WHY NOT A JOINT COMMITTEE OF SENATE AND HOUSE FOR CIA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500030046-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 31, 2003
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: January 23, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

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rcliMtiF P R2lease 2004/01/16 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500030046-7
LOuioJ 11,Lr., KY.
COURIER-JOURNAL
9 - 223,511
8 - 327,601
JAN 2 3 191
Why Not a Joint Committee
Of Senate and nouse -poi CIA.?
Whatsoever power in any government is
independent, is absolute also.-
Tlhomes .Jefferson.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON has every right to
be apprehensive about a 'Congressional threat
to investigate the Central Intelligence. Agency.
Unless such an investigation were conducted
with uncharacteristic discretion, it could well
prove harmful to some of the operations upon
which the national survival depends.
This is not to imply that some assessment
of CIA methods and operating efficiency is
not sorely needed, or even that Congress,
which has always chafed at having to vote
funds for purposes it could not be told about,
should not have a closer rein on CIA activi-
ties. But some means should be found of ef-
fecting these ends short of subjecting the
supersecret agency to klieg lights, leaked
stories and political posturing.
If the President is to avoid a Congressional
investigation, he should give Congress' some
assurance that the CIA will not continue to
be a source of trouble, embarrassment and
impaired morale to the. government. Ever
since the U-2 blunder the public has been
aware that the CIA has it's problems. Con-
fidence has not been restored by subsequent
events in Cuba and the Dominican Republic,
where President Johnson sent the Federal
Bureau of Investigation to check on the find-
ings of the CIA.-For an organization which
perforce considers no news to be good news,
there has been entirely too much news lately.
The conclusion reached by most critics of
:'the CIA-that the agency has indulged in
foreign policy decisions.and action far beyond
the area usually delegated to intelligence
hoperations 'and':in some. cases has been a law
unto' itself-could hardly be more disturbing,
espeoially since the CIA seems to err on the
side of bellicosity.
In 'their book, The Invisible Government,'
David Wise and Thomas. Ross concluded that
the military_irjaaded CIA. is under loose sur-
veillance of subcommittees in the House and
Senate "controlled by the most conservative,
elements in Congress . heavily weighted.
with legislators whose field of competence
is military affairs." The authors, both bril
liant young Washington correspondents, sug-
gested that the subcommittees should be re-,
organized to encompass men with wider views'
and an expert knowledge of foreign affairs,
such as Senator J. William Fulbright.
Perhaps the President would accept thi;
gof, classified datt from the Joint. Comm- itte-w
pon Atomic Energy,' ` .1.,,
affairs are controlled, and as Wise and Ros
ing subcommittees. This is the way our atomi
j ..-Authors' proposals, a joint committee of Sen
Approved For Release 2004/01/16 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500030046-7