New Policemen to Battle Abuses

In 13 months of often hostile scrutiny, two congressional committees have exposed a dismaying variety of abuses by the nation's intelligence agencies. Yet the probes were so haphazardly and sometimes vindictively conducted and so many secrets were leaked that public opinion has appeared to shift back in support of the embattled agencies. In this climate, President Ford seized the initiative last week and ordered the first big overhaul of the agencies since the CIA was created in 1947. The sweeping reorganization conceded little to the agencies' critics. In a 36-page Executive order, the President focused responsibility, clarified lines of authority and made the entire intelligence community more cohesive--on paper at least.

Some aspects of the program are bound to be challenged by Congress and the press. Ford prohibited certain CIA offenses: bugging and other spying on American citizens, experimenting with drugs on people who are unaware of it, plotting the assassination of foreign leaders in peacetime. Until recently, the

CIA justified these clearly illegal acts in the name of national security. Ford decisively removed that justification.

But as expected (TIME, Feb. 23), the President has refused to ban covert operations or separate them from the agency's intelligence-gathering functions. He has not yielded to Congress's demand for the right to approve covert operations ahead of time. He continues to urge that the six leaky congressional committees dealing with intelligence be consolidated into one leakproof joint committee. In short, he has done hardly anything to compromise the independence or the secrecy of the agency. Said Ford at his press conference: "I will not be a party to the dismantling of the CIA or other intelligence agencies."

One Place. His reorganization makes clear who is in charge of intelligence: the President, who will not be able to plead ignorance of a covert operation. Overall policy, said Ford, will rest in "only one place": the National Security Council, whose members are the President, the Vice President and the

Secretaries of State and Defense. Responsibility will be pinpointed. In the past, decisions were often made by Henry Kissinger, who consulted in desultory fashion the other members of the NSC.

Day-to-day management of the intelligence community--including the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research--will be in the hands of a three-man Committee on Foreign Intelligence. CIA Chief George Bush, who is also Director of Central Intelligence, was named chairman of the committee. The other two members are Robert Ellsworth, Deputy Secretary of Defense for intelligence, and William

Hyland, deputy assistant to the President for national security affairs. The committee will centralize and--it is hoped--rationalize the occasionally overlapping operations of the various agencies, which are now run independently in separate departments of Government. The committee will also draw up the budget for all intelligence operations and allocate funds among the agencies. But each agency will have the right to appeal to the National Security Council and ultimately the President.

Less Casual. The 40 Committee, which approves covert operations, will be upgraded and renamed the Operations Advisory Group. It will include the Secretaries of State and Defense instead of their deputies. The Director of Central Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will also belong. The President's assistant for national security affairs--now Brent Scowcroft --will continue as chairman. Attorney General Edward Levi and Budget Director James Lynn will attend meetings as observers. The Attorney General will be responsible for prosecuting any criminal abuses that arise in the course of an agency's operations; the Budget Director will review the budget proposals for the agencies. The proceedings will be less casual than before, when projects were often discussed over the phone. Now operations cannot be approved unless all members and observers or their deputies are in attendance.

The most innovative feature of Ford's program is the creation of a separate Intelligence Oversight Board that will act as a citizens' watchdog. With access to information about all the agencies' operations, the three-man board can recommend departmental sanctions or criminal prosecution by the Attorney General against anyone who abuses his authority. The staffs of the inspector general in each agency will be increased to help with the monitoring. Ford chose three board members of moderate to conservative views: Robert Murphy, 81, a distinguished career diplomat who in 1959 was Under Secretary of State for political affairs; Stephen Ailes, 63, a Washington lawyer who was Secretary of the Army in the Johnson Administration; and Leo Cherne, 63, a New York City economist who is chairman of the International Rescue Committee, which aids refugees from totalitarianism. Cherne is also a personal friend of Ford's and a member of the President's Foreign

Intelligence Advisory Board, a citizens' group that reviews agency operations.

Ford will face his toughest scrap with Congress over his proposal to stop leaks in the CIA. "I'll be darned if we're going to let the leakers ruin our intelligence community," he said while campaigning in Florida last weekend. His Executive order instructs all Government officials who receive intelligence reports to sign a pledge that even after they leave Government, they will not divulge any information about "sources and methods"--sensitive details on names and techniques of U.S. agents and their foreign contacts. The President also authorized Bush to extend the pledge to any material that is classified as secret or top secret. At a press breakfast last week, Bush seemed inclined to make use of that authority. Said Bush: "I disapprove of the idea that any employee can release classified information. I don't believe in it."

Ford also asked for legislation to make any violation of the secrecy pledge a felony punishable by up to $5,000 in fines and five years in prison. Victor Marchetti and Philip Agee could have been prosecuted for putting classified information in their muckraking books on the CIA. The law would not apply to newsmen or anyone else who receives such material. But the director of Central Intelligence would have the power to ask for an injunction to prevent publication. This could lead to increased pressure on journalists to reveal their sources of information. If they refuse to testify before grand juries probing leaks, they could be jailed for contempt.

Self-Policing. Some members of Congress and the press objected: abuses could not be uncovered if informants are liable to such stiff penalties. The White House responded that the agencies' employees would be free to take any complaint to the oversight board or the inspectors general instead of the press. Theoretically, the kind of abuses of the CIA that occurred during Watergate would be avoided by strict self-policing. But the policemen are working for the same boss as the possible wrongdoers --the President. Would the monitors always have sufficient independence to resist pressure for a cover-up from the Chief Executive?

Whether justice would be done rests, ultimately, on the character of the President--a flimsy reed in recent times. Ford acknowledges the burden. "I hope the American people will elect a President who will not abuse that responsibility. I certainly don't intend to." But this somewhat begs the question. It was presidential abuses--or inattention --that got the CIA into trouble in the first place. Congress is sure to balk at continuing to concentrate so much power in the Executive, but the President has moved in the right direction toward establishing greater responsibility, self-discipline and moral awareness in the intelligence community.

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