INTELLIGENCE SUPERCHIEF: TURNER'S NEW CHALLENGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100110022-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: August 15, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/10/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100110022-7
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Intelligence Superchief:
t'urner's New Challenge
T HE MOST SWEEPING reorganization of
America's troubled spying system in
30 years-ordered by President Carter
on August 4-has two major objectives.
The first is to guarantee that the bil-
lions of dollars earmarked for the na-
tion's intelligence services are not
wasted.
The other is to prevent a recurrence
of the kind of abuses committed by
intelligence agencies over the past quar-
ter of a century, such as illegal activities
against American citizens and question-
able operations overseas.
The key to this far-reaching reorgani-
zation is the designation of a new super-
chief with unprecedented authority
over all spying activities.
For that role the President has select-
ed an Annapolis classmate, Adm. Stans-
field Turner, whose powers as Director
of Central Intelligence and head of the
Central Intelligence Agency are greatly
increased.
Turner will exercise decisive authority
in three areas:
1. Spending. The budget for all for-
eign intelligence operations, spread
across a half dozen agencies, will be
controlled by the Director of Central
Intelligence. This will enable him to
curb duplication, now widespread in the
sprawling intelligence establishment.
2. Priorities. A new Policy Review
Committee is being set up, under
Turner's chairmanship, to determine
what priorities should be assigned to
intelligence targets-military, political
and economic. The group will include
the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of
State, Secretary of Treasury and the
President's national security adviser. At
the same time, a new National Intelli-
gence Tasking Center is being estab-
lished, under Turner's direct control, to
assign spying jobs to specific agencies-
the Central Intelligence Agency, which
runs a worldwide network of clandestine
MIND BENDING-LATEST CIA SCANDAL
The Central Intelligence Agency,
rocked by crises for nearly two
years, is engulfed in yet another
scandal-the revelation that it fi-
nanced experiments aimed at find-
ing ways to control human behavior.
Adm. Stansfield Turner, CIA di-
rector, told two Senate committees
on August 3 that the Agency had
backed 149 mind-control projects,
many involving tests of drugs on
persons unaware that they were un-
der study.
Turner said the information came
to light recently when a CIA em-
ploye found seven boxes of financial
records that had been overlooked
previously. The papers provided in-
sight into research sponsored by the
Agency over a 25-year period end-
ing in 1973.
What prompted the studies was
the fear of CIA officials that Russia
had developed techniques to force
prisoners into divulging information
or confessing to false charges.
So the CIA launched a series of
.,.secret experiments to ' enable the
U.S. to use similar procedures.
Medical researchers and psychol-
ogists were enlisted to work in pro-
jects with code names such as
"Bluebird," "MKULTRA," "Arti-
choke" and "Midnight Climax."
Testing took place at 80 sites in
the U.S. and Canada-mostly uni-
versities but also "safe houses" in
New York and San Francisco where
the CIA apparently paid prostitutes
to give hallucinogenic drugs to un-
suspecting men they had picked up
in bars.
A principal focus of study was
whether "brainwashing" could be
accomplished by chemicals, surgery
or electric shocks. Records made
public so far indicate that the re-
search was largely unsuccessful in
providing useful information. Thou-
sands of documents are yet to be
unveiled, however.
Turner said it was "totally abhor-
rent to me to think of using humans
as guinea pigs." He assured Senators
that "the CIA is in no way engaged
in either witting or unwitting test-
ing of drugs today."
But Senate investigators say they
will continue to search for those
responsible for the experiments.
New powers for Admiral Turner.
STAT
agents; the National Security Agency,.
which conducts sophisticated communi-
cations intelligence, and the supersecret.
National Reconnaissance Office, which
operates a chain of spy satellites-
3. Analysis. Sole responsibility for
producing intelligence assessments of
critical world issues for the President.
and other policy makers now rests with
the Director of Central Intelligence. For.-
this job he will co-ordinate the resources
of the CIA, with its 1,600 analysts; as
well as the Defense Intelligence Agency pp
and the State Department's division of
intelligence and research.
While no other intelligence chief has
exercised such wide-ranging authority
Turner's powers fall short of what he
sought. The President rejected his re-
quest
for direct control over the Nation-
al Security Agency and the National
Reconnaissance Organization, the two
most important and costly spying opera- '
ations. Carter accepted the argument of
Defense Secretary Harold Brown that
operational control of these two organi-
zations should remain in the Pentagon.
On other issues, too, the President is
requiring Turner to share power with
Brown. For example, the two men are
given joint responsibility for drafting a
new executive order implementing in
detail the reorganization scheme.
In short, Carter handed down a split
decision in the battle between Turner
and Brown for control of America's vast
spying system. Officials around Brown -
suggest that the Director of Central In-
telligence has won too much power.
Sources close to Turner hint that he has
gained too little clout to do the job.
The final verdict, in the view of inde-
pendent experts, will depend on wheth-
er Carter's Director of Central
Intelligence and his Defense Secretary
establish a close partnership-or wheth
Approved For Release 2007/10/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100110022-7