Remarks on Signing Executive Order 12036 on United States Foreign Intelligence Activities

THE PRESIDENT. This morning, we've gathered to sign an Executive order which makes a major stride forward in better coordination within the Intelligence Community.

One of the pleasant experiences that I've had as President is to see the professionalism and the competence of the collection and analysis and distribution of intelligence information to me and to other consumers in the Federal Government. Under Admiral Turner, this coordination has been superb. And I'm very pleased this morning, after months of work with the NSC—the National Security Council—with the Department of Defense, with Admiral Turner, the CIA, the Congress committees, particularly the Senate Intelligence Committee, to have evolved an Executive order which establishes in clear terms the responsibilities and limitations of the collection of intelligence, of counterintelligence, and also the distribution of material that hasn't been analyzed.

The Director of Central Intelligence, Admiral Turner, will be responsible for tasking or assigning tasks to all those who collect intelligence. He will also have full control of the intelligence budget and will also be responsible for the analysis of information that does come in from all sources in the foreign intelligence field.

This order also gives a great deal of additional responsibility to the Attorney General to make sure that the civil liberties and the privacy of American citizens is adequately protected and that the constitutional provisions and the laws of our Nation are carried out precisely. There's a clear description of the duties and responsibilities of all those that are involved in the collection and distribution of intelligence information.

I'm very proud of this Executive order. It will be a basis for congressional action on a charter to be written for the Intelligence Community, and I think later on, we'll have one for the FBI, as well.

Under this order, though, under counterintelligence, the duties of the FBI are also spelled out. So, this is a fairly concise, clear delineation of how the Intelligence Community will be operating in the months ahead.

I want to express my thanks to all those that have been involved in the process. And after I sign the Executive order this morning, there will be a complete briefing for the press by the members of the NSC, the Department of Defense, the Attorney General's office, and Admiral Turner, representing the Intelligence Community.

So, I want to thank all of you standing behind me, and I will now sign the Executive order which, I think, is a major stride forward. Thank you very much.

[At this point the President signed the Executive order.]

Fritz, if you would come over and say a word?

VICE PRESIDENT MONDALE. I have some notes.

THE PRESIDENT. Very good. [Laughter]
VICE PRESIDENT MONDALE. Mr. President, members of the Senate and House intelligence committee:

When I served in the Senate, it was our task for some time to explore and investigate abuses by our intelligence agencies. It was not a happy job, and it disclosed not only many abuses of the civil liberties of our people but, in many ways, decisions and actions that were counterproductive to the interests of our country.

In my opinion, the most important principle that this Executive order stands for is that it demonstrates that we can fully protect our Nation and do so within the law, and not only do it within the law but do it better than under a circumstance which permits us to resort to illegality.

Underlying the abuses that we uncovered was an unexpressed but clearly evident conclusion on the part of some that we could not defend our country against her real enemies except through illegality. Once you examine that, it's true that the only way you can effectively protect against our enemies is through legal process.

And that's what this Executive order stands for. It's a historic document. It's the first time, I think, any major nation has tried to rationalize in writing, through legislative charters, the protection of their nation from enemies, and to do so within the law.

We need the best intelligence community in the world, and we have it. And under this Executive order, it will be even better. I think what it really stands for is that the framers of our Constitution were pretty wise men after all.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee this past year has been Senator Danny Inouye, who had worked very closely with us. He has done a superb job. One of the facets of this Executive order is it directs those who are involved in the Intelligence Community to share information, sometimes of a highly confidential or secret nature, with the Members of the Congress, so that there can be a joint sharing of responsibility for the collection and dissemination of intelligence information in a legal way.

Danny, I'd like to call on you to say a word.

SENATOR INOUYE. Mr. President, on behalf of the committee, I wish to thank you and commend you for giving us an opportunity to participate in the drafting of this extraordinary Executive order. We concur with you that statutory charters are important. And accordingly, I'm pleased to advise you that next week, a draft charter brought about by the work of Senators Huddleston and Mathias will be introduced in the Senate, and we look forward to working with you, sir. Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT. Very fine. The new chairman of the Intelligence Committee and one who's served long and well on the committee is Senator Birch Bayh. Birch, would you like to say just a word?

