NEW CIA HEAD A CAREER INTELLIGENCE STAFFER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260096-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: February 2, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260096-2
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2 February 1987 OKI
NEW CIA HEAD A CAREER INTELLIGENCE STAFFER
WASHINGTON (AP) Robert M. Gates, selected today to become the
director of central intelligence, is a career intelligence official who is an
expert on the Soviet Union.
gates, 43, was named deputy director of the CIA last summer, and has
been acting director during the illness of William J. Casey, whose resignation
was announced today.
As deputy director, Gates has also served as chairman of the National
Intelligence Council, directing the preparation of national intelligence
estimates put together in cooperation with the various national security
agencies.
Although Gates first joined the CIA in 1966, his service at that agency
was interrupted for six years, when he served on the staff of the National
Security Council from 1974 to 1980, under presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
and Jimmy Carter.
Gates, who holds a doctorate in Soviet history from Georgetown
University in Washington, became the CIA's intelligence officer for Soviet
affairs for two years after returning to the agency.
He then was named deputy director for intelligence, in charge of
analytical studies.
During his first years at the CIA, Gates served as a specialist in
strategic arms limitation issues, advising officials during the negotiations of
the 1970s.
A native of Kansas, he is married and has two children.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., characterized the new director as an
extremely professional member of our intelligence community," during Gates'
confirmation hearings as deputy director last year.
During those hearings, Gates defended the agency's use of covert
activities and vowed to work to curtail leaks of information to the news media.
During his confirmation hearings last year, Gates said that covert
actions is an appropriate instrument of foreign policy, as long as it is
taken within a broader context."
Questioned about leaks to the news media, Gates told the Senate
Intelligence Committee that?Fe?nought they resulted from a ?lack of
discipline" by people with access to sensitive information.
Gates declined to discuss specific instances of leaks or covert
actions, however.
In the case of large-scale paramilitary activities, it is difficult to
keep American involvement secrtet, he admitted.
But, Gates told the committee, even when a program becomes widely
known, official involvement can still be denied and that provides ?a fig
leaf" for the United States in international circles.
Gates threw himself into the job of deputy director at the agency,
pushing improved communications methods and looking ahead to the needs of
coming years, reports John Ranelagh in his book The Agency: The Rise and
Decline of the CIA."
In his,00k, Ranelagh quoted colleagues as saying that Gates took on
deputy's job with all of Casey's energy plus a little bit more."
Gates, Ranelagh wrote, has focused on a series of areas he considers to
be crucial to the future.
These include new methods of communicating with policy makers,
increasing difficulty in obtaining information on other nations, problems
recruiting people who meet the agency's standards, changing relations with
Congress, increasing use of intelligence information for public education, a
dramatic increase in the type of information that must be collected and a
growing emphasis on preparing for the future.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/21 : CIA-RDP99-01448R000301260096-2