CIA Chief Vows More Openness With Congress

CIA Director William H. Webster, bolstering President Reagan’s promise to keep Congress informed of covert intelligence operations abroad to avoid future Iran- contra imbroglios, said Saturday that Senate and House oversight committees will be briefed “in timely fashion.”

Asked to elaborate on how timely that would be, Webster said:

“The earliest possible notice. We have been living with a two-working-day requirement for some time, and I think we can continue to do that.”

Presidential Finding

Webster told judges attending the American Bar Assn.’s annual convention here that negotiations are continuing with congressional committees to spell out the rules that Reagan tentatively endorsed Friday in an attempt to restore trust between Congress and his Administration.

The former FBI director said the 48-hour notice period would begin after the release of a presidential finding that secret operations were warranted, meaning that Congress would be informed of most activities before they occurred.

Webster was careful, as were Administration spokesmen Friday, to add that the President legally can withhold information if he believes that communicating with Congress would jeopardize an operation.

But such withholding has happened only three times, Webster told reporters, since the National Security Act was passed--all involving Iran.

Webster’s attempt to assure openness of his intelligence organization was made to 65 judges and other members of the Institute of Judicial Administration meeting here in connection with the ABA convention.

Webster, describing his new job as “still two tons of canaries in a one-ton truck,” told the judges that he intends to run a department that will gather intelligence “objectively, professionally and lawfully” while cooperating with Senate and House oversight committees.

‘Not to Cook the Books’

“Our purpose is not to cook the books or shape or influence policy,” he said, “but to provide policy-makers with the information on which they can base decisions.”

Talking with reporters after the breakfast speech in his first press conference since assuming his new position, Webster said rumors that he plans a major housecleaning at the CIA were “premature.”

But he made it clear that he will, with the help of a fact-gathering special counsel, examine any possible wrongdoing by the CIA in connection with the Iran-contra case.

Even if information about such an operation is lawfully withheld by the Administration, Webster said, re-evaluation should continue until it is “time to tell.” Notice of the Iran arms sale in the hope of winning hostages’ release was withheld from Congress for 14 months.

Retiring American Bar Assn. President Eugene C. Thomas also discussed the Iran-contra matter at his last formal meeting with news media during the convention.

Legal Implications

Intent on keeping the 330,000-member organization out of politics, Thomas limited himself to criticism of the legal implications of the recently concluded congressional hearings on the operations.

Likening the hearings to television’s “Saturday Night Live” or “I Love Lucy,” Thomas said that committee members jeopardized criminal justice proceedings by giving immunity to Lt. Col. Oliver North and his former secretary, Fawn Hall.

North and Hall testified at length about shredding documents or spiriting them out of North’s office.

“They (committee members and staff) were indifferent to the possibility that what they were doing might preclude action by a grand jury looking into the taking of public documents,” said Thomas, a Boise, Idaho, lawyer.

Noting that he had no criticism of live television coverage of the hearings, Thomas said he thought that he had an obligation as head of the ABA to warn citizens that “when you watch a television show, you do not necessarily observe the trial of an issue of fact.”