GATES TELLS PANEL OF DOUBTS ON IRAN SALES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 4, 2013
• Sequence Number: 77
• Publication Date: February 18, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2
ARTICLE APPEARED BOSTON GLOBE
ON PAGE 18 February 1987
Gates tells
panel of
doubts on
Iran sales
obe Staff
WASHINGTON ? President Reagan's nominee
to head the CIA, Robert M. Gates, said yesterday
that he probably would have recommended
against initiating the Iran arms program and
would consider resigning if ordered not to inform
Congress for more than a few days that such a co-
vert operation was taking place.
Gates, now the agency's acting director, also
said during the first of two days of confirmation
hearings that he thought it was a bad idea for the
administration to have sold weapons to Iran.
whether the purpose was to make contact with
moderates or to obtain the release of American
hostages.
Gates was named to succeed William Casey.
who resigned last month after undergoing surgery
to remove a brain tumor. Gates is a career agency
employee who, at 43, would be the youngest man
ever to run the Central Intelligence Agency.
During more than six hours of testimony before
the Senate Intelligence Committee ? often in re-
sponse to tough questioning ? Gates portrayed the
overall Iran-contra affair as badly managed and
ill-conceived and said that the mistakes should not
be repeated.
After listing the extensive procedures that are
normally used in planning and conducting secret
actions, he added: "Almost every single one of
these safeguards was essentially ignored."
He stressed that the agency was only a periph-
eral player in the enterprise, which was formulat-
ed and managed out of the White House by officials
of the National Security Council.
? The new head of the NSC, Frank Carlucci, has
said the council will perform only advisory func-
tions in the future.
Throughout his appearance. Gates attempted to
address congressional concerns about how the ad-
ministration carried out its Iran program, and par-
ticularly about Reagan's decision not to inform key
legislators until after the sales were disclosed by a
Lebanese newspaper last November.
He said the major lesson that
he and the CIA had learned from
? the controversy was "in not press-
ing ... and not notifying the Con-
gress.
Under the law, the heads of the
House and Senate Intelligence
Committees must be told of up-
coming secret actions: in particu-
larly sensitive cases. they .can be
told "in a timely fashion" after
the operations have begun.
Gates said that except in "ex-
treme" cases, no more than "sev-
eral days" should pass before con-
gressional leaders are informed of
a covert enterprise.
Under persistent queeitioning
by the senior Republican on the
committee, Sen. William Cohen of
Maine, Gates said, "I would
strongly contemplate resignation"
if the president ordered him to
keep Congress in the dark.
Later tn the day, however, he
added that his choice of words had
been deliberate so as to leave an
opening in case he thought it was
vital to withhold notification in a
given case.
When Cohen asked Gates
whether, given the agency's
doubts about the handling of the
enterprise, he would have told the
president to go ahead with it,
Gates replied: "I probably would
have recommended against it."
Gates consistently suggested
that his actions as director would
sharply differ from those of Casey.
and at several junctures tried to
distance himself from his former
boss.
Nevertheless, members of the
committee pressed Gates, who
was the No. 2 official in the agen-
cy at the time, about his own role
in the operation and persistently
asked why he had not informed
Casey more quickly when faced
with evidence that improprieties
or irregularities may have been
taking place.
Of particular concern to sever-
al senators was Gates' decision to
wait almost a week before going to
Casey last October, after he got
initial indications that money
from the Iran arms sales may
have been diverted to the Nicara-
gnarl rebels.
continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2 2
tn testimony before the corn-
riiittee last December, Gates said a
CIA analyst had given him the in-
formation, which Gates said
shocked him.
Yesterday, however, he said he
saw no urgency because theinfor-
mation involved was "extraordi-
narily flimsy." He added, "When
you're running a worldwide intel-
ligence service, the amount of
speculation, gossip and rumor
that involve people that comes
across your desk on a regular ba--
sis is tremendous.-
. That explanation apparently
was not sufficient for some law-
makers, who long have argued
that CIA officials, especially Ca-
sey, should have been more forth-
coming about their knowledge of
the contra connection to the Iran)
arms sales. In particular, they
criticized Gates yesterday for not
having inserted some information
about the topic into Casey's testi-;
mony before the committee last
Nov. 21.
According to committee mem-
bers, Casey deliberately avoided'
the topic of the funds-diversion Ur
the contras, which was made pub-,
lie four days later by Attorney
General Edwin Meese 3d.
Gates said Lt. Col. Oliver U.
North. who was fired from his,
post at the National Security
Council, had assured him in OctO'-'
ber that the CIA had no role in the'
contra operation. Gates said that;
during a luncheon with North ani
Casey. North had made a "cryptic
remark" about Swiss bank aCv
counts and the contras, but that/
Casey was unconcerned when;
asked about it several days 1atef.'2
As a result, Gates said, he piNV
the matter aside because he did'
not understand it. In general, he
added, the CIA tried to know as lit:7
tie as possible about contra fund"
log activities because the US gov,"
ernment at the time was prohibi4-.;
ed by law from providing militarSc
assistance to the rebels.
Though the senators were rofk,
ten skeptical, Gates insisted that;
he was responsive to all the infor-
mation he received. "At each
stage," he said, "it seems to me'
that my instinct was not to sit on,
it, not to try and make it go awaj7;
but rather to move it to the net
level of responsibility ... to get lt"
to people who had some idea owl
which to evaluate the situation.''
At seve-ra; points, it appeared!
that Gates was trying to distance
himself from the enterprise that
the committee chairman, Sen. Dar::
vid Boren (D-Okla.), called a "del
bade."
In addition to several refer-
ences to how he had passed on WS,
concerns to Casey, Gates also said:
that he and the CIA chief had in-
formally. 'divided responsibilities
in the agency. Casey, he added.
had taken on the Iran issue.
_ Although the questioning wag
often intense; both Democrat's,
and Republican senators indica
ed that barring some damaging
revelation, Gates has little to woC
ry about in being confirmed. Th:
committee, whose open sessithe
yesterday was a rarity, is expect
to vote on the nomination withIC
a couple of weeks.
The most heated exchange yes.
terday came when Sen. Sam Nuns
(D-Ga.) asked Gates whether -14
thought he should have notifiet
either the congressional inteilg.
gence committees or a presidential
oversight panel after he suspecte:
that the NSC's operation had one
awry.
_ Gates responded that h:
should not, because the NSC waX
not an intelligence agency but C
diplomatic one.
"Sending guns to Iran and anal
munition and TOW missiles iS X
diplomatic activity?" Nunn askel
his voice rising in anger. "Th:
State Department is going to ha'vel
to get a different kind of uniform C
that's the case. ... That's the WC
gest loophole in the law that I've'
ever seen."
Nunn asked that Gates recon:
sider his answer, which he did.
Asked by another senator lat:
in the day what he would do hag
such a case in the future. GateC
said: "I can assure this committeC
that if I became aware of an
agency carrying out an illegal cfi
improper activity, I would infor
this committee."
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2
'4.
Photographers surround Robert Gates (right), Presi-
dent Reagan's nominee as director of the CIA, and
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) before yesterday's Senate
AP photo
Intelligence Committee hearing on Gates' nomination.
Warner introduced Gates to the conlmittee. Gates
would replace William Casey.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270077-2