COVERT OPERATIONS ABROAD: AN OVERVIEW BY DAVID WISE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000200030007-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 49
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 2004
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: September 12, 1974
• Content Type: REPORT

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Covert Onerations Abroad: An Overview
By David Wise
CCNTEN'rI
Be.Ze
The Lepal Basis
3
7T.
Mechanisms of Control
17
III.
A History of Covert Operations
35
IV.
Conclusions and Reccomendations
44
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COVERT OPERATIONS ABROAD: AN OVERVIEW
By David Wise
Citizens who telephone the Central Intelligence.Agency
at Langley, Virginia, asking for a description of the agency's
activities receive a handsome blue-covered. booklet bearing the
CIA seal-- a baleful eagle atop a shield emblazoned with a
sixteen point star.
The booklet, however, is less than a sixteenth of an inch
thick and contains only eleven pages. The citizen reading it
is told that the CIA produces estimates and "intelligence
reports" to assure that the President receives information on
foreign policy and national defense that is "complete, accurate,
and timely." The booklet also gives the CIA's zip code, which
is Washington, D.C. 20505. Nowhere in the booklet is it
mentioned that the CIA conducts secret political operations
around the globe, ranging from payments to foreign political
figures and attempts to influence elections abroad to
overthrowing governments-- in which the target national
leaders are sometimes killed.-- and full-scale paramilitary
invasions. Nowhere does the booklet mention that the CIA
operates its own air force, and,,at times, its own army and
navy.
It is these covert political operations that have got
the CIA in trouble, focused public attention upon its
activities, and led. to demands for reform. It is these
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activities, as well, that have raised fundamental questions
about the role of a secret intelligence agency in a democracy,
and., specifically, whether the requirements of American
national security justify clandestine intervention in the
internal affairs of other countries.
More recently, the Watergate scandal has dramatically
demonstrated the dangers posed by secret intelligence agencies
when their personnel, resources, and methods are employed in
the American political process.
For many years the Central Intelligence Agency has been
operating domestically, in ways never contemplated by the
Congress. That fact may not have been understood by the
public at large until it was revealed that the CIA had
provided E. Howard Hunt, Jr,, its former clandestine operative,
with equipment used in the break-in of the office of Daniel
Ellsberg's psychiatrist, and that the CIA had prepared two
psychiatric profiles of Ellsberg. In addition, the burglars
who broke into Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate
had CIA backgrounds, and one, Eugenio Rolando Martinez was at
the time of the break-in still. on the CIA payroll at a retainer
of $100 a month. Thus, Watergate, to an extent,represented the
application of covert intelligence techniques to American
politics: President Nixon created his own secret police force--
the Plumbers and their apprentices-- to conduct covert operations
against domestic "enemies," real and imagined. He resigned; the
problem remains.
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This paper is in four parts. The first section deals
with the legal and historical basis of covert operations, the
second with mechanisms for control of such operations and the
third with the history of CIA covert operations; the fourth
contains conclusions and recommendations.
I. THE LEGAL BASIS
Some definitions are necessary before discussing the legal
basis of covert operations. Intelligence is information,
gathered either secretly or openly. Clearly, information
about military, strategic, political, and economic conditions
in other countries, and about the background and intentions of
the leaders of those countries, may be of great value to the
President and, other leaders in making decisions and formulating
policy. Intelligence is collected. from electronic ears
stationed around. the globe, from reconnaissance satellites
overhead, from newspapers, journals, and other open sources,
and by traditional espionage. Some of the means of acquisition
of intelligence are highly sophisticated and. themselves secret.
From CIA stations abroad, by cable and courier, tons of
information flows into CIA headquarters at Langley every day.
Once in house, it is sifted and analyzed, or it would be of
little use to policyznakers. In addition to analyzing,
summarizing, and evaluating the information collected, the CIA
also has an estimating function. On the basis of what it
knows, the CIA attempts to predict to the President the likely
course of future events in other countries. The intelligence
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process, then, consists essentially of collecting, evaluating,
and. estimating. it is basically passive, in that it is a
process designed to reflect events and conditions, and to draw
conclusions and logical deductions on the basis of the
information collected.
Covert political action, on the other hand, seeks to
manipulate events, to cause them to happen. The clandestine
operators of the CIA are engaged not merely in reporting
events, but in attempting to shape them.
