LETTER TO (SANITIZED) FROM (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: August 1, 1988
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/07: CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
JOHN F. KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
1 August 1988
79 John F. Kennedy St.
[phone]
STAT
Director of Training
Central Intelligence Agency
Arlington Center Building
4600 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 20505
STAT
I have begun research on the use by Congress of finished intelligence
produced by the Agency. What I propose to do is describe the flow of
information to Congress from the Agency from its inception in 1947 up
through the Church and Pike Committee hearings and finally into the current
period which began with the establishment of the oversight committees in
1976 and 1977. I will then explain how Congress uses the information it
receives.
As you know, virtually all finished intelligence now goes to the
oversight, foreign affairs and relations, armed services and appropriations
committees. Congress' requirement for the intelligence is not only to keep
the agency under control or as a basis to make judgments on the appropriation
of funds, but also, as spelled out in the resolutions establishing the two
oversight committees, to enable Congress to make decisions in matters concerning
U.S. national security. Congress believes it needs CIA's output to play its
foreign policy role. There is, of course, not exactly complete agreement between
the executive and legislative branches on what Congress' foreign policy role
should be, but Congress believes it has an important one (some members believe
coequal with the President).
I am now reading the annual and other publications of the oversight
committees and will interview staff and members from the oversight committees
beginning in September. I will get to the other committees later on.
Tom Latimer and Sven Holmes have agreed to schedule the interviews. I met
with Tom and Sven last week and both were very cooperative and helpful. As
you probably know, Sven will be replaced this fall by George Tenet.
I am not sure where exactly my research will lead me, but I hope to
produce a monograph to be published by Harvard or in some journal.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/07: CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/07: CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1
I am also arranging for a discussion here at the Kennedy School Forum
of the CIA and Congress. Holmes, Latimer and John Helgerson have agreed
to participate. I will line up someone from the Kennedy School, probably
Ernest May or Richard Neustadt or both, and someone from the law school
who could talk about the Constitutional issue. This event will be open
to the public and probably will occur in late October. The discussion will
be about Congressional oversight of the Agency, Congress' role in foreign
policy and the intelligence it receives to fulfill that role, and will almost
certainly lead to questions of covert action.
For the semester beginning January 1989, I will organize a student
study group on the CIA and Congress. This will be a non-credit course,
meeting once a week, and will be open to all Harvard students. Peter
Zimmerman will help me set this up (it must have faculty and student
representative approval) but Peter is optimistic that can be arranged,
and May and Neustadt have encouraged me in this effort.
Please let me know if you have any problems with what I propose to do.
I will keep you informed of events as the planning becomes more definite.
I am attaching a note on a conversation I had with Tom Latimer which
you may want to pass on.
Sincerely,
STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/07: CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/07: CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/07: CIA-RDP97-00418R000200140025-1