Scrutiny for CIA’s Mideast Role

There are some hard questions to be asked about the role assigned the Central Intelligence Agency in overseeing certain security provisions in the new Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, plans to hold early hearings to seek answers.

As part of last week’s Wye Plantation agreement the United States proposed that the CIA monitor and validate commitments made by the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorists and confiscate illegal weapons in areas it controls. That commitment takes the CIA beyond its traditional mission of collecting and evaluating intelligence. Now it must arbitrate between two parties that don’t trust each other, an operational role that draws it into the deep and dangerous waters of regional politics and gives its agents an unwanted prominence. That’s what concerns Sen. Shelby and some intelligence specialists.

Clinton administration officials say there’s nothing to worry about, that the CIA will simply be expanding its existing liaison role with Israel and the Palestinian Authority by facilitating cooperation in other areas of security. The CIA has long worked closely with Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence agency, and more recently has provided advice and training to Yasser Arafat’s security services. But Arafat, to make the Wye agreement work, must face down Palestinian opponents of the peace process, notably the militant group Hamas, which has considerable support in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Among the CIA’s new tasks is to confirm that Arafat is disarming and neutralizing Hamas as a force that could sabotage the fragile peace process. That is not going to endear the agency to the extremists.

The problem is that the CIA is probably the best that Washington can offer in its role as honest broker in the peace process, because of the confidence both sides appear to have in the agency’s ability to be fair and thorough. But that doesn’t preclude Congress from going after a fuller explanation of the CIA’s troubling new anti-terrorism monitoring mission, including the added risks faced by agents on the ground.