DIVERSION DATA TOO THIN TO GIVE HILL, GATES SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270085-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 5, 2013
• Sequence Number: 85
• Publication Date: February 18, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270085-3
AI. _
.i'-.SHINGTON POST
18 February 1987
Diversion Data Too Thin
To Give Hill, Gates Says
CIA Nominee Draws Skeptical Questions
s/ By Dusk() Doder and Walter Pincus
President Rea-
gan's nominee tiVbe?,clirector of cen-
tral intelligence, said yesterday that
he did not inform Congress about
the possible diversion of money
from the Iranian arms sale to aid
the Nicaraguan contras because he
had "worrisome but extraordinarily
flimsy" evidence.
Gates' testimony at his confirma-
tion hearing before the Senate Se-
lect Committee on Intelligence
prompted sharp and skeptical ques-
tioning by the panel, particularly
from Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.),
who expressed "reservations" about
the noniination and "serious con-
cerns" about Gates' role in the Iran-
contra. affair.
Another Republican. Sen. William
S. Cohen (Maine), was even harsher
-airrazing Gates' insistence that
he had only scant knowledge of the
affair. Cohen described Gates, cur-
rently the CIA deputy director, as
"an ambitious young man, type-A
personality, climbing the ladder of
success. You basically didn't want
to rock the heat. You were not pre-
pared. to lay your career (in the line
over a matter you did not create.
You didn't want to know about it."
Gates sought to distance himself
from his predecessor, William .
Casey, by saying that ha(' e been
?Central Intelligence Agency direc-
tor and known what he knows now,
he "probably i,vould have'' opposed
Reagan's decision to sell arms to
Iran. Casey, a key figure in the
Iran-contra affair. resigned Feb. 2
after undergoing surgery for a brain
tumor.
Gates Said that although there
was "no formal division of labor"
between himself and. Casey, "in fact
there was an informal division":
Casey "took the lead on Iran and
Central America and I took the lead
on other issues." When Sen. John
W. Warner (R-Va.) said he under-
stood that Gates and Casey had
ROBERT M. GATES
... CIA "learned important lessons"
"close personal and protessionai
ties," Gates replied that it. was "pri-
marily a close professional relation-
ship."
In retrospect. Gates said. the
CIA's "biggest mistake" was failing
to inform Congress about the arms
sales to Iran. But Gates then de-
fended Reagan's "constitutional au-
thority" not to notify Congress
about covert actions, legal require-
ments notwithstanding. As part of
Reagan's Jan. 17, 1986, intelligence
"finding" authorizing the secret sale
of arms to Iran. the president in-
structed then-CIA Director Casey
to keep Congress in the dark about
the affair.
"The entire undertaking was a
unique activity that we are all de-
termined not to repeat," Gates said
during a full day of hearings. "Even ?
so,- we have learned important les-
sons for the future."
Gates .noted that since becoming
acting CIA director he has ordered
an investigation of the agency's op-
erations in Central America by the
CIA inspector general and disci-
plined the station chief in Costa
Rica for improper contacts with the
contras fighting the government of
NicaragUa.
ILLEGIB
111e -hearing, originally scheduled
to take (Silly a day, is scheduled to
continue' this -morning; a closed-
door session, is also planned. The
committee is not expected to vote
for at leak two weeks; Gates needs
a majority to be recommended for
Senate confirmation, and before the
vote a critical report by the Tower
commissibn on the Iran arms sales-
contra aid affair is expected to be
made public.
Undertough questioning, Gates,
43, on some issues sought to nav-
igate between the president's pub-
licly stated positions and congres-
sional criticisms.
For example, the committee
questioned Gates about a number of
controversial issues that have
arisen from the CIA's role in the
Iran-contra scandal, including the
administration assertion at one
point that "oral findings' are as val-
id as written presidential authori-
zations of covert action.
Gles..haid that while "a strong
legal case" couki be made for ? such
oral orders, "I would not proceed on
the base of art oral finding." In
case ttot demanded "instant ac-
tion' Gates added, he would be
"willing to proceed on the basis of
an oral finding from the president"
but woura "immediately" ask for the
order in writing.
Another controversy?fueled by
the 10-month delay in informing
Congress about the arms sales to
Iran?has centered on the legal
requirement that congressional in-
telligence oversight officials he no-
tified in "timely fashion" of covert
actions. Gates said the oversight
committees should be informed in
advance about covert actions, ex-
cept .in .emergencies when they
should he informed "after several
days" depending on the circum-
stances of the particular case.
Rut as senators focused on Gates'
role in the Iran-contra affair, and
particularly his Dec. .4 testimony
before the comniittee, a majority
were clearly dissatisfied with his
explanations as well as his concep-
tion of the job.
Gates insisted that he was largely.
unaware of the details of the Iran
arms sales until laSt October. But
Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) charged,
"You did not seek to inform your-
self. You did not ask to be briefed,
you chose not to know."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270085-3
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05:
BY JAMES W MHER roN?THE WASHINGTON Posr
Gates, nominated to head the CIA, swears to tell the truth to Senate committee.