The organization of the Central Intelligence Agency
reflects this basic split. Beneath the Director of Central
Intelligence (DCI) and the Deputy Director of Central
Intelligence are two principal divisions: the Directorate
of Intelligence, headed by a Deputy Director (DDI), and a
Directorate of Operations, headed by a Deputy Director (DDO).*
The Directorate of Intelligence engages in overt
collection, analysis, and estimating. The Directorate of
Operations, or Clandestine Services, engages in covert
collection and secret political operations. This is the
*The Directorate of Operations was formerly known as the
Directorate of Plans and its Chief as the DDP. The name was
changed in 1973. William E. Colby, the present DCI, was the
first official to hold the new title of DDO; he held. that
post prior to his appointment by President Nixon as Director
of Central Intelligence on May 10, 1973.
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so-called "dirty tricks" branch of CIA.
The Central Intelligence Agency was in a very real sense
a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Until World
War II, the United States had no centralized intelligence
machinery. During the war, on June 13, 1942, President
Roosevelt established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
under General William J. Donovan. The OSS gathered intelligence,
but it also engaged in political operations and, paramilitary
operations, dropping agents by parachute behind enemy lines
in Europe and. Asia. Thus, the pattern was established under
OSS of an intelligence agency that both collected information
and engaged in covert operations. Many well-known Americans
worked for OSS, including Julia Child, Allen W. Dulles,
Arthur Goldberg, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. In the
autumn of 1944, at Roosevelt's request, Donovan submitted a
secret memo to the White House urging the creation of a
permanent U.S. intelligence agency.
The plan was put aside; and on September 20, 1945,
President Truman issued an order disbanding the OSS. But the
wartime experience had created momentum for a centralized
intelligence agency. In January, 1946. Truman established a
National intelligence Authority under a Central Intelligence
Group, the forerunner of the CIA. Then Congress created the
CIA, in the National Security Act of 1947. Officially, the
agency came into being on September 18th of that year. The
same legislation established the National Security Council.
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The duties, of the CIA are set forth In the Act in Section
102 (d) which states:
For the purpose of coordinating the
intelligence activities of the several Govern-
ment departments and agencies in the interest
of national security, it shall, be the duty of
the Agency, under the direction of the National
Security Council?
(i) to advise the National Security Council
in matters concerning such intelligence
activities of the Government departments and
agencies as relate to national security;
(2) to make reco=endations to the National
Security Council for the coordination of such
intelligence activities of the departments
and agencies of the Government as relate to
the national security;
(3) to correlate and. evaluate intelligence
relating to the national security, and pro-
vide for the appropriate dissemination of
such intelligence within the Government
using where appropriate existing agencies
and facilities: Provided, That the Agency
shall have no police, subpena, law-enforcement
powers, or internal-security functions:
k ovided- f~iz~t:Lher, That the depa.rtmcnts and
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other agencies of th Government shall
continue to collect, evaluate, correlate
and, disseminate departmental intelligence:
A n d providod ur. ftamer, That the Director of
Central Intelligence shall be responsible
for protecting intelligence sources and
methods from unauthorized disclosure;
(4) to perform, for the benefit of the
existing intelligence agencies, such
additional services of common concern as
the National. Security Council determines
can be more efficiently accomplished.
centrally;
(5) to perform such other functions and
duties related, to intelligence affecting
the national security as the National
Security Council may from time to time
direct.
There is no specific mention in the law of overthrowing
governments or other cloak and dagger operations, but the CIA
has carried, out these activities under the'"other functions"
clause contained in subparagraph five. Richard M. Helms,
while Director of Central Intelligence, confirmed this
interpretation in a speech on April 14, 1971. Referring to
the "other functions" clause he said
"This latter language was de.c:ii.r ned to on4able us to
?
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conduct such f orei. ;n 4 c cJ.v i; i~r.:, as the national government may
find. It convenient to assign to a 'secret service'. These
activities have always been secondary to the production of
intelligence, and under direct; eo , ;rol by the Executive Branch.
Obviously, I cannot n,o Into any detail with you on such
matters, and I do not i.nt a d to."
William E. Colby, one of Mr. Helms' successors as Director
of CIA, also eonf ---rr ;tcd that the `other functions" clause is the
justification for covert political operations. Appearing before
the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing on his
nomination, Colby told Senator Stuart 3ymin ton:
"Mr. Chairman, the National S curi.ty Act of 1947 says that
the Agency will do various things, and then in the last
subparagraph it says that the A g;=::ency will cornduc t, perform such
other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the
national security as the National Security Council may from time
to time direct.
S Now, that par l c u:J_o.A provi ion of law is the authority under
which a lot of the Agency's act1v-1.ties are conducted.."**
It is not apparent from the legislative history of the 1947
*Add.ress to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 114,
1971; text, page 5.
**"Nomination of William E. Colby", He