CIA: SHADOW GOVERNMENT OF THE U.S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300620012-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: June 27, 1975
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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CIA: SHADOW GOVERNMENT OF THE U.S.
Tel Aviv HA'ARETZ in Hebrew 2? June 75 pp 5-B
Article by DER SPIEGEL writers: "CIA: Shadow Government of the U.S."
Text It is midnight in the Dominican Republic. The consul general, Henry
Dearborn, the most senior American diplomat in the country, drove his car
home after a party at the house of the Nationalist Chinese ambassador. On
a deserted road along the coast, he was stopped at a military police roadblock.
He and his companions were forced to get out of the car, were searched, without
expanation -- and then were allowed to continue on their way.
Only after an hour did Dearborn find out who had stopped him: the police had
been looking for a band of assassins -- who now telephoned him. He no longer
remembers the details which the members of the plot reported to him, but he
remembers the gist precisely: "Trujillo was dead, we have succeeded."
Dearborn immediately telegraphed this information to Washington, and went to
sleep, peacefully. He know the people who had struck. He himself had maintained
contact with them for a period of months. He knew that his government viewed
them very positively -- to the extent that it apparently had supplied them with
weapons via the consul general himself. The sender: the Central Intelligence
Agency.
Rafael. Trujillo, the chief of state and the unlimited dictator of the Domini-
can Republic, died on the evening of 30 May 1961.
Some months later, in November of that year, the president of the U.S. John
Kennedy, asked the journalist Tad Szulc in a private conversation: "What
would you think if the U.S. were to murder Castro?" Szulc did not support
this idea. To this, Kennedy responded: "I am glad that that is your opinion,
because I am not convinced that the U.S. has to participate in political
assassination. But occassionally, I do receive such suggestions."
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Apparently, suggestions were not the end of it. The murder of Fidel Castro
was actually planned. This was revealed at the beginning of this year by two
men who were the closest aides of Robert Kennedy (who was shot to death in
1968): they claimed that Robert Kennedy himself discovered the conspiracy,
and order an immediate end to the plan, and took pains to see that his orders
were carried out explicitly. He asked for confirmation in black and white,
and the sender of the "written promise" was the CIA.
It is also being said in Washington that the CIA participated in the mysterious
death of the Congolese president, Patrice Lumumba, early in 1961; and a list of
its targeted victims also included Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc), the Haitian
dictator. And didn't Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John Kennedy, maintain
contact with the CIA?
Indeed, for years the world, including the Americans, have been accustomed
after every coup d'etat, rebellion, or civil war to look first of all for the
CIA; it is understood that frequently enough the agency topples governments=
openly or secretly, incites disorders, perverts elections, finances civil wars.
But until now, the "secret government of the U.S." (as the book by David Weiss
and Thomas Ross is called) has appeared in the role of "murder incorporated"
mostly in films, such as "Scorpio" in which agents of the CIA and hired murderers
commit no less than six murders.
In.fact, events are closer in spirit to the matters which were written up in the
secret file which the vice president of the U.S., Nelson Rockefeller, recently
filed with Gerald Ford. Concentrated in 86 pages is what "Rocky" and his colleagues
uncovered regarding presumed and actual assassination plots by the CIA against
foreign politicians. There is no doubt that this is a shocking score, even
though the commission did not succeed in completing its work, claiming a shortage
of time and people.
Ford, who upon assuming his office had promised his people absolute candidness,
categorically refused to publicize those portions of the Rockefeller report
which dealt with planned assassinations by the CIA; this arouses unpleasant
memories of attempts by his predecessor, Richard Nixon, to cover up. At the
daily press conferences with Pres Ford's spokesman, Ron Nessin, accusations are
being made about coverups of criminal acts; American journalists are recalling
that Nixon was toppled by his constant efforts to obfuscate, rather then for
his criminal actions.
Maybe it is true that "for the sake of U.S. interests (in the language of Ford)
it is politically correct not to expose to the whole world actions and plans
some of which date back 15 years. But after 5 and a half years of Nixon, after
all of the lies surrounding the Watergate affair and Vietnam, the Americans do
want the whole story.
An official report of 200 pages by the Rockefeller staff regarding actions
carried out by the CIA contrary to the law -- an official report which Ford
released after much hesitation -- cannot serve as compensation. Because what
is contained in it (and even more) was already known at the beginning of this
year. Little by little all was discovered, denied, and then admitted. Among
other things, the CIA had done the following:
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It spent at least 8 million, and perhaps as much as 11 million dollars to
hasten the downfall of the marxist President-Allende in Chile.
