The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 1, 1995 - 5 CIA report: President got false soviet info Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON -Sweeping up af- ter one of the greatest intelligence fail- u-es in American history, the CIA's inspector general has clarged that three former CIA directors and nine other former and current CIA officials should be held accountable for the fact that otheragency officials knowinglypassed on disinformation from Soviet double agents to the President and other senior U.S. policy-makers. Inspector General Fred Hitz recom- mended that former CIA directors R. James Woolsey, Robert M. Gates and William H. Webster all be held ac- countable for the agency's failure to hotify the White House that much ofthe information the President was reading in top-secret intelligence reports from inside Russia was actually "controlled" information being fed to the United States by Soviet double agents. The inspector general's charges against the three former CIA directors accompanied the CIA's long-awaited damage assessment of the Aldrich H. Ames spy scandal. The assessment was formally presented to Congress yester- day by current CIA Director John M. Deutch. Deutch reported to Congress that more than 100 agents or potential agents working for the CIA inside the Soviet Union as well as other nations were betrayed by Ames to the Soviets or Russians during the nine years that he spied for the KGB as a mole inside the CIA. After they were fingered by Ames, someofthose 100-plusagents-'mostly Russians recruited by the CIA to spy for the United States - were forced by the KGB to become double agents to feed disinformation back to the CIA. In the Yost explosive charge in the CIA's damage assessment of the Ames case, the agency has determined that some mid-level CIA officers knew that their ,agents had been compromised and "doubled" - and did not notify U.S. policy-makers. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chair- man of the Senate Intelligence Com- mittee, confirmed that aspect of the assessment yesterday, saying that sus- pect information was allowed to go directly to the President and that the CIA has found 16 instances in which one CIA officer passed along reports from an agent that he knew had been doubled and failed to disclose that. Specter said that some of the disinformation prompted Washington to spend millions of dollars on needless 'military purchases that would not have otherwise been made. Of the 12 people cited as accountable in the inspector's general report, only one is still working at the agency, Deutch said. The rest retired before he took over as CIA director in May. But in a sign of the growing dissen- sion and bitter fingerpointing within the U.S. intelligence community in the aftermath ofthe Ames scandal, all three former CIA directors wrote a letter to Deutch disputing Hitz's recommenda- tion that they be held accountable - and in turn suggested that Hitz should be investigated instead for his own failures to uncover the wrongdoing earlier. The three expressed "dismay at the InspectorGeneral's view that the three of us should be held personally ac- countable for these particular failures." After briefing the House and Senate Intelligence committees in separate closed sessions on the classified dam- age assessment and the inspector general's report, Deutch told reporters that he did not agree with Hitz's recom- mendation that Woolsey, Gates and Webster should be held accountable or reprimanded. There is no evidence that any of the three knew that disinformation from double agents was being passed on by the CIA. Powell's rivals are ready to attack AP PHOTO House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas preside over a hearing of the House- Senate Budget Conferees Monday on Capitol Hill. The conferees met to try and reach common ground in House and Senate packages. Cliton, GOP congressional ledestodics etceiling ldeb WASHINGTON (AP) - If Colin Powell becomes candidate Powell, the knives come out. Rivals are already looking over the retired general's vul- nerabilities. Powell's military record, philosophy and legendary caution, his reliance on powerful friends to rise as a "political general," his inexperience with the prob- lems that confront a President every day, and now word that his wife has been treated for depression - all be- come grist the moment he runs. Three-quarters of those who have pledged to back him will "walk away" ifhe declares, predicted Marilyn Quayle, wife ofthe former vice president. "He is notused to taking criticisms," she added, "and he is used to people doing what they are told." Powell says in his autobiography that he knows that if he jumps in, "I would quickly alienate one interest group or another and burn off much popular sup- port." So far, the attacks come from conser- vatives who don't want to hand the GOP to a moderate of the Nelson Rockefeller mold - one who supports gun control, legalized abortion and af- firmative action and who opposes school prayer and aspects of the Republican welfare reform plan. "Republicans rejected Rockefeller, why would they want a clone?" asks Lyn Nofziger, a former adviser to Ronald Reagan who supports Bob Dole. Political observers tick off these fault lines that opponents might exploit in a campaign: ® Powell's military record. He is no Dwight Eisenhower, who forged history's greatest battlefield victory. In the Persian Gulf War, Powell was re- luctant to get in - he favored an ex- tended economic embargo - and he acquiesced in ending the war before Iraq's Saddam Hussein was neutralized and the Republican Guard destroyed. And in following apolitical route to the top,boosted by heavyweight mentors such as CasparWeinbergerand Frank Carlucci, Powell left detractors in the ranks. His military philosophy. "The PowelluDoctrine" opposes the use of troops unless clear conditions are met: a precise objective, public support, a will to throw everything at the enemy, an exit plan, the likelihood of low casualties. Apply those rules rigidly, retired Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor said last week, and "you will never use military force for anything." Worse, Trainor said, Powell's con- cept turns 