NEW BOSS OF THE CIA WILL HAVE TO FIGHT OFF TEMPTATIONS OF SECRECY AND PARTISAN POLITICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270034-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 4, 2013
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: February 23, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/06/05 :CIA-RDP99-014488000301270034-9
OM PAGEPAGE~~.I.-~
~VEW YORK POST
23 February 1987
New boss of-the CIA will have to fight off temptations of secrecy and partisan politics
~~ Senate hearings regarding the con-
' firmation oP Robert ~,?to be-
come director o n al Intelligence
have focused anew on one of the great
anomalies of American life: we keep play-
ing games of secrecy when one calamity
after another tells us that secrecy and
democracy are incompatible.
The history of the CIA, from Day One till
now, tells us that no agency that operates in
secrecy, with billions. of dollars to spend,
can long be controlled - by the Congress,
the President, the judiciary, the press or
anything else.
We Americans assume that, in a wicked
world of violent intrigue, we must have an
agency that deals as dirtily as the KGB.
But we learn that in giving power and the
right of secrecy to such an agency, we vir-
tually wipe out the constitutional system of
checks and balances.
Secrecy becomes an even greater bane of
a free and democratic society when the CIA
can pull off a stupid clandestine operation,
then have it shielded by a "retroactive find-
ing". by the President.
Under these circumstances, the CIA must
become a magnet for all the Rambos,
zealots and soldiers of fortune in America.
You need not have spent more than four
years in top government jobs, as I did, to
know that this country could not long sur-
vive without a strong and competent CIA.
This is a brutally mean world in which one
nation always is seeking a military, intelli-
gence, scientific or other advantage over a
perceived adversary.
So the Soviets spy at the Pentagon and the
State Dept. and the supersecret National
Security Agency -and in Silicon Valley
and wherever else U.S. secrets are to be
grabbed to the benefit of the Communist
countries. And we spy, steal, counterspy,
strive for technological breakthroughs to
ensure that -the Kremlin will never dare
order an invasion and occupation of
America akin to the television nonsense
some Americans watched last week
The much?maligned CIA is vital to the
comfort and security of every American.
But, sad to say, the CIA is, like that "Mi.9-
sion Impossible" tape in the telephone
booth, programmed to self-destruct at least
every generation.
I have defended the CIA time and again.
knowing that we live in a world in which we
would be naked to America's enemies with-
out such an agency. The Soviet Union and
its KGB try to manipulate the outcomes of
elections in Nicaragua, Finland. Italy and
even Argentina. The CIA tries to destabilize
an Allende government in Chile, to over-
. throw a black government in Angola, or in
Grenada, all in the name o[ protecting and
spreading democracy.
Quarrel with this role, if you will, but rea-
sonable people might conclude the CIA is
acting responsibly -until the stories pop
up that it is not just trying to manipulate
. politicians and governments thousands of
miles away, but is trying to dictate the poll- -
cies of the State Dept., the military deci?
sions of the Defense Dept.
The CIA is a great American institution
until it follows some self-destructive urge to
tread upon the constitutional rights of the
American people.
During the Nixon years, it blundered into
the outrages of "The Huston .Plan" and
other unconstitutional schemes of Nixon's
White House '~luizibers." The CIA was al?
most destroyed by revelations that it had
perpetrated burglaries, murders or at?
tempted assassinations, illegal drug experi?
menu on ,unwitting citizens, attempted
toothpaste poisonings and other crimes.
Here we are again, with a seriously
wounded CIA, and with a nominee to head it
who seems less than up to the challenge
Before confirming Gates, the least the
Senate can do is try to insure that the new
director of Central Intelligence takes seri-
ously the business of congressional over-
sight, and that he will not quickly succumb
to the temptations of secrecy or the cor?
rupting influences of partisan politics.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/06/05 :CIA-RDP99-014488000301270034-9