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The crippled giant Universal Press Syndicate 1977 Copyright Last week, when asked whether he had “any regrets’? over the tongue-lashing he had administer ed to Ugandan President Idi Amin at his most recent press confer ence, President Carter responded with a wide grin and the single word * No. * The answer must have been purely formalistic, because Carter knows very well that he seriously miscalculated the reaction of this unstable, locally omnipotent, and quite possibly psychotic African dictator. Once Amin sprang his trap on the 240 American citizens in Uganda, the United States sim ply had no choice but to keep a low profile, talk in a soothing voice, and hope for the best. Nor were Amin's assurances that he intended to harm any great comfort: in moving the scene of his little reception for his American “‘guests’’ to Entebbe airport, Amin was obviously taunting Carter—all but openly daring him to attempt a replay of Israel’s bold rescue of its 103 hostage airline passengers from that same airport last July. One wonders how the liberals in this country, who have spent the last two years doing their level best to hamstring the Central Intelli gence Agency, feel now about the wisdom of their actions. Ever since the New York Times launched the opening attack on Dec. 22, 1974, the barons of the print and elec tronic media and their stooges in Congress have been trying to re duce the CIA to a purely intelli gence-gathering role at best. ‘‘No covert activities!’ has been their “And ‘above all, of course, no assassinations of foreign leaders. Some of us tried to talk into the teeth of that hurricane, pointing out that even assassinations may have their proper and grimly nec essary place in a world as brutish as this one. Very likely both Cuba and the world would be better off today if one of those numerous alleged plots to kill Castro had succeeded. Certainly the whole sorry epi sode in Uganda this past week could have been avoided if some body had long ago done to Amin what he has cold-bloodedly done to a hundred thousand of his fellow Ugandans. But the question of political assassinations is a special one, involving a careful balance of moral and other considerations, and must not be permitted to obscure or confuse the larger issue, which is whether the CIA ought to be allowed to engage in ordinary clandestine ‘ ‘operations, ” as dis tinct from mere intelligence-gath ering. ‘As, matters: stand, the CIA is forbidden by law to engage in any such operations whatever unless the specific operation has been approved in advance by the Presi dent, and unless the membership of at least two entire congressional committees, totaling upwards of 50 people (plus Lord only knows how many aides in whom they confide), are promptly notified in writing. Since a certain small number of these ,people will infallibly leak such information to their pals in the press, and since there will always be papers like the Washington Post around to print what they leak (as it demonstrated recently when it re vealed the CIA's payments to King Hussein of Jordan, probably Amer ica's best friend in the Middle East), the net effect has been to stop practically all covert CIA oper ations dead in their tracks. If, in this murky state of affairs, the United States, through the CIA, had dared to give a weapon, or a dollar,.or so.much’ as.a pat on the back ‘to’ any.internal. or.“ external African foe of Idi Amin at any time in the past.two years.. the news would’ have’ provided a byline or two for some lazy. newshound with good contacts on Capitol Hill—and every American missionary..in U ganda might have. been. swinging from. the. nearest. tree .24. hours later. Nowhere in the world today is it safe for. America. to furnish secret financial ‘support: let ‘alone weap ons or any. other. kind. of aid, to anyone. brave enough to resist. communism or any other brand of despotism. “The Russians, must be laughing themselves to sleep every night.’ President Carter, has asked’ con gressional leaders for swift action to reform this intolerable state of affairs. Unless he gets it, this country will remain a crippled giant in a dangerous world. ‘President Carter has invited us to the SALT talks, pass it on.'
Newspaper Details
Dallas Daily Campus
Dallas, Texas, US
Wed, Mar 09, 1977
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Roger M.
USA 01 Jul 2026
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