UNEASY FEELINGS ABOUT CIA DEALINGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100080082-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: March 5, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100080082-3
z V WASHINGTON POST
STAT
Clayton Fritchey
Uneasy Feelings
i About CIA Dealings
a
ll
a
chose involved, both
here and abroad, have had their say
about the latest CIA "black" operation,
the country is left with the uneasy, dis-
heartening feeling that there is still a
long way to go in reining in the head-
strong intelligence agency that often is
referred to as our "invisible govern.
ment."
Despite all the promises of reform
and the establishment of a new con-
gressional watchdog. committee, plus
the inauguration of a new and suppos-
edly concerned administration it ap-
ea
th
p
rs
at the CIA has continued to op-
erate in its old free-wheeling way.
It also appears that President Carter
and Sen. Daniel Inouye, chairman of
the newly-created Senate Intelligence
Committee, are less disturbed over the
CIA secretly paying off various heads
of state, than they are over the leaks
that exposed the undercover activity.
That was also the reaction of former
President Ford over earlier leaks and
press exposes that revealed, among
other things, CIA plots to kill Cuba's
prime minister, Fidel Castro, subver-
sion of an elected government in Chile,
and the covert compilation of dossiers
on hundreds of thousands of U.S. citi-
zens.
Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho), chair-
man of the committee that spent most
of 1976 investigating intelligence abus-
es, says he thinks "Carter has reacted
I the way his predecessors would have in
concluding that the principal problem
f is to confine the leaks." And he adds,
"Once we put an end to this hanky-
panky (referring to payoffs to foreign
leaders) then we don't have to worry
ab
"
out leaks
--
.Even before Ford, former President
Nixon was so wrought up over leaks
that he went to unprecedented lengths
in an effort to suppress the celebrated
top secret "Pentagon Papers" on the
grounds that publication would danger-
ously threaten the security of the na-
tion. The Supeme Court overruled him;
publication turned out to be a long-
needed, valuable education of the
American public on the Vietnam war,
and, as we now know, the nation's
safety was not jeopardized at all.
Carter's effort to alscourage'l'he Post
from reporting that the CIA over a per
iod of years had secretly paid millions
of dollars to Jordan's King Hussein, re-
calls a similar incident involving for-
mer President John F. Kennedy and
the New York Times in another CI '.1, un-
dercover operation-the Bay of Pigs in-
vasion of Cuba in 1961. -
? When Kennedy heard that the Times
had learned about the scheme and was
about to publicize it several days before
the planned invasion, the editors
agreed on a censored version. After the
crisis was over, Kennedy confided to
one of the editors that if the paper had
gone ahead with the full story, the ill-
fated invasion would no doubt have
been called off-thus saving him and
the nation from what he regarded as
his worst mistake.
While President Carter sees nothing
"illegal or improper" about the payoffs
to foreign leaders, the special Intelli-
gence Oversight Board, set up by for-
mer President Ford to review CIA cov-
ert activities, took a 'critical view, and
so informed Air. Ford, who alas did no-
thing about it.
The final judgment on propriety,
however, rests with the American peo-
ple. It is not hard to imagine what the
public reaction in this country would
be if the situation were reversed and it.
was dscovered that the President of
the U.S. was in the secret pay of a for-
eign government. The demand for im-
peachment would be deafening.
Mr. Carter's Justice Department, in
fact, is even now reportedly preparing
to prosecute a flock of congressmen for
allegedly accepting money from South
Korean agents, whose government has
received hundreds of millions of dol-
In any case, a lot of U.S. money has
gone to the King, and, in justification, it
is said that he is our best source of in-
telligence in the Middle East. If so,
maybe we ought to change informants,
fcr our government has been caught
off-guard in some of the major crises of
the region, including the 1973 Arab-Is-
raeli war and the ensuing oil embargo.
against the U.S.
During that conflict, Washington was,
"surprised and disappointed" when
Hussein sent some of his armed forces,
largely American-equipped, to the side
of Syria. The U.S. State Department
feared that would "serve to prolong the
war."
In the end, Hussein's forces played
only a passive role, but in 1975 Jordan
and Syria agreed to form a permanent
Joint High Commission to coordinate
military, economic and cultural poli-
cies, which was seen as "an aggressive
alignment" against Israel."
Last year, Washington reportedly
warned Hussein that Jordan stood to
lose millions of dollars in military and
economic aid if he went through with
plans to make a deal with Moscow for
an anti-aircraft missile system which he
then had not been able to get from the
U.S. Nothing finally came of the Rus-
sian deal, but the incident showed the
King ready to do business with the
Communists if it suited his purposes.
Nevertheless, Sen. Inouye was not
disturbed when his intelligence watch-
dog committee was informed about the
secret. CIA payments to Hussein. One
official familiar with the operations of
the committee is quoted as fearing it
could end up looking like the CIA's
"poodle."
tars in U.S. military and economic aid, r'or 30 years, that has been the unfor-
and other benefits from Congress. tunate history of previous congres-
King Hussein has no apologies for his sional oversight committees, so it won't
arrangement with the CIA-code- be too surprising if the Inouye group
carries on that timid tradition.
named "No Beef." He insists the money though, be a sorry day for the U.S. will,
was not for his personal use
but to
,
fund intelligence activities. If that is so,
why did President Carter abruptly stop
the payments after they were re-
vealed? Hussein himself says he has
"not been advised about its suspen-?
slon," which leaves another loose end
to be tied up.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100080082-3