EX-CIA OFFICER'S NEW BOOK BARES NO SECRETS, EDITOR SAYS
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP81M00980R000400040007-7
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 15, 2016
Document Release Date:
June 8, 2004
Sequence Number:
7
Case Number:
Publication Date:
September 25, 1978
Content Type:
NSPR
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
CIA-RDP81M00980R000400040007-7.pdf | 170.28 KB |
Body:
Ap,Prgved For RgJea a 2004107/08: CIA-RDP81 M00980R00040004000,,7-7
?lonclay, September 25, 197
8 THE WASHINGTON POST
are~I\'o Sec.reres! ts, Editor: Says
By Charles R. Babcock The department's legal basis for at, Wolf said he checked the names
wathinctonPo,tStaff Writer tacking the book could be severely 'in State Department biographic re-
The forthcoming book, by former undermined if the names in it are gisters and diplomatic lists before in.
Central Intelligence Agency officer publicly available and collected by eluding them in. the book, and deleted
Philip Agee is actually a compilation Wolf rather than Agee. :Wolf says more than 100 navies he wasn't sure
of previously published articles and he has never been a CIA officer and of For the past few years researchers
a list of alleged CIA operatives thus is under no obligation to clear
gleaned from public documents,' ac? a work with the agency, as Agee have used clues in. a diplomatic bI
cording to co-editor Louis Wolf. would be. graphies to expose the cover of CIA
""There's nothing re classified in it," Officials at CIA and Justice appar? reference b o stooks oks have not beeot beefs. The
bn avail'.
Wolf, a free-lance journalist. 'said ently have not seen a copy of the able to th public since this practice
in a recent interview. "The. CIA is book. But copies of page proofs made began.
trying to claim the identity of its available to The Washington Post CIA spokesman bale Peterson said
personnel is classified. But they've seem to back up Wolf's contention. he wasn't sure how the new informa-
been publishing, their names for 30. The first,'' 318-page section is an tion about the book would affect the
ears." anthology of articles, including two legal positions being considered to
The Justice` Department has been' from The Post, describing CIA tech- stop it. "Until we. see that list we
investigating the possibility of seek- piques or operations: can't say much about it," he said
ing a civil. injunction or bringing; - Wolf said that "from 70 to 90 per- "We don't know, the basis of their
espionage charges in an effort to cent"' of the more than 700 names information or how accurate it is."
Work: The CIA in Western Europe." to, the book have been identified
The book is about to be mailed to previously as intelligence officers
distributors, according to publisher 'based in U.S. embassies in Western
Lyle Stuart. Europe
they have not . decided whether they
can take any action against the book.
After much deliberation, the depart-
ment announced last year. that, it
would not move against Agee. for, Welch had' declined agency suggestions
an earlier book, "Inside the Company:,,,," that he not move into the station chief's
CIA Diary," which disclosed names of,. home in Athens because it was so well-.
agents. .
According to Agee, in an articl re-
printed in the latest book, and Wolf;
Publisher Stuart said in a recent in-
in the interview, they want to expose about the book last year by Wolf and
names of American intelligence agents later met Agee in Jamaica to discuss
so people overseas will be alerted to the the project.
,
operatives' diplomatic "masquerade.` In "I was interested in their motiva!
that case, they said, the agency might tion," he said. "I didn't want to do a
be forced to recall the officers, to Wash- book by KGB [Soviet '.intelligence]
ington.. agents."
Despite what appear to be implied' Stuart said he first heard from the
threats of violence against CIA agents CIA on May 31, when general counsel
in Agee's article, Wolf insisted that Anthony A. Lapham wrote him asking
harming agents is not their goaL He about the' book. A few days earlier,
and the book take pains to defend Stuart ' said, he had passed around a
against what he calls the agency's "ma-' blurb at a publishers' convention, men-
nipulation"'of the media in the 1975 tioning'that Agee was involved. - 11
assassination of the CIA's ,'Athens
station chief, Richard S. Welch.
Welch had been identified as, a CIA
STAT
If that sells as expected, he WIT'.
soon put out a' $10 paperback version
he added.. r .
Wolf said the editors' $3,000 ad-
vance and any future royalties will go
to C.I. Publications Inc., a nonprofit
group in Washington that pats out a
Covert Action Information Bulletin
with the goal of continually.,' exposing
CIA officers.
Stuart. said he had distributed 13
.copies of the book's page proofs here
and abroad-"just in case" the Justice
Department tries to stop publication.
Chad Leader Visits China
Agence Prance?PresSe
PEKING-Visiting Chad President
Felix Malloum has left 'by train for a
tour of the Chinese provinces after
speaking out'against "hegemonism"
in Africa,. a veiled attack, on Soviet
policy, there:
The original printing of 3,000 copies
of the 700-page, $24.95 book is now
being bound and should be in distrib-
agent in CounterSpy, an anti-CIA miga?';.;. utors" hands in a few weeks, Stuart
tine. But it was later reported 'that said.
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R000400040007-7