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Approved For Release 2003/04/25 : CIA-RDP80R01731R000400070011-3 15 October 1958 COMMENTS ON A PAPER ENTITLED “PARTIAL CRITERIA nnn CRITERIA TO GOVERN COVERT OPERATIONS" ME RATIONS' 1. The logic in this paper ean be faulted. As &® Consequence, the writing is loose and imprecise. Despite these inadequacies, it contains an expression of concern about the implications fer our Geverament of covert operations and an insistence that strict criteria be established for their regulation, The very expression of this concern demands our attention, 2. The criticism of covert eperations is not based on moral considerations about the validity of means towards ends, nor is it attributed to a desire to preserve departmental jurisdictions. It is based oa the pragmatic consideration that covert operations will not work (because Americans cannot really do such things very well and the operations will not be really covert) and the consequent wsk is, therefore, out of proportion to the gain. 3. The suggested criteria are, in general, reascnable statements of the care that must be exercised in anything so sensitive as the initiation and the conduct ef covert operations. Where this paper goes wrong is in its concept of the assignment of charter functions within our Goverament and its Placement of the responsibility for the applicatien of criteria. The paper states that "the primary responsibility for such Approved For Release. 2003/04/25 : CIA-RDP80R01731R000400070011-3 ve 4 ree A Li tw B