WILL SENATE FIGHT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600040098-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 98
• Publication Date: November 7, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

CRTC,AGO TRIBUNE NOV 7 1963
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-
1t hicago QJ i6une
J. HOWARD WOOD, Publisher
W.-'D. MAXWELL, Editor
THE NEWSPAPER is an institution
developed by modern civilization
to present the news of the day,
to foster 'commerce and industry,
to inform and lead public opinion,
and to furnish that check upon
government which no constitution
has ever been able to provide.
CPYRGHT -THE TRIBUNE CREDO
WILL SENATE FIGHT?
The state department has shown its
contempt for the prerogatives of the Sen-
ate and its indifference to security risks
within its own ranks by dismissing its
chief security evaluations officer. It did
so in the face of 4a direct warning carried
by a member of the Senate internal secu;;
rity subcommittee to Secretary of State
,
Rusk.
The victim of the purge, Otto Qfkaka,
is a veteran of 27 years of government
service. For the last 10- he has been the
man who gives security clearances to state
department employes. So well and effi- t''iairman Eastland of the subcommittee
ciently did he perform that in 1958 he was c+-mrnented, "The powers of Congress are
awarded the state department's meritori a( stake, and I intend to protect Mr., Otep-
ous service award. ks - byy every means at my command
,,,_Dpdd of Connecticut has- against, accusations which complain, in
But, as Sep
said in the topsy-turvy world of the state ei feet, that he told the truth when asked
department, the idea is to catgh_the cop to do so by a Senate subcommittee."
and not the culprit. So charges were There can be ,no doubt that this case
brought against an inte ptiop by the Kennedy ad-
gaged for having en-,reflects
gaged in conduct unbecoming a diplomatic ministration to condpct a purge of patriots.
officer-namely, in collaborating with the The subcommittee fee's, that the often mis-
Senate security subcommittee. He was used doctrine of executive privilege 'can
accused of having disclosed secret depart- be claimed only by the President, not by
ment documents to senators. any burocrat who feels like thwarting Con-
Iii the?department it was said that Otep- gress. We trust.that the Senate will press
this central point, for if it lets tile issue go
ka `is" out of ste -A th the times." A
spokesman rein dihed, We are not witchibydefault , Congress will soon find itself
hunting any more. , We h cur?ity1 hamstrung by the burocracy ih looking
riskS,'and he knows it." the Senate sub- into-any facet of public business whatso-
committii 's`eaetibn is one of skepticism. ever. It would be salutary if it invoked its
Its investigation of department wirepulling powers to punish for contempt.
a and Castro asCCtera r of Meanwhile,
safeguard it uard should Mr. exert its Otepka's, ucarrtmost
~;r.
Cuba and not as a o y per ; thru avenues of appeal which ultimately
suaded it that there's nothing kinky in the permit reviews of his case by Secretary
department.
It has since been trying to evaluate the; Rusk and President Kennedy. We have no
great faith
.security practices, or lack of them, in the great that there will be sympathy for
department. It was hampered by a depart Mr. Otepka in any of these quarters, for
ment order, issued under the cloak of it is obvious the administration was out
"executive privilege," directing that state to get him, and did. These are the kind
department officials remain away from the of rewards a loyal American c expect
subcommittee and give it no information. from a crowd which can always find ex-
Otepka freely cooperated with the sub- ruses for Iihrus'ct ev or Tlito, ut nun
committeSanitized - Approved I~`"or easeiUtCJP75-
FOIAb3b
49R000600040098-8