FORD, HILL CLASH ON SECRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090053-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: January 27, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090053-4
Pird;.Hilt
Clash (on
Secrets
By Laurence Stern
Was.-%r.;'on Post Stall Writer
The Ford administration i
and Congress came close to
open political warfare
yesterday over future control
of the nation's intelligence
secrets - a confrontation
triggered by the leak of
portions of the House in-
telligence committee's final
report. -
Angry accusations were
traded by outgoing Central
Intelligence Agency Director
William E. Colby, the White
House, congressional in-
telligence critics and the Ford
administration's defenders on
Capitol Hill.
It was in this setting that the
staff of the House committee
recommended the extension of
criminal penalties for in-
telligence leaks to staff
members of a reconstituted
House intelligence ove.rig:
committee.
The staff report also calle'i
for prompt congressional
notification of covert foreign
actions by- all intelligence
agencies, abolition of the
Defense Intelligence Agency,
unilateral authority by the
committee to release any
information or documents in
its possession, and fixed six-
year terms for members.
The staff proposals were
unveiled at a meeting of the
House committee enlivene.i
by partisan accusations fixing
blame for leakage of the
House report to The New York
Times. Staff director A. Searle
Field of the House committe
hinted that - the leaks
originated with the executive
branch and said he was "as
certain as I can he" that they
did not come from the com-
mittee staff.
"The executive branch has
been putting on a tremendous
campaign to insure that
oversight doesn't work," Field
told the committee. He said
the State Department, P, ?
tagon and other executive!
agencies had "dozens of
copies" of the report-and
WASHINGTON POST.
testified that it would be committee leak covered a!
!'incredible" if the executive range of matters from the
branch had been able to donation, of Oriental rugs to
maintain-secrecy. Secretary of State Henry A.
Colby, in what was expected Kissinger by the leader of the
fo be his last day in office, now?-defunct Kurdish revolt to
fisued an angry counterattack a critique of intelligence cost
to the House committee, figures attributed to the CIA.
denouncing its report as Here are some cf those fin-
"totally biased and a
disservice to our nation,
giving a thoroughly wrong
impression of American in-
telligence."
White House press
secretary Ron Nessen joined
in the - fray with the
declaration that "this
unauthorized release raises
serious questions about how
classified material can be
handled by Congress when the
national security is at stake."
In a letter, a. copy of which
was obtained by The
Washington Post, CIA special
counsel Mitchell Rogovin
wrote-_Homse intelligence
committee Chairman Otis G.
Pike (D-N.Y-) last week that
the committee's first draft
report was "an unrelenting
indictment couched in Lsased,
pejorative and far tually
erroneous terms."
The significance o' the leak
seemed to lie more %'n its role
as a catalyst o' political
reactions than as a sub-
stantive additi.in to public
knowledge of Cf.-a excesses.
The administration and the
national security
bureaucracy, while paying
homage to the concept of more
rigorous congresssional
o* ersight, are opposed to
some of the reforms being
pushed by advoca.es t,f
oversight legislation. Chief
o`;ections _ tre__tn r?^..;n-
mendations that Congress be
permitted to declassify in-
telligence information on its
own initiative and that the new
oversight committee be in-
formed immediately of covert
actions.
A significant number of
lawmakers, reacting to the
revelations of the Senate in-
telligence committee report
on assassination plots, have
come to the conclusion that
covert actions sh .,uld he
subjected to ?zringent
congressional co-rtrol or
outlawed, with limited
qualification.
The findings that emerged
from the House irreiligence
-Kurdish rebels in Iraq
suffered more than 100,00')
casualities in their rebellicr.-
Kissinger received three
,valuable le rugs as a gift :nom
rebel leader'Ius_tafa Parzani
and his wife, Nancy, was
given a necklace. A State
Department srokesman
ack-. oO%vler'>ed yesterday that
Kissinger received one rug
and turned it over to the White
House in compliance with a
law prohibiting government
officials from keeping guts
from foreign officials. The
spokesman denied that Mrs.
Kissinger had received a
necklace from Barzani.
-U.S. intelligence failed to
predict the 1968 Soviet in-
vasion of Czechoslovakia
largely because it lost track of
an ' entire Soviet division in
Poland. It also failed to an-
ticipate India's explosion of a
nuclear device. -
-A 1973 CIA memorandum
said that Sen. Henry M.
Jackson CD-Wash.) sought to
"protect" the agency from an
inquiry by the Senate
Multinational Corporations
Subcommittee headed by
Frank Church (D-Idaho). The
object was to prevent CIA
official William Broe from
testifying on covert operations
in Chile. Broe, as it turned out,
did testify. Jackson denied
that he interceded im-
properly. Co'by commented
that it was "perfectly ap-
propr iate" for the agency to
discuss the matter with
Jackson, a member of the
CIA's congressional oversight
committee.
-The report put a S10 billion
price tag on the combined
r.oeration of all L.S. in-
telligence agencies, several of
which substantially outspend
the CIA. This has been an
outside figure previously used
in literature on the agency .
Colby, in an interview with
the Associated Press,
acknowledged that despite his
condemnation c.f leaks, he was
the anonymous source of an
earlier story eescribi-ng CIA
27 January 1G76
contacts with journalists.
"I did tell them, es," Colby
said of The ',Washington Star,
which revealed in November,
1973, that journalists were
serving as CIA information
conduits. As reported by AP,
when asked if he was the
"authoritative source" quoted
in the Star story, Colby said,
"I don't want to confirm it, but
you're not far off."
He said he acknowledged
the relationship between the
CIA and the journalists during
a meeting with the Star's
editorial board. More
recently, the director has
proposed legislation that
would stiffen criminal san-
ctions against any gover a-
ment employee revealing
intelligence secrets.
In another development
yesterday, FBI Director'
Clarence M. Ke!!ev testified
that expanded congressional
oversight of his agency could
jeoparidize its investigative
work. Speaking to 1 .he Senate
Government Operations
Committee, which is drawing
up new oversight legislation,
Kelley said that increasing
congressional requests for
information and testimony by
high FBI officials. as well as
new civil lib er ties laws, are
hampering the bureau's
'ability to carry out its duties.
At the the end of the day it
was announced that Colby,
who was fired by the
President in November, had
been awarded the National
Security 'Medal by Mr. Ford.
'o. v- as e the CIA and
American intelligence
community through the most
troubled period initshistory,"
the President said during a
brief White House ceremony.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090053-4 fi