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Approved For Release 2003/04/25 : CIA-RDP80R01731R000400070011-3 weighing must rest with the State Department." This is a tenable preposition; it could be argued that the responsibility should be with the Department of State -- but that is not the assignment ef function that has been approved by the President and the National Security Council. NSC 5412/2 clearly places the responsibility fer covert operations upen the Director of Central Intelligence. The Director must ensure that operations are consistent with Government pelicy, but the responsibility fer so ensuring remains his. Te assist him in making these responsible determinations, he has been provided with the 5412 Designated Representatives, namely, the Uader Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the President's Special Assistant on National Security Affairs. These Designated Representa- tives together provide a committee fer the approval ef major programs by confirming to the Director that his proposed courses of action are consistent with Government pelicy. 4. Nowhere in NSC 5412 and associated papers does it specify that the Department of State has the responsibility for ensuring that covert operations are consistent with policy or for providing an approval System. The author of this paper, in stating that it is “easential that the machinery in the Department for the review of covert operations be employed frankly, strictly, and thoroughly," seems to imply that the machinery in the Department reviews covert operations in the sense 2 Approved For Release 2003/94/25 : CIA-RDP80R01731R000400070011-3