BRIEFING BY RICHARD V. ALLEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP02T06251R000900290021-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: October 20, 1981
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
Office of the Press Secretary
BRIEFING
BY
RICHARD V. ALLEN
Room 450, Old'Executive Office Building
October 20, 1981
MR. GERGEN: Good afternoon. I have the unusual pleasure
today of reporting to you that Dick Allen is here, on the record, and
he'll be here for about -- no,.it is not for sound or cameras.--
It is for sound and cameras?
MR. GERGEN: No, it is on the record, not for sound and
cameras. It is on the record. You have paperwork that relates to
the announcement that he is going to talk about. I'll talk to you for
a few minutes thereafter about another briefing subject.
MR. ALLEN: The President is today establishing by
Executive Order the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
He is also announcing appointments to that Board and to another.
The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and
the Intelligence Oversight Board, the IOB, are key elements in the
President's. program.to revitalize the strength of American intelli-
gence capabilities, to meet the increased danger that we face while at
the same time insuring the constitutional rights of all Americans are
fully protected.
The President is establishing by Executive Order the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board as a permanent, non-
partisan body of distinguished Americans to perform a continuing and
objective review of the performance of the intelligence community.
The Board shall report directly to the President and shall have full
access to all information necessary to advise the President on the
conduct, management, and coordination of the various agencies of the
intelligence community.
The President is also appointing three members of an
Intelligence Oversight Board which is established under current
Executive Order as a permanent, nonpartisan body to report to the
President and to the Attorney General on intelligence activities that
the Board believes to be in violation of the Constitution or of laws
of the United States or a Presidential Executive Order. The Board is
also charged with reviewing the internal guidelines and direction of
the intelligence community.
The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board or
PFIAB will be composed of 19 members with a chairman and vice chairman
designated by the President. The Intelligence Oversight Board, IOB,
will have three members and its chairman will alsq be':a member of the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
The President takes pleasure to announce that he has
appointed Ambassador Anne Armstrong as Chairman of the President's
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and Mr. Leo Cherne as Vice
Chairman of PFIAB.
As you know, Ambassador Armstrong's career has been
particularly distinguished. Among her many accomplishments was that
of being Ambassador to the Court of St. James as well as Counsellor
to two former presidents.
Mr. Leo Cherne, an international economist, was Chairman
of PFIAB under President Ford, and was also a member of the
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02TO6251 R000900290021-5
Intelligence Oversight Board.
The Intelligence Oversight Board will be chaired by
Dr. W. Glenn Campbell, an educator and economist, presently Director
of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, located at
Stanford University. Dr. Campbell will also be a member of the PFIAB.
We have a list and short biography of the other distin-
guished members, as you know. I think that's all in your possession
now?
Q Yes.
MR. ALLEN: The President is committed to having the most
proficient and professional intelligence services in the world. He
believes that the challenges faced by our country and its intelligence
services are quite extraordinary. He requires the best possible advice
on where the-most pressing intelligence needs are so that he can see
that the intelligence services have the support and the resources they
require. It is with these challenges and requirements in mind that
the President is reestablishing PFIAB and naming three members to the
"Intelligence Oversight Board.
The members are distinguished, they have experience in the
field, and they will provide a constant flow of information and
evaluation to the President in discharging their duties.
The basic functions of the IOB, the Intelligence Oversight
Board, are being retained. The IOB places emphasis on matters of
legality and propriety and will play an important complementary role
to PFIAB.
The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board will
report to the President through direct contact with the President
himself and on a more regular basis through the Counsellor to-the
President, Edwin Meese. I will also be assisting in any way possible
with the work of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board,
working with his Executive Director and other personnel, as well as
with Ambassador Armstrong.
Historically, you should know that the PFIAB was first
established by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. The Board advised
him directly on the adequacy and the quality of intelligence required
and available to the President and to key officials of the Executive
Branch who were concerned with the formulation of our country's foreign
and military policies. This Board was continued by each President
thereafter until its termination in 1977 by President Carter.
