STANSFIELD TURNER: "TERRORISM AND DEMOCRACY"

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100360002-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 1, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100360002-1
RADIO N REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
CBS This Morning
STATION W U S A- T V
CBS Network
DATE July 1, 1991 7:40 A.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
Stansfield Turner: "Terrorism and Democracy"
HARRY SMITH: From the Iran hostage crisis to Americans
kidnapped in the Middle East, U.S. Presidents have had varyine
degrees of success dealing with terrorism. As President Carter',
CIA Director, Stansfield Turner had a key role in formulatinu
U.S. policy on terrorism. His new book, "Terrorism and Demo-
cracy," discusses the tough choices that have to be made. an.i
Stansfield Turner joins us from Washington.
Good morning, Admiral.
ADMIRAL STANSFIELD TURNER: Good morning, Harry.
SMITH: One of the things we hear so often when the
subject of terrorism comes up, and especially with regard to the
White House, people in the White House say, "We don't deal with
terrorists."
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, Harry, my survey in the book is
that of eight Presidents I looked at carefully who had hostage
problems, seven of them ended up making deals. That doesn't mean
deals are necessarily good. You've got to judge each one on its
own merits. But because we're a democracy and because we're a
humane people, when there's nothing else that looks like it will
work, we'll try a deal.
SMITH: Because we are a democracy, how does that affect
how we deal with terrorists?
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, because in many cases the only
other way to handle a hostage problem is to just wait it out.
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But because we do have democratic pressures, because you and I
cae about those people who are held hostage, we put pressure on
our Presidents to do something. Sometimes they make a deal that
isn't desirable. Sometimes they make deals that barely are
acceptable. And we have to be able, as a public, to judge
between a reasonable and an unreasonable deal when there's
nothing else will do.
SMITH: You were President Carter's CIA Director during
the Iran hostage crisis. Was that situation handled properly?
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, of course, the biggest problem we
had was that we tried a rescue operation, because there was
nothing else seemed to work at that point. We couldn't even make
a deal. We had tried that. And the rescue mission failed.
What I try to do in the book is to analyze why it
failed. It wasn't just because the helicopters broke down. In
point of fact, at the end of that mission all of the helicopters
were operational, some at some risk. There were a lot of other
reasons that have to be explored in detail.
SMITH: Do you think you and President Carter's other
advisers served him properly during that time or served him well'
ADMIRAL TURNER: Well, I think we had trouble coordin-
ating and playing as a team, in part because there was such i
need for secrecy, lest the rescue mission be compromised eve,
minutes before it actually got to the embassy in Teheran. [
think we had a lot of the same bureaucratic problems that almost
every Administration has in pulling together, even in an emer-
gency.
SMITH: There's a lot of talk right now that the release
of the hostages was delayed by Republicans in an effort to change
the results of the 1980 election. Do you believe that happened?
ADMIRAL TURNER: It's such a terrible accusation to make
that I don't think we ought to accept it until we've got more
firm evidence than we do today. The evidence is circumstantial,
but it is accumulating. And it is deep enough today that I think
we ought to get a resolution of this. I think the White House
could produce a lot of records of where people were at that time.
And if they don't, I do think the Congress ought to subpoena
those records and let the public put this thing to bed.
SMITH: So you believe there should be some kind of
formal investigation.
ADMIRAL TURNER: Yes. It's a cloud hanging over that
whole period, and unfortunately it still hangs over the President
who was part of it, And I don't think we want that to continue.
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SMITH: There's still Americans being held hostage right
now in Lebanon. Should President Bush try to strike a deal and
get them released finally?
ADMIRAL TURNER: Oh, I think a deal is being made behind
the scenes right now. All the ingredients are there. And the
President, because he's taken such a strong stand against deals,
will have to obfuscate the fact that it is a deal, will call it
something else. But you and I, the public, because we are
humane, will be forgiving. We'll let him get away with that all
right. And I hope those six Americans in Beirut, one of whom's
been there over six years, will come out before too long. I
think the chances are good.
SMITH: "Terrorism and Democracy" is the new book.
morning.
Stansfield Turner, thank you so much for joining us this
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100360002-1