GROUP ASKS FOR DISCLOSURE OF GATE'S TESTIMONY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260019-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: February 11, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260019-7
r
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
11, February 1987 STAT
Group asks for disclosure of Gates's testimony<
By JUDI HASSON=
WASHINGTON (UPI) A public interest group urged the Senate
Intelligence Committee Wednesday to reveal secret testimony by CIA
Director-designate RohP=rt--c;atP-s-ran the Iran-Contra affair before his
confirmation hearings begin next week.<
In a letter to the committee, Common Cage,said it was important to
have a thorough review of Gates's qualifications to replace William Casey as
director of the spy agency and to have his prior testimony scrutinized in
public.<
-Gates was -itrerrtioned in the committee's- repo.r--t which detailed .the most
extensive investigation to date of the secret sale of U.S. arms to Iran and the
alleged diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan rebels.<
The 65-page report said Gates, second in command at the CIA under
Casey, learned last October of the possibility that money from the Iran arms
sale had been funneled to the Contras and raised questions about how he handled
that information.<
The diversion was first revealed publicly more than a month later by
Attorney General Edwin Meese.<
11 In view of the information already known about the CIA's role in the
Iran-Contra affair and the serious questions that remain unresolved, it is
critical that the committee engage in a comprehensive examination,'' Common
Cause president Fred Wertheimer said.<
Wertheimer urged the committee to make public Gates's testimony before
the Senate Intelligence Committee as well as any relevant documents.<
The Iran-Contra affair has been characterized by government secrecy,
lack of candor and abuse of power,'' Wertheimer wrote.<
''At this time, the Senate Intelligence Committee has a special
responsibility to ensure that the decision whether to confirm Mr. Gates as the
next head of the Central Intelligence Agency is one that the public can be
fully confident is solidly supported by a fair and complete record,'' he said.<
The committee, which has scheduled one day of hearings next week, had
no immediate comment on the request.<
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260019-7