GATES IS GORED - PANEL SAYS HE PASSED BUCK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707030004-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 19, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
k Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000707030004-4
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
19 February 1987
Gates
is gored
Panel says he
passed buck
By JOSEPH VOLZ
News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Acting
CIA Director Robert Gates
was bloodied in a second day
of Senate confirmation hear-
ings yesterday.
He was accused by Repub-
lican Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.)
of "dissembling" to the Sen-
ate Intelligence Committee
and by New Jersey Democrat
Bill Bradley of "passing the
buck."
Gates, who had hoped to
sail through only one day of
confirmation hearings, in-
stead found himself sche-
duled for a third day of testi-
mony. Intelligence panel
Chairman David Boren (D-
Okla.) said the unit would see
Gates behind closed doors in
about two weeks before de-
ciding whether to approve
his nomination to succeed
the ailing William Casey.
`Candor'
Although Boren praised
Gates for his "candor," other
committee members were not
as enthusiastic.
Specter said there was "an
element of dissembling" in
Gates' testimony about his
actions when he first learned
that the U.S. may have di-
verted funds from the sale of
arms to Iran into the coffers
of the Nicaraguan Contras.
Bradley contended that
the CIA's failure to tip off
the committee about the Iran-
Contra connection was
"clearly a betrayal of con-
gressional confidence."
Said Bradley: "So you
basically passed the buck to
Poindexter?"
Adm. John Poindexter
was at the time President
Reagan's national security
adviser, who ultimately was
ousted because of the
scandal.
"Now you can call that
passing the buck," Gates re-
plied. "I call it trying to get
(the information) into the
hands of those who are better
prepared to evaluate the in-
formation we had gotten."
Meanwhile, Gates stirred
controversy-and anguish at
the State Department-when
he disclosed that the agency
routinely sends CIA officers
overseas each summer to
substitute for vacationing
U.S. diplomats.
State Department diplo-
mats spend a lot of time in
hostile nations denying
charges that they are really
with the CIA-and Gates'
testimony was certain to
weaken that contention,
Gates also insisted that he
warned Casey last September
that shipping arms to Iran
shQujd.be "called off because
e PQI1,1G. ,Warr + ad
icl~at tt txpg~, .Cl to iwas
the, agency.. No. 2 'man.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707030004-4