnibus legislation be
written defining intelli-
gence function.; and the
relationships between the
intelligence community and
the executive branch and
Congress. The National Se-
curity Act of 1947, -which
created the Central Intelli-
gence Agency. "is simply:
no longer an adequate
framework for the conduct
of America's intelligence
agencies," the report read.
AT THE SAME time, the
report said the CIA, which
Church had once character-
ized as a rouge elephant,
"in broad terms, is not `out
of control' . "
The committee had some
kind words for President
Ford's recent executive
order making changes in
the operation of the intelli-
gence apparatus within the
executive branch. But the
report indicated Ford's ac-
tions did not go far enough.
That may prove to be a
m
iv
1 .6 e (pence ac
ies, is Approved For Release 2007/06/21 : CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100040014-5