For some months, it withheld essential information regarding the Watergate
affair from investigators.
It carried out breakins of homes of American citizens, as well as foreign
embassies.
For more than 20 years, it opened the mail of American citizens -- both the
famous as well as the obscure, including AF of L President George Meany -
and each year it opened and copied 13,000 pieces out of 4.3 million pieces
of mail. (A one time 9ga.nt of the CIA bragged: "This was done so rapidly
that we did not delay mail delivery.") It also tapped telephone lines, placed
journalists under surveillance, and spied on members of Congress.
The first expose of the CIA came from the same journalist who discovered
the massacre committed by American soldiers at My Lai, in Vietnam. On 22
December 1974 Seymour Hirsh wrote in the NEW YORK TIMES about new secret
-- and illegal -- lists containing the names of'10,000 Ameticans. The lists
had been gathered by the Domestic Operations Division (D.O.D.) of the CIA
-- a most secret branch whose very name indicated a violation of the regula-
tions of the agency: according to law it was authorized to engage only in
foreign espionage.
Richard Helms -- director of the CIA during the period when most of the illegal
activities took place, and now the American ambassador to Iran -- announced
through the State Department: "Ambassador Helms denies in the strongest terms
allegations that the CIA carried on illegal domestic activities during his
tenure as agency director." A few days later, the mysterious director of D.O.D.
James Engleton -- resigned from his post, along with his 3 closest aides.
(In the meantime, he received the highest decoration of the agency.) Under
pressure from the press and Congress, Ford saw the need to appoint a special
investigatory commission consisting of 8 members, to examine the accusations
made by Hirsh.
The commission did not inspire a lot of confidence. Almost all of its members
had been linked to the CIA in the past. Its chairman, Nelson Rockefeller, had
served for 5 years on a committee whose task was to advise the president in
matters of espionage. The commentator Tom Wicker remarked bitterly: "Giving this
group the task of investigating the CIA is like giving the task of examining
the Mafia's books to its own accountants."
The Americans can look for more clarity and truth about the "company" (as the
agency is called by its agents) to the two special congressional committees.
Frank Church, the Senator from Idaho, and chairman of the Senate committee,
said: "We are not out for revenge, but neither will this be a whitewash."
It is possible that the congressional investigators have undertaken an impossible
mission. Government committees have tried 8 times to make reforms in the CIA.
In Congress, there have been 200 resolutions or pieces of proposed legislation,
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and none of them have passed. The CIA remains a state within a state, and
little more is known about it than the addreds of its staff in Langley, in
Fairfax county, the state of Virginia, which is a 20 minute drive from
Washington.
The traffic signs on Dooley Blvd and near the Washington monument clearly
point to the home of the "spooks": "Central Intelligence Agency -- next right
turn.!' In the center of an area of about 1000 donam, rises a gray seven story
building. Since 1961, it has housed the center of the intelligence agency.
(Other offices and buildings of the CIA, most of which are not identified,
are scattered throughout Washington.) The special blue bus called "Bluebeard"
brings the agency people to their place of work in the city -- for example to
"building 213," a yellow hpuse on m Street in southeast Washington, whose
windows are completely covered. It houses the agency's Photo-Analysis Department.
In the undecorated entry hall of the chief of staff an inscription on the wall
proclaims the message of the apostle John of the New Testament: "You shall.
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." On the opposite wall are
31 stars -- in memory of the 31 agents whose names cannot be inscribed, who
were killed in the service of the CIA and the homeland. In the courtyard is a
status of Nathan Hale, the legendary (although no more successful) spy of the
days of the American revolution.
Aside from these subtle hints regarding the work of those who are housed here,
the building is no different than the other concrete buildings of other
American departments. It could just as well be the home of the Department of
Agriculture.
In Langley too, as well as other nearby towns -- the preferred residence of
senators, congressmen, and wealthy citizens of the capital -- there is almost
no hint of the housing of the CIA. Only the staff at Fairfax Hospital can tell
if someone who is brought to the hospital is an agent of the CIA or a mere
human being: agency people are usually accompanied by two mysterious men,
who make sure that the patient does not reveal secrets while he is under
anesthesia.
