GATES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270096-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 5, 2013
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: February 17, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/05: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301270096-1
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
17 February 1987
GATES
BY SEAN MCCORMALLY
)WASHINGTON
Robert Gates assured Congress Tuesday that if he had been CIA director at
the time, he would have fought -- and might have resigned over -- President
Reagan's decision to keep Congress in the.dark about secret Iran arms sales.
Gates, Reagan's nominee to succeed William Casey as director of central
intelligence, told a 'Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his confirmation
that ''the one mistake'' the CIA made in the whole Iran arms-Contra aid affair
"was in not pressing ... for a reversal of the direction not to notify the
Congress..''
Fending off sometimes sharp questioning, Gates explained that he and Casey
did not tell the panel last November about ''flimsy', speculation about a
possible link between the arms deals and financing for the Contras because it
was ''not significant enough to bring to the committee's attention.''
Gates, now deputy CIA director, also noted that he and Casey were ''still
governed by'' Reagan's Jan. 17, 1986, order not to inform Congress about the
arms sales.
When he was asked by Sen. William Roth, R-Del., if he were under any
''restraints'' now in answering the committee's questions, Gates briskly
answered, ' 'No sir. "
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., accused Gates of failing to pursue evidence of the
Contra diversion after being told by a CIA intelligence officer Oct. 1 of his
suspicions the arms sale profits could be connected to rebel funding.
Gates, his voice raised, defended his actions. "I didn't sit on that. I
didn't tell (the officer) to go away and come back to me when he had something
more concrete. I said 'Let's move it to the next level of responsibility.'''
Gates said it was at his insistence that a memorandum on the suspicions was
taken to Vice Adm. John Poindexter, then the president's national security
adviser and a major figure in the Iran arms ploy.
''At each stage, it seems to me that my instinct was not to sit on it, not to
try and make it go away, but rather to move it to the next level of
responsibility ... to get it to people who had some idea on which to evaluate
the Situation," Gates said.
"I do not agree with you,'' Specter countered after reading from Gates'
testimony to the committee Dec. 4, after the Contra cash connection was revealed
by Attorney General Edwin Meese. Casey had testified before the panel Nov. 21,
omitting any reference to suspicions about the Contra link. Meese disclosed the
possible diversion Nov. 25, and there have been suggestions Casey had
deliberately sought to mislead the committee in his Nov. 21 appearance, an
allegation Gates denied.
Late Tuesday, the committee released a 105-page transcript of Gates'
testimony on Dec. 4 that appeared consistent with the statements he made during
the day's hearing.
Continod
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''What we had were some bits and pieces, analytical judgments by one
intelligence officer that there was some 'diversion of funds," Gates said in
December, but ' 'had nothing more concrete to go on than that. "
Committee Chairman David Boren, D-Okla.., opened the hearing by sayin it
would not be a detailed exploration of the scandal that has rocked the Reagan
presidency, and lawmakers focused their questions largely on the conduct of the
CIA and Gates in the affair -- not the wisdom of the Iran arms overture or the
president's role.
The hearing adjourned late Tuesday afternoon and Gates was asked to appear
for a second day of questioning Wednesday morning. Boren said the hearing would
be recessed, not ended, after Gates' testimony, so lawmakers and the CIA
official could study the forthcoming report of the Tower Commission, due for
release Feb. 26. That means a Senate vote on Gates is not likely before March.
Gates, a career intelligence analyst who at 43 would be the youngest director
in the agency's history, was questioned about his knowledge of the clandestine
Iran arms project and possible diversion of money to the Nicaraguan Contras
during an extraordinary open session of the committee, which held extensive
closed hearings on the controversy late last year.
Casey, a longtime friend of the president, resigned Feb. 2 after undergoing
brain cancer surgery.. Gates had high praise for his former boss, but also said
that under an informal arrangement, Casey was generally responsible for both
Iran and Central American matters.
Gates was asked by Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., about how he would have
conducted himself as CIA director during the affair.
"I must say that ... the only real regret that I have and the one mistake.
that I think we at the agency made, that I made, was in not pressing ... for a
reversal of the direction not to notify the Congress,'' Gates said.
Gates said he did not resign as deputy director over that same matter of
principle because he felt there was no wrongdoing. and it was the first time the
president had exercised the authority to withhold information about covert
operations from Congress.
Asked if he would resign under those circumstances if he were director, Gates
replied, " I would like to think that I would have gone to the president and
revisited the issue of prior notification. Perhaps if that had happened and he
said no, then I ,would have contemplated resigning."
