LOTS OF LIFE LEFT YET IN 'ROGUE ELEPHANT'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100040012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 12
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
V
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27 April 1976
Approved For Release 2007/06/22 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100040012-7
Lots of Life Left Yet
In `Rogue Elephant'
Just before the Senate Select Com-
mittee presented, amid conspicuous
self-congratulation, Volume I of its
report on the intelligence community,
the CIA scored yet another coup.
Director George Bush hurried up to
the Caucus Room for a secret session
with the senators and implored them
to keep the intelligence budget a se-
cret. The committee voted a typical
compromise: They would pass the
buck to the full Senate.
So on page 4/0 of the report, where
the numbers ought to be, there are
blank spaces. Considering that last
week the Supreme Court ruled that
it's okay for the feds to look at your
bank account, -you have to say that
government secrecy is, in this Bicen-
tennial of our- liberty, gaining over
individual privacy.
The Senate could, of course, gather
up its courage and assert that people
who can't keep their own bank
records a secret have the right to
.know how money they give to the
government is being. spent by the
spooks.
One of the arguments made by
some who voted against immediate
disclosure was that it might make it
:easier to persuade the Senate to
create an oversight committee. The
fact that there is any question at all
about such a committee - one which .~
might include a soul or two who i
would not.melt at the mention of
"national security" - suggests how
splendidly. the.CIA has weathered the
storm of congressional investigation..
FIFTEEN- MONTHS AGO, when
the "rogue elephant" was dragged
into public view for examination of
its ugliness, some people saaid there
was nothing to do with the beast but
shoot it. But as the revelations about
its ugliness, some people said there
of banks, newspapers and airlines,
its habit of. buying foreign elections
and foreign officials, a Watergate-
conditioned citizenry turned away.
People didn't want to hear about it...:.
Now there is no doubt about the
beast's survival. The committee did
not even recommend an outright ban
on covert activities, although it did
suggest less promiscuous use.
Nobody has been punished, either,
for what was done, or for failing to
tell the truth about it.
The secretary of state and the for-
mer director of the CIA, Richard
Helms, who is our ambassador to
Iran, made contradictory - to say
the least - statements about Chile
and domestic spying to congressional
committees.
Chairman Frank Church, who is
running for the presidency, has not
made a federal case of it. The record,
he said was sent to the Justice De-
partment. Nothing has happaned.
Atty. Gen. Edward Levi' went be-
fore the committee just before Bush.
He was trying to censor some lan-
guage in Volume II relative to illegal
domestic spying. -That suggests
whose side he is on. No prosecutions,
particularly in an election year, seem
likely.
THE COMMITTEE wants the
attorney general to be added to the
National Security Council. He would
presumably warn the plotters when
they were about to break the law.
Neither of two previous attorneys
general, Robert Kennedy and John
Mitchell, seemed particularly sensi-
tive on this point. Kenndy was involv-
ed in Cuban plots. 'Mitchell appears
never to have read the Constitution.
"We are trying to deepen account-
ability," says Sen. Walter F. Mon-
dale, D-Minn.
Accountability was a word un-
known at CIA headquarters. Things
were set in train on one man's orders
to a chosen few. He did not tell his as-
sociates or the inspector general.
When things went sour, the papers
were destroyed and all kept mum.
Nothing quite illuminates the ice-
cold arrogance of the agency than a
memo written by Richard Helms dur-
ing the period when the CIA was con-
ducting experiments with LSD on
unwitting subjects: . .
"While I share your uneasiness and
distaste for any program which tends
to intrude upon an individual's pri-
vate and legal prerogatives, I believe
it is necessary that the agency main-
tain a central role in this activity,
keep current on enemy capabilities
on the manipulation of human behav-,
for and maintain an offensive capa-
bility."
SO DR. FRANK OLSON, unbe-
knownst to himself, was given a glass
of Cointreau with 70 micrograms of
LSD in it on Nov. 19, 1953. Eight days
later, he threw himself out of a New
York hotel room window.
Nobody was responsible. The indi- -
viduals involved were shown a repri-
mand for "bad judgment," one which
they were assured would not be made
part of their official personnel file.
George Bush says they don't do
things like that any more. He says
the beast has been housebroken.
Many members of Congress want to
believe him, just as they preferred
not to know what was going on at the
time.
There ought to be a law, and Con-
gress may get around to writing one.
But as the vote on the money showed,
Approved For Release 2007/06/22 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100040012-7