JFK Assassination System Date: 8/31/201 Identification Form Agency Information Released under the John F. Kennedy AGENCY: ROCKCOM Lessassination Records Collection RECORD NUMBER: — 178-10002-10083 bet of 1992 (44 SC 2107 Note). rases#:Ni 53244 Date: 06-13-2017 RECORD SERIES: | BELIN-GRAY-GREENE FILES AGENCY FILE NUMBER: _B-G-G (II-PP) Document Information ORIGINATOR: ROCKEFELLER COMMISSION . FROM: HARDY, TIMOTHY TO: FILE TITLE: INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WARNER, GENERAL COUNSEL OF THE CIA DATE: 03/17/1975 PAGES: 5 SUBJECTS : ASSASSINATIONS, FOREIGN LEADERS * WARNER, JOHN CIA DOCUMENT TYPE: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION: — Unclassified RESTRICTIONS: 1A CURRENT STATUS: — Redact DATE OF LASTREVIEW: = 02/13/2001 OPENING CRITERIA :° COMMENTS : Unmarked but may contain classified information. v9.1 l HW 53244 Docld: 32204979 Page 1
COMMISSION ON CIA ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE UNITED STATES "20 cL Washington, DC 20500 Gif i , 178-10002-10083 March 17, 1975 178-10002-10095 Tor File, - 0’ | From: Timothy Hardy ‘ \ Subject: INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WARNER, | ~ GENERAL COUNSEL OF THE CIA Mr. Warner was interviewed between 2 p.m. and on March 13, 1975, in his office at the CIA. - "3:30 p.m. I. THE OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL (0GC) . The Office of General Counsel has 14 lawyers. |. All the lawyers except for one had been recruited from within the rest of the CIA organization. There are a few . other. persons in the Agency who handled legal functions outside the Office. of General Counsel: one OGC lawyer is. detailed to logistics, three work in project MUTUAL, and a lawyer works within the personnel office. Once a man is assigned to the OGC, he normally stays there for the rest of his CIA experience. Mr. Warner and one other lawyer are the only men in the office who have been detailed elsewhere in the Agency. The OGC is not divided along directorate lines. Some lawyers have specialties, but they are functional specialties. The OGC is required to be consulted in a number of areas: (1) it is consulted on all Section 7 alien —— immigration cases; (2) it reviews all procurement contracts; (3) it approves all administrative plans; (4) it approves all liquidation plans; and (5) all regulations must be approved by the OGC. Within recent years, it has reviewed NSCID's and DCID‘s,. but there are no requirements for such reviews. The OGC has been consulted more regularly on Management decisions within the- past couple of years than was true under previous DCI's. Mr. Colby consulted the OGC for guidance on all the directions that went out after TH:clb cc: Mr. Belin Mr. Gray Mr. Gellhorn “SECRETE HW 53244 DoclId:32204979 Page 2? AUWdAIT Quod *Yy aTwwao gHL HOUT AdODOLOHA
, Lowe : nas nen seen . ‘ ares collection of the Family Jewels. Mr. Colby has an under- Standing of law because he went to law school, but he has told Warner a number of times not to let him practice law. There is no occ regulation which requires operational units to consult it on propriety of planned activities, Mr. Warner now feels such a regulation might be superfluous because he is So often questioned in the current climate. This was not the case five years ago. Mr. Warner is of the Opinion that an official regulation Saying what sort of activities should be Cleared through occ might lead to less Checking, rather than more. , . The OGC maintains bound copies of all its legal Opinions back through OSS days. They have been indexed Since 1966. The OGC staff is now Collecting all relevant legal opinions for the Commission. The Commissign should “receive them next week. The OGC staff is not finding much’ On activities that had questionable propriety. II. THE LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE CIA ACTIONS RR SS EE CIA ACTIONS Mr. Warner was in the Office of General Counsel in OSS. He stayed on to work with the CIG and then on the: legal staff of the cta. He and Mr. Eouston were ‘in separate offices. Warner worked on the 1949 Act; Houston, on the 1947 Act. Originally, Mr. Warner was involved in the drafting of a comprehensive bill to be presented to Congress. in 1947, This bill would have included the Provisions which were eventually included in both the 1947 and 1949 Acts. Mr. Warner suggests that the Commission talk to Walter Pforzheimer. He was the legislative liaison for the CIG. He is retired and now lives in Washington. Mr. Warner would guess that the original Donovan plan for the CIA“to conduct “subversive Operations" was not included in the statute because officials were reluctant to use such words in law in that era. They were Similarly rs i ae concn HW 53244 DoclId:32204979 Page 3 AUVdGIT Guod -y atwaqo aHL HOWd AdOOOLOHG
