WASHINGTON — Robert M. Gates, President Bush's nominee to head the CIA, faces new accusations that he slanted an agency assessment of a 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II to suggest it was masterminded by the Soviet KGB, informed sources said.
The sources said the evidence shows that Gates, then a senior CIA official, disregarded several contrary opinions by agency analysts and instead portrayed as the "consensus" of the intelligence community the conclusion that the assassination attempt was KGB-inspired.
Gates' allies concede that the allegations--contained in CIA documents being reviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee--could significantly embarrass the Administration and may prove to be the most threatening new issue against Gates when his confirmation hearings begin Monday.
Sources said that Gates also may face questions about his role in compiling sensitive intelligence data for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during that country's eight-year war with Iran.
The United States provided some intelligence to Iraq--initially only about Iranian military operations--after Washington and Baghdad resumed relations in 1984. But little is known publicly about how much intelligence could be provided to Iraq under U.S. policy at the time. Gates' role in dealing with intelligence for Iraq is a question that some committee members are likely to address.
Sources close to Gates said he is prepared to rebut these new allegations. "He's prepared to deal with those questions," one Gates supporter said.
The new accusations, which center on questions of integrity and professional judgment, go to the heart of the controversy over the Bush nominee: Is Gates, with his hard-line views about the Soviet Union and strong opinions on policy issues, the right man to head the CIA as the Administration and Congress begin the first head-to-toe redesign of the government's intelligence apparatus since 1947?
A central question in the upcoming hearings is expected to be whether Gates' record shows him to have such an appetite for taking part in policy-making that he cannot be counted upon to provide objective intelligence assessments in a neutral and impartial fashion.
Sources say that Gates' critics on the panel plan to use the papal assassination incident to suggest that Gates, who has been serving as Bush's deputy national security adviser, cannot resist the temptation to slant intelligence in order to serve a wider agenda.