It's clear that all students of intelligence and leading
members of both parties on the Congressional intelligence committees
have emphasized the essential nature of the President's Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board. The availability to the President of the
judgment of experienced and independent private citizens, including
former military and government officials, provides him with a nonpartisan
and a constructively critical evaluation of this indispensable
instrument. Perfect intelligence is impossible to come by but we
believe that with the recreation of PFIAB we allow to be brought to
bear on the tremendous demands and challenges to the intelligence
community the best kind of experience and independent judgment that is
available.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02TO6251 R000900290021-5 ? '
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
D
The Executive Order creating PFIAB requires that its members
assess the quality, quantity and the adequacy of intelligence
collection. Of the analysis and estimates that are vital to
correct policy choices, of counter-intelligence and other
intelligence activities requires that all elements in the
intelligence community, with the complete and enthusiastic
support of the Director of Central Intelligence, make available
to this Board all the information it requires for its critical
tasks.
Perhaps the best thing to do now would be to take
your questions after reviewing just very briefly, the individual
members of the Board. On the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board: Anne Armstrong, Chairman; Leo Cherne;'Vice
Chairman; David Abshire who is Chairman of the Center for
Strategic International Studies; William Baker, who is retired
Chairman of Bell Laboratories; Mr. Alfred Bloomingdale, who is
an international businessman; Colonel Frank Borman, CEO, of
Eastern Airlines; W. Glenn Campbell, who we have already mentioned;
former Governor John B. Connally; Mr. John Foster, Jr.., who is Vice
President of TRW and who used to be the Director of DDR & E in the
Department of Defense; Leon'Jaworski, Attorney; Claire Boothe Luce,
whose career is well known to you; former Chief of Naval Operations
Thomas Moore; Peter O'Donnell of Dallas, Texas, aphilanthropist
and businessman; Ross Perot, Chairman of the Board of Electronic'
Data Systems Corporation; Mr. Joe Rodgers, President of American
Constructors, Inc.; Paul Seabury, Professor of Political Science
at U.C.L.A.; Mr. Robert Six, Board Chairman and founder of
Continental Airlines; Ambassador Seymour Weiss, who is presently
a consultant and formerly Ambassador to the Bahamas, but also
Director of the Office of Political Military Policy, Department
of State, and Attorney Edward Bennett Williams.
The three members of the Intelligence Oversight
Board: Dr. W. Glenn Campbell, Chairman; Mr. Frank Stella of
Detroit, Michigan; Mr. Charles Tyroler, who is Director of the
Committee on the Present Danger, a non-partisan, Washington, D.C.
research organization doing research on public policy matters.
I'll take your questions on these.
Q Could you clarify why we need both of these
groups? Why can't one do the total job?
MR. ALLEN: Only because PFIAB and -- the President's
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board is a body, an institution
that is dedicated to evaluation of policy matters, the wide range,
the wide spectrum of matters that belong within the framework of
the intelligence community and will offer policy advice to the
President, based on input and study of the activities of the
intelligence community. In addition, it has the capability to
speak independently on these policy matters to the President
offering him a, if you will, second or third opinion on matters
that require intensive investigation.
It was, we recall, some years ago that the -- particularly
with respect to the estimate of the growth and the quality of Soviet
military power that the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory
Board played an important role.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02TO6251 R000900290021-5
The IOB, on the other hand, is a body that is
designed to assess the legality, propriety, and other related
aspects of activities in the intelligence community and there-
fore functions in a policy-free manner, that is it does not
engage itself in matters of policy choices pertaining to in-
telligence.
Q Will the President's Advisory Board advise
on the new CIA charter which is being passed around now?
MR. ALLEN: You're referring to the Executive Order
the draft Executive Order that is -- Not necessarily. The Intelligence
Oversight Board itself was created and the authority for it exists
in the existing Intelligence Order 12036, but PFIAB.will not speci-
fically advise with respect to this other Executive Order. It has
not been asked to. I might add also that the work -- well, go
ahead, I'll take your'question.
