WITH BUSH IN THE OVAL OFFICE, IS THE C.I.A. 'BACK IN THE SADDLE'?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 13, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580004-7
I'
STAT
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG
With Bush in the Oval Office, Is
The C.I.A. `Back in the Saddle?
The
Nation
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The Washington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times
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The Christian Science Mon_
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New York Oally News
USA Today The Chicago Tribune
attempts by Stansfield Turner, the head of the
C.I.A., to be involved in the sessions.
"I felt that if the briefing is going to be not just
strictly intelligence, and deal with the whole
gamut of national security issues, it ought to be by
the national security adviser," he said.
Mr. Turner said he does not recall the briefing
contretemps. But he agreed that a tension existed
between himself and Mr. Brzezinski over who
should be giving the President intelligence infor_
mation.
"I did worry that the security adviser would
take a piece of raw intelligence and send it in to
the President out of context," Mr. Turner said.
As Vice President, Mr. Bush was briefed by the
C.I.A. each morning and then usually attended the
national security briefing for Mr. Reagan that
was run by the national security adviser. The
m
Mr. Reagan's eeting was used by John M. Poindexter, one of
Iran arms dealings and other highly sensitive
matters.
It is still unclear what role the C.I.A. will play in
the Bush Administration. Mr. Bush was head of
the agency for, less than a year, succeeding Wil-
liam E. Colby, and he is remembered by C.I.A.
veterans, like Henry Knoche, his deputy at the
agency, for his easy-going style and deference to
the judgments of the professional staff.
Mr. Bush was in charge in 1976, when the
agency was still reeling from the Church Commit-
tee investigations of C.I.A. abuses such as assassi-
nation plots, and his role was largely to rebuild
relations with Congress. "We were in a hunker-
down mode," Mr. Knoche Salo.
Said a C.I.A. official who was an aide to Mr.
Bush at the time: "His main concern was protect-
ing the organization on the Hill, and that he did.
He spent 80 percent of.his effort fighting fires on
Capitol Hill."
In the past, the power of the C.I.A. relative to
other agencies has largely depended on the per-
sonal relationship between the director and the
President.
For much of the Reagan Administration, the
C.I.A. enjoyed an enhanced position through the
personality and vigor of its Director, William J.
Casey. While Mr. Reagan received his morning
briefing from a succession of national security ad-
visers, Mr. Casey deftly used his friendship with
the President and his seat in the Cabinet toassure
that his agency played a central role. He also fa-
vored an active role for covert operations.
V i WASHINGTON
CE PRESIDENT BUSH,
who will be the first Presi-
dent to have served as Amer-
ca's intelligence chief,
wasted no time in signaling a new,
hatide-on approach to intelligence
issues
At his post-election news confer.
ence, Mr. Bush said that he would re-
ceive his daily intelligence briefing
from the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy, a departure from the practice of
Presidents Reagan, Carter and
Nixon, who relied on their national
security advisers to digest and
present the information.
In a city in which powerful figures
fight over seat assignments on Gov-
ernment trips, the issue of who de-
livers the news - good and bad - to
the President is of real significance.
In most recent administrations, the
national security adviser, Secretary
of State and, to a lesser degree, the
Director of Central Intelligence have
jockeyed for influence over the shap.
ing of foreign policy.
Mr. Bush, when he served as Direc-
tor of Central Intelligence under
President Ford, understood that his
power to mold policy rose and fell
with his access to the President. So
some in Washington see his an-
nouncement on the morning briefings
as a notable portent.
"This is a major change," said a former C.I.A.
official. "It says that Bush wants a very close and
direct relationship with the agency, without any
filters in between. It says something about the
role of intelligence and the degree to which the
C.I.A., not the other intelligence agencies, is going
to be a major influence on policy development. it
says to me that the agency is back in the saddle."
During the Nixon Administration, Henry Kissin-
ger, as national security adviser, kept the Direc-
tor of Central Intelligence, Richard Helms, at
arm's length from the White House. Similarly,
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national
security adviser, said he made sure from the first
day of the Carter term that he controlled the
morning briefing. Mr. Brzezinski said he resisted
CONTINUED
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580004-7
Q.
After the Iran-contra affair and Mr. Casey's
death, Mr. Reagan appointed William H. Webster
as Director of Central Intelligence. Like other Ad-
ministration officials, he was asked by President.
Reagan to resign last week. In any case, there was
little enthusiasm in the Bush camp for keeping
Mr. Webster, who previously headed the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
A report by a Washington study group, the Cen-
ter for Strategic and International Studies, called
on Mr. Bush to keep Mr. Webster, at least tempo-
rarily, so as to make the post appear less subject
to the winds of politics. In theory, the Vice Presi-
dent might have been sympathetic to this view,
since he had hopes of staying on as head of the
agency after Jimmy Carter defeated President
Ford in 1976. But Mr. Bush appears to be leaning
toward a change at C.I.A.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580004-7