Within the CIA, duties are distributed in such a manner that the right hand
does not know what the left hand is doing, and things are usually never referred
to by their usual name: everything has a code name. For example, ODOYOKE means
the United States, ODACID refers to the State Department, KUBARK refers to the
CIA, REDSKIN to legal travelers to the USSR. ISOLATION refers to Camp Perry
in Virginia, also called "the farm," where the agency trains its people in
breaking and entering and telephone tapping, in enlisting agents provocateurs,
and in paralyzing vehicles or newspaper printing presses.
Officials in Fairfax County do not even know how many people are employed by
the CIA (the estimate is 15,000 regular workers, of whom 4,800 are spies
abroad) or what is its annual budget (the estimate is 750 million dollars
to which should be added millions or even billions from the Pentagon, which
pays for intelligence satellites and intelligence planes) Enterprising jour-
nalists have tried to determine, on the basis of water consumption in Langley
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or the number of students in its schools, the probable professions of the
parents, and to draw conclusions about the scope of the CIA -- but in vain.
Already 'in march, the director of the' CIA, Colby, refused to give firm
figures to 17 members of Congress on the size and budget of the CIA. The
agency in no way will permit anyone to look behind the curtains. Once, when
the Daughters of the American Revolution wanted to award the CIA a special
decoration, they received a negative answer: "If you know that we are good,
then you already know far too much."
The CIA was never supposed to be such a secret operation. Americans have always
been repelled by secrecy -- whether it be secret service, secret politics, or
secret diplomacy. When the U.S. entered World War I, its whole intelligence
operation consisted of two officers and two clerks. In 1929, the American
secretary of state disbanded the state department's decoding office with the
comment: "Gentlemen do not road other people's mail." After World War II, the
Americans reluctantly gave in to the establishment of a new secret service.
Congressman Henderson Lanham, at the time of consultations on the creation
of the CIA, wanted to know if there wasn't a danger "that a gestapo, or some-
thing like it, would be created."
In,general, the government presented the proposed operation as an innocent
and innocuous organization, whose members would be employed principally in
reading PRAVDA and studying Soviet train schedules. Nothing was ever said
about quasi-military operations abroad, and certainly not about domestic
spying in the U.S. But within two years, in 1949, the CIA already acquired
greater autonomy than any other American institution. The "Central Intelligence
Law" freed it from the obligation of filing its budget with the Congress.
Thus it began its independent existence, and the CIA became one of the sharpest
American weapons in the Cold War. In a short time, there was no sphere or
country in the world where the CIA was not active. It supported students and
businessmen, churches, trade unions, immigrant societies, if only they were
ready to spread the anti-communist message.
In Europe, the CIA founded the anti-communist Radio Free Europe and Radio
Liberty. Both inside and outside of the U.S., the CIA founded and financed
newspapers and periodicals. In 1951, the Center for International Studies
was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- with CIA funding.
But America's new secret service was also involved in violent activities. In
the early 50's CIA agents in the jungles to the west of Burma collected the
remnants of the defeated nationalist Chinese army, supplied them with money
and weapons, and encouraged them to make attacks on Mao's China. During the
Korean War, the CIA dropped Taiwanese Chinese agents which it had trained,
on the Adian mainland. Most were caught, but a few made their way to Manchuria
where they were picked up by low flying C-47 planes using hooks and large
baskets.
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In 1953, in Iran, the CIA was concerned with toppling the regime of mssadegh,
who wanted to nationalize the country's petroleum resources; and in 1954, in
Guatamala, with the removal by force of President Arbenz-Guzman, who it was
claimed was a tool in the hands of the communists. During the 60's, the ClA
invested 11 million dollars in Ecuador to change governments.
In the Middle East, the agents of the CIA first of all investigated the health
of Farouk of Egypt by taking a urine sample from the urinal at the casino of
Monte Carlo. After the fall of Farouk, Nasser's chief advisor whose office
was next to that of the new chief of state, was an agent of the CIA. When an
attempt was made to buy Nasser -- as they still tell the story mockingly in
Cairo -- he pretended to be ready to sell himself. But immediately after he
received the first payment, he made the whole matter public -- and with the money
that he received from the CIA he built a television tower on the banks of the
Nile, and called it the "CIA Tower" (Cairenes have given the tower a grosser
epithet because of the image of its thrust upwards).
