CONVERSATION WITH ED BRASWELL, CHIEF COUNSEL, SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00380R000300100018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2006
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: February 23, 1973
• Content Type: MFR

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23
February 1973
THIS DOCUMENT WAS SUBJECT TO ITT/CHILE JUSTICE INVESTIGATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Conversation with Ed Braswell, Chief Counsel,
Senate Armed Services Committee
1. I met with Ed Braswell at his request today and he gave me a
copy of a letter dated 22 February 1973 from Senator Sam Nunn (D. , Ga. )
to the Director regarding the leaks of intelligence information in an article
by Joseph Alsop entitled "Russia's 'Go' or 'No Go' Decision. " Braswell
said Senator Nunn had discussed the matter with him before signing the
letter and Braswell commented this kind of thing happened all the time.
Nunn said that might. be so and he recognized he was new at the business,
but he felt it was wrong and he wanted to raise the issue. Braswell feels
that under the circumstances we will have to go back to Nunn with a written
response. He provided us with a copy because he thought it would be some
time before the original reached the Director through the mail.
2. Our conversation then turned to bject of proposed Foreign
Relations Committee hearings I told Braswell that, in 25X1
the absence of Chairman Stennis, Jack Maury and Ted Shackley were talking
with Senator Jackson today as to how this matter could best be handled as
far as the Agency was concerned. Braswell agrees that if the Director is
required to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee he will have to
refuse to go into sensitive operational information. If that develops, he
feels the Director should invoke executive privilege if necessary.
3. I told Braswell that invoking executive privilege in the Foreign
Relations Committee would, of course, mean we would also be barred from
discussing these details with the Armed Services Committee, CIA Sub-
committee. This did not seem to bother him. In fact, he commented that
the way things were going it wouldn't be long before we would not want to
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provide this kind of information to the CIA Subcommittee anyway. (This
was an obvious reference to the increasing number of new Senators who
are not at all sympathetic with the need for secrecy in Government.)
Furthermore, he seemed to feel that it would pose an impossible burden
on the Chairman if we were to disclose this information to him and then
expect him to hold the line against Foreign Relations Committee pressure.
He agreed, however, that we were right in consulting Senator Jackson.
4. Joe Alsop's column in this morning's Washington Post entitled
"The CIA Analysts: Changes at the Top" also came up. I told Braswell
that some of our senior officers have decided to retire for one reason or
another, but Mr. Schlesinger has not effected wholesale firings as the
Alsop article might infer. I added that while we were not a political agency
it had to be expected that a new Director would want to bring in some eo le.
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5. I got the impression from Braswell directly and from over-
hearing several telephone conversations that he expects to be able to talk
with Chairman Stennis about some matters of Committee business next
week.
Deputy Legislative Counsel
Distribution:
Orig. Subj.
:L Mr. Colby
I - Chrono
OLC/GLC:rw (26 Feb 73)
SEC
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Approved For Release 2006/11/16: CIA-RDP75B00380R000300100018-3