MR. CASEY'S TESTIMONY AND THE RISE OF THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302440055-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: January 15, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302440055-0
If you were-looking for?signs o
confirmation hearing of William. Va
Casey-the Reagan- campaign chair-
man: chosen byr the president-elect
Casey,, could4 hardly be-suspected.
- he goes back to the days of Wild .
Bill Donovan and the OSS and:,was
use the term "rogue
the first one to
.
elephant,",theterm.used.by the for;`
who-has been- replaced by Barry--
Goldwater, who loves the CIA only
a shade less than the Pentagon.
Casey, who'came ?onP 'during the-:
benevolent, was obviously prepared=
tous were'the=?membera that= he,
found himself suggesting that CIA
detractors were not necessarily dis'
Senatorial Abjectnessa~
The high point of abjectness came
pleaded with the nominee to give
the Intelligence Committee 'a reports.,.
card''on. its secret keeping.:capabil`
Casey was plaalytaken aback Hey
pushed up him .spectacles,
harrumphed.a bit;, and, began a be-
this. comzaittee;investigate me be-
his gravelly. Manhattan accent The;
members had the grace to chuckles
a. bit
, h`There.isa raging debate," he ex'
r'plained earnestly,his;.face_almost;'
aquiver with apprehension from the--
Casey, recovering.from astonish-
ment,gaveavuncular.reassurance.,;o
THE WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE)
15 January 1981
"r-'don't know of any significant
transgression- on the part of this
committee," he said. Biden's face was
illuminated. with relief.
Sen. Malcolm Wallop, IL -Wyo:,
growled. about Americans who
"somehow or another"' regard the,
CIA as an anathema in a free soci-L
etY
Casey, who had doubtless spent
hours preparing rationalizations for
"the company's" excesses in the bad'
old;;_days'-of drug-experiments,-;
poison-plots and assassination ef-
, forts; came to the rescue of critics. ;
_"I thinkthere is a reason," he said,.
and must: have been surprised to
hear himself saying it. "There was .
a time when America had high re- !
spect for-the;value of intelligence
..But it was modified by charges
that', the CIA had become a rogue'
elephant. and you had to focus on
reining,it in."
if.- he= had not said it,. you might
almost have thought that: the hul-?
laballoo of 1975 - which even Ger-:
ald Ford was forced to heed - had;
been'entirely,the work of Kremlin
agents.:
"I think a good job has been done
on that," Casey observed cautiously
of.the rehabilitation. It was a world
class:understatement.The rogue e1e-
pliant has become a splendid mastiff,
guarding us against Soviet wolves. '=i
Nobody came out and asked Casey .
point-blank if he thought the re-,
quirements for "timely reporting",
:',"to Congressional committees on co,-
vert activity were intolerable.. If he _
had, there. might have; been-a stam-
pede to~repeal them: c- -:4i --
-n "Casey, who, in his formalopening- ~
s'"statemeat; had included a chaste ref
erence to "a period of turmoil," kept
;-his head. Invited to rail againstpost-
';,revelation prohibitions, such as a
;:ban on, the hire of.:.reporters and'.J
- clergymen.as part-time, spooks, he ,
only said he would: adhere. to. the
procedures"" while- studying:. "how''.,
shag, wor -~
J,~,Lr>a..
. Helms and Allende :
He was far more restrained than
another Reagan nominee, Alexand
er- Haig, who was also endergoing
Sen.. Jesse . Helms;' R, - N.C., the
Haig's principal- sponsor, on Capitol =
Hill, insisting at- the height of the
firestorm over the appointment that
a whole. new version of the over-
-throw of Salvador-Allende, the Marx-
mark against the agency in the
world view, _
It was, the women of Chile, he
drawled, enraged over the introduc-
tion of Marxist agents and Marxism
in the schools, "who demanded the
overthrow of Allende."
Haig, who always knows which
side his bread is buttered on, agreed.
When Sen. Paul Tsongas, D., Mass.
asked Haig about' his cavalier dis-
missal of CIA complicity, the general
In Brussels, where he was NATO
tion with a Chilean woman ? "It was
,._moving; he told Tsongas .with-
,
eringly.
The next day he-boldly spoke of
restrictions on covert. activity as
"self-defeating and .unnecessary." -
Say - Jiello to covert; operation, say
goodbye to human rights in foreign
-too,. apparently:
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302440055-0