COLBY: CIA LEAKS COST U.S. 'CONTACTS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090050-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 50
• Publication Date: January 28, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

you "--"`CU tnc avciaoc rope. In the .e
19"- t associate the word CIA
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP91-00561 R0001 00090050-7
, ctz..n in to
Pression was
with somethingou- would' probably
'Ywas going to S
dth
d
e
a Second of loth articles based on an come up with assassination an
arC Latin Ameri
' 'But we never assess;-
-
said
lb
C
,~
y
o
great ro.nanti
exclusive Li:erview ?with..CLA Director Run,
William Colby. ;' ,
one and the dart gun never was all Latin Amei
d?n
y
na?
used. ? a totally hostile continent.
By KING. SMITH "How did we meet that threat? With
The Hea st Newsoa ers carefutiy,~you will note that we did take a poulticel program through the
1
i
S
tates)
can
p P demise of--. OAS;(Organization of Amer
WASHINGTON - America has lost seeps to try to bring about the
with an economic roJ-am through
50 -foreign contacts and its intelligence two individuals, neither of whom died as w p
? a result."'Colby was referring to Cuban the Alliance for Progress, and.with CIA
perm ns .eve een .'very badly" ;curt c. ,
in the past few weeks by the ]akage of dictator Fidel Castro and Congo leader iassistance.--.
secret infomtation given to congress;on-1 Patrice Lumumba. "As a result, Latin. America is- not .i
al. committees``- "There were certain other activities hostile to the United States today Gue? I
This.was disclosed byllftIisam Colbyz that involved people getting killed in the vara and revolution did not sweep like
rector of ilie,Centrai Intel lioericea process of a coup or something like that wildfire through Latin America. I am not
but they were not assassinated by us. saying that CIA did it alone, but it made
_c~y,'in:err exciusiveirterview witfi=.The` a ma o, contribution as art of a. nation-
You come down to the fact that we did j or P
Hearst Newspapers:,
not assassinate anybody. To create the at program orr a strategic level.
~_ Last year'Congress; ena:;ted a' law
"The Bay of Pigs was a mistake. It
compelling the. CIA to report its covert' impression that-our business is plotting Y t
assassinations gives a totally false im- didn t-work. It went tong But to char-
' everyoPerat .tons; to: Sir?committ__s:.onimi~eeAlmost:` ' age of the acterirethe':CIA's operations. in Latin--
'eoorted to t` tine c CIA:: Pigs is
-:hina
?
,
has; Co lb said been leaked to the news The 56?hear-old, St. Paul-born. CIAAme ica as the Bay of Pig)use plain
y veteran,'wose' intelligence work dates.' wrong. also,. A lot of -things: the CIA did
mid:a:ard spread arourd.the' Nror.d 1-'ere very successful.
have lostsome!l ing Ii e?50 of'? to 19?4 when he parachuted behind the - -"I-don't mean the overthrow of. Chi
our=foreign contacts,".";he added. 'It's` German lines in France to join a resist- an President A}tende:.tine"did not over
?.not tee .numbers that is importarC.`It's arce group, was appointed director in row President Allende. What the CIA
the q taliry of the services rendered Llay 1973. id in Chile was to, try to support. the
So-ne:of oirbest contacts have cut` Formerly head of the CIA's Glandes- emocratic forces there as We had done
off'tleirrelationshipwitirus:..Theyhave `'tine (covert) operations, otherwise 41'esterti Europz. ~'
said ttey, jut caanot_continue to vor, known as the "Departmenrot Dirt} President,Allen de exacerbated tnea
withus because of our inability to keep Tricks," Colby thinks the good things ;iiuauon::vith his eco iomic policies, with.
secrets: Many of. these people are zeeY achieved by the agency's covert work his pressures -on the middle class and on
worried about the situation.-'."''' have been ignored while attention has the country-to the extent that finally the,
"Bone of the foreign intelligence ? .been focused on some illegal activities . rni}itary overthrew him. We had nothing
agencies which have cooperated closely which he admits were wrong and should io do with-that coup.
withtfs have reduced the levef`of infor- not be allowed to happen in the future. "Over the years there was only one
oration they give us. information. limit the sen. However, he points out the wrongdo- time when; e went.out with the idea of
r sitivity of. the information. the ad ing was mostly due to an excess of zeal trying to overthrow 16m. In 1970' there
previously shared with i encouraged by a long rime presidential- was a period of about a -month in which
am,quite frankly, very upset- and congressional policy towards the in- - we were looking around to see v"at we
about-this. Up to a few weeks ago-Thad-' teiligence service -of: "Do it and, don't _ could do at-the specific direction of our-
hoped we might get through this situa_= eel} me:" President: All we were trying to do there
lion without any-serious damage to our ',That was dangerous," he said. "I ':r as to help the democratic forces with a_
foreign sources- and friends.- That we ` - "f z -? _-view to free elections -`~
-could so, to them: .'We haven't ex ed `believe one of the reasons we did get into
a
you and we-haven't exposed individuals;,.* trouble"was because we were not super- ositioniwher the Chilean congre?s~ the
'.'Unfortunately, the erosion in ghat tsed. There:should, be active supervi- suprer a coll
past few weeks of all the secret reports et and the controller general
sign, by :responsible people, but the. g
-leakage of secrets and confidential infor=._ all issued . statements saying the pr'es'-
to Congress has frightened'a got of our: dent wa('operating outside the constitu-
friends around the world.I.have to say concerning intelligence activities.: lion..Imagine what would happen in this
y lug ed.
our-position has gone very badly in the: mus t. be P gg country under such circumstances."
past few weeks in terms ofconfiderce with regard to the covert operations= -
which
t i
requirements_ :f
`
Colby recalled reading
a. recent col- -
umn in the-London Daily_ Telegraph :
which said, in effect: "What is America.,
doing to itself? Come; we don't mind you
playing around, burdon't destroy the sin-:
gle best hope in the world,":meaning a-
strong America . with :efficient ' intent-'
tense services?'
.
represen
n terms of cost only 5 -
per cent of the CIA's functions, Colby
suggested people look.at the record. .-
"It is popular to point to the Bay-'of
Pigs and things like that," he said. "The
impression is created that these covert
.operations were all. a ,isaster. but the
facts are different.
"For example, Western Europe in the
...:i.,,iv., -; late 19.40s_was faced'with'three oravr-:
!'n11.. eo..eAo?Iet:.
28 JAITUARY '-976
gate and Vietnam"-experiences caused ecor 1omic three
ht on secrets .Marshall' Pian
the s
otli
p
g
operation is, of course, the tinuilignit.c i??+
business. `Soviet-sponsor
movements. T
W bile the investigation of the CIA : by CIA opera
revealed some misdeeds,- which- the di- - t Democratic ttf "j
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090050-7