Don’t Change Rules for CIA, Officials Urge

Reagan Administration officials today defended their record on telling Congress about covert intelligence operations and strongly opposed any new law requiring more timely reporting.

Undersecretary of State Michael Armacost and CIA counsel David Doherty told a House intelligence subcommittee that the Iran- contra operation was the only one about which Congress had not been informed since President Reagan took office in 1981.

The secret initiative to sell arms to Iran and divert the funds to aid Nicaraguan rebels has given rise to demands in Congress for more timely reporting of secret operations.

But Armacost and Doherty said that if pending legislation were passed requiring congressional notification of all covert operations within 48 hours, without exception, lives could be lost and a President’s power to conduct foreign policy would be jeopardized.

They said present laws requiring prior notice unless there are extraordinary situations in which notice can only be given in “a timely fashion” should be kept.

Doherty said “one extraordinary exception should not warrant . . . a change in the law.” There had been “only one exception on prior notice . . . our record on this score is a good one.”

Doherty would not say publicly how many covert operations had been conducted, except that there had been “many.”