EX-C.I.A. MAN CHARGES AGENCY MISLED CONGRESS ON ANGOLA ROLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100140101-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 101
• Publication Date: May 8, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/22 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100140101-7
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE A-1. 14
THE NEW YORK TIMES
8 May 1978
Ex-CJ..: I Ian . Charge's Agenc
`Misled Congress on-'Angola'Role
A formerintelligence-agent,.in, a secret-
ly published book has accused high-level
al Intelligence
officials of the `Centr
Agency of -misleading C'ongress-and the
public about :the scope% of. United States
involvement 'in the 1975 . Angolan ? civil
war.:
John Stockwell,. former: chief of th
C.I.A.'s Angolan task fome{.:writes- in his
'book, "In Search of Enemies," that * th
agency, initially without the knowledg
of the White House,:. Congress - or Tne
State Depart ment,: used: Americans as
imilitary advisers in- Angola; There was
no immediate response ? from the C.I.A.
yesterday.:
Mr.'Stockwell, who: resigned in?.dis-
.illusionment 'from the C.I.A. in 1977
after 12 years asa clandestine operative
in: Africa and Vietnam,; also says in the
book that. the C.I.A. was-secretly finder-
writing various: efforts around the world
to recruit mercenaries to fight on behalf
of two United States-supported factions
in Angola--a charge. that, .the C.I.A.,. ha
previously denied.
More than $30 million was: authorize
by President. Ford in 1975' and earl
.1976 in covert support of the two groups
the National Front for the Liberation of
Angola, headed by Holden Roberto, and
the National Union for the Total Libera-
tion of- Angola,, led by Jonas Savimbi. .
,. Marxist Group-Triumphed'.
-?A -third .1faction, which eventually
gained control over most of'Angola after
-independence from Portugal was declared
in November 1975, was. the, Popular
Movement-'for the Liberation' of'.Angola,.
headed by Dr.'Agostinho Neto,.a Marxist
-intellectual who is now- president.
The C.I:A.'s' secret operations inside
Angola came, at a time.when the-agency,
was undergoing intense public and Con-
gressional scrutiny for its illegal domestic
spying activities and its assassination
attempts against foreign leaders.
Because of- those inquiries, it was all
the more disillusioning, Mr. Stockwell
writes, that William E. Colby, then the
Director of Central intelligence, repeat-
edly "misled Congressmen about what
we were doing in Angola."
"He was feeling them patently false)
information about the ongoing Angolan
operation, Mr. Stockwell ? adds of Mr.
Colby, "depriving them of the full infor-
mation which they needed' to perform
their Constitutional role.".
By.SEYM< OUR Al. HERSH .-
There was no immediate response from
the agency yesterday. Mr. Colby, its
former director, could not be reached for
,comment. Mr. Stockwell writes that the
C.I.A.'s decision to begin using American
advisers on the ground was, in defiance
not only of Congress but also.. of the
40 Committee, the high-level Govern-
ment group that approves all intelligence
operations. .
"The 40 Committee wanted no Ameri-
cans directly involved in the fighting, but
we did it anyway," .Mr. Stockwell writes..
."For cover purposes" inside the Gov-
ernment, he adds, the C.I.A., in its cables,
called the advisers whom it- had placed:
inside Angola 'intelligence gatherers,' al-
though their intelligence effort was al-
ways subordinate to their advisory activi-
To Bee-Published Today -
-The Stockwell book which is 285 pages,
will be published and distributed to book-
stores today-by W. W. Norton &- Co. It
was not submitted to the C.I.A. for prior
review. The Justice Department is now
seeking civil damages from Frank Snepp,
author of a C:I.A. expose last December
whose book also was written and pub-
lished without prior clearance. "
The current Director of Central Intelli-
gence, Adm. Stansfield Turner, has re-
peatedly expressed concern about the
inability of the agency to enforce-secrecy
agreements with authors.* It could not be
learned whether the agency had received
any advance word from any source about
the publication of the. Stockwell book.
Mr. Stockwell's sharpest comments
came when he described what he consid-
ered to be. the constantly deteriorating
integrity of C.I.A. officials.
Agents Lied to Each Other
"In the Angolan operation," he wrote,
..we were now- lying to each.other, even
while we read and wrote cables which
directly contradicted those lies. In fact,
there were several levels -of untruth
functioning simultaneously, different
stories for different aspects .of our activi-
ties; one for the working group,-.another
for unwitting State Department person-
nel, yet another for the U.S. Congress."
. "By this point in our - careers," he
added, -"we would not falter as we
switched from one story to the next "
At the time, Mr. Stockwell `asserted,
many of those involved did not-.even
consider themselves to be lying and
Colby might have passed a lie-detector
test while he was giving the Senate
'essentially false briefings.".. ; ...
STAT
STAT
The misleading arid` lying seemed`-to
reach its culmination; Mr. Stockwell sug-
gested, when Senator Dick Clark, Demo-
crat of- Iowa and chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations subcommittee on Afri=
ca, visited Angola in August 1975. The
Senator was accompanied by Richard M.
Moose, . a committee aide who now., is
Assistant Secretary of-State'for African
Affairs. -
In advance of his meeting, Mr. Stock-
well wrote, C.I.A: headquarters sent a
cable instructing senior C.I.A. officials
in neighboring Zaire, parts of `which
served as a - support base for the agency's
Angolan operations, to insure that the
Senator learned only what the agency
wanted him to learn. .
Can't `Trust Senators''\'
.Mr. Stockwell . wrote that when he
.complained to his colleagues -about such
steps, he was told that "you couldn't
trust senators" and that "if Clark was
going to mess around our program, talk-
ing to Africans, then we damn well better"
see that our own agents put -their best
feet foreward." . .
He learned of the special circumstances
surrounding the Clark visit, Mr. Stock-
well wrote. only upon reading what thT_
C.I.A. calls a "soft file" on the Senator.
He explained that a "softfile" is- con-
sidered unofficial inside the agency:and
thus could not be turned over to outsiders
under the Freedom of Information Act.
"Such files are not registered in the-
agency's official records system," Mr.
Stockwell added, "and hence can never
be disclosed." - - :
Senator Clark left Africa highly suspi-
cious about the true role of the C.I.A. in
Angola, Mr. Stockwell wrote, but was
unable to "disprove our cover story." He
also was hesitant to do so, Mr. Stockwell
wrote, because he had been given a highly
classified briefing about some -of the
C.I.A.'s covert supply of arms and other
activities in support of Mr. Roberto and
Mr. Savimbi, the pro-Western Angolan
guerrilla leaders. .
Entrapment by Information -
"He could not precipitate a public de-
bate because he was now muzzled by the
C.I.A.-he had given his tacit oath not to
expose the information he received," Mr.
Stockwell wrote. "Dozens of other leg-
islators were similarly entrapped, : as
'Colby methodically continued his brief-l
ings throughout the program-35 brief-,
ings altogether between January 1975
.and January 1976."...,:
Approved For Release 2007/06/22 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100140101-7
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