In the Far East and in Africa, the CIA trained body guards for presidents, dic-
tators, and kings. Later, these body guards were concerned with keeping in power
those chiefs of state who were convenient for Washington. This was the case
in Thailand, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Somalia, South Korea, and South Vietnam.
In South Vietnam, the CIA participated in a few coups -- and it was forced to
look the other way when its old protoges murdered their collaborator Diem.
On the other hand, the agency sought to upset Buddhist demonstrations against
the Saigon regime by placing among the South Vietnamese demonstrators bombs
made of filings, the size of eggs.
In Laos, in 1960, CIA people filled the ballot boxes with forged ballots and
provoked local incidents so that their protoge, Gen Phoumi Nosavan, would remain
in power. Later, CIA instructors trained 36,000 Lations in the mountains for
the private war against the communist Pathet Lao.
In many cases, the CIA was able to rely on reliable natives of the country --
usually police people who had been trained at the expense of the "International
Police Service" in Washington, which is dependent upon the CIA. In other cases,
it was aided by American companies, which supplied CIA people with the necessary
cover. According to one agency official, its flight network employs more planes
than all of American aviation, and in terms of the number of employees, it
is larger than the CIA itself.
For example, during the Congolese civil war, the CIA maintained its own air
force, composed of B-26 bombers. And as late as March, it used the aviation
company "Bard Airlines" which had earlier worked for the CIA, as its air shuttlo
for Cambodia. In addition, there are maintained or supported in this part of the
world the legendary "Air America'", "Air Asia", "'Sauturn Air Transport",
"Intermountain Aviation", and "Civil Air Transport-China Airlines."
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Did the billions which were invested ever pay off? One of the fathers of the
Agency, Clafk Clifford, who later served as secretary of defense, summarized
in this way: "The CIA did have several dramatic successes. But those successes
had to be kept secret, in order to enable future successes."
On the other hand, the failures of the agency have been discussed in detail.
For example, when the Soviets in May 1960 downed a U-2 plane with its pilot,
Gary. Powers, no importance was attached to the fact that for years these
intelligence planes had supplied the best information about the USSR until that
time.
The CIA suffered its most serious failure in 1961, at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.
An attempt to land Cuban exiles who were foes of Castro in order to spark
a rebellion against him ended in a rain of fire from Castro's militia. John
Kennedy, who was then president of the U.S., complained that the CIA had mis-
led him with false information. He wanted to dismantle the CIA, "to divide it
into pieces and scatter it in all directions," because "I will not be able to
stand another event like this." For weeks, he even refused to accept the daily.
reports which the CIA submits to the president.
Nevertheless, almost no one challenged the CIA -- in spite of the fact that
Kennedy had many supporters in his suspicions of it. For example, in 1963,
ex-President Harry Truman, during whose administration the CIA had been founded,
said: "I view the CIA as a kind of shadow cast on history. I believe that we
should change it." Senator Eugene McCarthy accused the CIA of being an
"independent foreign policy administration, which is gradually usurping the
role of the president." _
In the mean time, the lives of the people at the CIA were made easy by those
very people who were supposed to be overseeing it: a handful of Senators and
Congressmen who, more than overseeing the operation, actually identified
themselves with it and the secrets which were revealed to them.
There was no one who challenged the declaration of Allen Dulles, the first
director of the CIA, to the effect that if necessary, he would lie -- that is,
the CIA would lie -- to everyone except the president, in order to protect the
identity of one of the agency's people.
If the CIA was able to undergo all the attempts at reform and all of the
stumbling in relative peace, then it is beholden most of all to the two
successors of Kennedy -- Johnson and Nixon -- both of whom occassionally used
it as a kind of private police force. Nixon not only let the CIA know that
the downfall of President Allende of Chile was most desirable to the U.S.,
but he also permitted it to begin to operate on the domestic front -- contrary
to the language of the law.
Twelve agents of the service infiltrated a group of those who deviated from the
line in the U.S., and caused a change in the character of the peaceful demonstra-
tions -- so that they appeared on the television screen as militant revolution.
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But in particular, the CIA worked as one of Nixon's closest aids during the
Watergate affair.
It*helpod an ex-agent, Howard Hunt, to enlist a unit of burglars and equip
them with the necessary equipment - including a red wig, a beard, forged
documents, a voice alteration device, a minature camera hidden in a tobacco
pouch, two microphones, and a microphone hidden in a small porX'able typewriter.
