REBUILDING A TATTERED RELATIONSHIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270083-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: February 18, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270083-5
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18 February 1987
REBUILDING A TATTERED RELATIONSHIP
BY DANA WALKER
(UPI) Robert Gates had one regret as he sat before the
Senate committee with the power to make him the youngest CIA director ever
that the panel wasn't told in advance about covert U.S. anus sales to Iran.<
He prcmised to correct that situation in the future.<
In a tense hearing before 'the Senate Intelligence OOrmittee Tuesday,
Gates asserted his determination, if confirmed as the nation's top spy, to
stitch up the tattered remains of the relationship between congress and what is
known as the U.S. intelligence carmunity - the CIA and other federal spying
agencies.<
Gates devoted almost four pages of his 11 -page opening statement to
the-issue and more than once described the. absence of congressional
intelligence "oversight' as his No. 1 regret in the donned Iran arms-Contra
aid operations.<
we must find a way to avoid valleys of mistrust in this % relationship, '' he said in his statement. I consider it one of my highest
priorities to help re-establish mutual trust and confidence.<
"The congressional carmittees and executive oversight organizations
should give the American people confidence that their intelligence service
is accountable, carries out its activities according to the law and that we are
guided by standards and values acceptable to then.''<
The National Security Act of 1947 was amended in 1980 to require
timely notification' of Congress, specifically the intelligence carmittees,
of important covert activity.<
The definition of ' timely '' has been in dispute ever since, with a
special provision in the law adding to the confusion. But Gates said he has a
good idea of what it means to him: no more than "several days. '' <
With an order signed Jan..17, 1986, President Reagan chose to
circumvent the law to keep Congress from knowing about covert U.S. arms sales
to Iran and their link to winning release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon. The
operation was not revealed until Novenber.<
1% 11 As I have looked back on that entire period,'' Gates said Tuesday,
the only real regret that I have and the one mistake that I think we at the
agency made, that I made, was in not pressing ... for a reversal of the
direction not to notify the Congress.''< !
Under tough questioning from Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., he went so far
as to say he would consider resigning if he were CIA director and were asked to
delay notification of covert activity to Congress.<
Withholding information in the Iran affair stretched the relationship
between the intelligence camunity and Congress to the breaking point, Gates
said.<
I would like to think that I would have gone to the president and
revisited the issue of prior notification,'' he said. "Perhaps if that had
happened and he said no, then I would have contemplated residing. '' <
Intelligence caRnittee members have charged that the failed Iran policy
might never have been implemented if Congress had the opportunity to learn
about it beforehand. At the least, they say, the affair might not have
deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages swap irreconcilable with U.S.
JOnttnu8d
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270083-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270083-5
2.
policy. <
But Congress is mindful it has made a contribution to the estrangement
with the executive branch, and Gates noted that briefly in his opening
statement.<
"We must do something about unauthorized disclosures,'' he said. "The
cost to our capabilities from leaks ... has been catastrophic. ''<
Sources with the select House connittee investigating the Iran-Contra
scandal have indicated that a leak-free probe is at least a part of the
carmittee's self-imposed mandate to allay administration fears it '%can't be
trusted.''<
"We certainly don't want to prove than right,'' one source said.<
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270083-5