Earlier, Gates had, frankly acknowledged ''shortcomings in CIA's
participation in the Iran (arms sales) .project,'' and said the agency erred in
''not pressing to reverse'' Reagan's directive ''once the operation began to
string out after mid-February 1986."
Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine, asked Gates whether he would have supported --
as Casey did -- Reagan's signing of the Jan. 17 finding. that authorized direct
U.S. arms sales to Iran and ordered the CIA not to inform congressional
committees of the covert operation.
"I probably would have reccommended against it,'' Gates replied.
In his opening statement, Gates assured the lawmakers that he would work as
director ''to avoid the valleys of mistrust'' that have plagued CIA relations
with Congress in recent years.
cotinled
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Gates said he believes Congress should be notified in advance of covert
J-dperations except'in the most unusual circumstances and, at most, ''only a
period of several days'' should elapse before lawmakers are informed -- not the
nine months that passed before the Iran arms case was made public.
Faced with a similar case in the future, Gates said-he would recommend that
Congress be promptly informed. If his arguments failed, he said, "I would not
be disloyal to the president or insubordinate,'' but would then consider
resignation.
. Despite Gates' assurance, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., told Gates some of his
answers indicated the panel had ''no hope of getting appropriate oversight''
because of Gates' ''very narrow interpretation'' of when he must report illegal
intelligence activity to Congress.
The sharp clash was sparked by Gates' claim the National Security Council,
deeply involved in the Iran arms initiative, was not an ''intelligence entity,''
a view that Nunn said left him ''astounded.
Nunn also took issue with Gates' claim that the NSC activity was ''primarily
a diplomatic activity.''
"Sending guns to Iran and ammunition and TOW missiles is a diplomatic
activity?'' Nunn asked. ''The State Department is going to have to get a
different kind of uniform if that's the case.''
Gates also told the panel he knew nothing of the early planning of the Iran
initiative, or the Israeli transfer of American arms to Iran late in 1985, and
it was not until February 1986 he became aware of the details of the project.
When Boren asked if he believed it was wise to use arms to open channels in
Iran or win release of American hostages 'in Lebanon, Gates replied, ''No sir, I
don't think so. "
Early in the hearing, Gates was pressed to explain what was left out of the
accounts he and Casey gave lawmakers late last year, particularly regarding the
Contra connection.
Gates, speaking calmly, insisted he did not tell the committee about early
hints Iran arms money was being diverted because all he had heard was
''worrisome but extraordinarily flimsy'' speculation -- some of it based on
posturing by Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms merchant the "CIA believed
to be untrustworthy.
Reliance on Ghorbanifar and other private individuals by the NSC in the
secret foreign policy operation is one area being reviewed by the Tower
Commission. The group's report is expected to be criticial of the operations of
-the White House agency that handled many details of the covert Iran operations,
with some help from the CIA and other government agencies.
In addition to the Iran arms sales, the NSC also provided coordination,
through Lt. Col. Oliver North, for private efforts to aid the Contras during a
time U.S. aid was banned by Congress. North and Poindexter, his superior, were
named by Meese as the only two officials who were aware of diversion of Iran
arms profits to the rebels.
In addition to the Tower panel, two special congressional committees and a
federal special prosecutor are investigating the Iran-Contra controversy.
Several senators said those probes will weigh in their decision: Can Gates run
the CIA while answering questions about his role in the affair for months to
come?
^--need
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While the questioning began politely, members of the panel served notice
Gates faced tough scrutiny..Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., noted his ''lack of
experience in the operational end'' of the agency, an issue that Sen. Arlen
Specter, R-Pa, cited among ''serious reservations'' about the nomination.
Gates, who has 20 years' service with the agency and holds a Ph.D. in Soviet
studies, had no experience in covert operations before becoming deputy director
in April 1986.
Other senators, however, gave him high marks. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who
introduced the nominee.to the committee, said that as CIA director, Gates
would assure that "intelligence in independent of policy."
On the possible Contra connection, Gates said that in addition to the word he
got from a ''national intelligence officer'' on Oct. 1, he had only two other
hints the arms sales might be linked to the rebels. One was a phone call to
Casey from a former business associate, who said some investors in the arms
deals had not been paid and might expose the deal if not mollified.
The only other hint, Gates said, came-during an Oct. 9 lunch he and Casey had
with North, who dropped a ''cryptic remark'about a Swiss bank account and the
Contras. Gates told the committee Tuesday he did not understand the comment and
when he asked Casy about it later, the CIA chief either hadn't heard it or
''picked up on it.''
"I considered in October and November, and even today, that it would have
been irresponsible to report to these bodies the flimsy speculation of Oct. 1,11.
he said, and the other hints did not change his mind, although he said the
pertinent information to Poindexter.
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