PAPERS SHOW BUSH FOUGHT TO BLOCK PROBE OF CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580033-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: September 30, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580033-5
ILLEGIB
Papers show Bush fought
to block probe of CIA
minded Bush that President Gerald
R. Ford had already given a public
pledge that his administration would
not use the classification process or
take any other action to prevent the
exposure of illegal activities, Bush
still balked, saying said he had not
received any written directive from
the President spelling out this pol-
icy.
By Jim Mann
Los Angeles Times
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - While he
was director of the Central Intelli-
gence Agency, Vice President Bush
secretly battled with the Justice De-
partment and White House officials
in an effort to restrict a federal crim.
inal investigation of senior CIA offi-
cials, according to newly released
documents.
Citing the need to protect intelli-
gence sources, Bush in October 1976
repeatedly sought to prevent some
documents from being declassified
and CIA witnesses from being called
before a federal grand jury, the new
material shows.
The grand jury was investigating
charges that officials working for or
with the CIA, including former CIA
Director Richard Helms, had lied un-
der oath to Congress about CIA oper-
ations in Chile during and after the
1970 election of Salvador Allende, a
Marxist, as president of that country.
When White House officials re.
In a memo at the time to another will be acquitted.
The new information about Bush is
contained in documents at the Presi-
dent Ford Library. Professional ar-
chivists there opened files kept by
Ford's White House counsel, Philip
W. Buchen, on Sept. 8. A Los Angeles
Times reporter found them in the
course of other research.
Writing to Ford in 1976, Buchen
said, An impasse exists between the
Justice Department and Director
George Bush of the CIA." Buchen
told the President that failure to ob-
tain the information in dispute
"would abort the pending investiga-
tion and lead to no prosecution."
White House official, Bush said,
"There is no intention on my part or
on the part of this agency to take any
action that might reasonably be con-
strued as an effort to thwart or frus-
trate the investigation... .
"At the same time, I mean to do
whatever is necessary and appropri.
ate to carry out my statutory man-
date to protect intelligence sources
and methods, believing as I do that
such protection is at the heart of the
agency's ability to function effec-
tively."
Ford supported the Department of
Justice and his White House aides,
and instructed Bush to let federal
prosecutors have what they needed.
The Justice Department investiga-
tion eventually resulted in Helms'
1977 plea of no contest to two crimi-
nal charges of failing to testify
"fully, completely and accurately" to
Congress.
When asked for comment, Craig
Fuller, Bush's current chief of staff,
said through a spokeswoman that the
vice president's office first heard of
the Buchen files when questions
were raised by the Times yesterday.
Bush's efforts as the CIA director
contrasted sharply with those of his
own immediate predecessor at the
agency, William E. Colby. It was
Colby who first referred to the De-
partment of Justice the allegations of
false testimony by CIA officials, thus
leading to the criminal prosecution
that Bush was seeking to restrict.
Bush's defense of clandestine oper-
atives facing criminal charges has a
modern echo. During his current
campaign for the White House, Bush
has expressed strong support for for-
mer national security adviser John
M. Poindexter and former Lt. Col.
Oliver L. North, who face federal
criminal charges stemming from the
secret sale of arms to Iran and the
diversion of profits from these sales
to the Nicaraguan contras. The vice
president has said he hopes the two
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580033-5