Q But this Intelligence. Advisory Board, under
Section 2 of this piece of paper, its oversight is just in the
collection of intelligence and --
MR.. ALLEN: Collection and analysis of the meaning
of that intelligence, in other words --
Q --It has no oversight over sections of the
intelligence community that carry out "black-bag" jobs, things
like that.
MR. ALLEN: I don't know about specific functions.
I've never heard of those functions to which you refer, but I
can.say that certainly it would not have an oversight function
of the activities of the intelligence community which are by and
large analytical.
Q How is anyone on the outside going to know
whether these two groups play the role over time, that you say
they will play?
MR. ALLEN: Well, the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board reports to the President. I think that the mere
fact of its existence as an independent evaluation center would
be credence enough to be basis for having established it. I think
that while there is no public accountability in this regard, these
individuals will have access to a wide range of facts and opinion
and will be to, Ithink, to gear the main concerns that beset the
intelligence community in terms of quantity and quality of
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02TO6251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
V Y
its information. But there is -- in the sense of public account-
ability, there will not. But of course, on the other hand, we do
have adequate instruments to be concerned about that such as the
select committees on intelligence in both the House and the Senate.
So there are existing bodies that perform these oversight functions.
Q The
mere
fact of their existence doesn't in itself
insure, however, that
if
they come up with these alternate opinions
that you say they'll
have
to offer the President, that anybody in
the White House will
care
or will listen.
MR. ALLEN: Theoretically that is correct but in practice
I doubt very much that that will be the case because the PFIAB --
you see, the President had committed, during the campaign -- and I
should have added that -- to recreation of the President's Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board because he believed it served a very
useful purpose. It is true that whatever opinions or views that the
PFIAB may come up with will not be, need not necessarily be listened
to. They may not be taken but they do represent, or it does -- its
creation represents the acknowledgement of the value of having an
outside evaluative function performed by distinguished bodies of
citizens. And that's what this is. As for IOB, it is a
safeguard mechanism which is designed to -- as I've indicated, to
oversee the legality and propriety of the activities of the intelli-
gence community and therefore we believe that its mere existence
should be reassurance to the American citizen.
Q But I think the question is very appropriate because
-- I don't want to be condescending to my colleague -- Ed Meese is
quoted in the New York Times yesterday as saying these bureaucratic
reports just go into a bottomless -- but that's what we want them to do.
MR. ALLEN: I have not seen that particular comment and
I'm a bureaucrat. Let me say that the activities and the output of
the intelligence community is highly valued in this Administration.
Our staff reads and digests carefully the entire output of the
intelligence community that's made available on a regular basis.
The work of the intelligence community and its analytical functions
have been expanded in recent years to include sectors that go beyond
what one might think would be the traditional preoccupations of the
.intelligence community and much of this analysis combined with the
- work of the Department of State, its Bureau of Intelligence and
Research, and other parts of the community, constitutes a tremendous
resource for us. And that material is looked at and studied carefully.
The policy conclusions are sometimes those that need to
be assessed very carefully and sometimes a conclusion of the
intelligence community would benefit by a review by outside
individuals. We sometimes --
Q They don't have the resources to make a separate
Q They don't have the resources --
MR. ALLEN: Yes, they do. They have the resources to
call on outside experts and consultants, and that's one of the
reasons for the existence of consultants in the National Security
Council.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02TO6251 R000900290021-5
-6-
Q We assume that our intelligence community has the
best resources available to any United States citizen. --
MR. ALLEN: That is correct. But also there are always
external sources. After all, the collecti.on?of intelligence is a
function of sweeping the world, as it were, for open information and
other kinds of information. In addition, the judgments to which one
comes about intent, for example, of adversaries, or even of others.--
Q Whether they're on the -- drifting toward war, that
type of thing?
