THE CIA SHEDS ITS OLD SHELL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R001200070016-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 22, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/07/08: CIA-RDP81 M00980ROO 2000 "U016-5
WASHINGTON POST
Nick Thimmesch
The CIA
Whatever, there is no question that
the CIA, like a crustacean, has shed its
old shell. The men who tracked the
Soviets in the cold war, countered
revolutionaries in the Third World and
tried to make the Vietnam war work
are gone-men like Richard Helms,
James Angleton, William Colby, Ray S.
Cline and Vernon Walters.
The new order is younger, more spe-
cialized and would never risk wearing a
trench coat. They are far less likely to
pound fists on tables or utter oaths
when confronted with, say, the great
Shthits
Old Shell
Outside, the pleasant campus around
the Central Intelligence Agency's head.
quarters looks like it does every spring
-resplendent with blooming lilac and
dogwood trees. The main building re-
tains its strong, bureaucratic appear.
ance. The friendly guards take away
any ominous edge suggested by the
wire fence.
Inside, there are few visible changes.
New TRW machines efficiently screen
employees on entry. The recent "open-
ness" is advertised on bulletin boards
featuring clips of what the outside
world is saying about the CIA these
days. That information would have
brought scowls to the faces of great in-
telligence figures of World War II, the
cold war and the Vietnam tragedy.
But they are ghostly names now, as
technocrats increasingly dominate the
CIA.
In recent years the once monolithic
CIA has taken typhoon-force blows
from super-liberals, hawkish jingoists
and demented revolutionaries. Viet-
nam, Watergate, congressional in-
vestigations--all sapped its strength.
The United States remains strong, so
there has been a natural recovery of
the CIA, but the degree is debatable.
Critics claim that President Carter's
order of reorganization, the resulting
shift of 820 positions, the severance of
260 employees and an unimaginative,
scrambling of organizational boxes the
CIA undertook under Turner.
The new order is more inclined
toward technocratic performance. This
means increased reliance on electron-
ics detection, computerized data, re-
search and development and studies in
economics, geography, medicine, phys-
ics and other sciences.
Altogether, this means a huge jump
In the volume of information collected.
There are those who argue that the
volume involves even more clandestine
work by the CIA, because only by learn-
ing intent can the agency evaluate the
enormous accumulation of intelligence.
Moreover, the CIA now lives in a world
far different from the swashbuckling
days of the cold war. Instead of largely
focusing on the Soviet Union and Com-
munist China, the agency must contend
With, 150 nations and their growing eco-
nomic interdependence. The Soviets
remain the prime target, and the Chi?
nese aren't neglected, but it's obvious the
rest of the world is growing up fast.
The CIA increasingly-it claims suc-
cessfully-tracks terrorists, drug traf-
fickers, oil discoveries and production,
crop estimates and shifts of wealth, just
to name some for purposes of illustrat.
ing variety. These studies, usually per-
formed with more precision than
drama, become reasonable estimates as
to what nations are capable of doing or
might be compelled to do.
While the CIA Increasingly benefits
from technolog
ce
t
i
y
r
a
n advantages to
, Mr. Thimmesch is a syndicated overseas operatives aren't available any
columnist. more. Since the murder of agent Rich.
dW.1 hi
ar G
spiritless, teariership by Adm. Stansfield
Turneq," '4 im Carter made director,
agency in turmoil.
`x . 4fenders say that CIA opera-
tiorY' avo been improved by the
changes' the quality of the intelligence
produlc,-as never been better; Turner,
a Navy, classmate of Carter, has no
plans td leave.
I .
n
reece, the agency has
not equipped non-CIA travelers, such as
newsmen, with the names of agents to
contact overseas. The terrorist threat to
CIA operatives is significant.
.Contact betweent the CIA and the
journalists specializing in foreign re-
portage have also been discouraged.
And many nations are now reluctant to
cooperate with the CIA out of fear of
having the relationship suddenly burst
into print in the American Dress.
Back at headquarters, the CIA still
wrestles with the matter of how to
handle the question of requiring em-
ployees to live up to the contract they
signed when hired-namely, to. clear
anything written, spoken or dissemi.
nated about the agency with the in-
spector's office, whether they are still
employed or have left the agency.
There has been a rash of books and
articles by former CIA people, some
embarrassing, some merely illuminat-
ing. Agee and Marchetti and Marks
wrote books the agency didn't like. The
content of Frank Snepp's book didn't
bother the agency as much as Snepp's
publishing it without clearance. Colby's
"Honorable Men" and Walter's "Silent
Mission" cleared the inspector, but
might make some people smirk a bit.
No reasonable American disagrees
with the notion-that the most powerful
nation in the world needs a set of eyes
and ears out there, not only to protect
itself, but also to get along. We can only
hope that we are getting our money's
worth from the $4 billion to $8 billion
CIA spends every year.
?1878, Loa Angeles T1mea Syndicate
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R001200070016-5
 17
Approved For Release 2004/07/08: CIA-RDP81 M0098016301 0070016-5
WASHINGTON POST
Z /7')
CIA Ads Recruit Doctors
To Treat Agents Abroad
By Thomas O'Toole
Washington Post Staff Writet
The Central Intelligence Agency is
recruiting doctors to treat and care
for overseas officers and paid agents
at the agency's far-flung outposts
around the world.
The CIA will not say why it recruits
Its own doctors, except to point out
that it occasionally conducts "medical
evacuations" from remote or threat-
ened regions of the world where peo-
ple "must be given medical support or
flown out for medical treatment:'
Informed sources with past ties to`
the CIA said the agency has long re-
lied on its own doctors in the United
States and abroad, partly because it
doesn't want its officers and agents
drugged, anesthetized or put in com-
promising medical situations where
information can be extracted from
them.
Through an advertising agency
named Gaynor and Ducas on Madison
Avenue In New York, the CIA has
placed advertisements for physicians
in two of the nation's leading medical
journals. One ran April 13 in The New
England Journal of Medicine and the
other ran April 21 in the Journal of
the American Medical Association.
Both ads :employ the same low-key
pitch. They simply say: "The Central
Intelligence Agency has opportunities
for physicians to serve overseas. Posi-
tions involve management of health
care delivery systems for employes
and dependents. Attractive benefits
and opportunity for foreign travel.
U.S. citizenship required."
The salary offered by the CIA is
$33,845 a year. The ads say nothing
about age, experience or specialty.
Presumably, the CIA is looking only
for doctors who've graduated from
medical school, completed their in-
ternships and passed their state medi-
cal boards.
The CIA said it saw nothing unu-
sual in the ads, declaring it had run
similar ads in 1975 and 1976. The New
England Journal of Medicine said it
was the first CIA ad it had received.
The Journal of the American Medical
Association said it also was its first
CIA ad.
The CIA refused to say how many
doctors it now employs or how many
it is seeking through new advertising.
Former CIA officers said one rea-
son the agency wants its own doctors
overseas is to keep an eye on the
physical and mental health of its offi-
cers and agents. One former officer
put it this way: "The agency's people
are often under great stress in over-
seas assignments."
Another former CIA official had a
more elaborate explanation. He said
in recent years the CIA has reduced
the numbers of its officers whose
cover is employment in American em-
ttassies. Nowadays, cover is often a
private U.S. firm or institution, which
means agency people no longer have
access to U.S. military and embassy
doctors serving abroad.
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R001200070016-5