CIA BREWING CHILE- [ ]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700080030-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2005
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: August 20, 1975
• Content Type: PREL

The following "open letter to the Port uguese people"'
vas written by Philip Agee, a former agent of the Central
Intelligence Agency and author of the book, "CIA Diary:
Inside the Company." Agee, who has recently visited
Portugal, worked for the CIA fot? 12 years?engaging in
counter-revolutionary activity in Ecuador, Uruguay and.
Z.texico. His experiences, he says, led him to become a
revolutionary socialist" and his subsequent expos: of the
.CIA, naming hundreds of undercover agents and
operations. has seriously hurt the agency. The "letter".
,was distributed by Fifth Estate, an anti-CIA group.
By PULL-
The revolutionary-process in Portugal is being attacked
by the guardians of capitalist countries' interests, of which
the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is the most notorious-:
and- - powerful:: .I. _- see- the signs daily-."These
-counterrevolutionary activities'are similar to what. I did' in'.
the CIA for more -than -10 years' during the. 1950s-'and..
..:1960s. I send-this. Ietter as part of a continuing effort.by'
many Americans. to: end imperialist intervention -and;.
support to repression by_the U.S. 'government. "'?;";, r;
In the Azores as well, as. in mainland Portugal;. in the:
Catholic Church, in-political parties and-even within the-
;armed forces,t:te CIA and its allies are working to'cteate`
enough 'chaos to ~ justify an attempt by- the so-called
moderates to take over the revolutionary government
Since the fall of.fascistn in Portugal,.-I. have- tried -to
follow developments and have twice visited-your country.
While my study of the visible signs of CIA intervention is
still incomplete, there is good reason to alert you to what I
have seen. Last week a U.S. senator announced that the
Communist Party of Portugal is receiving 510 million per
month from the Soviet Union, a figure he attributed to the
CIA. Two days later Deputy CIA Director Gen. Vernon
Walters (who-. visited Lisbon to survey.: the political
situation in August. 1974) confirmed the sgnator's claim.
Secretary of State Kissinger, for his part, publicly warned
'the Soviet Union recently that assistance. by them to the.
Portuguese- revolutionary process :..was endangering
detente.. -these statements suggest that. the American
people. are-being prepared for another secret foreign;
adventure by the.. CIA.
I will describe below-what I believ&a're CIA operations,.
along with a list of names and residences in Portugal of as.:
many of the CIA functionaries I canidentify.
The' size of the-_ overall U.S. government mission. in
Portugal is shocking, .especially- its heavy dominance .by.
military -personnel. ' The mission totals 280 persons - of
whom about 160---are- Americans, with. the rest being
Portuguese employes. Of the Americans, 105 are military
personnel assigned :mainly- to the Military Assistance
.'Advisory Group, the office of the Defense Attache, and the
One must also assrtn[o [[[n[ 6l[l[f [LV:I3[ in -vyc[:i[ivaao
officers have been placed under cover in American military.
units in Portugal,. where their experience in political
operations-far superior. to that of their military .
colleagues-will be most effective. While efforts to divert
the revolution through Gun. Spinola have failed, new
efforts are being made daily in the struggle to stop the
revolution.
Without doubt,'- the CIA. - officers in other U:S.
embassies, most likely in Madrid, Paris and London, have .
personnel .assigned to Portuguese Operations that are
'undertaken ,in those countries rather than in Portugal
proper. The most sensitive operations of the CIA probably
are. occurring in other European cities 'rather, than in.+
Lisbon. .
Who specifically are responsible for operations against
Portugal? The CIA is only one of the various U.S.-agencies
working against the revolution, - under the' g:ida ice -of-!
Ambassador Carlucci..Althou gh . Carlucci is not : Cl 1
agent,-he must carefuliy-direct,and coordinate all U.S.
counterrevolutionary operations, including those of -the l
military"services. His. top-level team includes: Herbert
Okun, his minister/counselor and deputy chief of mission; .I
John fN'o a the chief-of the CIA;.-Adm. Frank Corley,
chief of the 'Nfilitary Assistance Advisory Group; Col. Peter 'I
Blackley, chief of the Defense-.Attache Office; Charles
Thomas, counselor for political affairs; and Navy Capt.
James Lacey, senior U.S. military representative on -the
COMIVERLANT NATO Command. Each of 'the U.S.
military units;. along with CIA.. and State - Department
personnel, are-responsible for one-.or more of the specific..'
counterrevolutionary programs:..:
In orderto preserve imperialist interests in Portugal, the e
revolution must be diverted from its current directions and.
the U.S. government is not alone in its efforts. I strongly
suspect that Kissinger many months ago urged the leaders.
of-. Western $uropearr _govern ments to intervene '?~
themselves directly to reverse the Portuguese revolu-.
.tionary process, arguing that the problem is essentially
European -and that the CIA has 'been limited in its
capabilities by recent 'revelations. In, 1948, when the 3
Communist Party of Italy was about to win the elections,
the U.S. government alone- threatened to hilt aid for
reconstruction and even to launch a Military invasion. In
recent clays, the EEC presidents themsl-lv;s have
threatened to withhold financial assistance from Portugal
unless their style of democracy is established, Other
similarities between postfascist Portugal and post-World
War 2 Europe are stin
In Greece
tranc
d l
t
g.
