Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman David Boren praised embattled CIA director-designate Robert Gates Friday for cooperating with Congress on sensitive matters.
"There was no single person in the intelligence community, without exception," who tried harder to level with Congress about the Iran-Contra affair and other CIA than Gates, Boren said as the committee resumed its hearing into Gates' nomination.President Bush also spoke out on behalf of his nominee, telling a news conference "I totally dismiss the outrageous assertion" that Gates had slanted intelligence findings for political reasons.
"I have total confidence in Bob," Bush said. "Bob Gates is a very honest man, a thorough-going professional. I know he would never `cook' the estimates."
Referring to himself as "the ultimate consumer of intelligence," Bush said there had been mistakes made in intelligence analysis, but never purposeful mistakes.
He said of the CIA's work: "I think it's been very, very good, and I'm completely confident we have the best intelligence service in the world." Bush, a former CIA director, said, "It's something I know something about."
At the hearing, Boren described how Gates had cooperated with the intelligence committee.
Boren said the Iran-Contra scandal was a breach of trust that "left a lasting memory" on him and that he is undecided on whether to approve Gates as director of central intelligence.
Boren voiced concern over an erosion of support for Gates based on his links to the late CIA Director William J. Casey, whose conservative ideology often shaped the agency's intelligence views.
Boren described for the committee the scores of times when the intelligence oversight panel was let in on sensitive intelligence by Gates - "things I guarantee you we would never have had hints about when Mr. Casey was in charge."
Boren said his unusual testimony was prompted by the decision on Thursday of one panel member - Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. - to vote against Gates because he represented links to the Casey era.
"Your experience is what disqualifies you," Hollings told Gates. "Yes, you did too good a job for Bill Casey. You're not the right man at this particular time."
In later questioning, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., asked Gates whether he believed allegations that President Ronald Reagan was misled into believing arms sales to Iran in 1985 and 1986 were a good idea.
"I do not believe he was misled by CIA intelligence," Gates said. "Information was provided through the channel of another country, to which the White House paid more attention than it did to American intelligence." Records indicate that country was Israel.
But Nunn suggested that Gates should have acted more forcefully to ensure that the president was getting good information.
Gates also promised that he would make it a high priority, if confirmed, to correct the lingering perception that CIA analyses are slanted to fit administration political views.
Nunn said he had gone from favoring Gates to "neutral" after hearing the nominee's point-by-point defense on Thursday.