Freeing the CIA

Spooks want to spy at home

During the Viet Nam era, the Central Intelligence Agency collected files on 7,200 American citizens, as it and the FBI tried to link domestic dissenters with foreign plots—an activity that it was not empowered to pursue. After Watergate, and the disclosure of CIA misdeeds, Presidents Ford and Carter issued Executive orders to curb the agency's activities and protect American civil liberties. But Ronald Reagan's election has evidently emboldened the CIA to try to roll back some restrictions. Under consideration is a proposed Executive order that, if signed by the President, would give the CIA extensive domestic power.

The proposal, believed to have been drafted by mid-level career CIA agents, would permit the agency to undertake covert operations within the U.S. and, in fact, spy on American citizens. The CIA would no longer be required to collect information by the "least intrusive means possible," thus making possible warrantless searches, surreptitious entries and infiltration of political organizations.

The push for a new Executive order has been made in the name of combatting terrorism. At a National Security Council meeting held during the first two weeks of the new Administration, some participants stressed that limits put on the CIA had prevented the agency from following suspected terrorists once they had entered the U.S.

Criticism of the proposed order has been sharp. Says Don Edwards, chairman of the House Civil and Constitutional Rights Subcommittee: "This draft order would put the CIA back in the business of domestic spying." The FBI does not like the proposal because it would reduce the bureau's traditional jurisdiction over domestic counterintelligence. Attorney General William French Smith is determined to maintain Justice Department supervision of the CIA. Even top CIA figures have not endorsed the proposal. Vice Admiral Bobby Inman, the agency's deputy director, announced that if "repugnant changes" were made to existing limitations on the CIA, he would resign.

It is doubtful that such "repugnant changes" will occur. Insiders believe that Reagan's final Executive order will be less restrictive than Carter's, but more protective of American freedoms than last week's draft proposal. Interestingly enough, Ronald Reagan, then a private citizen and former Governor, was a member of the presidential commission headed by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in 1975 that recommended many of the present restrictions. The commission's conclusion: "Presidents should refrain from directing the CIA to perform what are essentially internal security tasks."