HOW AND WHERE DID THE CIA GO WRONG?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100040006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

25X1 -
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100040006-3
NASHVILLE,TENNESSEAN (TN)
9 December 1984 .
By HARRY HOWE RANSOM
ONCE again the Central Intelligence
Agency is in trouble.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan issued a
directive confirming earlier chief exec-
utive orders prohibiting CIA participa-
tion in foreign assassinations. In 1982,
Congress passed a law barring any CIA
effort to overthrow Nicaragua's govern-
ment. Last Week, the majority on the
House Intelligence committee reported
that the CIA-sponsored manual for con-
tra rebels violated both prohibitions.
THE HEART of the House Intelli-
gence Committee's report was that the
CIA training manual for Nicaraguan in-
surgents was prepared with unintention-
al disregard for federal law. The com-
mittee also pointed to a lack of CIA
command and control procedures. The
agency was charged with "negligence."
Many Americans may be wondering
whether the CIA is a "rogue elephant"
after all, or whether the Reagan admin-
istration is pursuing a secret foreign pol-
icy with the agency as fall guy.
After a decade of efforts by presi-
dents and Congress to restrict its activi-
ties and bring it within the law and the
Constitution,. the CIA still shows signs of
being a state within a state. CIA accoun-
tability remains elusive. With regard to
recent Central America escapades,
Reagan appears to evade responsibility
and CIA Director William Casey contin-
ues to live a charmed political life.
WHY IS the CIA perceived ? as the
problem child of American government,
the juvenile delinquent of American for-
eign policy? As a long-time academic
observer of the CIA, I suggest the follow.
ing answers: serious organizational mis-
takes at the beginning of the CIA's de-
velopment, presidential misuse of covert
operations, congressional timidity in its
watchdog role and recent tendencies to
politicize the CIA.
Two other complications can be cited.
One is constitutional. The United States
is the only nation that attempts to man-'
age secret operations by separating ex-
ecutive and legislative institutions while
having them share authority.
This invites presidential-congressional
conflict over who is to determine policy
and control secret operations.
A second problem is that America is
perhaps the only major nation that takes
its ideals seriously in the realm of for
eign affairs. Americans are uneasy in
peacetime with the secrecy, deception
and illegal actions inherent in clandes-
tine operations. These may be indelible;
so we must look to those parts of the
system that can be repaired.
BETWEEN 1948 and 1952 separate
organizations existed for foreign
espionage, dearly a.CIA role, and co-
vert action, which Congress never di-
rectlY assigned to the CIA.
A separate "Office of Policy Coordi-
nation" was created in 1948 and con-
trolled by the State and Defense Depart-
ments to carry out secret foreign politi-
cal interventions incompatible with
diplomatic and military practices.
Espionage and covert action were com-
bined under the CIA roof in 1952 to
avoid duplication. That was a mistake.
Clandestine activities became the CIA's
dominant function. Intelligence analysis
suffered.
The CIA takes its assignments from:
the National Security Council on which
only one person has a vote, its chair-
man, the president. In reality, the CIA is
the president's secret weapon, to be
used at his discretion.
SOME presidents, notably Lyndon
Johnson, Richard Nixon and Reagan,
.have misued the CIA as an expedient,
usually in the absence of foreign policy
consensus. The hope was to evade pub-
lic and congressional debate. On occa
sion, the CIA has even been directed to
violate its legislative charter prohibiting
domestic spying.- And presidents have
ordered the CIA into foreign interven.
tions that Congress would not approve.
Controversies that have ensued from
exposed covert actions have politicized
the CIA. Jimmy Carter made the CIA a
major issue in his 1976. presidential cam.
paign. He was the first President to treat
the CIA "directorship as a partisan ap-
pointment in his incoming adrr inistra-
tion.
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100040006-3