Cloak & Naggers

The Central Intelligence Agency's privileged hush-hush irritates many a Congressman, and Montana's well-meaning Senator Mike Mansfield had little diffi culty in finding 34 co-sponsors last January for his resolution proposing a joint congressional watchdog committee over CIA. Said Mansfield thoughtfully: "If we accept this idea of secrecy for secrecy's sake, we will have no way of knowing whether we have a fine intelligence service or a very poor one."

Last week, when the bill came up for debate, Mansfield ran into a cold stone wall. Georgia's Dick Russell lamented that secrets told Senators in executive session generally trickle to the press. Although they are ordinarily no friends of the Administration, Missouri's Stuart Symington and Kentucky's Alben Barkley, both National Security Council members under Harry Truman, went along with President Eisenhower's view that CIA is "too sensitive" to be watchdogged. By the time the bipartisan opposition had finished, ten sponsors had backed out on Mansfield, and the Senate, 59-27, turned down his resolution.

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