reluctant to use words such as espionage. However, Mr. Warner says that he doubts that Congress ever contemplated that the CIA would ever conduct covert activities. He says that a 1947 OGC legal opinion agrees that Congress did not contemplate such activities. When such activities were begun by the Agency, reliance was placed on. the President's ‘inherent power to conduct such activities. Congress has ‘ratified this authority by appropriating money over the years. -A 1962 CIA legal opinion expresses this view. It was written in conjunction with the Department gf Justice, which also wrote a legal Opinion at the time. OF : : oF late, Mr. Warner says the 1949 CIA act was not intended s/ to expand the functions of the Agency in any way. . He said there were rumblings at that time about the need to conduct clandestine activities, but those were not taken into “account in drafting the bill. - Mr. Warner is not sure why the word "collect" was not included as. one of the duties of the CIA. He says that perhaps collection of data from. other sources was not considered as collection of intelligence. The original — concept of the Agency was that it was to be primarily a coordinator with some espionage responsibilities. He doubts that any of the drafters of the legislation had any clear concept of what the Agency would be doing 10 or 15 years later. For many years, the other intelligence agencies thought of the CIA as merely one person among equals. They resisted allowing the CIA to have direction over their activities. Tit. ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE CIA A. Mail Intercepts “Mr. Warner was not aware of the mail intercept programs until the Family Jewels episode. B. The Ober Group Mr. Warner was generally aware of the Ober . activities. He was consulted Only wnen it was decided to end the activity. HW 53244 DoclId:32204979 Page 4 AUVdEAIT @uod “ed AIwYaS AHL HoUa AdODOLOHA
C. Surveillance of Dissidents Mr. Warner was not consulted on any surveillance projects. He was aware that informants had been put in a construction crew building the Langley headquarters. D. Loan of Equipment to Local Police Forces . Mr. Warner was never asked whether it was proper for the Agency to loan equipment or personnel to local police forces. He was generally aware of good relations maintained by the Agency with local forces. The Office of General Counsel was asked at the time of the May Day demonstration to be the focal point for coordinating actions with the Department of Justice. They consulted with the Department of Justice about getting marshals to protect the Agency. They had agreed that the CIA would pay travel expenses if marshals were brought in from out of town. At the same time, the OGC was asked whether it would be proper for the Office of Security to lend 50 hardhats to the Fairfax police should they need to be used to protect the headquarters building. The OGC said. yes. E. Assassinations Mr. Warner has no knowledge of any assassination. ‘ attempts. F. Allegations in General ‘Mr. Warner has answered the above questions in light of his personal acquaintance with the projects and his acquaintance with general OGC knowledge. He says that many projects may have been discussed by Mr. Howton with the DCI without his ever being aware of their discussions. LV. MISCELLANEOUS At the time of the Patty Hearst kidnap, the FBI asked the CIA to prepare profiles of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The request was denied. Mr. Warner would guess that there is no paper on the request, but that it was handled in a morning staff meeting. HW 53244 DocId:32204979. Page 5 KUVdaIT quod +x QIWua) AHL HOUT kdODOLOHA
~ 5 - . Mr. Warner said that Mr. Colby discusses a great many issues in his morning staff meetings. He said he is much more open than were previous DCI's. ; Mr. Warner said the Office Of General Counsel. has never given any general guidance to the rest of the Agency on proper classification procedures. He says the component offices rely Strictly on the Executive Order, He doubts that it is possible for more detailed classifi- cation policy guidance to be given. The OGC is currently working on better means to legally protect sources and a methods. They. have - drafted criminal statutes which would ae) Create strict liability for disclosure of sources and a methods information. Q , y « - cs a ef oo. Qa | : 2 : on ow : F < HW 53244 DoclId:327204979 Page 6