SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES WEBSTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310034-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2013
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: May 2, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/22 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310034-4 4-
2 May 1987
Senate Committee Approves Webster
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
Special m 7Te New York flme.
WASHINGTON, May 1- The Senate
Intelligence Committee unanimously
approved the nomination of William H.
Webster as Director of Central Intelli-
gence today despite questions about his
knowledge of the Iran-contra affair.
The committee's unanimous recom-
mendation virtually assures that Mr.
Webster, the Director of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, will be con-
firmed by the full Senate.
Senator David L. Boren of Oklahoma,
the chairman of the intelligence com-
mittee, said after the 15-0 vote today
that no date had been set for a vote by
the entire Senate, but that he hoped one
would be taken soon.
The post of head of the Central Intel-
ligence Agency has been vacant since
January, when William J. Casey re-
signed after surgery move a can-
cerous brain tumor. President Rea-
gan's first nominee-to succeed Mr.
Casey, 4Robert M Gates`the agency's
deputy director, withdrew after ques-
tions were raised about his involve-
ment in the Iran-contra affair. He has
continued to function as acting direc-
tor.
A
Apparent Eagerness to Approve
The members of the intelligence
committee appeared eager to approve
Mr. Webster, who has developed a
reputation for professionalism and in-
tegrity in his nine years as head of the
F.B.I. But questions about the role of
Mr. Webster and the F.B.I. in the Iran-
contra affair were repeatedly raised.
The committee delayed its vote this
morning when a document was discov-
ered about exchanges between the
F.B.I. and Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North,
the National Security Council aide who
was dismissed when reports of the di-
version of funds from the Iran arms
sales to the Nicaraguan rebels were
disclosed last November.
Senator William S. Cohen, Republi-
can of Maine, the vice chairman of the
committee, said the material was "a
proposed communication from Colonel
North to the F.B.I." that had not been
sent. Senator Cohen declined to elabo-
rate on the document, saying it con-
cerned a classified matter.
Climate at F.B.I. Questioned
After the vote, Senator Arlen Spec-
ter, Republican of Pennsylvania, read
statement that the confirmation
hearings suggested that "the F.B.I. and
to some extent Judge Webster himself
did not respond to clear warnings to
stop Colonel North's improper, if not
illegal, activities."
"It may be that Colonel North's key
position in the National Security Coun-
cil, in conjunction with the President's
strong personal support of the contras,
created a climhte where the F.B.I.
winked at possible violations of law in-
volving the contras," Senator Specter
asserted.
Senator Specter then re erred to inci-
dents that came to light during the
hearings that indicated that F.B.I.
agents had learned of fund-raising ac-
tivities by Colonel North on behalf of
the contras and that Colonel North had
tried several times to use his F.B.I.
connections to delay criminal investi-
gations.
Among the incidents was an F.B.I.
report from July 1985 relating that
Colonel North asserted that he had dis-
cussed a large private donation to the
contras with President Reagan and
Robert C. McFarlane, who was then
the President's national security advis-
er. The money was to come from an
Iranian posing as a Saudi prince. Later,
the Iranian was convicted of bank
i fraud.
The notes made by the F.B.I. agent
who interviewed Colonel North offer
the first documented indication that
,Colonel North talked directly with
President Reagan about private dona-
tions for the contras at a time when
Congress had banned all United States'
Government aid to them.
The F.B.I. report also suggests that
Colonel North was aware of the restric-
tion and tried to get around it. "Inas-
much as U.S. public law forbid expend-
itures of Government funds, to aid
Nicaraguan insurgents, it was inad-
visable for a member of the N.S.C. to
meet with the Prince directly," the re-
port quoted Colonel North as saying.
For that reason, Colonel North was
reported to have said, he had asked
Richard R. Miller, the head of a Wash-
ington public relations firm and a for-
mer campaign worker for President
Reagan, to meet with the man posing
as a prince. Colonel North said Mr.
Miller had been doing "contract work"
for the National Security Council, help-
ing raise funds for the contras.
Mr. Webster said he had never seen
the report because the teletype con-
taining it, which was sent from the
F.B.I.'s Washington field office to its
headquarters two blocks away, was
lost through a "technological error."
But the report indicates that the
F.B.I. agent had asked for and received
permission from a high-level bureau
official to talk with Colonel North, a
'White House employee. Another F.B.I.
report, dated September 1985, in which
an F.B.I. agent said he had informed
Colonel North that the presumed
prince was an imposter, also indicates
that high-level authority to speak with
Colonel North had been sought.
Oliver B. Revell, the executive assist-
ant director of the F.B.I. and the bu-
reau official whom Colonel North is re-
ported to have asked to help delay sev-
eral Federal investigations, said today
he assumed Colonel North had author-
ity from his superiors in the White
House.
"When you have a colonel on the
N.S.C." dealing with issues like the hos-
tages and the contras, Mr. Revell said
to reporters, "I assumed that others
much higher up were involved."
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/22 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310034-4