It prepared for the White House two psychological profiles of Daniel Ellsberg,
the man who delivered to the NEW YORK TIIflES the Pentagon's most secret papers
relating to the American war in Vietnam.
Two days after the Watergate breakin -- it sent tee Pennington, a part time
employee ($250 per month) to James McCord's apartment, who was one of the Water-
gate burglars and an ex-agent of the CIA. Pennington, together with Mrs McCord,
burned all of the papers which could have proven a connection between McCord and
the CIA.
For months, it hid from investigative authorities letters in which McCord threat-
ened to make the CIA a scapegoat in the Watergate affair.
With Nixon's full agreement, the CIA tried to keep the Federal Bureau of Investi-
gation from making a basic investigation of the Watergate affair.
Helms, who was then director, personally ordered his aide not to investigate in
any manner the relations between Hunt and the CIA. "I will take cF1re of this
myself." But, as with Nixon, the Watergate affair became a crossroads for the
CIA: since Richard Helms, who was permeated with the recognition of his own
value, did not want what Richard Nixon wanted, he was dismissed from his posl.-
tion one month after Nixon's decisive victory at the polls in 1972.
Helms' successor, James Schlesinger, was under no obligation to anyone in the
intelligence community, but he also brought no pro-conceptions with him to his
new post. The CIA apparatus immediately tried to hide information from its new
leadership. This enabled Schlesinger to claim a clear conscience, when he said
that; there was no connection between James McCord and the CIA, even after he
learned th4't indeed there was a connection. Schlesinger was then enraged, and
began a "housecleaning" at the CIA. Within the shortest period of time, he dis-
covered most of its illegal activities, and ordered their immediate cessation.
His successor, Willem Colby, continued what Schlesinger had begun, and ordered
(immediately after Nixon's departure) an investigation of all CIA activities
during the period of Nixon's tenure in office. Some of the activities discovered
appeared to him to be of doubtful legality. He reported the facts to the justice
Department -- and thus unwillingly caused the present crisis surrounding the
CIA.
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The investigations by Colby of his institution did not remain within the realm
of secrecy. Several congressional committees decided at the same time to tear
away the web of lies, half truths, and secrets which had been woven by the CIA
over the years. Richard Helms was flown in 12 times from Teheran to be
questioned,
he was caught contradicting himself. Such contradictions were viewed byttheed9
committees as tantamount to lying.
In 1973, the proud Helms denied explicitly that the CIA had been involved in
toppling the regime of Salvador Allende of Chile. Now, when he was confronted with
the testimony and reports of his successor, Colby, he was forced to admit: "I
think I made an error in that testimony. Perhaps a serious mistake." Later, he
stubbornly maintained: "Who would have ever thought that the day would come
when carrying out the orders of the president would be considered incorrect?"
It was also learned that on the eve of his departure from the CIA, Helms ordered
the destruction of recordings of conversations between himself and Nixon and
cabinet members. So comprehensive was the material, that the process of destruc-
tion took several days.
It became clear that in the departments of counter-espionage, security, and
information gathering, there were files not only on foreign personalities, but
also on suspect American citizens: on Jane Fonda and Angela Davis, on sex life
in Paris of the black singer Eartha Kitt, on Black Panthers who had been
trained in Lybia and North Korea, and also on Fred Buzhardt, Nixon's attorney.
In contrast to all of Colby's claims, thb CIA had gathered data on members of
Congress; on ex-vice president Hubert Humphrey, on the Jewish leftist congress-
woman from New York, Bela Abzug. Colby said: "We believe...that freedom should
be defended."
Just who the people were whose freedom was protected by the CIA could be discover-
ed in a book published at that time in England: the diary "Inside the Company" by
Phillip Agee, who had spied for the agency for 12 years, particularly in Latin
America. He had published his book in Europe in order to avoid the fate of his
ex-colleague Victor Marchetti. Marchetti's best seller "The CIA and the Cult
of Intelligence" was censored before publication, at the urging of the CIA, in
339 places.
From the safety of Europe, Agee revealed, for the first time, the complete struc-
ture of the CIA. He described its activities during the period of his service
in Latin America, he named names, he brought a list of those "employed by the
CIA, its agents, and supporters, as well as organizations under its control and
subject to its influence." Among others, the list includes: The Bank of England,
Olga Clarici de-Nardona -- the wife of the ex-president of Uraguay, First Na-
tional City Bank, and The General Histadrut of Israel.
