NO. 2 MAN AT CIA QUITS UNDER ATTACK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320057-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: March 5, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320057-3
ARTICL" :. . 3
ON WASHINGTON TIMES)
5 March 1986
No. 2 man at CIA
quits under attack
By Bill Gertz
J THE WASHINGTON TIMES
John N. McMahon, the No. 2 man
at the CIA, has resigned as deputy
director of the agency and will be
replaced by Robert Gates, the White
House announced yesterday.
"I don't think there's anything sin-
ister about it:' said David Holliday, a
spokesman for the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee, which was noti-
fied of the resignation Monday.
"I think it was his choice and as
far as the committee is concerned,
he wasn't kicked out or cashiered for
some great indiscretion:' Mr. Hol-
liday said.
A 35-year CIA veteran. Mr.
McMahon, 56, has been under public
attack from conservative groups
that say he opposes covert military
aid to Afghanistan, Mr. Holliday
said.
Other intelligence sources said
Mr. McMahon, whose resignation is
effective March 29, stepped down for
personal reasons.
Mr. McMahon also ran athwart of
National Security Council officials
by opposing a CIA plan to strengthen
its internal counterespionage con-
trols with an overseas counterintel-
ligence program, according to an ad-
ministration intelligence source.
Mr. Holliday said the committee
has not yet scheduled hearings on
the nomination of Mr. Gates, now the
CIA deputy director for intelligence
and formerly a Carter administra-
tion national security official. Mr.
Reagan has approved the Gates
nomination and it is expected to be
sent to Congress shortly, the White
House said.
A CIA spokesman declined to
comment on the resignation.
A senior administration official,
who declined to be named, said Mr.
McMahon had become "extremely
testy" over public criticism that he
had mishandled the administration's
multimillion dollar program of co-
vert military aid to Afghan guerril-
las.
White House dissatisfaction with
Mr. McMahon had reached White
House chief of Staff Donald Regan
who since last November has re-
ceived more than 10,000 letters from
conservatives opposing Mr.
McMahon on the Afghan aid issue,
the official said.
Another administration intelli-
gence source said Mr. McMahon re-
signed in a policy dispute over covert
aid to Afghanistan and Nicaragua.
He oppposed the clandestine ser-
vices plans because he said they
could not be sustained properly with
political and financial support, the
source said.
In part, the McMahon contro-
versy resulted from reports that in a
1980 memo he had opposed adminis-
tration plans to supply covert mili-
tary aid to Afghanistan guerrillas
opposing the Soviet invasion in late
1979.
Last fall, %fr. McMahon traveled
to Afghanistan for a week-long visit
to Mujahideen rebel training camps,
said the official who added that the
trip had been taxing physically for
the deputy director.
The official described Mr.
McMahon as "a textbook purist" on
intelligence policy who favored the
use of secret intelligence collection,
but who opposed covert action as too
risky since its exposure could jeop-
ardize U.S. agents and efforts by the
intelligence community to secure
adequate funds from Congress.
At a recent public meeting. Mr.
McMahon took exception with a
question over whether he had op-
posed or mishandled the Afghan aid
program.
"I've been one of the biggest sup-
porters of aid to Afghanistan:' Mr.
McMahon said. Pressed for details,
he said "I can't discuss it because it's
a covert program."
Mr. McMahon could not be
reached yesterday for comment on
the resignation.
Last October, two conservative
groups held a press conference and
called for Mr. McMahon's ouster
over the Afghan aid controversy.
The Federation for American-
Afghan Action and Free the Eagle,
charged that Mr. McMahon had
failed to ensure that an estimated
$342 million in military aid autho-
rized by Congress since 1981 was
getting through to the Afghan guer-
rillas.
They chargea that corruption
among Afghan officials prevented
more than two-thirds of the weapons
deliveries to reach the rebels and
that the weapons were militarily in-
effective.
Andrew Eiva, director of the Fed-
eration for American-Afghan Ac-
tion, said yesterday that Mr.
McMahon had opposed covert aid to
Afghan gurrillas since 1980. He
charged that Mr. McMahon twice at-
tempted to block congressional leg-
islation on military aid to the rebels
"Even before McMahon's role sur-
faced there was an awareness in the
land that something was rotten with
regard to our Afghan policy," Mr.
Eiva said yesterday. "The rhetoric is
there, the money is there, the con-
gressional support is there, but the
effective aid and delivery was not
there,' he said. "There was a major
breakdown and McMahon provided
a lightning rod for criticism"
A senior administration intelli-
gence official defended Mr.
McMahon's role in the Afghan aid
program and said the criticism re-
sulted from CIA-inspired efforts to
mask the agency's role in supplying
arms. The CIA told Afghan rebel
leaders to state publicly that few
arms were reaching the Afghans in
order to mask U.S. involvement, the
official said.
Staff writer Mary Belcher contri-
buted to this story.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320057-3