CIA MORALE RESTORED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100140015-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: March 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100140015-9
NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE (CT)
20 March 1985
XCWSIVE
Bond novels-that 90 percent of the CIA's
business is to subvert other goverurments. It's trot.
Actually, 90 percent is analyzing information col-
lected by others." Given the volume of revela-
tions about CIA covert activity, both abroad
and--contrary to its charter-in the U.S., 10 per-
cent of the "company's" business is a lot of
business.
Speers' New England AFIO chapter has 66
members. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine,
Vermont and New Hampshire are all well
represented. Not all AFIO members have in-
telligence backgrounds-membership is open to
any interested party-but most have done time
somewhere. "Everyone you see here tonight was
in intelligence," said Speers, "except for John
Quirk." -
Quirk turns out to be a maxi in his 40s with a
large pot belly. He is the founder of something
called the Foreign Intelligence Press, based in
Guilford. He's putting out a series of highly
favorable books on such intelligence agencies as
the CIA and the Israeli Mossad. "These books
are not going to be exposes," he said. "They're
not going to knock the agencies like (Phillip)
Agee and (Victor) Marchetti did." The books,
mostly written by former -agents (the KGB
volume is by a defector Quirk's got "under
wraps"), will "show the importance of in-
telligence gathering in our society."
CIA Morale "Restored"
ormer CIA officers say the agency is U.S. "first
ire of defense" against invasion and subversion
3y Jim Motavalli
JEW CANAAN-It was an auspicious time for
he Association of Former Intelligence Officers
AFIO) to hold its New England section meeting
it the posh Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan.
Vhat same week, former Secretary of State and
1ATO Commander Alexander Haig was in town
'isiting friends, and his close-cropped security
nen were spied patrolling about, checking out
auspicious characters. In 20 years those guys will
re AFIO members.
AFIO is headquartered in McLean, Virginia,
rear CIA headquarters in Langley. Veteran
,pooks like Clare Boothe Luce, David Atlee
'hillips and Admiral Bobby Inman are members.
?ormer President Gerald Ford is the honorary
lirector. It's a very conservative organization
which believes that "effective intelligence is the
ration's first line of defense against surprise from.
tbroad, subversion at home and possibly
langerous miscalculation by our national leaders
n the conduct of foreign and defense policy."
FBI men are "agents"; CIA men are "of-
leers." The former agents and officers were
vainly genial, back-slapping men in their SOs and
50s, attired without exception in conservative
Jark blue and black suits. They greeted host
Eleanore Hoar (herself a former CIA officer) with
,rief thumbnail biographies. "I was involved in
be secret war in Laos; for the last four years I've
,een doing POW/MIA work," said one. "I was
n the Defense Intelligence Agency, retired in
1972 and joined Exxon as head of security opera-
ion," said another. . . '
Hoar pinned litre name tags on each with a
uncaring magic marker. She is a friendly, infor-
mal type, with none of the acerbic glaciality of
s Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Now living in Darien,
where she works as a tutor for dyslexic children,
Hoar began her CIA career in 1953 working with
her husband as part of the agency's China "listen-
ing post" in Hong Kong. From there it was on
to Peru in the early 60s. Like most former of-
ficers, Hoar will say where she was, but not what
she did there.
Hoar got out of the Agency in 1963. Having
two officers under one roof "didn't make for
good family solidarity," she said. But she follow-
ed CIA affairs closely. "I felt so powerless dur-
ing that period in the 70s, when (in the post-
Watergate years) the Church (Senate) and Pike
(House) committees wefe stripping everything
away from the intelligence agencies. Without
good intelligence the president can't make in-
formed decisions. I was so glad to hear of
AFIO. "
Mike Speers was standing next to a man Hoar
described as "an FBI type." Speers, whose Ford
Escort sports Vermont "AFIO" license plates,
is the president of the New England chapter, but
he's no super-spook. "My intelligence experience
is pretty minute," be said. "I was a buck sergeant
breaking codes during the Korean War. After that
I was in the State Department until my retire-
ment." Now he lives quietly in Weston, Vermont Quirk believes he's working alone against a red
and collects rare books on intelligence matters. tide. "There are definitely Soviet agents of in-
"It's good to have a professional running the fluence in American book publishing," he said.
CIA again," Speers said. "Bill Casey is an old U.S. publishers, he claimed, won't touch a book
pro. -The man AFIO-ers love to hate is Jimmy-. that's positive about the intelligence communi-
Carter's appointee, Admiral Stanfield, hrnei,- . ty. Renegi de ex-agents like Phillip Agee even
who sought to curb some of the excesses of the ' have friends planted at some companies, he said,
Nixon years, like the overthrow of Allende in making sure that nothing gets by. "It can be very
Chile. Turner is an AFIO member, oddly subtle, not obvious," said AFIO member Bill
enough, but he doesn't always pay his dues. "His Smith. (Smith appeared to be in his late 20s and
personnel policies were just incredibly stupid," was the youngest person in the room. He
Speers said. "He tried to cut the agency's staff wouldn't talk about his cloak-and-dagger
by a third, get rid of everybody over 50. These background, but he did say his name really is Bill
were people who'd spent 20-30 years building Smith.)
up contacts, ? ' ? Some people, Quirk laments, are under the
i Casey, Speers said, "has restored morale."' mistaken impression that his company is anti-
And, in the opinion of many intelligence intelligence. "I even get resumes from (the left-
observers, sharply increased the level of covert leaning think-tank) the Institute for Policy
activity, resulting in such public embarrassments Studies. God, you should see some of the things
as the mining of Nicaragua's harbors and the con- they put out-anti-CIA, anti-defense, pro-
tru manual that called on the guerrillas to Sandinista. There was one thing they put out say-
"neutralize" municipal 1e'aders. Speers denies ing the whole country was being shot with radia-
this. "Covert activity has stayed at the same level lion. " An observing AFIO member added,
thr uglhout," he said. "The public is saddled with .'Well, you know who funds them-the KGB."
the misperception-derived from reading James Everybody nodded. t - !
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100140015-9