GATES FACING GRILLING ON IRAN DEALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260013-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: February 14, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT; ,,.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260013-3
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
14 February 1987
GATES FACING GRILLING ON IRAN DEALS
BY JUDI HASSON
WASHINGTON
(RotzefL;5
te-~ominated by President Reagan to be CIA director, promised
lawmakers 1 st year full disclosure of covert operations at a time when the
White House was well into its efforts to conceal the sale of U.S. arms to Iran.
Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has
said Gates will be questioned about the secret policy and the possible diversion
of profits to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels when he faces a confirmation hearing
this week to become the youngest CIA director in history.
The hearing, which starts Tuesday, is expected to last a day and most of it
will be public. Boren said the committee will not take a quick vote on the
confirmation, but will wait a full 14 days before considering the nomination.
It is unclear exactly when Gates learned about the Iran deal,, but an
intelligence source told united Press international that Gates was a confident:
of CIA Dirp or William mosey,. who knew about efforts to supply arms to Iran
from the beginning.
On Jan. 1?,. 1986,. President Reagan signed a secret national security
"finding" approving the deal and ordering that it be kept secret from Congress
to protect the lives of American hostages in Lebanon. Casey. knew about the
secret order and may even have been more deeply involved 'in the Iran policy than
previously disclosed,. according to reports.
Less than three months later, on April 10, 1986, Gates appeared before the
Senate Intelligence Committee for confirmation as the CIA's No. 2 official and
he assured lawmakers the agency understood it must tell Congress what it is
doing.
"The concept and principles of congressional oversight of intelligence are
fully accepted within the American intelligence community," Gates told the
panel months after the administration had put the wheels in motion-to sell arms
to Tehran and circumvent Congress.
"Nearly two-thirds of those now Serving in Ethel CIA began their careers
after 1976 .when oversight as we know it began,'' he said. ''They know no othe r
way of doing business than within the framework of congressional oversight.
Sen. Patrick Leahy,, D-Vt.,, former vice chairman of the committee,. said he did
not think Gates intentionally misled the committee because "I don't know ho
much he knew. But he knows it's going to be the major part of his confirmation
hearing.''
Rut committee member Sen. Dennis DeC_cr"ni.' D-Ariz., said, " I find it
difficult to believe that the CIA did not know about early efforts to trade
arms to Iran and raise money for the Contras.''
Casey's role in the deal remains controversial but he was involved in
discussions about arms sales to Iran from the beginning and became aware that
profits from the deal may have been diverted to the Contras in October, more
than a month before it was made public,. according to the Senate Intelligence
Committee report.
Ccntfnued
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260013-3
 STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260013-3
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The administration has denied the arms sale was strictly a swap for American
captives held in Lebanon by pro-Iran extremists although the Senate Intelligence
Committee report said it quickly turned into an arms-For-hostage deal.
A source who worked with, Gates at the CIA, said, ''I'm sure he would
testify honestly. He was not a person who was in the chain of command in this
thing early on. I think he would tell them what he knew and when he knew it.'
A career intelligence officer who has never worked as a spy, Gates was
nominated Feb..2 by Reagan to replace Casey, a pivotal figure in the Iran-Contra
scandal,who resigned six weeks after his Dec. 18 brain surgery to remove a
cancerous tumor.
Gates,, who until April 1986 served as the CIA's deputy director of
intelligence, never mentioned Iran when he testified at a.public session of the
committee that confirmed him as the CIA's No. 2 official.
He said then, ''Oversight has created an environment that fosters adherence
to the rules at all levels and discourages corner-cutting, or abuses.,,
The Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Iran-Contra affair noted that
as early as January 1986,, Gates was aware that intelligence information on Iraq.
was being turned over to Iran. In March 1986, Gates participated in a meeting
about what intelligence materials should be turned over to the Iranians.
The committee's report, released Jan. 29, also said Gates learned on Oct. 1
1986,. of the possibility that money from the Iran arms sales had been Funneled
to the Contras and raised questions about how he handled that information.
But Gates told the Senate committee that in October,. he knew only ''bits and
pieces of information and analytical judgments by one intelligence officer, and
that was not considered very much to go on.''
Gates's nomination has been praised by lawmakers on Capitol Hill where two
Watergate-style congressional committees are investigating the secret sale of
U.S. arms to Iran and the alleged diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan rebels.
A special prosecutor also is investigating the affair.
The Tower Commission, a presidential panel, is expected to issue a report
Feb. 26 on how the National Security Council executed the policies that led to
the scandal.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260013-3