CIA tightens its policies

Press, 2 October 1987, Page 6

CIA tightens its policies

NZPA-AP Washington The ClA’s internal policies have been tightened in the wake of the IranContra affair, to ensure that laws are not broken during covert operations. The deputy director of the CIA, Robert Gates, said the new CIA Director, William Webster, and National Security Adviser, Frank Carlucci, have enough expertise to keep people from going off the track again. Mr Webster became CIA chief as a replacement to the late William Casey, who reportedly made extensive use of covert actions. Mr Carlucci, as National Security Adviser, succeeded Admiral John Poindexter, who was forced to resign after the initial Iran-Contra disclosures.

In a speech, Mr Gates gave an unusual look into the tensions between intelligence analysts and Government policy makers.

He conceded that more than a few times policy makers have analysed or predicted world events better than the CIA. He acknowledged that agency analysts had set out to prove the former Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, wrong about Soviet links to terrorism. Mr Gates said that when Mr Haig, who served during President Reagan’s first term, asserted that the Soviets were behind international terrorism, analysts initially set out not to address the issue in all its aspects but rather to prove Mr Haig wrong. They went too far, however, said Mr Gates, and failed to describe extensive and well-documented indirect Soviet support for terrorist groups and their sponsors. Mr Gates is a career intelligence officer. His nomination to head the CIA was withdrawn in March amid questions about his own role in the Iran-Contra affair.