DANIEL SCHORR COMMENTS ON ETHICS OF CIA DIRECTORS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270090-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 5, 2013
• Sequence Number: 90
• Publication Date: February 18, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270090-7I .LEGIB
/'
RADIO 1V REPORTS, INC
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM All Things Conaidered STATION WETA Radio
NPR Network
DATE
February 18, 1987 5:00 P.M. cm/ Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT Daniel Schorr Comments on Ethics of CIA Directors
................Comiem.????ngers???7111110....... ?
NOAH ADAMS: NPR's Daniel Schorr has observed the
careers of Central Intelligence Directors since Allen Dulles in
1953, and Mr'. Schorr has these comments on the Gates proceedings.
DANIEL SCHORR: When the shadow world of intelligenoe
meets the sunshine world of politics, the result, is seldom
satisfactory. For the CIA professional, a public hearing on
Capitol Hill tends to be less an exercise in democracy than in
damage control.
A dozen Or so years ago, an earlier generation of
senatorial inquisitors was shocked when former CIA Director
Richard Helms told an untruth about the agency's involvement in
Chile. Accused of perjury, Helms explained in court that he had
not wanted to lie, but had sworn an oath to protect certain
secrets.
When James J. Angleton, the former chief of counter-
intelligence, was asked behind closed doors why his agency had
retained lethal toxins that President Nixon had ordered des-
troyed, he sai?d it Was not his impression that a secret agency
was supposed to live by the President's public proclamations.
And when Director William Colby went up on Capitol Hill
to testify about CIA abuses, a senior aide advised him, "Just
turn up your coat collar and don't say anything. Live it
througft." Because he didn't follow that advice, Colby has lost a
lot of friends in the agency.
The Gates confirmation hearings have displayed once
again the code of the shadow warrior, whose ethic is not making
waves, not telling all he knows, and sometimes not knowing what
OFFICES IN. WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270090-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270090-7
2
is best not to know.
As William Casey's deputy, Gates said, he left it to the
Director to run the unorthodox activities, like Contra aid. He
said he had actively shunned information, actively discouraged
people from telling us things.
When Gates first got wind of diversion of Iranian arms
money to the Contras, his first concern, typically, was
operational. security, all those disgruntled investors talking.
And when Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North made a cryptic remark at
lunch about Swiss accounts and the Contras, Gates said he became
uneasy, but neither he nor Casey pursued it.
Spymasters are not scout masters. Intelligence careers
are not advanced by inquisitiveness about high-level projects.
We cannot count on public candor from professionals trained in
reflexes of deception and ambiguity.
No other country puts its espionage chiefs through such
a ritual. .The senators demand accountability. Gates promises to
be. as accountable as the President will let him. And then, the
ritual completed, the shadow world and the sunshine world go
their separate ways.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270090-7