,
e an
ta
y,
RIDDEiV AGES TS - the U.S. government established governments submissive
Of the approximately 50 American civilians in 'the to American economic interests while simultaneously
mission, about 10, 1 believe, are employes of the CIA, No providing alternatives to left-wing -governments led by the
less than,' 10 additional CIA functionaries are probably I sar;te politicol forces that provided the backbone of the
working in Lisbon-and other cities, having been assigned resistance.in World War 2. -
ostensibly for temporary d~y~ s s~oYh tomtit tjrQp~?F44 r6e 05/11/28: CIA-RDP91-00901R000700080030-3
not included on embassy p ti a ki ?ts', or' epo e
the Portuguese foreign ministry. - j COntinuec
 STAT
Approved For Release 2005/11/28 : CIA-RDP91-0090
DALLAS, TEXAS
NEWS
M - 264,750
c~A
Is there an orchestrated effort in
some quarters to destroy the effective-
ness of the
Agency?
Central Intelligence
There are those in Washington and
elsewhere who think they detect signs
of this. And they point, quite rightly in
our judgment, at what appear to be in-
dications in the media of a. deliberate
attempt to serve up all the unfavorable
news possible about the CIA.-authenti-
cated or not.
Cr1ti'rJ _ 2ron 'z
At the same time it is evident that.
the Washington media are not inter-.
ested in presenting the CIA in a favora-
ble `
light. ` z .
Accuracy in Media, Inc. (AIM), a
conservative organization in The capi-
tal which monitors newspapers,. televi-
sion and radio for signs of news inaccu-
racies, distortions and ? on-tissions,
recently issued a highly critical report
of coverage of the CIA.
AIM took particular.; vote of a
speech made recently before the Amer-
ican Security Council by Lt. Gen. Ver-
non A. Walters which was ignored al-
most entirely by the news media.
In his speech Walters declared that
it may be possible to conduct intelli-
gence operations "in a goldfish bowl,"
but he added that if we do it, it will be
like going to the moon. "We will be the
only ones ever to have done it."
A "goldfish bowl" operation seems
to be what is wanted by the liberal in-
quisitors in Washington, and Walters,
who is deputy director of. the CIA, is
clearly apprehensive about it.
AIM noted that the Washington Star
on the day Walters made. his speech
devoted 70 col M. j.l iotftl4mgaseh2lbs/Y" 9v :1diA-kbOcA*661 RdO' b6t39db3O-3
theCIA, but not one line about Walters'
remarks. A Star reporter, who was.at
the. luncheon, said he found nothing,
new in Walters' remarks. Hence no
story.
"It would appear," the Algid report
said, "that in the rinds of some jodr-
nalists the only thing that is newswor-
thy is material that is crticial of the
CIA.
"Statements that put our intelli-
gence activities in proper perspective,
defending what has been done, are
simply not deemed to be worth report-.
P .
ing.
ALM quotes a speech made last Feb-
ruary by Peter Arnett of the New York
Titres as reflecting the media attitude
toward the CIA.
"It seems to me," Arnett was quot-
ed as saying, "that this is going to
long-term goal has changed very
much."
According to the AI( repent, Wal?.
ters noted that many people.,row ex-
pect the intelligence service to operate
with a degree of purity that will not be
-reciprocated by our enemies. He com-
pared this to fighting by the Marquis of
Queensbury rules against an opponent',
As a result of the current wave a of
calumny against the CIA, the agency's
ability to operate is being- severely
impaired. Said Walters:
"People who used to give us whole
reports are giving us summaries, and
people who used to give us surirnariis
are shaking hands with us. .
"People who used to help us volun-
tarily are saying don't come near me.
This must be a delight to the America-
is-wrongers. For the people who be-
lieve that the US rerese
ts the best
~
be the year the the `soeoks' (CIA) get..p free hope of mankind for freedom in the
theirs, or they have to start answering ? world, it is not an encouraging factor.'.'
questions ... Many reporters that I .
know-are starting to go to Washington Steadily JLossi.n G.roniii]
and are trying to find all the security
people, all the discontented CIA offi-
cers and others who could feed the
grist for the mill to find the story of
what wept on.
I TI-s`TJ.NK there are going to be some
embarrassing stories about this in the
next few months and the next year.."
General Walters, in his speech to
the ASC, recalled that 20 years ago the'
United S,`ztes believed that it was
faced with a rut less and implacable
enemy who was determined to destroy
us by any means in its power. The CIA
at that time sought to counter the So-
viet bid for worlr do ninon.
As of today, Waiters had this to
say: "1 think we are facing a very
tough situation. I think tha tactics may
Perhaps we have only to look at.1
Portugal to see what the attacks upon
the CIA are doing to the world balance
of power. The Soviet Union reportedly
is pumping $10 million a month into the
Comtnuriist party of that country. t
There is evidence that the United
States now feels inhibited about trying .~
to counter this activity:
. The destructive attitude of the 1
-.tiVashu-igtnn news media undoubtedly is
contributing in one way or another to
the continuing encroachments of the
Soviet Union, despite the widely hailed
We are losing ground steadily just
about everywhere, and it seems that
there are plenty of people in Washing-
ton who, in effect, are eager to cheer