Word: coverts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...issue came to a head last Tuesday when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence defied Reagan and recommended cutting off covert aid to the contras. The lawmakers decided that the Administration's professed goal of stemming the flow of arms to rebels in El Salvador could best be accomplished in the open. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence rejected this proposal on Friday, and the covert funds are likely to continue at least until the end of September. But the committee insisted that in the future it have the right to approve or veto specific covert activities...
During his 1980 campaign, Reagan pledged to rebuild the nation's intelligence agencies as part of his overall plan to end America's post-Viet Nam timidity about asserting its interests abroad. The Republican platform specifically addressed covert operations, calling it "a capability which only the U.S. among the major powers has denied itself." Supporters argue that covert action is an essential tool, lying somewhere between a diplomatic démarche and a landing by the Marines...
Opponents of covert activities say that the U.S. should hold itself to a higher standard and not meddle in an underhanded way in the affairs of other countries. They also argue that given the nature of American society, covert activities are unlikely to stay secret for long. One reason is that after the Watergate-era investigations of abuses by the CIA, Congress insisted on a more stringent watchdog role. Another is that the nature of journalism has changed. In 1961 the New York Times voluntarily withheld information it had about the impending Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba; today major...
Reagan said the cutoff, of covert authority by Congress "was taking away the ability of the Executive Branch to carry out its constitutional responsibilities." Another member of the Administration, U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, impugned the motives of some members in an interview with a Buenos Aires newspaper: "There are people in the U.S. Congress who do not approve of our efforts to consolidate the constitutional government of El Salvador and who would actually like to see the Marxist forces take power in that country...
...compromise proposal drafted by its chairman, Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Under its provisions, the money already appropriated for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, will remain available. But to get any more funds, the President will have to submit a plan defining the objectives of CIA covert action in Central America, and have it approved by both intelligence committees...