SENATOR BAYH. Mr. President, I'm looking forward to having a chance to continue the strong leadership that Senator Inouye has provided for the committee. I would like to add my commendation. This is the first time in history that the Congress has had this kind of cooperation with the executive branch. And this is the second step—I would like to remind those who are here—in which you, as President, have undertaken a landmark initiative. We met in the Rose Garden in the spring, where for the first time in history you were willing to waive your inherent authority to get involved in electronic surveillance.

So, as we move forward with the charters, I think it is important to understand that this is critical. Presidents and Congresses are mortal. We have been reminded of that rather tragically in the last few days. And it's important to put these basic protections in the bedrock law of our land.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you. A new committee that's just been formed in the Congress this past year, certainly with my strong approval and support, has been the House Intelligence, Committee. Eddie Boland is the chairman. Eddie, perhaps you'd like to say a word.

REPRESENTATIVE BOLAND. Mr. President, first of all I want to express, on behalf of all my colleagues on the House side, our appreciation at the invitation that brings us to this very significant and very meaningful occasion. I only have a couple of observations. I'm delighted to come, first of all, to find out whether or not the signatures on the letters that I get from you are genuine. [Laughter] I've seen you sign here; I know they are. [Laughter]

Then I'm delighted to see that behind us—and I think the press will recognize this—there is no dispute within the Intelligence Community over what we're doing, either what Admiral Turner is doing or what the President is doing. Everybody is here, and everybody is happy with it.

I'm also conscious of the fact that the Senators are way ahead of us in this area and have been for some time. It's the only area in which the Senate is ahead of us, incidentally. [Laughter] We hope to catch up. It's going to be a difficult job. But frankly, they have led the way, and I think, perhaps, they have taken the Congress through the thickest of what this particular activity within the Congress means and its significance.

And as the Vice President has so well said and you have so well said, this Executive order is historical. It does indicate that we can operate an intelligence community within the framework of our Constitution, to protect the rights and ensure the rights of the people of our Nation. And that's exactly why we are in business.

So, Mr. President, with this Executive order, with the charter legislation that is coming out of the Senate, with the foreign surveillance intelligence legislation that has been considered by the House, is being considered by Chairman Murphy of our committee, why, we can assure you that you will find the House in cooperation with you, with the administration, and with the Senate committee.
Thank you very much for inviting us.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you very much, Eddie. Dee Huddleston has been the chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the drafting of legislation precedent to the actual evolution of the charter which will be part of our Nation's laws.

Senator Huddleston has worked very closely with me and others in the basic premises included in the Executive order. This is a good basis. We all recognized that the Intelligence Community has to have some degree of flexibility. And there are a few directives that will not be included in this Executive order because of their highly confidential nature, but all those are being shared and will be shared with the Senate and the House committees. We are very proud of the relationship that we have.

SENATOR HUDDLESTON. Well, thank you, Mr. President. I certainly want to express my appreciation and that of our subcommittee to you and your entire staff for the cooperation and help you've given. I doubt if there has been an Executive order in recent years, maybe never, that has had as much congressional input as this particular one.

And I have to say that Bill Miller and Elliott Maxwell on our committee staff have done a tremendous job in providing us with the input that we've been able to make. I think this certainly is an appropriate interim step between where we have been in our intelligence operations and the control and accountability and authority that's been exercised there and where we all know that we want to go; and that is, with legislative, statutory charters setting out the missions, the accountability, the authorities of all of our intelligence agencies.

