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What the CIA Tells Congress (Or Doesnt) about Covert Operations: The Barr/Cheney/Bush Turning Point for CIA Notifications to the Senate
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of National Security Archive
Posted: February 17th, 2019
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2019-02...
Attorney-General nominee William P. Barr figured prominently in arguments to limit CIA responsibility to provide notification to Congress about covert actions during the 1980s, according to a review of declassified materials published today by the National Security Archive. As the Iran-Contra scandal played out, Barr, who held senior posts at the Justice Department, provisionally supported the idea of the presidents virtually unfettered discretion in foreign policy and downplayed Congresss power. The issue of notification of Congress about imminent clandestine activities was at the heart of the Iran-Contra scandal when President Ronald Reagan and CIA Director William Casey specifically ordered that lawmakers be kept in the dark about the infamous, covert arms-for-hostages deals with Iran. Barr was by no means alone in pushing these views, the documents show. Other notable proponents during the Iran-Contra aftermath included then-Congressman Dick Cheney and John R. Bolton, who was also at the Justice Department. After Cheney became defense secretary he continued to press for extraordinarily broad Executive Branch authority, advising then-President George H. W. Bush to veto the Senates intelligence appropriations bill on the grounds it attacked presidential prerogatives resulting in the only known such veto since the CIAs creation.
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