WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORTS, WEEKS OF 28 JANUARY AND 4 FEBRUARY 1980

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05385805
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2020
• Case Number: F-2013-00944
• Publication Date: February 19, 1980

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MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD 19 February 1980
SUBJECT: Weekly Activity Reports; Weeks of 28 January and 4 February 1980
1. On Sunday the 27th we pulled off the exfiltration of the "Canadian Six."
This was a real coup in which the two people we sent in to bring the other
six out just performed splendidly. The whole plan developed by NE and
DDO showed real professionalism.
a. We started around the Hill to let people know that, for the first
time, wei_04...natmot.i.fte-�1 the congssintiroutafindincormq in
advance. ?There was some concern with this but all except Les Aspin seemed
to take if pretty well.
2. As far as Iran was concerned the rest of the week of the 28th was
rather uneventful. Discussions were generally focused on details like
export controls on the Soviet Union.
3. In the week of 4 February I rpallv wasn't arnund vPry murh
4.
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7. Another big event these past two weeks has been the charters� I'm
frankly somewhat worried about them. We had a meeting on the 30th of
January with the President, Hudleston, and Bayh. We did not resolve it.
On Friday the 8th of February, Huddleston tabled his bill in which there
are still two substantial disagreements -- whether we give prior notifi-
cation and whether the committee has access to any of olii=s1OLmMea�. We
worked on various ways to respond to the tabling of this charter and to
the legislation that Moynihan tabled in the Senate and McClory in the
House that would give us relief from the Freedom of Information Act,
Hughes-Rm, and identities legislatiO. We had talked about his scheme
07-th the Vice President, I had written a paper which, in my absence, was
sent to the NSC outlining several plans. In the long run, during my
absence, Aaron and the Vice President simply took it to the President
with their recommendations and without any consultation with any of us
in the Intelligence Community. They had worked up a plan simply to let
the Senate table its bill and us not table even the charters, let alone
a relief bill. I think we should have tabled the relief bill for all
except Hughes-Ryan and withdrawn the Freedom of Information Act and
identities legislation from the charters; have urged the congressional
leadership to cut back on Hughes-Ryan notification on their own immediately;
and have taken Hughes-Ryan back to only two committees by the charters
process. I now think we're in a difficult spot where it will be hard to
get a charter through in which there isn't prior notifigAllpn or some
other reporting requirement to the Congress which will be unacceptable to
the President. We may be able to get enough right-wingers to block this
but the issue is down to congressional prerogatives now and that may be
more difficult. On top of that, since the charters really won't fly, the
question is 42I_ALL12_12skgs_t_pata_Ihg_Maynihan bill in terms of over-
sight and reporting requirements. There are two dangers here: one is
that those requirements will be too onerous to be acceptable; the other
is that whatever they tack on there from the charters to describe over-
sight that accompanies these Moynihan relaxations may end up being the
only charters we ever get. I'm concerned about the way this is going.
8. I went to Principia and really enjoyed my visit as well as the talk
I gave to the students. They were very receptive. I also went to
Minneapolis and had a first class luncheon that Ed Spencer set up with a
Fnirrif-30-businessmen. Their questions were great and I think the
exchange was very stimulating.
9. I spent most of Friday afternoon, the 8th, talking with analysts in
relays on the overall Middle East-South Asian problem, tryin to take a
perspective on it. We hope to use that with the President next wee .
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MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD
SUBJECT: Weekly Activity Report; Week of 11 February 1980
1.
19 February 1980
2.
3.
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6.
7. I pointed out
that the hostages could be in trouble at the last minute of the negotia-
tions (e.g., the militants won't let them go and start killing them) and
that the negotiations might well fail. The President, without being
specific, gave me a.srance that the negotiations were going along ver
well but that the
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8.
9.
10. Vance asked me to come over that afternoon to explain to me the full
details of the rescue _oPeratiOp. I'm not quite sure what prompted him
to do this. He mentioned before everyone at the end of the meeting with
the President that he ought to get together with me that afternoon and
fill me in. I donleknow whether this is because I, in effect, filled
him in a week and-a-half or so before about the details of the rescue
operation or whether it's just because he's such a decent fellow and
realized I was out in the cold on the facts of the reeette-pperat4en
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I I don't know. When I saw him he took an extraordinary amounUT-- 44/ (b)(3)
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time to go through the thing in detail, though there wasn't too much that ce
1*.i..a.�..mLaresuty_in_tkws,s,. In essence the Iranianlived7rfo�
the stet:x rinlaol;en go. The
ac
of our mea culpa that we will have to issue
cleared with them and there is no intent to clear it with them. There
is going to be an agreement on the principles that will be covered in
the corresponding statements and ours will be deftly worded so as not
to be too self condemnatory. He read me the wording they had planned.
