WILL SENATE FIGHT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200310061-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 1999
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: November 1, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

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-THE TR $UNE CREDO
WILL SENATE FIGHT?
The state department has shown its
contempt for the prerogatives of the Sen-
ate and its indifference to security risks
within its own ranks by dismissing its
chief security evaluations officer. It did
so in the face of a direct.warning carried
by a member of the Senate internal secu-
rity subcommittee to Secretary of State.
Rusk.
The victim of the purge, Otto F. Otepka,
is a veteran of 27 years of government
service. For the last 10 he has been the
department employes. So well and effi- Chairrnan~astlanil of the subcommittee
ous service award. ka by every means at my cut rnand
h
t
compla
i
But, as Sen. Dodd of Connecticut has against accusations whic
'
`"
askdde,
said, in the topsy-turvy world of the state effect, that he told the truth whe.}n~
J._ L... CnnnFn c. ,.~1MfNM.f.dOiY?,
nepartment, the idea ut to: caI.cn use cop
and not the culprit. So' charges were There can be no doubt'; that k jsG
gaged in conduct unbecoming a diplomatic ministration to conduct a purge of.;ptribta .
officer-namely, in collaborating with the The subcommittee feels that the often mts-t;
Senate security, subcommittee. He was used doctrine of executive privilege cant'
accused of'having disclosed secret depart- be claimed only by the President, '-not by
ment documents to-senators. any burocrat who feels like thwarting
wili
r
s'`
a
p
es
te
In the department it was said that Otep gress. We trust that the Sen
ka "is out of step with the times." A this central point, for if it lets theissue.g o,..'
h by default, Congress will soon find itsdif
it
"W
rk
d
k
e are not w
c
esman rema
,
spo
e
hunting any more. We have no security hamstrung by the burocracy In looking
risks, and he knows it." The Senate sub- into any facet of public business whatso-
, ever. It would be salutary if it Invoked:its
f
ti
i
itt
a
ti
i
0
k
sm.
s
c
ees re
c
on
s
411 o
ep
comm
_ powers to punish for contempt.
to picture Castro as the "liberator" of
Cuba and not as a Communist hardly per- efforts to safeguard Mr. Otepka's-career.
thru avenues of appeal whiei, ultimately:
in th
thi
ki
k
t th
'
h
d i
n
y
ere
s no
ng
a
suade
t t
e permit reviews of his case by Secretary
department, Rusk and President Kennedy. We have no
valuate the
in
to
i
b
t
It h
een
ry
g
nce
e
as s
great faith that there will be sympathy for
security practices, or lack of them, in the.
department. Itwas hampered by a depart- Mr. Otepka in any of these quarters, for
meat order, Issued under the cloak of it is obvious the administration was out, .
"executive privilege," directing that state to get him, and did. These are the kind
department officials remain away from the of rewards a lcyal American can expect
subcommittee and give it no information. from a crowd which pn always find ex-
d with the sub cuses for Khrushchev, or Tito, but none
erat
l
coo
f
Ate
ree
y
p
e
for a vigorous anti-Communist.
committee. Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP7-5-00149R00020031`0061-2