WHAT LIMITS SHOULD CIA HAVE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100400002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 12, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100400002-1
1Vr.WJJAY (iN )
12 July 1984
What limits should CIA h
By ROBERT WALTERS
Newspaper Enterprise Association
W ASHINGTON - Should the CIA
conduct clandestine paramili-
tary operations in other nations to
destabilize their governments and
otherwise meddle in their internal
affairs?
Although the CIA has engaged in
covert operations in dozens of na-
tions throughout the world for al-
most four decades, the debate over
their legitimacy, propriety and effi-
cacy continues unabated.
A panel of eight experts, assem-
bled here recently by Harper's Mag-
azine to explore the subject, failed to
resolve the issue but offered some
intriguing new perspectives on the
controversial practice.
The CIA insists that a principal
requirement of a covert operation is
that, by definition, it must be con-
ducted in secrecy - and therein lies
a seemingly insoluble conflict for
the democracy that sponsors those
activities.
"In the CIA, we learned to do
things by deceit," says Ralph McGe-
hee, who served in the CIA for 25
years in various Asian posts.
McGehee says the deception ex-
tended to congressional briefings
that "had nothing to do with reality"
but instead were "a complete white-
wash job."
That allegation, frequently voiced
by other CIA critics, is especially
troublesome because failure to fully
inform the appropriate officials of
the executive and legislative
branches of the federal government
is nothing less than an abuse of the
Constitution.
Former CIA Director William Col-
by insists, however, that the CIA
does not engage in covert activities
without approval from higher au-
thority.
"We've had two clear cases where
Congress rose up and said stop a
covert action, in Angola and Nicara-
gua," says Colby. "That shows you
that covert activities are subject to
the will of the American people."
The public, however, invariably is
not privy to the information given to
a select group of governmental lead-
ers. "Our government - if it's a
covert action stimulated and orga-
nized by the CIA - consciously lies
to the American people," says John
Stockwell, who served as a CIA case
officer in various African posts for
12 years.
In Angola, where the CIA was
"creating support for. an operation
that was killing people in the Third
World," says Stockwell, "the great-
est liability (perceived by the CIA)
was that the American people would
find out the truth."
But Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, D-
N.Y.,, vice chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, says "Con-
gress is satisfied that if an act is
legal, it need not be public."
What is particularly striking about
the CIA's contemporary covert
operations, however, is the extent to
which they have informally become
a matter of public knowledge - a
marked departure from the rigid se-
crecy of earlier decades.
For example, the public did not
learn about this country's involve-
ment until many years after the CIA
organized and directed the 1953
couF that overthrew the government
of Iranian Premier Mohammed Mos-
sadegh.
Similarly, there was no concurrent
public knowledge of the CIA's covert
operation that toppled the Guatema-
lan President Jacobo Arbenz Guz-
man.
Today, however, the CIA's exten-
sive covert operations in Central
America have become a legitimate
subject of public debate. In addition,
experts in the field claim knowledge
of other covert activities currently
under way in Chad, Libya, Cambo-
dia, Cuba and Afghanistan.
Notwithstanding the CIA's pen-
chant for secrecy, we may have
reached an informal accommodation
that perpetuates covert, operations
as an intermediate measure between
diplomatic initiatives and military
involvement, but requires at least
some measure of public disclosure.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/28: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100400002-1