18 FEB 1977 | WASHINGTON POST
By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Central Intelligence Agency for 20 years has made secret annual payments totaling millions of dollars to King Hussein of Jordan, The Washington Post has learned.
The payoffs were reported last year to President Ford as an impropriety by the Intelligence Oversight Board, a three-member panel set up by Ford to curb CIA abuses.
President Ford took no steps to stop the covert payments. Last year Hussein was paid approximately $750,000 by the CIA.
President Carter was told of the payments earlier this week after this newspaper began its investigation.
The secret arrangement with Hussein had not been disclosed to future officials in the CIA or by any inside the previous administration, including President Ford, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, or former CIA Director George Bush.
Carter was informed that he had not been told, according to well-placed sources, and seeks the solution to CIA abuses as quick confirmation of his nominee as CIA director, Navy Adm. Stansfield Turner.
In addition, the Senate Intelligence Committee created last year to oversee the CIA apparently was not given the full story by the Ford administration of the secret payments to Hussein.
One of the most closely held and sensitive of all CIA covert activities, the payments to Hussein were made under the codeword project name of "No Beef." They are usually delivered in cash to the king by the CIA station chief in Amman.
As justification for the classified payments to Hussein, the CIA claimed that Hussein was allowing U.S. intelligence agencies to operate freely in his strategically placed Middle Eastern country.
Hussein himself provided intelligence to the CIA and forwarded money from the payments to other intelligence officials who provided intelligence or cooperated with the CIA.
Nonetheless, some CIA officials considered the payments nothing more than "bribes" and reported the matter to President Ford's oversight panel.
Hussein, according to sources, considers the payments simply another form of U.S. assistance.
Within the CIA, the "No Beef" project has been considered one of its most successful operations, giving the United States great leverage and unusual access to the leader of a sovereign state.
The payments were first made to Hussein in 1957 during the Eisenhower administration. The initial payments apparently ran in the millions of dollars but they were sharply curtailed to the $750,000 level last year.
Hussein was only 21 when he first became a beneficiary of CIA funds. It was a time when Jordan was virtually a ward of the United States and Hussein had little money to support his lifestyle, which earned him the reputation as a "playboy prince."
Hussein has a well-publicized taste for sports cars and airplanes. As once previously reported, the CIA has provided Hussein with female companions. The agency also provided bodyguards for Hussein's children when they were abroad in school.
Some money from the most recent CIA payments to Hussein have been used to pay for bodyguards for his children.
Over the years, Hussein has maintained friendly relations with the United States and his country has been the recipient of substantial military and economic aid — about $200 million in loans and grants last year alone.
The "No Beef" payments to Hussein were made outside the conventional channels.
In late 1974 the CIA became the focus of several government investigations into alleged abuses, and in February, 1975, President Ford directed a reorganization of the intelligence community.
Part of a Feb. 18, 1976, executive order set up the Intelligence Oversight Board which, among other things was to "report in a timely manner to the President any activities that raise serious questions about propriety."
When the general level of concern in the CIA was assessed by the executive order to report any alleged abuses to the oversight panel.
The general counsel soon made such a report on the Hussein payments, and called them possibly improper.
The panel appointed by Ford in March 1976 included former Under Secretary of State Robert D. Murphy, former Secretary of the Army Stephen Ailes, and business book publisher Leo Cherne.
By last summer the oversight panel had made a formal report to President Ford on the payments, concluded that in fact they were improper. Ford read the report but ordered no action taken.
Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance is scheduled to meet with King Hussein today during Vance's six-nation trip to the Middle East.
Jordan is widely considered a moderate influence on the Palestinians.
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