Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume XXIX, Panama

11. Memorandum for the Record¹

Washington, February 2, 1977

SUBJECT

• Meeting with Marty Gold, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Staff, Regarding Plans for the Committee’s Investigation [less than 1 line not declassified]

1. I met today with Marty Gold, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence staff, to discuss the Committee’s plans² [2½ lines not declassified] Rather the Committee is preparing for what all expect to be a very lengthy and heated debate on a new Panama Canal treaty. Gold believes a new treaty will be before the Senate by September 1977 at the latest. Although the major responsibility for informing the Senate will lie with the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Armed Services, the Select Committee feels that they will have some role to play in enlightening the Senate on the issues involved. The Committee would like to prepare a classified report which will deal with two questions expected to be discussed during the ratification debate:

a. [1 paragraph (2½ lines) not declassified]

b. What is the Cuba/Panama connection? Mr. Knoche had discussed [less than 1 line not declassified] incident occurring in Panama involving transfer of information from the Panamanians to the Cubans.³

2. Gold said the Committee expects there to be many charges and counter-charges made by the pro and anti-treaty elements in the Senate and the Committee wants to be able to contribute some facts to this debate on the above two points.

3. Gold said that he, Mike Madigan, and Walt Ricks, of the Select Committee staff, plus one Committee research assistant, would be the staff members conducting the study. The Committee’s report would be classified, subject to Agency views on dissemination, with it probably available only in the Committee offices to Senators during the debate. Gold said that the three staff members, after thoroughly researching the subject here, will probably fly to the Canal Zone via military transport to examine the same questions in Panama. [2 lines not declassified] Hence, no Senators would participate in the trip.⁴

4. Regarding the objective of the Committee’s study, Gold said that Ricks had been interested in the allegations of Agency involvement in the swine fever outbreak in Cuba. [1½ lines not declassified] Gold said Ricks might want to follow up this angle as well. I’m not sure that Ricks is cognizant of the Agency’s press statement on this subject.

Donald F. Massey
Assistant Legislative Counsel

1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Congressional Affairs, Job 79M00983A, Box 8, Folder 4: SSCI Countries—Panama Sept 1972–May 1977. Secret. Drafted by Massey. All brackets except those that indicate omitted text are in the original.
2. In a February 3 letter, Inouye informed Secretary Brown of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI’s) plans to undertake a project “which relates to basic United States interests in the Panama Canal Zone” and asked for Defense’s cooperation with the investigation. (National Archives, RG 218, Records of Chairman George S. Brown, Box 48, 820 (Panama) Bulky 1 Jan 1976–31 May 1977) The CIA received a similar letter from Inouye on February 16. (Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Congressional Affairs, Job 79M00983A, Box 8, Folder 4: SSCI Countries—Panama Sept 1972–May 1977)
3. In an internal February 19 report, the Central Intelligence Agency provided a detailed account of its February 11 briefing of SSCI staff members [text not declassified], including accusations that a Panamanian G–2 passed IADB documents to the Cubans. The Agency noted that “although there is cooperation in areas of mutual interests such as exiles, the Panamanian GN/G–2 should not be considered a Cuban tool nor should it be assumed that the flow of information from the Panamanians to the Cubans is unrestricted.” (Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Congressional Affairs, Job 79M00983A, Box 8, Folder 4: SSCI Countries—Panama Sept 1972–May 1977)
4. A March 1 memorandum from the Office of Legislative Counsel, CIA, summarized the February 23–28 SSCI staff trip to Panama, concluding that “no problems turned up. SSCI staffers seemed satisfied.” (Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Congressional Affairs, Job 79M00983A, Box 8, Folder 4: SSCI Countries—Panama Sept 1972–May 1977)