AILING CASEY RESIGNS AS CIA DIRECTOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260062-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 62
• Publication Date: February 3, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/21: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260062-9
A
Ailing Casey
resigns as
CIA director
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
3 February 1987
By Richard Whittle
Washington Bureau of The News
WASHINGTON ? CIA Director
William Casey, still hospitalized af-
ter surgery Dec. 18 for a malignant
brain tumor, has resigned and will
be succeeded by his deputy Robert
tg ts..L.s.ittes_ the White House an-
nounced Monday.
If confirmed by the Senate,
Gates, an expert on the Soviet Un-
ion who joined the CIA in 1966, will
be only the third deputy in the
agency's 40-year history to become
director. He would be the first
whose specialty is intelligence anal-
ysis rather than operations.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said Casey, 73, resigned in
a letter to President Reagan after
Attorney General Edwin Meese and
White House Chief of Staff Donald
Regan visited Casey at his George-
town University Hospital room
Thursday.
"It was Mr. Casey's decision' to re
sign," Fitzwater said. "He saw that it
would be some time before he
would be able to return to duty and
undertake full activities at the CIA.
He realized the need for on-the-job
leadership in the intelligence com-
munity."
The CIA director is in charge of
supervising the nation's various in-
telligence agencies. Gates, 43, has
been acting director of central in-
telligence since Casey fell ill and
will remain acting di:voter while
awaiting Senate confirmation, Fitz-
water said.
The Senate Intelligence Commit-
tee has scheduled a confirmation
hearing for Gates on Feb. 17.
Fitzwater said Casey had "volun-
teered his resignation" during last
week's session with Regan and
Meese, but he said he did not know
"how the meeting came about"
Fitzwater said the president had
asked Casey, a longtime friend who
managed Reagan's 1980 presidential
campaign, to act as "counselor to
the president" once he is suffi-
ciently recovered. Casey "continues
to improve steadily. He is alert and
William Casey . . . has been
hospitalized since Dec. 15.
has visited fellow patients,?Fitzwe
ter said.
Casey entered the hospital after
suffering a seizure Dec. IS, the day
before he was to have testified for a
second time before the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee about the CIA's
role in the secret sale of US. arms to
Iran and diversion of-rsome of the
proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels,
or contras.
Sen. William Cohen of Maine,
senior Republican on the commit-
tee, said last week that there were
"deficiencies" in testimony Casey
gave the panel Nov. 21.
Cohen did not elaborate. But an
Intelligence Committee report on
the affair released last week noted
that Casey and Gates became aware
in early October of suspicions
among middlemen in the Iran arms
deals that funds had been siphoned
to the contras.
In his testimony Nov. 21, the re-
port said, Casey "did not mention
any possibility that there had been
a diversion of funds from the arms
sales to Iran." Meese disclosed the
Iran-contra connection Nov. 25.
Gates later testified that the rea-
son for the "omission" in Casey's
testimony "was that 'the informa-
tion was based on analytical judg-
ments of bits and pieces of informa-
tion by one intelligence officer, and
that they (Casey and Gates) didn't
co nsliter that very much to go on
. . . '-: the report said.
klliough the CIA officials failed
to iipiation the suspicions to the
committee, the report noted that as
..arly as Oct. 15 they gave Vice Adm.
hn Poindexter, who was then
agan's national security adviser,
(IA memo warning that creditors
(tic Iran deals "might assert that
.:,,they from the arms sales was
ing 'distributed to other projects
the U.S and Israel.' "
.1, Senate Intelligence Committee
a'de said Gates would be questioned
:iirther in his confirmation hearing
.,5out why he and Casey failed to
?,.:0.inteer such information to the
He said Gates probably also
be asked whether the admin-
:tration erred in failing to inform
,Lgress of the Iran arms deals.
This will be an open hearing,
:And he'll have some pretty specific
ifiestions about his role in the en-
tire affair," the aide said of Gates.
But I don't anticipate at this junc- ?
ture that there would be any se-
nous doubt that he will be con-
firmed."
Robert R. Simmons, a former
staff director of the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee, said members of
Congress were likely to view Gates
as a "welcome change" from Casey,
who was reluctant to volunteer in-.
formation and. was distrustful of
congressional oversight .
Casey, a multimillionaire lawyer
and World War 11 intelligence
operative who served in several
posts in the Nixon administration,
repeatedly clashed with Congress
? especially over his failure to tell
congressional intelligence commit-
tees fully in 1984 of the CIA's in-
volvement with the contras.
"I don't think Bob Gates has any
of that negative baggage," Simmons
said. "His perspective would be that
of an analyst, whose career in intel-
ligence has involved wrestling with
analytical problems as opposed to
running operations, whether it be.
covert paramilitary operations or
clandestine collection."
Another Senate aide said that
Gates was most likely to face opposi-
tion from conservatives such as
Sen. Jesse &IBM R-N.C., who have
long been dissatisfied with the
CIA's analysis of the Soviet.military
threat and the alleged Soviet-bloc
role in the 1981 plot to assassinate
Pope John Paw a
C 0 Ai77A/ZICI)
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/21: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260062-9
e.,
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/21: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260062-9
ROBERT M. GATES
enna, Va.
Rost: Nominated
to be CIA direc-
tor
Birth date: Sept.
25, 1943
Hometown:
Wichita, Kan.
Residence: V
Family: Wife Rebecca; two children
Academic: Bachelor's degree, Col-
lege of William and Mary, Williams-
burg, Va.; master's degree in Rus-
sian history, Indiana University,
Bloomington, Ind.; doctorate, Rus-
sian and East European studies,
Georgetown University, Washing-
ton, D.C.
Career: CIA, 1966-74, 1979 to pres-
ent; National Security Council staff,
1974-79; deputy CIA director, 1986;
appointed acting CIA director, De-
cember 1986.
Source: Wire reports
The Dallas Morning News
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/21: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260062-9