Senators Accuse Gates of ‘Passing the Buck’

CIA Director-designate Robert Gates was sharply criticized today for appearing to distance himself from “skimpy (and) really misleading” earlier testimony of former CIA Director William J. Casey about the Iran- contra affair.

Gates was also charged with trying to “pass the buck” when he heard the first inklings that Iran arms sales funds may have wound up with the contras.

The questioning was some of the sharpest that Gates has fielded in two days of hearings on his nomination to replace Casey, but none of it appeared to be enough to doom his chances of approval.

Gates repeated earlier statements that the evidence he had of a contra diversion was slim and that he immediately notified Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, then head of the National Security Council, of his concerns.

“So you basically passed the buck to Poindexter?” asked Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) a Senate Intelligence Committee member.

Sharp Debate With Specter

“Now you can call that passing the buck,” Gates retorted. “I call it trying to get it into the hands of those who are better prepared to evaluate the information that we had gotten.”

Gates also got into sharp debate with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) over testimony that Casey gave before a closed session of the committee on Nov. 21, 1986, just four days before the diversions of funds to the Nicaraguan rebels became public.

Specter said Casey’s testimony was “skimpy, scanty, uninformative and really misleading,” because the director told them little about the Iran arms affair.

Gates said, “I was in no position to know that something significant was being left out of the (Casey Nov. 21) testimony.”

Gates reaffirmed that he opposes retroactive presidential “findings” that permit covert activities and said he is sure that the CIA and the intelligence committee are now aware of all findings presently in existence that authorize covert activity.

‘Would ... Come Up Here’

Asked by Bradley what he would do if he discovered a finding he had not known existed, Gates said, “The first thing I would do would be to hop in a car and come up here” to tell the committee.

Reagan’s Jan. 17, 1986, finding authorizing the arms sales instructed that Congress not be told of the action.

“Well, you’re learning, Mr. Gates,” Bradley said to laughter in the hearing room.

“Nobody ever accused me of being slow, senator,” Gates responded.

Gates said that, while he had directed subordinates to supply “all the facts” in preparing Casey’s testimony and while he had read two or three preliminary drafts of it, he would have to check with those who prepared the testimony to find out why Casey was not more forthcoming.

‘An Element of Dissembling’

“When you say you have to talk to those who drafted the testimony, again, you try to distance yourself from that testimony,” Specter replied angrily. “That’s a shading which I find to have an element of dissembling. You took the strategic lead in preparing that testimony; you reviewed two or three drafts.”

Specter asked Gates whether, if he were a member of the committee, he would today vote to confirm Casey as director of the CIA in view of what is now known about Casey’s Nov. 21 testimony.

“Yes, I would,” Gates said without hesitation.