In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

[230] IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES
that CIA briefings of congressional committees must be complete or
accurate.
Quietly, Clark continued to watch the Angola program, trying to
discern the truth through our shields of secrecy and falsehood. In
early November he queried the State Department about the Angolan
conflict and was told that Mobutu was not using United States aid
to support the Angolan factions. On November 8 Colby defended the
Angola program to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, repeating
the party line that we were delivering arms to Mobutu, who was
supplying the two Angolan factions, etc. On December 12 Colby
reassured the House Intelligence Committee that there were no
Americans involved in Angola.•
The only weapon left to Senator Clark was the Senate's indirect
control of the CIA budget. On December 5 Clark recommended to
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it vote to terminate
American involvement in Angola. The committee agreed, stirred to
anger when a spokesman of the working group was exposed
flagrantly lying to the committee. Bill Nelson, the CIA deputy director
of operations, and Ed Mulcahy, the deputy assistant secretary of
state for African affairs, had been summoned to testify. Before Mulcahy
arrived, Nelson was questioned and admitted the truth, that the
CIA was sending arms directly into Angola.•• Minutes later Mulcahy
arrived and testified, adhering to the working group line that
arms were not being sent into Angola. Senator Clark confronted
Mulcahy with Nelson's contradictory testimony and asked him to
explain his apparent "lie.". Beneath the angry stares of committee ~
members Mulcahy kept his poise, and calmly reversed himself, admitting
that arms were being sent into Angola. Senator Case angrily
denounced the lying. The committee unanimously endorsed Senator
Clark's bill.
•See above, p. 177.
••on November 3, Colby had been fired impetuously by President Ford, who then
had been obliged to reverse himself and ask Colby to stay on until the congressional
hearings were completed and a successor could be named. Thus, on December 5,
Bill Nelson, who was a Colby protege, knew that his own days of power were
numbered. Only he could tell if this influenced him to betray Colby's IAFEATURE
cover story and tell the Senate the truth. Certainly, it must have been a difficult
decision for Nelson to make. Richard Helms, a former director, was under investiga·
tion of perjury for lying to the Senate, and by December 5, it was a safe conclusion
that any false testimony about the Angola program might eventually be exposed.