Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503140068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTONN LENGTH: Medium
The upgrading of the CIA directorate, which officials said Deutch sought before taking the job, is a significant organizational shift. Only one previous CIA director - the late William Casey, who under President Ronald Reagan ran what congressional investigators later called a renegade foreign policy - has had Cabinet rank. Traditionally, the CIA is a servant of the president and other policymakers in the government but is not itself a sponsor of policies. Even as Clinton hailed the ascension of Deutch, the Pentagon's second-ranking official, as ``a dynamic, brilliant leader with all the necessary skills for this critical assignment,'' he bemoaned the fate of retired Air Force Gen. Michael Carns, who withdrew his name Friday night.
In a statement, Clinton said ``allegations made against him in the course of his background investigation could be misconstrued'' and exploited by opponents in a political climate that has become too corrosive. Carns said in interviews that in bringing a young Filipino man to the United States he apparently broke immigration and labor laws. Carns said the man, Elbino Runas, also had made ``groundless, outrageous, tabloid charges'' about members of the Carns family.
``The sad truth is we live in a time when even the most exemplary individuals like General Carns - who has already given so much to his country - are deterred from serving by the fear that their records will be distorted, their achievements ignored and their families maligned during the confirmation process,'' Clinton complained.
Carns moves to the end of a parade of people to be named to senior positions by Clinton only to withdraw after controversy arose.
Zoe Baird, Clinton's first choice to be attorney general, was forced out after disclosures that she had not paid taxes for domestic help. Similar questions helped scuttle his second choice for the job, Kimba Wood. After naming Lani Guinier to be the Justice Department's top civil rights official, Clinton pushed her aside after he read some of her articles and decided he didn't agree with them.
Retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman withdrew his own nomination to be defense secretary early last year, issuing an angry denunciation of the media and the politicizing of the confirmation process.
With Carns now added to this roster of misfortune, Washington Saturday was left debating whether the capital's poisonous political environment or administration bumbling was to blame.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, argued the latter.
He said questions about whether Carns had followed immigration law in bringing Runas with his family to the United States ``came to the attention of the Senate intelligence [committee] some time ago and were immediately referred to the FBI for investigation.
``It is a little hard to understand why the White House did not know or pursue these issues long ago,'' Specter said in a statement. ``All factors considered, we have another serious undermining of U.S. competency and credibility for the whole world to see.''
White House press secretary Michael McCurry suggested that public officials are subjected to unfairly intense scrutiny.
``It's probably a good thing for our republic that we didn't have background checks like this in place in the time of Thomas Jefferson,'' McCurry said.
Some prominent Republicans endorsed that view and said both parties are to blame.
``It's become almost standard and accepted behavior to fight our partisan differences ... by throwing these adjectives and accusations'' at nominees, said Margaret Tutweiler, who served in high-ranking positions in the Reagan and Bush administrations. ``People are human, and if you want perfection, fire everyone in the federal government and replace them with computers.''
In part to take attention away from the Carns debacle, Clinton did not personally appear Saturday to introduce Deutch. Neither did the nominee.
At the Pentagon, Deutch, a chemist and former provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was known for an infatuation with technology and organizational innovation. Administration officials say this background, combined with Deutch's aggressive temperament, makes him a good choice to revamp and re-energize an agency that many believe has grown dispirited and directionless since the end of the Cold War and in the wake of the Aldrich Ames spying scandal.
There is a longstanding debate in foreign policy circles about whether the CIA should be on equal footing or subordinate to the Defense and State departments and other agencies that depend on intelligence. After Casey immersed the CIA in the Iran-Contra affair, many experts concluded giving him an elevated rank had been a bad idea.
by CNB