CHAIRMAN AIMS TO MAKE PANEL MORE PROFESSIONAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670087-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 87
• Publication Date: January 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670087-2
.L ICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE --//
12 January 198
Chair .an Aims to Make
Panel More Professional
Probe of Atrocity Charges May Come Later
By Joanne Omang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Investigations into charges that
Nicaraguan rebels commit atroci-
ties or that U.S. aid to rebels in Af-
ghanistan is vanishing might come
"later on," but the new Senate in-
telligence committee will have sev-
eral other things to do first, Chair-
man David F. 'Durenberger (R-
Minn.) said yesterday.
Tops on his priority list is "pro-
fessionaiizing" the committee's nine
acw members and the staff so as to
take them out of the newspapers
and away from rehashing past mis-
takes, and to put them into control-
ling future acts of the intelligence
community, Durenberger said.
"If we spend the next two years
investigating Afghanistan and the
'contras' [in Nicaragua] we aren't
going to get . the .job done that we
are expected to do," Durenberger
said in an interview. "These are on
the list of things we'll explore later
on ... but the idea that all of us
will 'be in the headline business
overturning wrong is not my idea of
what the committee ought to be."
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the
panel's vice chairman, called last
month for a probe of charges that
rebels who have been fighting Nic-
aragua's leftist Sandinista govern-
ment with U.S. aid for three years
have engaged in murder, rape, tor-
ture and other atrocities against
Nicaraguan civilians.
Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey (R-
N.H.) has set up an ad hoc task
force of senators and House mem-
bers to evaluate the way U.S. policy
in Afghanistan is being imple-
mented. Humphrey 'has expressed
,concern about reports that as much
as 90 percent of covert U.S. aid to
rebels fighting the Soviet occupa-
tion of Afghanistan disappears be-
fore it reaches the guerrillas. An
aide said Humphrey had hoped that
either the intelligence or Foreign
Relations committees would look
into those reports.
He said as much as $400 million
may be involved. "Since the com-
mittees are reluctant, we will do it
through the task force," the aide
said. Hearings are planned later this
month.
Durenberger said he is hopeful
that other intelligence committee
Republicans will support his oppo-
sition to renewed Central Intelli-
gence Agency aid to the Nicaraguan
"contras.' ~.The program is helping
to destroy the [congressional] over-
sight process" by undermining pub-
lic confidence in the legitimacy of
covert operations, he said. "As long
as that little poison remains, we're
going to have troubles."
However, Durenberger added,
probing the rebels' behavior is an-
other matter. "I'm not real anxious
to spend a lot of time being conned
by a lot of Nicaragua propagandists"
charging rebel atrocities "when I
can't get at the human-rights vio-
lations by the Sandinistas," he said.
Durenberger added that docu-
menting atrocities probably would
be possible but would chart no new.
waters. "I deplore it, but I predicted
it three years ago when this pro-
gram started," he said.
He acknowledged that Reagan
administration officials have asked
for alternative proposals for pres-
suring the Sandinistas to make. po-
litical concessions. "I said to [for-
mer national security affairs adviser
William P.] Clark three years ago I
wasn't hired to come up with the
ideas-that's your responsibility,"
Durenberger said.
He has repeatedly made clear his
opposition to the Sandinista govern-
ment, suggesting last .month that
the administration consider ways to
apply military pressure in an overt
manner. Several members of Con-
gress have said they may propose
withdrawing diplomatic recognition
from Nicaragua and passing a law to
permit open backing for the resis-
tance forces.
"You have to draft a policy that
implements U.S. law," Durenberger
said. "If the administration doesn't
give us any alternative to the CIA
program, there will be serious prob-
lems."
Law prohibits the United States
from seeking the overthrow, of any
government with which it maintains
diplomatic relations, and ,.bans
spending to overthrow the govern-
ment of Nicaragua.
Durenberger said that, contrary
to rumor, he expects to retain most
of the intelligence committee's staff
and to permit each one to be the
"designee" of a committee member.
But he said some of the nine new
senators will have to accept staff
aides as their designees, because
"the staff is going to be much more
professional and much less honed
by the members than it has been."
He said he will expect staff mem-
bers to labor for the committee 90
percent of their time and keep their
senators informed on current issues
the other 10 percent, devoting no
time to speechwriting, casework or
floor statements not related to in-
telligence activities.
He also said-he opposes a pending
recommendation from a select com-
.mittee on Senate reorganization to
consolidate the House and Senate
intelligence committees.
STAT
STAT
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"You wouldn't consider a joint
ethics committee. That's like intel-
ligence-they're both superspecial-
ly nonpartisan; you bend over back-
wards to take politics out," he said.
Durenberger was quoted in a re-
cent interview with the Minneapolis
Star and Tribune as saying that CIA
Director William J. Casey is a "2 on
a scale of 10." But the chairman
said yesterday he would not ask for
Casey's resignation.
"Nope. I told him I didn't hire him
and I wasn't going to try to get him
fired," Durenberger said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670087-2