It didn't sound too bad if that's all thu_liamp to giye
a.
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b. After the morning meeting with the President and before my meeting
with Vance, we had received two messages indicatiag_thlt_thera.Juight be
kaggr_to.....the livpc af_the_hostactes_i_f_the_Ayafnllah_ordered them to bp
released from the comnound
He said he'd think
it over overnight and let me know on Saturday if he wanted to change his
mind. I told him I would be out in Indiana on Saturday but he could get
me at my mother's house in the evening. He did not call.
1 1 .
12.
13. I guess my thinking is that if I went ahead on my own and it did turn
sour we'd be back in the accusation that here was thency
like a rogue elepliara. It was also my theory that if we're going to be
Earinny pushed into the forefront for covert actions like th's
(Brzezinski an aron, but not Vance are doing that), everyone ought to
understand the limitations, problems, and risks -- especially the problem
of getting started well ahead of time. I don't think Brzezinski under-
stood that. I think he and Aaron feel you can turn on the covert acfion
s�J.tJgnites. Perhaps we made something in that respect, a 1of
wi1Tdpend if anyone picks up the ball now and continues any discussion
on this. In short we have been moving into an important new phase in
the Agency's activities here in undertaking new and revitalized covert
actio , ns but we' re_tiot�reolly_prepared_for it.
�����nr
a. On the one hand, despite the President's repeated statements
that he isn't going to back off the grain embargo or other moves against
the Soviets in the near term, I'm worried that we're going to give some
signal soon that we're not too serious about all this. Vance this week
sent a memo to the President recommending we join in an early gathering
of the UN Commission on the Zone of Peace for the Indian Ocean. When
asked to comment on it by Brzezinski's office I said that we certainly
shouldn't do that for two reasons: the first is that it would give
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exactly the wrong signal about our establishing new bases in the Indian
Ocean area. It would clearly tell people that we had no plan on hanging
around. The second was that we shouldn't even consider negqIiTling
ourselves out of a military presence in an araa...pf_the_warld_i_n_wach�we
had viral national interests.
b. I'm also worried about being squeezed between the Brzezinski
pressure for politica.1_&ctions and the Vance and Carter resistancelo
them or disinterest in these "dirty tricks" areas. We can get caught in
the vise here. It's also a tough one for me politically. It is clear
from a number of indicators that Brzezinski and Aaron think Carlucc4
would be great for promoting the covert actions they want,
and a question from the President to me during my
meeting with him as to whom I leaned on for covert action support. But
wjpt they would want to do is use Carlucci to get the Agency out in front
Vance and the President on covert political actions -- tough decisions
and I'm in the middle again.
14. leaked to the
Washington Post this week. The President put a lot of pressure on to tone
it down and was successful in doing that, but here we are again. On
Saturday Birch Bayh asked me with all innocence where I thought the leak Ni'
came from even though one of the newspapers suggested that a television
comment of his may have been the original genesis of it.
15 T mad P a run nn PpnrpcpntativP! Dante Fascell and Ed Derwinski about
They are unwilling to do too much but
wou e p us pu some pressure on State by delaying the. State Foreign
Service Reform Act somewhat. I talked to Vance about it on Friday. He
claims he would have a rebellion if the foreign service got nicked again,
as their morale is very low from what they think have been a number of
other setbacks. This is going to be a tough one.
16.
17. On Wednesday Brzezinski had a meeting on the overall security problems
in the Mid-East, Southwest Asian area. As usual he had a set agenda,
stuck to it, and permitted no time for anything else. Most of the agenda
items were mechanics and dull. He has now run the daily SCC meetings
s, though the one for next
Tuesday, the 19th, has been cancelled already. Clearly everything of
significance is btingdoustait by the inner foreign policy group.
18. I hosted a luncheon on Wednesday for a lot of Canadians who had helped
with the release of the "Canadian Six," just a goodwill gesture.
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Capt Thibault,
DCI said there would be no reflections memo for the week of 18 February -
he couldn't remember enough.
Gary
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The Director rentral Intelligence
Washington. D. C.20505
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