SENATE PANEL AND CIA AGREE ON NOTIFICATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270044-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: June 8, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RD 90-00965R000100270044-7
WASHINGTON POST
ARTICLE APP 8 June 1984
ON PAGE___ Senate Panel
*d CIA Agree
On Notification
By John M. Goshko
and Charles It Babcock
pUWnfftaa Patetatt WrltM
:; Fhe Senate Select Committee
or Intelligence and CIA Director
William J. Casey have agreed on
new procedures intended to en-
sure that, when the agency en-
gages in such major intelligence
actions as the recent mining of
Nicaraguan harbors, the commit-
tee will be fully and clearly in-
formed in advance.
Announcement. of the agree-
ment, intended to prevent repe-
tition of the controversy about
whether the panel had been told
of the mining, came as a House
subcommittee voted yesterday to
.deny President Reagan's request
for an additional $117 million in
military aid for El Salvador.
The House Appropriations sub-
committee on foreign operations
rejected Reagan's argument that
the money is needed to keep Sal-
vadoran troops supplied in their
fight against leftist guerrillas.
Instead, it voted to accept the
recommendation of subcommittee
Chairman Clarence D. Long (D-
Md.) that no further increase in
security assistance for El Salvador
be made in the current fiscal year
and that Reagan's requested pack-
age of $197.3 million in military
'aid for Central America be cut to
$24.75 million.
The Senate intelligence panel
issued a three-paragraph announce-
ment about the agreement reached
Wednesday by Casey, committee
Chairman Barry Goldwater (R-
Ariz.) and Vice Chairman Daniel
Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).
The announcement did not give
details. But committee sources
implied that the procedures are
? designed to restrict 'severely
Casey's ability to be vague or se-
lective about what he tells the
committee concerning CIA oper-
ations. When the CIA's role in the
Nicaraguan rebel officials discuss goals of movement at news conference here.
Nicaraguan mining became known
last April, Goldwater and Moyni-
han angrily charged that the com-
mittee had not been informed.
The announcement said only
that the aim is to ensure compli-
ance with . the law requiring that
the House and Senate intelligence
panels be kept "fully and current-
ly informed" of all intelligence ac-
tivities, including "any significant
anticipated intelligence activity."
It added that the new procedures
spell out "several important prop-
ositions concerning the meaning
of this section" of the law.
"We had prior notice to begin
with. Now we've extended that,
tightened up what might have
been loopholes," Sen. Walter D.
Huddleston (D-Ky.), a committee
member, said.
Specifically, Huddleston added,
the agreement calls for prior no-
tice of new CIA activities in three
areas: anything that changes the
nature of an operation by going
beyond the original determination
or "finding" that it is justified by
the national interest, anything in
the intelligence area that requires
approval _of the president or Na-
tional Security Council and re-
porting on any subject of CIA ac-
tivity about which the committee
has expressed interest. .
Huddleston said the agreement
formalizes a system of "regular up-
dates" on covert operations. He
said the accord does not state the
updates' frequency but noted that,
until now, they almost always have
been done at committee insistence
rather than CIA initiative.
.In that context, committee
sources noted that, after a new
"finding" last September autho-
rizing covert activities against Nic-
aragua, Casey did not give the
committee a full-scale briefing
until March. In that meeting, he
referred briefly to the harbor min-
ing, but committee members con-
tend that it was done in a way
that minimized its significance
and omitted the direct U.S. role in
supervising the operation.
The House subcommittee's ac-
tion, on a party-line voice vote in
the Democratic-controlled panel,
marked at least a temporary set-
back for Reagan. Ranking minor-
ity member Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.)
said Republican members would
seek to have the action reversed in
the full committee and added,
"We think we can win there."
The administration had sought
.$179 million in supplemental
funds for El Salvador for fiscal
1984 and $132.5 million for fiscal
J985. The House and Senate ap-.
proved the first $62 million, but
-those funds have been blocked by
'failure of the two chambers to
agree on the related. question of
funding further CIA' support for
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100270044-7