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I am deeply concerned about Kerry's taking of all discussion about clergy (and others) and peace corps off the public's table.
Senator KERRYof Massachusetts. Well, Mr. Chairman, the only comment I would make is to express—I understand Bob Kerrey may have expressed this also—I am deeply concernedabout a pub- lic hearing on this subject, to be candid with you. To whatever de- gree other governments may have questions about whether we do this or not, those questions may be best left without an articulation of policy. But here, it seems to me, if they weren't tainted before, they sure as hell will be tainted afterwards. Whatever doubt or question marks might have arisen, we sort of articulated it as a matter of policy we may do this. Which may leave us no choice but to suggest that there were certain areas where we shouldn't be doing it. I tend to be one of those who feels that most intelligence gathering can be done outside the use of certain kinds of people.
I think—I tend to agree with Senator Coverdell, that the kinds of things we are trying to achieve with the Peace Corps would be extraordinarily limited if people thought we were going to, as a matter of course, potentially use them as intelligence gatherers. So would I think the issue of clergy and others be similarly tainted and the flow of information and our desires for it would be hin- dered ultimately. So it may be that the salutary impact of this will be to elicit from us a prohibition, rather than to have left it in doubt as it has been up to now. But I am very uncomfortable with the pubHc discussions, and that's all that I would say at this point.