TALKING POINTS PAPER FOR DDCI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002100020061-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2006
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: April 28, 1978
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/08/09: CIA-RDP81 M00980R002100020 4
28 April .1978
Ole #78''`'12 i
~fi 2i0.~.`;DU'?i FOR: Associate Deputy Director
for Operations
FROM Donald P. Gregg
Special Assistant to the
DDO for External Oversight
SUBJECT . Talking Points Paper for DDCI
1. Attached hereto is a Talking Points paper for the
DDCI to use with SSCI Staff Director William Miller next
week.
2. . Also attached for the DDCI is information is. a
Memorandum for the Record dealing with Mr. MUlerts
perceptions of the Directorate's sensitive collection program.
Donald P. Gregg.
MORI/CDF
- Acoued. For Release,
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TALKING .POINTS
Background
The SSCI's request fora voluminous and detailed repor t
of the Directorate of Operation's clandestine human source
collection activities comes at a pivotal. time in the Agency's
relations with Congress. We have now dealt with the SSCI for
about two years in a forthcoming and cooperative manner. For
the SSCI to-request the great amount of detail, which is
embodied in their recommendations on the FY79 NFIP, seems
both unjustifiable and unnecessary. If we accede, we will
continue to place-ourselves in an overly submissive posture
toward Congress thereby delaying indefinitely .the time when
we can-move into a more collegial. relationship with the over-
sight committees. At the same time, the Directorate needs to
recognize that one of the murky areas in the SSCI's perception
of CIA operations is clandestine collection. Our objective
should be to help the SSCI become more familiar with. and
confident in our internal decision-making. processes without
laying bare our entire covert collection apparatus. We may
well have to go through the same procedure with the HPSC.I in
the near future. (See attached Memorandum for'the-Record in
which Bill Miller articulates the-current SSCI perception of
the Directorate's clandestine collection operations.).
-To respond to the SSCI request, as now formulated,
would require us to describe the operating directives, -
clandestine assets and ongoing costs over the next five years
of every Station in the world.- .
To respond in this amount of detail would go far
beyond oversight into "micro-management" of CIA by the SSCI.
The' amount of detail would be so voluminous as to
make it impossible for SSCI membership to draw overall
conclusions about our clandestine operations.
- A practical result would be that staffers would focus
on specific operations in individual Stations, paving the way
for detailed operational questions and second--guessing from
those who lack- professional qualifications in the intelligence
field.
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- Risk of leaks would increase exponentially.
What we are willing to do is:
a. -describe in detail the objectives, targets and
assets of three Stations, one small, one medium and one
large, without specifically identifying them;
b. present some actual case studies which lay out
the ways in which difficult operational decisions are
made on clandestine collection operations where both
risks and gains are high;
c. present, as requested, an evaluation of the
contribution of the DO's clandestine collection-opera-
tions to finished intelligence;
d.,-present, as requested, a qualitative assessment
of the value and effectiveness of our clandestine-
-collection operations;
e. 'discuss and explain in the context of current
State/CIA relationships, how the Directorate - i's becoming
more and more exclusively focused on collection targets
which cannot be approached through overt means--
present, . as requested, funding projections by
operating division for the next five.years;
g. pass to the SSCI the recently completed in.vesti-
?gation of the DO by the House Appropriations Committee
which looked exhaustedly into-some of these same matters,
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