PLUS AND MINUS

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660084-0
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
May 22, 2012
Sequence Number: 
84
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
May 9, 1991
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660084-0.pdf111.07 KB
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STAT Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660084-0 STAT Plus And Minus Webster Praised, Criticized For Job By Bob Adams and Charlotte Grimes Post-Dispatch Washington, Bureau f ` WASHINGTON Some might make UESTIONS ABOUT William H. a connection between Webster's grasp of foreign poll- his departure and the cy, and about the CIA's perfor- mancZr in the Persian Gulf standoff, quality of U.S. were raised in the months before intelligence during the Webster resigned as director Wednesday. Persian Gulf War. !! To be sure, even his critics gave Webster credit for restoring integrity to the Central Intelligence Agency. He was a badly needed Mr. Clean for a SEN. JOHN McCAIN, member of Armed Services Committee. CIA soiled by scandals involving his Publicly, President George Bush predecessor, the late William J. Casey. and other administration officials had Congressional leaders of both par- high praise Wednesday for Webster. ties also credited Webster with mend- They lauded his dedication and his ing fences on Capitol Hill. Where honesty. Bush said he had "no com- Casey avoided congressional scrutiny, plaints whatsoever" about the quality Webster invited it. - of intelligence about the Persian Gulf But as early as the fall of 1989, and crisis. increasingly during the Persian Gulf Privately, however, White House of- emergency, Webster was faulted by ficials and some in Congress faulted some - particularly at the White the CIA for underrating the threat House - for falling to provide ade- from Iraq in the beginning, and over- quate information on foreign flash- rating its strength at the end. points. His scanty background on for- In his new book "The Command- eign policy was seen as a liability in a ers," journalist Bob Woodward writes fast-changing world. that Webster - in late December - If he had stayed on, Webster would ,, mistakenly predicted that Iraqi Presi- have faced tough questions by both dent Saddam Hussein would pull out the House and Senate Intelligence of Kuwait once he realized the committees about the performance of strength of the U.S.-led allied forces U.S. intelligence agencies, especially massed against him. during the Persian Gull crisis. Both Pentagon intelligence officials, panels plan hearings later this year however, saw that as "a repeat of the about the structure of Webster's job classic mistake made prior to the Ira' and about how well U.S. policy-mak- qi invasion," Woodward writes. They ers were served by Webster's sent their dissenting, andmore accur- information. ate, view to Bush: that Saddam would "Logically, some people might stand and fight. make a connection between his depar- One source said that, the "straw ture and the quality of U.S. intelli- that broke the camel's back" for the gence information during the Persian White House was the CIA's overly cau- Gulf War," said Sen. John McCain, R- tious assessment of U.S. bombing Ariz., a member of the Senate Armed damage to Iraqi forces. Military intel- Services Committee. McCain said he ligence turned out to be more accur- respected Webster, but contended that ate, the source said. the overall structure of the U.S. intelli- Others noted that Webster had not gence apparatus "ought to be been at many of the meetings at which reviewed." key decisions on the Persian Gulf cri- One congressional source, who sis were made. asked that his name'ot be used, spoke In January, some Democrats were for many who dealt with Webster. furious at what they believed was a "The basic rap on him was that he just politically motivated flip-flop by Web- didn't have the depth of knowledge on ster. Throughout the fall, the CIA had foreign policy," the source said. "It's been saying the economic sanctions not enough just to be a good lawyer, or against Iraq were doing severe dam- a good manager." age. Many Democrats used that as- -^e Wasny.. ::r The New 'Ork - -as The Wastifn9tom --es The Wall Street Journal The Christian Science Monitor New York Daily News USA Today The Chicago Tribune Date sessment to justify voting against a resolution authorizing Bush to go to war. But just before that vote, Webster declared that sanctions in themselves wouldn't work. The Democrats felt they had been hung out to dry. Others, however, defended Webster as a professional who generally stayed away from politics and helped tame an agency that had run wild under Casey. Inside the CIA itself, Webster was regarded as an outsider by some who may have preferred Casey's free- wheeling ways. "The judge Is Mr. Compliance a retired senior CIA official told the Post-Dispatch. Webster's questions, the official said, would be: "Is it the law? Is it moral? Is it right?" Another former senior CIA official, insisting on anonymity, said Webster "took a galloping organization to a very slow walk. He was like the guy sitting in a buggy with the horses run- ning down hill, who's pulling on the reins and the horses want to run downhill." Sen. Alan Specter, R-Pa., who spent six years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said major improvements were needed in gathering intelligence from spies on'the ground, and in the overall structure of the U.S. intelli- gence apparatus. But Specter, in an Interview, said Webster "has done the best he could in trying to manage an octopus." Several well-connected sources ex- pressed the view that Webster had accomplished his main job - that of restoring the CIA's battered Image - and that it was now time for someone with comparable integrity but a great- er knowledge of foreign affairs to take on the job. Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., a longtime friend, said the resignation "came out of the blue." He said Web- ster had "contributed a great deal to the government in a variety of posts." Sen. Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., said he had discussed it with Webster in advance and was convinced that the decision to leave was Webster's alone. "He wasn't forced out," Bond said. This story includes information from Bill Lambrecbg Jon Sawyer, and Robert L Koenig of the Post-Dispatch Page -1,5-, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660084-0