Sometimes, the methods of the CIA exceeded even the most imaginative creations
of Hollywood. For example, one day in Mexico City, the CIA agent LICOWL-1 (who
operated a grocery store across from the Soviet embassy) reported that the
Soviet Silnikov was looking for entertainment. Following this, the agency made
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sure that a Mexican girl would att.act his attention -- and the girl succeeded
immediately. At first, the couple met in a room behind the store, later at the
girl's apartment, which was rented for that purpose by the CIA. The apartment
was studded with microphones and cameras. Agee writes: "Silnikov's virility
surprised the girl as well as our agents."
In the name of defending freedom, the CIA used such ambiguous types as Howard
Hughes, and even the Mafia. It was the NEW YORK TIMES which revealed the connec-
tion with Hughes. According t,.? the paper, in 1970 the CIA ordered -- with the
full approval of Richard Nixo -- a ship 100 meters long and weighing 36,000
tons. The price: 250 million dollars. The ship made its maiden voyage in 1972,
from Philadelphia, disguised as a "research ship." Its real purpose was to
pluck from the depths of the Pacific Ocean a Russian submarine which had sunk
to the ocean floor in 1969, and was at a depth of 5,000 meters. Operation
Jennifer was crowned with success. The 170 man crew (whose salary was paid by
the CIA) raised parts of the submarine, and according to reports, technicians
were able to learn from them important data about its equipment and power.
Even more doubtful than the link with Hughes was the link with the Mafia.
For example, there is no longer any doubt that since the days of Eisenhower,
Mafia people were involved in CIA plans to murder Castro. At the end of the 50's,
when Robert Kennedy ordered an end to this on behalf of a Senate committee,
a gangster from Las Vegas, mocked him: "You can't do anything to me, I enjoy
immunity." And when Kennedy asked him: "Who gave you immunity?", the gangster
answered: "The CIA." The "company" had done business with a criminal -- full
pardon-in exchange for help in the war against Castro.
It is also clear that Salvatore (Sam) Giancana (the model for the "Godfather")
was involved in plans to murder Castro. The gangster from Chicago, John Roselli,
related that one Robert Mahe, an emissary of the CIA, asked him if he would be
ready to participate in plans to murder Castro. It seems that Mahe was considered
by the CIA to be especially reliable in recruiting people: he was an ex-agent
of the CIA, and later ran a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, both of which were
owned by Howard Hughes.
To what extent these schemes actually progressed, which people were involved in
them, and did the Kennedy brothers know about them and perhaps even play a
role in stopping them (as one ex-agent of the CIA claims) -- all of these
questions were to have been answered by the Rockefeller Commission. And for this
reason, President Ford gave it a two month extension. But apparently, the
Rockefeller staff felt that too much was being asked of it, and Gerald Ford
also wanted to wash his hands clean. He claimed: "I did not order the Rockefeller
Commission not to continue their investigation." Later, the findings were
reported to the Justice Department, and he said that other bodies would be able
to continue the investigation.
In this way, Ford gained a reprieve for himself and the CIA. But it was tempo-
rary, because Senator Frank Church and his committee finished investigating the
assassination plans of the CIA, up to the last detail. Church said: "We have
unambiguous proof that the CIA was involved in plans and attempts to assassinate."
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For now, the CIA can continue to operate on "a low flame." By the end of last
year Congress had passed a law, which was signed by President Ford, according
to which the president was required, before any secret action by the CIA, to
report the information and justify it. John Sparkman, present chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the White House for a list of
current CIA secret operations with justifications. He received it within a
week.
To a great degree, the CIA is paralyzed. Tom Brayden says: "What happened to
the Agency is a shame." He was once an important man in the CIA, and now serves
as a columnist for the LOS ANGELES TIMES. He recommends that it be dismantled,
and that its various departments be transferred to the State Department, the
Pentagon, and the Voice of America.
But in spite of all of the criticism of the CIA, there is a decisive feeling
among Americans that a country like theirs cannot do without an organization
which carries out "essential tasks in intelligence for the security of the
country," in the words of Ford.
Director Colby is optimistic. He repeatedly tells his aides that the CIA will
work. With the increasing criticism of the CIA, there has been an increase in
the number of candidates who are seeking to work in its ranks.
7075
CSO: 8023
Approved For Release 2005/01/11.: CIA-RDP88-01314R000300620012-2