WHY CIA MORALE IS PLUMMETING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120011-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: December 22, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I
_AP~VE16 ZED
C;Y P-4 GB `
Approved For Release 2007/08/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120011-9
WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN I LIiTE)
22 DECEMBER 1977
STAT
STAT
By Henry S. Bradsher
Washington Star Staff Writer
The young man had some time on
his hands before going to a new job,
so his father suggested that he come
work for him fora while.
In private business, it would have
been normal enough. But the young
man was a Navy lieutenant named
Geoffrey W. Turner. His father was
an admiral who headed the CIA.
According to a CIA spokesman,. fear. While admitting significant.paMt
?young Turner worked "in the na- failures, especially in blind spots
tional intelligence officers' area" at created by analyzing available data
the agency's headquarters for about from preconceived attitudes, they
four months beginning last May 2. He contend that the product supplied by
was being paid by the Navy and is ! the agency is as good as ever
now in California attending a naval! maybe better,. because efforts are
intelligence school. 1 being made to improve analytical
According to sources in the intelli-
gence community, he was installed
down the seventh-floor hall from
Adm. Stansfieid Turner's office. For
about damage to American security ` .-_ {
as a result of the way the agency is' "Intentions are especially impor-
,being run. -! tant now that Soviet capabilities are
"The CIA is being turned into just,l so great," says one key Defense De-
another bunch of bureaucrats," says'! partment official dealing with strate-
one outside specialist. He fears that' gic arms problems. "There are
the quality of U.S. intelligence will ' worries in the Pentagon as well as
suffer from what. he sees as the loss out at the CIA over the lack of agent,
of a special dedication. that has information
marked CIA work....: : , -
i
h
h
h
d
O
o
n t
er
an
, a sen
or spec
e
t
W ME CIA officials discount this ist in Soviet affairs elsewhere in the
work.
And it will continue to be good, de-
spite the reduction in clandestine
services, they insist. This is, how-
ever, a controversial point somewhat
office that some of - the most senior I separate from the morale problem. It
a
s received little attention.
intelligence officers at the CIA would h
give the son daily briefings, but that The deputy director of the CIA for
was apparently stopped because of d four-year period ending last spring
during
muttering about the-time it was tak- directors, the agency had four
, Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters,
ing from other work.
touched on the importance of spies in
CIA OFFICERS mention the son in a speech last month.
caustic terms while talking about the -
Walters estimated 'that about 50
way the agenc
is now bein
run b
y
g
y percent of all intelligence is obtained
.Turner. It is one little item on a long I from such 'open sources as news-
list of factors that have hurt' morale
at Langley.
The latest round of publicity about
an agency that has attracted a lot of
unwanted notice in recent years has
been focused on the firing of senior
)fficers in the clandestine operations
branch. This is the branch that, in
the Iafiguage of novels and thriller
movies, runs-spies.
But' the morale problem started
long before plans for those dismissals
became known last summer and the
first group of 212?persons was not!-
fl beginning on Halloween.. `
-
From a number of past
and
?resent members of. the intelligence
community. including both CIA peo-?
)le and those elsewhere in govern-
papers and broadcasts, 40 percent'
from technical systems like recon-
. naissance satellites,' and 10 percent
from ' "human- sources.". These
sources include spies.
The human 10 percent is the most 1
vital part because it alone can reveal
intentions, -Walters` said. Simply
knowing how many weapons or other
capabilities- a potential enemy has is
an inadequate guide to making
American policy. '
government says the clandestine
services never did - produce much
information on Soviet intentions. The
celebrated Penkovsky case was an
exception rather than typical, he
says.
The CIA's Position is` that agent
work is not being damaged by elimi-
nating some 800 jobs in the clandes-
tine services. Only about 440 of them
were'filled by people who are being
dismissed, contrary to reports that
800 persons are being fired, officials
say.
robs no longer needed because of-i
the end of the Vietnam war and other'
changes of intelligence demands are
being cut, and older people in a top-
heavy organization are being ousted
in order to make _way for promotions,
CON TIPWQE~~
WALTERS HAS carefully avoided)
public criticism of the way the CIA isI
being run. But others around Wash-
ington who specialize in intelligence``.
or who depend heavily. upon it for
their work-are worried that the U.S.
ability to penetrate foreign intentions
nent who work closely with them. I is slipping.
:ome expressions of app Approved For Release 2007/08/20: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120011-9