Senate Refuses to Weaken Bill Requiring Notice of Covert Acts

The Senate defeated efforts Friday to weaken legislation reining in covert missions such as the arms sales to Iran, but debate over the Panama crisis delayed anticipated approval of the bill until after a one-week congressional vacation that begins today.

Supporters of the intelligence reform measure, sponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman William S. Cohen (R-Me.), easily fended off attempts to water down a requirement that the President notify Congress of all covert operations within 48 hours of their approval.

By a 65-23 vote, they rejected an amendment by Sen. James A. McClure (R-Ida.) that would have required congressional notification of covert operations within 48 hours but still would have allowed the President to keep details of an operation secret for longer periods.

McClure argued that the amendment gave the President the flexibility needed to conduct covert missions abroad with complete secrecy but Cohen called it “capitulation” and said: “This lets the President play ‘I’ve got a secret’ but not tell.”

The 48-hour rule is the keystone of the Cohen proposal, the first major legislative reform to emerge from Congress’ summer-long hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal. The bill aims to close the loopholes in current intelligence oversight laws that allowed the White House to ship arms to Iran for more than a year without informing Congress’ top leaders.

The Cohen measure would require the White House to inform eight senior congressional leaders in advance of most “special activities,” clandestine U.S. efforts to influence foreign governments, from propaganda to paramilitary missions.

Especially sensitive covert operations could be withheld from the so-called “Gang of Eight” for up to 48 hours after they are approved, and word of the most secret missions could be withheld for 48 hours from all but a select “Gang of Four,” the top Democratic and Republican leaders of both chambers of Congress.

The White House tacitly agreed to abide by the 48-hour requirement in an exchange of letters with the Senate Intelligence Committee last July. But it has bridled at efforts to enact the rule into law, arguing that some exceptionally sensitive covert missions might justifiably be kept secret even from a handful of lawmakers.

The proposal also would require the President to approve all covert operations in writing and would bar retroactive approval of the missions. President Reagan in 1985 gave a verbal go-ahead for CIA assistance in the secret shipment of arms to Iran, and his aides later drafted a document that authorized the agency’s actions after the fact.