LOOSER REINS FOR THE C.I.A.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R001503760012-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 12
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Looser Reins for the C.I.A.
Could the Central Intelligence Agency, the na-
tion's vital eyes and ears abroad, once again turn
back to spy on law-abiding Americans and gather
their names in surveillance files?
port. He ordered the C.I.A. to prove and the
money attempted to do so by compiling, thousands of
:surveillance files that named hundreds of thousands
of Americans.
The post-Watergate reforms required rreason-
ahle suspicion of a foreign connection before Ameri-
cans could be catalogued or spied on. That also pro-
tected American businessmen from surveillance in
their activities abroad. The Reagan order unshack-
lcs the agency in varying degress, by reyuitl9 less
suspicion of foreign ties as a condition of domestic
surveillance. Thus only Congressional oversight can
make sure that the C.I.A. does not again abuse its
powc rs.
Mr. Reagan did not, however, turn back the
clock to the days when Presidents decreed no limits
at all. Rather than discard the Ford-Carter orders,
he substituted his own. And it specifically recognizes
the right of the Senate and ilous-a intelligence com-
mittees to obtain confidential oversight information.
The rule of law thus rem.eirs embedded in the
strange soil of intelligence.
Presidents Johnson and Nixon let tha` happen
and Presidents Ford and Carter issued orders
against it. Last spring the Reagan Administration,
which had pledged to "unshackle" the spy service,
raised the possibility of a return to domestic spying
with the first draft of a new intelligence order. Now
the President has signed a revised order that is not
reassuring.
The true domestic powers of the C.I.A. are to be
spelled out in another, secret set of directives. The
secrecy isn't new; the Carter Administration also
kept two sets of books. But as the C.I.A. was the first
to complain, some of the secret Carter procedures
were more restrictive than the published ones. The
Reagan rules are likely to be too permissive unless
Congress increases its vigilance in overseeing the
procedures.
When Congress created the C.I.A. in 1947, it envi-
sioned an agency relatively unfettered by law, oper-
ating almost exclusively abroad while the F.H.I.
stood guard on the home front. But the line between
foreign and domestic activities is often fine Consid-
er, for example, the agency's need to create a cover
for a spy by setting him up in some innocent-looking
American setting before he is sent abroad on assign-
ment.
This sometimes necessary ability to op::.,-ate in
the United States was subject to abuse. An extreme
example was Operation Chaos, inspired by Pvf;sident
Johnson's conviction that opponents of the Vietnam
War, even those who broke no law, had foreign sup-
More is ncedau, However, if civil liberties are to
be truly protected. The Ford and Carter orders were,
by design, only first steps toward the safeguard of
a Congressional charter fcc, thS C.I.A. The 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act made another
advance by requiring court warrants for wiretaps
and bugs.
The Reagan Administration shows no enthu-
siasm for a C.I.A. charter. The work of Congress,
however diligently it polices thy`,exer_uitive order,
won't be finished until it produces one.
the Angola Amendment
The Reagan: Administration wants Congress to
rep(,ai t .e five-year-old Clark Amendment, which
forbids any aid --- covert or overt .- to insur?ents in
Angola. 7tiere are some good reasons for removing
sue n i rowij% d'Jf ected restraint on diplomacy, and
tt,_:v cited in the Senate when it granted the
Pre sident' . requcst for greater freedom of mrianeu-
ver. H:.4 at tl'