MR.ALLEN: As I say, the judgment one makes about intent
are important judgments. Given the same degree and quantity of
information, individuals will come to differing points of view. That
is the classic case in the intelligence community, and that's why
we use the process to make sure that footnotes are added to National
Intelligence Estimates and when dissenting views need to be heard
they are heard.
Q Who are your associates, could you tell us?
MR. ALLEN: Yes, I would be happy to. They just reminded
me of my associates. Donald Gregg, a Senior Staff Member of the
National Security Council, who heads the Intelligence Division of the
National Security Council Staff. Mr. Ken deGraffenreid who is a
senior member of the National Security Council Staff in the same
field. Major Robert Kimmett, a senior member of the National Security
Council Staff who. is active in our military affairs field intelligence
and is also the attorney -- he does not head the Speaker's Bureau, as
you so rudely indicated. 0-
Q Is it the view within the Administration, or on the
President's part, that there need to be some improvements in U.S.
intelligence capabilities?
MR. ALLEN: I think that the President has believed for
many years that having served on the Rockefeller Commission and based
on his own experience, that there is always room for improvement in
the intelligence product. I should think that the intelligence
community as presently constituted welcomes the creation of PF,IAB as
another vehicle for the presentation of views to the President, but
if you ask, can the product be improved, the answer is, yes; always.
And the members, the leading members of the intelligence community,
beginning with the Director of Central Intelligence, William Casey,
will tell you that.
I might also add that it's important to remember in this
context that PFIAB has had a proven track record of usefulness and
resourcefulness to the two previous administrations, and at a time
when the challenges in the world are so great and so numerous, of
the recreation of PFIAB is a very wise thing indeed.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02TO6251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
? 1
Q If I could just scoot up further if I may,
I'll follow up --
Q Has he been disappointed in any way with
performances of the intelligence --
MR. ALLEN: No, the President has not indicated
any indicated any disappointment whatever and the President
is also a consumer of the community. How many more questions
do you want to take on this? Yes, all right.
Q The track record that they were created under
Eisenhower, I wonder how their track record was, say on something
like the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, do we have any
idea?
MR. ALLEN: No, I don't have, and I don't -- if any
of us has an institutional memory. When you say track record -- in
terms of assessing the meaning of it?
Q Did PFIAB come into being after those, I'm not sure--
MR. ALLEN: (Aside) No, it would have been just before
-- it would have been before the -- six years --
I can't answer the question, but it's an interesting --
Could we look that up and get back to you? (Aside) Would you take
on that job? We'll see if the --
Q Were both boards abolished by Carter?
MR. ALLEN: No, the IOB was created by Executive
Order 12036 of President Carter.
Q --That's not correct, it was the previous -- Ford.
MAJOR KIMMITT: It was created by Executive Order 11905 --
MR. ALLEN: And continued by 12036, and a new Executive --
Q Do we know who is being replaced?
MR. ALLEN: Yes, former Governor William Scranton,
Mr. Thomas Farmer, an attorney, and former Senator Albert Gore,
were the three members appointed by President Carter. Their
resignations were submitted earlier.in the year and --
Q Before you leave would'you tell us why you
fired Schweitzer?
MR. ALLEN: Oh, I'd be happy to take a question on that.
MR. GREGG: Would you propose your question, please?
Q Well, would you tell us in your own words, as
we say, why you relieved General Schweitzer, why you had him trans-
ferred or fired him?
MR. ALLEN: I should begin by saying that I have personally
high regard for General Schweitzer, an oft-decorated soldier, a man of
great integrity, loyalty, and dedication to the President, to the
goals of the Administration.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
He has served in a manner distinguishing to him and reflecting credit
on the Administration. The fact of the matter is that in the
National Security Council staff there is a rule, and the rule
is that speeches will not be given unless specifically cleared
by me and that. the content of the speeches should be known in
advance.
It was with great regret that I took this action,
and informed the President of it. I wish it had not been necessary,
but I think that it is important that the discipline established by
our being staff members and -- to the President -- and the need to
assess carefully each and every pronouncement by a senior person
which could be construed as a policy statement, is very important.
