WEBSTER TELLS SENATOR HE WILL REVIEW GATES TESTIMONY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310047-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: April 10, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
-` Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310047-0
ON PAGE ....212.1= 10 April 1987
Webster tells senator he will review
Gates testimony
WASHINGTON (AP) ? FBI Direc-
tor William H. Webster, on his way
to virtually certain Senate confirma-
tion as head of the CIA, reluctantly
agreed yesterday to review the Sen-
? ate te_stimonyrofJ3eputy CIA Director
ft-R-rib-ert ..M. Gateso determine
'whether he deceived Congress about
the Iran-contra affair and whether
he should remain at the agency.
The request came from Senate in-
telligence committee member Arlen
Specter, R-Pa., during the second
day of Mr. Webster's confirmation
hearings.
Senator Specter asked Mr. Web-
ster whether he feels Mr. Gates
should step down in light of the fact
that he helped then-CIA Director
William J. Casey prepare what
many in Congress say was Mr. Cas-
ey's misleading testimony to the
committee last November.
The senator told Mr. Webster
that his confirmation hearings likely
would be held over until after Con-
gress returns from Easter recess the
week of April 19. In the meantime,
Senator Specter said, he wants Mr.
Webster to review Mr. Gates' testi-
mony, which brought out the deputy
CIA director's participation in pre-
paring Mr. Casey's congressional ap-
pearance.
"Senator, I don't want to, but if
you insist, I'll review the testimony,"
Mr. Webster replied. The FBI direc-
tor said he did not know if Mr. Gates'
testimony to the committee was suf-
ficient to determine whether Mr.
Gates should remain at the CIA.
"I can't guarantee that I would
want to express an opinion on that
narrow a record," Mr. Webster
added.
"I would appreciate if you would
because, . . I think it Is. . . really the
crux of the matter as to appropriate
disclosure by the CIA," Senator
Specter replied.
1 am very interested in your re-
sponse to that question because I
think it's very important as to the
continued service of Deputy Director
Gates," Senator Specter told Mr.
Webster at one point.
The senator said that Mr. Gates
helped Mr. Casey prepare testimony
that omitted a number of important
facts about the Iran-contra affair.
Mr. Casey testified four days be-
fore Attorney General Edwin W.
Meese's disclosure Nov. 25 that
money from U.S. arms sales to Iran
had been diverted to Nicaraguan
rebels.
Mr. Casey had been told in Octo-
ber that money from Iranian arms
sales might have been diverted to
the rebels, but he did not mention
this to the committee. Senator Spec-
ter pointed to three other omissions
from Mr. Casey's testimony, includ-
ing the fact that a key arms dealer in
the weapons sales to Iran, Manucher
Ghorbanifar, had flunked two poly-
graph examinations.
Committee chairman David L.
Boren, D-Okla., disagreed with Sen-
ator Specter's suggestions that Mr.
Gates perhaps should not remain at
the agency, saying that Mr. Gates
"has performed in an *standing
fashion and is continuing to render
outstanding and very candid ser-
vice."
Mr. Gates has denied that either
he or the agency tried to cover up
CIA participation in the Iran arms
deal when the agency prepared Mr.
Casey's congressional testimony.
"I did not know" during the period
leading up to the Nov. 21 appear-
ance by Mr. Casey "many of the
facts of CIA's role, and while coordi-
nating the effort, did not participate
In drafting the testimony," Mr. Gates
wrote to Senator Boren.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/24: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301310047-0