GATES SAYS HE OBJECTED TO SALE OF ARMS TO IRAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270063-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: February 19, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270063-7
ARTICLE APPEARED BALTIMORE SUN
ON PAGE _LA. 19 February 1987
Gates says he objected
to sale of arms to Iran
By Nancy J. Schwerzler
Washington Bureau of The Sun
WASHINGTON - Robert M.
Gates, the administration's nominee
as director of central intelligence,
testified yesterday that while deputy
director of the CIA he had urged an
end to Iranian arms deals last fall
and had termed the program "a bad
idea."
Appearing before the Senate Se-
lect Committee on Intelligence in the
second day of public. confirmation
hearings, Mr. Gates said he had ex-
pressed his objections to the Iranian
arms operation in several discus-
sions with then-CIA Director Wil-
liam J. Casey.
"We had several discussions
about it in the summer of 1986," Mr.
Gates said, and again in September
1986 after two more Americans
were taken hostage in Lebanon.
At the September meeting, Mr.
Gates said, he told Mr. Casey, in the
presence of another top CIA official,
that the Iranian arms sale program
"should be called off: the whole poli-
cy was a bad idea."
Mr. Gates, who. had not previous-
ly disclosed his opposition to contin-
uation of the arms sales operation,
also said that he had offered "implic-
it" criticism of the decision to keep
congressional oversight panels in
the dark about the arms operation
by telling Mr. Casey that the decision
would jeopardize relations between
the agency and Congress.
The Senate panel will continue
its scrutiny of Mr. Gates in private
sessions in the next few weeks but
will not vote on the nomination until
some time after a report on the Iran-
contra affair is released by a presi-
dential inquiry commission next
week. Sen. David L. Boren, D-Okla.,
the intelligence panel chairman,
said his committee might reopen its
public inquiry if new information
warranted it.
In two days of open hearings, Mr.
Gates' role in the Iran-contra opera-
tion has come under close scrutiny
by committee members, even as
they have praised his qualifications
and reputation for candor with the
committee in past dealings. Barring
some new disclosures, Mr. Gates is
expected to receive full Senate con-
firmation eventually, but with great-
er difficulty than had been anticipat-
ed.
Repeatedly, senators from both
political parties challenged Mr.
Gates during the confirmation hear-
ings on why he had not tried to find
out more about the arms operation
or probe a suspected diversion of
funds to the contras. He also was
challenged on his role in preparing
testimony last November by Mr.
Casey that committee members said
was misleading and incomplete.
Mr. Gates also modified and clari-
fied his positions on several issues
during the hearings, prompting Sen.
Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to declare that
every time a new question was
raised, "you find a new way to an-
swer it, once it's disclosed."
Mr.. Specter, who has been
among the most aggressive commit-
tee questioners of Mr. Gates, said the
nominee gave the impression of be-
ing "a high-ranking number-two
man who plays it safe and doesn't
speak up."
Mr. Gates insisted that he was
not a 'yes man" and declared, "Syco-
phants in this town only reach a
certain level: there's an ample sup-
ply and they only go so far." -
In disclosing that he had pro-
tested continuation of the arms
sales, Mr. Gates put greater distance
between himself and the Iran opera-
tion that Mr. Casey generally sup-
ported. Mr. Casey was not pleased
with his dissent, Mr. Gates said after
the hearing.
And Mr. Gates demonstrated that
he had gained some political savvy
from his grueling interrogation by
senators, whose fury that their over-
sight panel was not told of the arms
deals heightened their already long-
running feud with the secretive Mr.
Casey over keeping Congress in-
formed of covert arms operations.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROBERT M. GATES
Challenged by senators
Asked by Sen. Bill Bradley, D-
N.J., what he would do if he learned
of any other covert operation not
previously disclosed to Congress, Mr.
Gates replied, "First thing I would do
would be hop in a car and come up
here" to Capitol Hill.
"You're learning, Mr. Gates," Mr.
Bradley said.
In testimony yesterday, Mr. Gates
also disclosed:
^ Operatives linked to Lt. Col. Ol-
iver L. North paid "the going com-
mercial rate" of $127,000 to charter
an aircraft from an airline with CIA
ties for shipment of arms to Iran by
Israel in November 1985. But CIA
officials violated agency rules by not
notifying the deputy director or the
director of the CIA about the opera-
tion in advance.
^ Internal CIA investigators have
uncovered a roughly $300,000 sur-
plus in CIA accounts, left over after
the CIA reimbursed the Defense De-
partment for weapons shipped to
Iran in 1986. The money is being
turned over to the Treasury.
^ In the future, under a recent
order by Mr. Gates, agency staff
must "assume" that a presidential
finding authorizing a covert action is
necessary before any agency "opera-
tional assets" such as aircraft or
equipment are used. Staff must
check to see whether the proposed
operation in which equipment is
used is part of an authorized covert
action.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/10: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270063-7