Q Are you suggesting that he just broke the rule?
Will you speak to the contents of what he said?
MR. ALLEN: I don't think I need to speak to the
contents because then we would get into a needless discussion
of a long speech. I have not seen a copy of the speech, I have
not. heard a tape of the speech. I know only what has been
.reported to me and what is available to a leading publication.
Q What do the reports of General Schweitzer's
views say about the advice that the NSC is giving to the President?
Obviously they are based on something that he has seen as a member
of the NSC staff. 'Are you telling the President that we are
drifting toward war?
MR. ALLEN: No, that's -- I would not be telling the
President we are drifting toward war.
0 Is General Schweitzer misinterpreting information
he's receiving?
MR. ALLEN: Well, we won't comment as to what information
he based his remarks on, but those views of course do not represent
those of the Administration.
Q I'm trying to find out the difference between
what he said and what Mr. Pipes said. That was not an authorized
interview because they seemed to be saying roughly the same
thing.
MR. ALLEN: That is not a question -- it was quite a
different situation. Quite different circumstances prevailed in
the matter of --
Q I don't think you're trying to say, are you, that
had he made a completely innocuous speech he still would have been
dismissed for not clearing it.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
MR. ALLEN: Oh, I think that the rules have to be
observed and I believe that had someone made a speech without
seeking required clearance, you see, as I mentioned, being a
member of the staff of the Administration means that one must
be doubly careful and one must weigh every word. The rules have
been in effect since a couple of previous incidents and we insist
that those rules be observed. General Schweitzer concurs, under-
stands in the action taken and understands very well the reasons
for having come to that --
remarks?
Did you ask him for an explanation of his
Q Why did he do it? I mean did he say just
why he did it? Did he say that he meant to or what?
MR. ALLEN: Yes, that's exactly what he said --
he really meant to.
Q But that was your idea? No one called you
this morning or last night and said "We want you to fire General
Schweitzer"?
MR. ALLEN: My action. I -- based on the preliminary
information of last evening, I came to the conclusion that some
action would be necessary. I reviewed the story in question last
night at a quarter to eleven. I decided on the action that
I would take this morning. I subsequently informed Ed Meese and
subsequently informed the President and others who inquired. I
spoke with the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Chief Staff
of the Army and they all understand the high regard in which I
personally, and other members of the National Security Council
staff and all members of the White House staff hold General
Schweitzer.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5
flow long has the General had this view?
Q That the Soviets were about to strike, that we
are drifting toward war. Is it since he's been in this Administration,
or has he had this--
MR. ALLEN: I've not heard those views before.
Q I think you were answering my question. Did
you say he just told you he went further than he meant to go, is
that it?
MR. ALLEN: General Schweitzer indicated that he was
abjectly sorry for having undertaken to make the speech and was
sorry about the content of it.
Q Well, did he know that he, I mean, had he
cleared with you that he wanted to be on a panel, or that he
was going to participate in someway in the program?
MR. ALLEN: No, he didn't Bob.
Q Is he the first one who has been relieved from
the NSC for breaking that rule--
Q Excuse me, Mr. Allen, he was quoted as saying
in the Post that he had told someone that he was making the speech,
presumably you, and that they had expressed the hope that he wouldn't
get himself in trouble.
MR. ALLEN: No, I don't understand that. I didn't--
Q It wasn't you--
MR. ALLEN: Not I. And it is I who have specific
responsibility for my staff.
Q It wasn't Major Kimmitt?
4
THE PRESS: Thank you Mr. Allen.
MR. GERGEN: One final word. Some of you have asked
for a follow-up. We're going to meet here at four o'clock. I do
not anticipate major news announcements at that point, but we will
have a relatively brief briefing here on the record at four
o'clock. It will be follow-up. And it will be after the last of
the Senators come out because some of you have expressed an interest
in being available to talk to them. But we're planning for four
o'clock.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900290021-5