CIA'S WEBSTER AGREES TO STAY ANOTHER MONTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660026-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: July 24, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660026-4
CIA's Webster
Agrees to Stay
Another Month
By lw wa
W K
President Bush yesterday asked
retiring CIA Director William H.
Webster to remain in office for at
least a month longer than planned
because of the delay in confirmation
hearings for Robert M. Gates, the
president's nominee for the post.
White House press secretary Mar-
lin Fitzwater, in a written statement,
said Webster had agreed to delay his
scheduled July 31 departure for one
month. There would still have to be
an acting director for some period
because the Gates hearings are
scheduled to begin Sept. 16.
Fitzwater, describing Bush as
"frustrated and angry" over Gates's
predicament, said the president
yesterday "made an impassioned
speech before the Cabinet this
morning on the outstanding qual-
ities of Bob Gates and how much he
supports him."
Fitzwater described Bush as ex-
Pressing "his personal outrage at
much of the efforts to denigrate"
Gates's character "by innuendo and
leaked stories."
Gates's problems in confirmation
came after Alan D. Fiers, former
chief of the CIA's Central American
to the
in-
dependent =mael iinvadgating the
Irauraa . aflaic that he had given
unhnctW iaformatioo to Congress.
He piesdsd guilty to two misdemean-
or cosats of unlawfully withholding
infamstion from Congress and
agreed to cooperate with indepen-
dent counsel Lawrence B. Walsh.
That agreement, which came after
the Gates nomination, caused the
Senate Select Committee on Intel-
ligence to postpone Gates's confir-
mation hearing until Fiers and others
can be questioned about what Gates,
as the No. 2 man at the CIA at the
time, knew about the Reagan admin-
istration's arms sales to Iran, the di-
version of profits from those sales to
the contra rebels in Nicaragua and
the effort being run out of the White
House to resupply the contras after
Congress had cut off military aid.
Fiers has said Clair E. George,
third in command at the CIA, was
aware of the secret diversion of funds
in summer of 1986. Gates, before
withdrawing his nomination to head
the CIA in 1987 because of Iran-
contra fallout, said he learned of the
diversion in fall of 1986.
The wasnmgton post
_ A5
The New York Times
The WgMngton Time
The will Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daly Newt
USA Today The Chlcagp Tribune
Date u I~'Ia1 I
page I.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660026-4