200 years of civilian control of the military on its head: "The Powell Doctrine, rigidly applied as it has been, more or less tells the President when and when not to use military force. I would submit that that is not in the interest of the republic." Powell's business dealings. His si- lent-partner investment of $100,000 in a Buffalo, N.Y., television station, said to have brought aprofit of $150,000 within 10 years, is already under scrutiny. Family matters. A Powell spokes- woman confirmed that Powell's wife, Alma- who does not hide her opposi- tion to a Powell candidacy and fears for his life if he runs - has suffered from depression and takes medication to con- trol a chemical imbalance. The Powells might not relish seeing that hashed out in a campaign. ® Racial politics. They cut both ways. ifhe became the first black person to run as a majorparty's nominee, Powell could get 30 to 50 percent of the black vote in November, eroding President Clinton's baseline support, Nofziger estimated. On the other hand, "there will be people who will not vote for Colin Powell because he's black and who will lie to pollsters about it," said Alan Hertzke, a University of Oklahoma political scientist. Powell offers "racial absolution to white America" and would attract votes from whites, he said. On balance, political observers say, race could be a plus, especially in states where Democrats and independents can vote in a Republican primary. 0 Powell's political innocence. He hasn't been subjecttothe rough and tumble and doesn't have a canned an- swer to questions that demand detailed knowledge. "Wait until he comes out and he's surrounded (by reporters) ask- ing about ethanol and target prices and corn yields and that sort of thing," says GOP front-runner Dole. The Washington Post WASHINGTON - President Clinton will meet today with Republican congressional leaders to discuss a plan to prevent the government from defaulting on its debt in the first sign of thaw in the fiscal deep freeze between the White House and the GOP that has gone on for more than a month. House SpeakerNewt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he also wanted to confront the issues most sharply dividing Republicans and the White House, including Medicare, welfare and taxes. "I don't think you can talk about the debt ceiling in isolation," Gingrich told reporters. Acknowledging the seriousness of those issues, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said yesterday that if Republicans did not eventually accommodate the President on the size and scope of the tax cut, the proposed cuts in Medicare and a raft of domestic spending programs, Clinton would be forced to veto their seven-year budget package. "The President is of the view that no deal is better than a bad deal," Panetta told a group of Washington Post editors and reporters. Panetta also predicted that if there is a route out of the budget stalemate, it might not be found until Christmas, and he offered three scenarios for December: A reconciliation package that Clinton vetos and then is renegotiated so that both sides can claim some level of victory in its passage. A short- or long-term spending bill that would allow the government to keep operating at a reduced spending level but without some of the major fundamental changes pro- posed by the GOP. "The chaos scenario," in which the GOP and White House reach no agreement causing a shutdown of govern- ment for some period. Panetta suggested that a Democratic budget alternative rejected by the House and Senate last week might be a route to agreement, but with some major caveats. The alternative, drafted in the House by a group of conservative and liberal Democrats, would eliminate the deficit over seven years but with substantially smaller reductions in Medicare, Medicaid, agriculture, welfare and the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor. "I think what they did was a step forward," Panetta said. "My major problem with that is that it cuts too much in discretionary funding and Medicare cuts (are) too high." He also said the plan lacked a middle-class tax cut favored by the President. The Democratic alternative attracted 72 votes in the House, including four Republicans, and 19 votes in the Senate. "The coalition that voted for the alternative is a coalition we probably will have to build on for a final agreement," Panetta said. House and Senate Republican conferees are scheduled to begin formal negotiations tomorrow to work out differences on the massive GOP plans each house passed last week to balance the budget and cut taxes, known as reconciliation. Both budget proposals call for $245 billion of tax cuts, including a $500 per-child tax credit. Dole and Gingrich agreed yesterday there would be no backsliding on the $245 billion figure, a source said. Looking toward today's discussions with the President, the first in seven weeks, Gingrich and Dole said they are eager to try to resolve some of their differences before Clinton departs in mid-November for a trip to Asia. "If you put down the calendar, November is going to go pretty fast," Dole said. White House press secretary Michael McCurry said it would be "fine" if Republicans seek to broaden today's discussion beyond proposals for extending the government's borrowing privileges through Nov. 29 to avert a default on government borrowing. "But if they don't go beyond what they've been saying," he added, "it's going to be a one-sided conversation on their part." I I iEmu Newsletters Newsletters Newsletters Newsletters Big savings on newsletters for all clubs, businesses, and organizations. THE LONDON1 THEATRE FRfQGiflm SfIR4-4 Lf iLURfENCE CO LLEG~E 49NO THE lf:Kl-T1S4-i frn~Ef1CRN DffiMfi fCf4osmYt 1 mERC STUDY WiTH -ER1TfR1N'SS L-EFRIDNG flCTCf{S 4NO OI RECTOfRS f=OR R1 SEMESTEfR OR~ fli YEfifR. fi cOmfB1NfT1ON OF flCTiNG CLflSSESq TUTOflfLSR MflSTEfR CLR9SSES fiND f'Ef-FOF~MfINCES 1MMEfRSE U N OEfRG 4fRO Ufl TES IN TH-E EfR1T1SHi T#-E49Tf~1CflL TfRfIO1T1DN. F~ t2ETAILS AND AN APPLICATION, LWRITE THE LODON THEfRTRE f ROORfR,1 Eox UMiL SRfWift-lLmR&ENCE COLLEGE : WAY, EfUJNXV1LLE, NY 10708-S59 (800) 573-472 L J ano get otT c~ ro. iexr LmPU n~ee;; e cuse 0o If 4 STA Travel NOW OFFERS student U I M