President, Panel Agree on Covert Action Rules : Tentative Accord Aims at Closing Loopholes

President Reagan, working to mend his frayed relations with Congress in the wake of the Iran -contra scandal, tentatively agreed with Senate Intelligence Committee leaders Friday on strict new guidelines for approving secret intelligence missions in foreign countries.

The proposed regulations appear to close most of the loopholes that allowed arms sales to Iran to be kept secret from Congress and many top Administration officials for 14 months in 1985 and 1986.

As depicted by the White House, the President would retain authority in “the most exceptional cases” to approve operations without quickly informing lawmakers, a key detail not included in a Senate Intelligence Committee summary of the proposal.

A White House aide characterized the proposal as a working document that would be refined before being formally issued by Reagan later this fall. Four drafts of the proposal have been reviewed by White House and congressional experts in six weeks of talks, one official said.

A key clause of the agreement would require the President to notify Congress no more than two working days after approving virtually any covert mission undertaken by the CIA or any other government agency, including the National Security Council.

Present law mandates only that Congress be informed of CIA activities and allows that notification to be given in an undefined “timely” manner.

Approval in Writing

The agreement would also require the President to approve all covert operations in advance and virtually always in writing. That would ban after-the-fact “findings” such as the one that Reagan signed well after the first shipments of U.S. arms to Iran.

Sens. David L. Boren (D-Okla.) and William S. Cohen (R-Me.), the panel’s chairman and vice chairman, said that they believe the President should always provide notification to Congress but noted that strict requirements might violate the President’s constitutional authority over foreign policy.

In a letter to Boren and Cohen, the President indirectly conceded Friday that he had erred in not informing Congress for 14 months of the secret arms sales to Iran.

“I believe we cannot conduct an effective program of special activities without the cooperation and support of Congress,” Reagan’s letter stated. “Effective consultation with the intelligence committees is essential, and I am determined to ensure that these committees can discharge their statutory responsibilities in this area.”

However, when asked Friday whether the guidelines were an effort to rectify mistakes made in the Iran arms sales, Reagan told reporters: “I haven’t called them mistakes yet.”

In a separate news conference, Boren and Cohen praised the agreement as “a good first step toward greater cooperation between Congress and the White House in national security matters.”

“In this key area, we badly need a bipartisan determination to replace confrontation with cooperation and polarization with partnership,” Boren said.

Cohen cited Reagan’s letter and his peace proposal for Central America, disclosed earlier this week, as proof that Congress and the President are “on the road to more cooperation rather than past confrontation.”

“I think the Iran hearings have certainly had an impact on the President. I think the Tower Commission had an impact on the President,” he said, referring to the presidentially appointed panel headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) that studied the Iran affair.

Tougher Curbs Possible

One official said that the White House hopes the new guidelines will take the steam out of congressional efforts to enact into law even tougher curbs on covert actions. The proposed reforms would be placed in effect by a presidential order that could be revoked at the discretion of the White House.

One official, stressing the cooperative stance of the White House toward Congress, said that most of the reforms actually have been practiced by Reagan since the Tower Commission issued its own report on managing secret activities last February.

Congressional leaders said Friday, however, that legislation to formally restrict the President’s authority over secret operations probably will be enacted anyway. One such bill, sponsored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) and Rep. Edward P. Boland (D-Mass.), is pending in a House Intelligence subcommittee.

“There may be some value in making it permanent,” Cohen said.

“I think the feeling is that we need a law,” one House official said. “The ink isn’t even dry on the Iran-contra hearings and they’re already trying to get it (broad authority over covert activities) back.”

An aide to Stokes said that he was consulted only briefly by the White House on the proposal. In a written statement, Stokes praised the agreement but said he believes that “statutory overhaul is necessary” to ensure that secret operations are properly controlled.

Letters exchanged by the White House and the two Senate Intelligence Committee members indicate that the sides have agreed on a number of other reforms in covert action guidelines stemming from the Iran affair. They include measures providing that:

--The White House and not government agencies such as the Defense Department is responsible for informing Congress of an approved secret activity, and congressional leaders should be informed when private parties and foreign countries join the United States in a covert mission.

--Private parties and government agencies outside the traditional intelligence community, such as the National Security Council, should be governed by the same approval process as the CIA and other intelligence agencies before being allowed to join in a covert activity.

Rear-Guard Opposition

The changes have encountered rear-guard opposition from some Administration officials, however, who have warned privately that the rules would hamstring some secret missions. In particular, they attacked the two-working-day deadline given the White House to inform Congress of all covert activities.

Some experts note that President Jimmy Carter did not notify congressional leaders in advance of his ill-fated attempt to rescue U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980, out of fear that a news leak would result in the loss of American lives. Critics contend that the short notification period would make such top-secret missions too risky to undertake.