Gates and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-
Ga.) also clashed over Gates con-
ception of the CIA director's obli-
gation to keep Congress informed
about potentially illegal activities.
In the course of four hours of
questioning, Gates amended his
stand on the CIA director's obliga-
tion to inform the intelligence com-
mittees about possible illegal ac-
tions mounted by U.S. government
agencies.
Asked by Nunn if he wbuld report
illegal activity by the National Se-
curity Council to Congress, Gates
initially responded that his "first
obligation" was to report to the at-
torney general. Moreover, Gates
said his responsibility as director of
central intelligence did not extend
to the NSC, which he said was not
an "intelligence unit."
Gates also said that the NSC's
role in the Iran affair was "primarily
a diplomatic activity" for which the
CIA was providing "operational sup-
port."
"Running guns to Iran and am-
munition and TOW missiles is a dip-
lomatic activity?" an angry Nunn
retorted. "The State Department is
going to have to get a different kind
of uniform. If you've got no com-
punction whatsoever to report what
is without any doubt an intelligence
activity from a congressional point
of view .. . we have got a serious
problem in the law."
After a brief recess, Gates
. amended his position and said he did
not inLend to suggest that he would
CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270085-3
mepeating nis Dec. 4 account.
Gates said the first indication he-re-
ceived that there might have been a
diversion to the contras came on
Oct. 1, 1986. At that time, Charles
Alleib the CIA national intelligence
officer for counterterrorism told
him some of the financial partici-
pants were Unhappy because they
had not been repaid and were
threatening to publicly expose the
operation: Allen "speculated that
some of the funds front the Iranian
arms sales may have gone to sup-
port the contras," Gates said.
Yesterday, Gates said he was
"disturbed" by the threat to the se-
curity of the Iranian operation, but
he emphasized that there was "no
evidence" that such a diversion had
taken place or that "CIA, NSC, the
White House or the U.S. govern-
ment might be involved."
Specter, however, pointed out
that last December Gates testified
he was "startled" by Allen's Oct. 1
briefing and showed much more
concern than he seemed to be sug-
gesting in yesterday's testimony.
Yesterday, ?as in December.
Cohen and Specter pressed Gates
to explain why he and Casey did not
ask Lt. Col. Oliver L. North of the
NSC staff about the possible diver-
sion of funds to the contras, during
a lunch at the agency on Oct. 9.
North made a passing reference to
Swiss bank accounts and the con-
tras, according to Gates, which nei-
ther CIA official pursued.
In December, Gates said "we
didn't want to ask him factual ques-
tions about what he was doing with
the funds . .. because we knew he
was involved, or we assumed . . .
that he was involved in efforts in-
volving private benefactors to. get
money for the contras, and this was
one of those areas where we clicl not
pursue obvious lines of questioning
because we didn't want to get in-
volved in knowing about the
sources of funding."
Gates said yesterday that the
CIA's top officials refused to inquire
ahoat contra funding, explaining at
one point that it was "not because
suspected a problem, but because of
our overall concern not to cross the
legal limits on us vis-a-vis the con-
tras and their private benefactors."
Meanwhile, sources close to the
Tower cotnmission investigating
the Iran-contra affair said that for-
mer national security adviser Rob-
ert C. McFarlane, who is recover-
ing from a drug overdose, will be in-
terviewed Thursday at Bethesda
naval hospital. McFarlane had been
scheduled to be interviewed by the
commission for a second time on
Feb. 9, the day he was taken to the
hospital after an apparent suicide
attempt.
not inform Congress of illegal NSC
activities. The CIA director, he
said, had an obligation to report to
Congress and the attorney general
"if there is an illegal activity in as-
sociation with an intelligence activ-
ity" on the part of any U.S. govern-
mental department, including the
NSC.
Nunn later returned to Gates'
assertion that he lacked conclusive
proof about the diversion of Iran
arms sales money to the contras,
which was disclosed Nov. 25 by At-
torney General Edwin Meese III.
Subsequent events have shown that -
Casey and other top CIA officials
received information from several
sources at least as early as October
1986 about the diversion. Nunn
asked Gates whether he would have
to have absolute proof of illegal ac-
tivity before blowing the whistle.
"I would be prepared to [notify'
at a threshold [oft less than conclu-
sive evidence," Gates replied, lie
added that he would notify Con-
gress based on a "strong indication"
Or "good evidence" of illegality.
The committee yesterday re-
leased a transcript of Gates' closed-
door testimony last Dec. 4. During
the confirmation hearing, the sen-
ators returned repeatedly to Gates'
performance in the Iran arms op-
eration.
When asked why he did not ask
for a briefing on the Iran matter
when he was promoted from the
agency's analytical chief to deputy
director last April, Gates acknowl-
edged that perhaps he should have.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270085-3