NEED SEEN FOR INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES INDEPENDENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707350025-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: September 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707350025-4
ONPr?GE 0
Need Seen for intelligence n~~es
Independence
By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
The chairman of a House intel-
ligence subcommittee warned yester-
day that the CIA and the rest of the
nation's intelligence agencies may be
in danger of being "co-opted by the
policy-makers at the White House."
Rep. Charlie Rose (D-N.C.) said a
special staff study of intelligence re-
ports and assessments of El Salvador
and Nicaragua in recent years sug-
gests the need for a stiffer resolve
and.posture of independence on the
part of the U.S. intelligence commu-
nity.
The 47-page study sets out what
Rose called examples of "sloppiness,
overstatement or inaccuracies" that
should be warning enough of the
need for more care and objectivity.
The full House Intelligence Com-
mittee decided at a closed session
Monday to make the report public
despite objections from the CIA, the
National Security Agency andthe
Defense Intelligence Agency.
A draft copy, obtained by The
Washington Post and cited in yes-
terday's editions was a toned-down
version prepared by minority staff-
ers.
The committee ordered release of
a more strongly worded and detailed
majority study on a voice vote that
Rose said was "pretty much along
party lines."
The report praised U.S. intelli-
gence reports and estimates in Cen-
tral America in a number of areas,
such as the CIA's mid-1978 predic-
tion of the downfall of the Somoza
regime in Nicaragua.
But the study by the Oversight
and Evaluation subcommittee staff
said it had also found certain weak-
nesses, including intelligence reports
and presentations that suggested
greater certainty than the evidence
warranted, that relied on "some un-
questioned and sometimes contra-
dictory assumptions," and that ac-
cepted Salvadoran government de-
scriptions when there was ground for
skepticism.
The subcommittee staff said it
also noticed a tendency to view in-
formation from non-intelligence
sources "simply as material to be
countered" rather than examined
objectively..
The report was published with a
disclaimer stating that "it does not
represent the views of all members
of the committee," but Rose told
reporters that "it certainly represents
my views and, I would say, the views
of the majority"
The report took issue with the
administration's complaints earlier
this year about news stories of a
massacre in the El Salvador's Mo-
razan province. Congress was told
two U.S. Embassy-officers were sent
out to investigate the stories and 'no
evidence could ' be found to confirm
that government forces systematic-
ally massacred civilians" or that the
numbers killed remotely approached
those cited in press reports.'
The embassy investigators, the
House staff study emphasized, "nev-
er reached the towns where the al-
leged events occurred."
The subcommittee's ranking mi-
nority member, Rep. C. W. (Bill)
Young (R-Fla.), protested the release
of the report and said he considered
it "extremely biased."
Rose -said he stood solidly behind
it.
"What I hope this says to the in-
telligence community," Rose told
reporters, "is `fellas, you do a great
job but be careful you don't get co-
opted by the policy-makers at the
White House. It is far more impor-
tant that you retaina degree of in-
dependence and aloofness from the
political process. If that doesret hap-
pen, there-is going-.to be a loud call
from the Congress that we construct
real independence between the ad-
ministration and the intelligence
community.'
Spokesmen at the White House
and the CIA said they had no.com-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707350025-4