CONGRESS LIKELY TO APPROVE NEW CIA CONTROLS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270042-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: February 22, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270042-0
ULNLLLU rtfl , LN1r.KLNALLUNAL I I
22 February 1987
CONGRESS LIKELY TO APPROVE NEW CIA CONTROLS BE ONI\
BY JUDI HASSON
WASHINGTON
Robert Gates, President Reagan's choice as the next CIA director, is
promising to work closer with Congress than some of his secretive predecessors,
but lawmakers still have doubts and are expected to tighten controls on
undercover CIA operations.
Gates told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week at his confirmation
hearing to replace CIA Director William Casey that he intends to inform
lawmakers of all covert operations before they happen.
But despite his promises, Congress is likely to move swiftly ahead on new
legislation to tighten the reins on the intelligence community and require it by
law to inform lawmakers before embarking on covert operations. New laws are
likely by next year, according to congressional aides.
At the hearing, members questioned Gates closely about his conduct in the
Iran arms-Contra aid affair and his failure to inform Congress when he learned
money from secret U.S. arms sales to Iran may have been diverted to the
Nicaraguan rebels.
Despite the sometimes critical questioning, Gates appears heading toward
confirmation as the youngest director in the CIA's history.
The committee will vote on Gates's confirmation in March after reviewing the
presidential Tower Commission's report on the National Security Council's role
in the affair and after recalling Gates for testimony in closed session. The
three-member commission, appointed by Reagan to investigate the NSC, is
acheduled to issue its report Feb. 26.
"I think he'll do quite well,_" said Senate Republican leader Robert Dole.
"I talked to a few Democrats on the committee and they thought he did quite
well."
Committee members extracted a promise from Gates that the CIA will never
again circumvent Congress in conducting covert operations. Gates saidhe would
even consider resigning if there were another breakdown in communications
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270042-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270042-0
off,
between Congress and the intelligence agency.
Gates said his biggest regret was in not trying to get Reagan to rescind his
Jan. 17, 1986, order authorizing the secret sale of weapons to Iran and ordering
the CIA not to inform Congress.
When asked by Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., what he would do if he ever
discovered an order he had not known existed, Gates replied, ''The first thing I
would do would be to hop in a car and come up here (to tell the committee)."
"Well, you're learning, Mr. Gates,'' Bradley replied.
In two days of hearings, lawmakers made.it clear they are angered over the
secret sale of arms to Iran and the possible diversion of profits to the Contras
for a number of reasons, including the administration's failure to inform them
about the weapons.sales for nearly 11 months..
Under a 1980 law, the CIA must tell Congress in a ''timely fashion'' about
covert operations -- a provision passed to tighten controls over the
intelligence community in the wake of past abuses.
But because of the vagueness of the law, members of Congress now say they
intend to tighten it?further and make it harder for the CIA to conduct covert
operations without first informing Congress.
Gates, in his testimony, promised the committee to inform Congress about
covert operations ahead of time unless there were an emergency, and in that
case, notify Congress within a few days.
" I had a very strong sense of the importance of keeping the committee
informed before this hearing began,'' Gates told reporters. ''If confirmed,
intend to have a very good relationship with Congress."
Committee members were annoyed with Gates because he and Casey had hints of a
diversion of funds as early as last October, but Casey did not mention the
suspicions when he testified before the panel Nov. 21, 1986.
Gates acknowledged that he did not aggressively pursue evidence that money
was being diverted because the CIA did want to be involved in gathering
information about private financing for the Contras at a time when Congress
banned all aid, direct or indirect, to the rebels.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270042-0