PLUS AND MINUS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660084-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 84
• Publication Date: May 9, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660084-0