WEBSTER STEPS DOWN AS CIA DIRECTOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660103-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 103
• Publication Date: May 9, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660103-8
Webster Steps Down as
CIA Director
By Ann Devroy
Wastun`ton Poet Staff Wnter
STAT
William H. Webster, who took
over the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy four years ago with a vow to re-
store a reputation that had been
tarnished by the Iran-contra scan-
dal, has resigned as CIA director,
President Bush announced yester-
day.
Bush said he has not yet chosen a
successor. But in response to a ques-
tion, he praised a possible Webster
replacement, deputy national secu-
rity adviser Robert M. Gates. "I ha-
ven't considered successors yet, but
a worthy man, Gates, we all have
great respect for him,' Bush said at
a White House news briefing.
Gates, who served as deputy CIA
director under William J. Casey,
was President Ronald Reagan's
first choice to head the agency after
Casey's death in 1987. He was
forced to withdraw his nomination
because of confirmation problems
connected with his own involve-
ment in the Iran-contra scandal, and
Webster was selected.
Administration officials said that
besides Gates, other possible suc-
cessors were Robert M. Kimmitt,
undersecretary of state; Richard J.
Kerr, deputy CIA director; Bobby
Inman, former deputy CIA director
and former director of the National
Security Agency; and Sen. Warren
B. Rudman (R-NJL), a former pros-
ecutor and former attorney general
of New Hampshire. James Lilley, a
career CIA official now finishing a
term as ambassador to China, was
long considered a possible Webster
replacement but is no longer mentioned,
one senior official said.
Bush "is keeping his own counsel on this.
He has candidates you have never heard of,"
another senior official said, noting the pres-
ident's. delight in keeping secrets and his
personal interest in the CIA, where he once
served as director.
Bush Praised Webster's tenure at the
agency, including the quality of intelligence
during the Persian Gulf War. Others in the
administration had expressed strong dissat-
isfaction with intelligence gathering during
the war, as well as during the invasion of
Panama in December 1989.
The president also made clear that Web-
ster's successor will serve, as did Webster,
as adviser on intelligence but will not be a
policymaker. Webster, Bush said, had fol-
lowed the guidelines he set down that the
CIA "would have the single mission of pro-
viding intelligence to the polcymakers of
this government ... and that is a very fm
portant point, intelligence, not trying to
shape policy.
The new director will face congressional
efforts to hold the CIA more publicly ac-
countable, and to restructure the relation-
ships.. among the nation's various intelli-
gence-gathering agencies. Sen. John Glenn
(D-Ohio) introduced legislation yesterday
that would require confirmation by the Sen-
ate dot only of the CIA director but also of
the five deputy directors and the agency's
general counsel.
Senior Bush aides had said during the
transition in 1988 that the president-elect
planned to put his own man into the CIA
slot and several were approached, including
Gen. Cohn L. Powell, then national security
adviser to Reagan and now chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Bush decided to
stick with Webster, although senior officials
have suggested repeatedly over the past
two years that the president and other top
policymakers had grown dissatisfied with
Webster's performance.
One senior official said yesterday that
Webster was not directly pushed out of the
agency but "there are ways of letting some-
one know his resignation will be accepted,
and one of those ways is the drip-drop of
complaint" that had made its way into the
press throughout Webster's tenure.
The Wsanington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times _
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Mon_
ito
New York Daily News
USA Today The Chicago Tribune
oat.
___9 qq I
CONTINUED
7
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660103-8
13u~Iil .It the 11l-
I10un~'el',rn[, (le':tr All el~,V
time n) s) It eenied to rue that this
version of funds trom that enterprise to the
Nicaraguan contras. but aloio on his overall
knowledge of the affair as it began and con-
tinued.
Gates has spent more than 20 years at
the CIA, leaving to serve on the National
Security Council staff in 1974-79. Return-
ing to the agency, he rose quickly under
Casey when two other deputies resigned in
unhappiness over what they considered as
questionable activities by Casey. Several
sources said that Gates, in his current post
as deputy national security adviser to the
president, frequently had bypassed Webster
to bring lower-ranking CIA officials into the
White House to brief Bush.
Among the problems the 1987 Gates
nomination encountered were questions
about his supervision of Casey's testimony
during the Iran-contra affair, which was
found to be deceptive and misleading by
some members of Congress. Other Iran-
contra testimony had indicated that Gates
was warned in early 1986, long before it
became public, of the possible illegal diver-
sion to the contras of money from arms
sales to Iran. Gates told senators he re-
called no such early warning.
(!,lies, s,utl to u,lc_ the ~upp(.,rc u: ;.,IUOn-
al security adviser Brent Sco,.vcroft to re-
place Webster, has campaigned to repair his
relations in Congress and with opinion-
makers. He has begun making television
appearances and routinely meets with the
press to explain and defend administration
policy. Several senators contacted yester-
day said they could support Gates now, but
one who played a key role in his derailment
in 1987. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), was
noncommittal.
Asked if he could support Gates now,
Specter said. "I am not prepared to answer
that question .... I have had the files
(from the first nomination period) pulled
and I am reviewing them."
A senior administration official said it is
the White House view that Gates would win
confirmation. "He has made a great effort to
redeem himself," said one official. But a
GOP strategist involved in the first Gates
nomination said, "I can't believe that the
president would want Gates that badly that
he would give the Democrats an opening" to
probe again Bush's role in the Iran-contra
affair.
CONTINUED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660103-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660103-8
President Bush shakes Ganda with Webster
who
,
o
wa picked to restore CIA's image after Iran-contra affair tour yeaMIoc risr(a
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660103-8