Uppermost in our mind, Mr. President-and I, too, along with Vice President Mondale, went through the so-called Church committee's investigative period in spite of the abuses that we saw revealed, I think our major objective still, as we protect the rights and privileges of our citizens, is to provide the machinery under which the United States of America can have the best, most efficient, most effective intelligence apparatus in the world. That's what we are going to work toward. As our chairman has indicated, we're prepared now, and certainly will be by the end of next week, to introduce legislation, our first piece of legislation relating to the charters. We see that as a starting point.

The long period of time it took to bring this into being, I think, demonstrates the very complex and difficult problems that we are faced with. So, I'm sure we're going to have the same kind of cooperation between the Intelligence Community and the executive that we've had previously. And I believe that we can develop the kind of charters that will bring about the assurances that all of us want. Thank you, sir, very much.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you. Senator Huddleston said that never before in history has an Executive order by the President had so much congressional input. I doubt if ever before in history an Executive order has had so much input from the President. [Laughter] I have sent it back three or four times to be redrafted so I could understand it. [Laughter] I think now it's in very good shape.

I'd like to call on Congressman Murphy. He has the same responsibility in the House as Dee Huddleston does in the Senate, the drafting of a new charter.

REPRESENTATIVE MURPHY. Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of the committee, I'd like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on keeping your promise that you made during your campaign that you would bring the intelligence agencies into some meaningful order under this Executive order. I'd also like to thank Attorney General Bell and his staff.

We have already begun our work on the national surveillance act. And as my chairman, Mr. Boland, has reminded us, we are behind. I think that's an admonishment to me. We will catch up.
Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you. I wanted to call on, also, Senator Mathias, who's been a great help to us. Senator Goldwater has been the vice chairman of the committee for a long time. He's not here today.

SENATOR MATHIAS. Mr. President, as I stood here this morning, I thought a little bit about the advice of Speaker Reed, who defined the duties of the minority as to draw your pay and help make a quorum. [Laughter] I want to assure you that the minority in this case is going to do more than that, that we're going to work very hard on this statutory charter and to try to develop in the spirit in which you have started us out this morning.

I think it needs to be said that we want it to be not only an effective instrument which provides us with the best intelligence and that we Want it to provide the kind of restraints which ensure the rule of law in our country, but we also want it to be a shield for the men and women who devote their lives to the intelligence services and to give them the kind of guidance within which they can develop their own careers.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.

REPRESENTATIVE WILSON. I'm again the minority on our side, but we are very much interested in this Executive order. I commend you for having taken all of the different intelligence responsibilities from various agencies and putting them under one executive head, which has been one of the problems we have seen in the past. And I predict that we'll come along and support you continuously in the future.
Thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT. I want to say I won't call anyone else from the executive branch, because you will be getting a briefing in detail from the National Security Council, Department of Defense, the DCI, which is the Director of Central Intelligence, and also the Attorney General.

But in closing, let me remind the group once again of what I said at the beginning: One of the most professional and competent organizations with which I have ever dealt has been the Intelligence Community. It consists of several thousand highly professional, dedicated American people whose knowledge and experience stands as a bulwark in protecting the security of our Nation.

And although there have been problems in the past, probably because of an absence of a clear directive about delineations of responsibility, I think that this has quite often obscured the sacrificial work that these good men and women have done.

Again, I want to express my complete appreciation and confidence in Admiral Stan Turner, whose responsibilities under this Executive order will be greatly magnified. He's worked very closely with the Attorney General and with the Secretary of Defense. During normal peacetime, which I hope will prevail throughout all of our lifetime, he will have the responsibilities that I outlined.

In case of a conflict or extreme national emergency, under the Executive order, the President has the authority to shift part of that responsibility to the Secretary of Defense to defend our Nation in time of war. But that will be done in a very careful, preplanned way. And the present interrelationship that exists today, to be enhanced by the Executive order, between Defense, Justice, and intelligence, is very clearly defined and is a harmonious working relationship.

This could not have been possible without a great deal of consultation and a close cooperation and, I think, a mutual purpose that was recognized by everyone.
I think this is a major step forward. I'm very deeply grateful to all of you.
Thank you very much.