SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150027-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: November 6, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150027-9
RADIO TV REPORTS, IN
STAnON WJLA TV
Syndicated
DATE November 6, 1982 7:30 PM CITY Washington, DC
Spies
JACK ANDERSON: Some of our spies have come in from the
cold. They've spoken out in a profession that prizes loyalty and
silence above all else. Disgruntled former agents have written
books about alleged CIA abuses. Others have named agents who
are still under cover. Well, this has caused an uproar in the
intelligence community.
A few days ago, there was a confrontation in Washington
between former CIA agents and their critics. My associate Jack
Mitchell was there and picked up this barbed exchange.
JOHN STOCKWELL: I submit that you're working for the
enemies of the United States, for the simple reason that people
like you defending the CIA are the people that have discredited
this country with murder, with activities that are worse than
anything any other intelligence people have done.
MAN: I see. And you agree with Mr. Agee on....
ANDERSON: This man, John Stockwell, is a CIA outcast.
He hardly looks the part. And he's as rugged as he looks, with a
record to match. He served first in the Marines, then in the
CIA. He conducted highly classified covert operations in dan-
gerous areas of Africa where life is cheap. But six years ago,
Stockwell became sickened at some of the CIA tactics. He made up
his mind to quit the agency.
STOCKWELL: I had concluded after Vietnam, after three
tours in Africa before that, and particularly after the CIA's
Angola program, of which I was the task force commander, that the
CIA's operations were profoundly wrong on two counts. One of
MatenoI supped by Radio TV Reports inc rnoy be used for file and reference purposes only It may not De reproducedr sold or pubicy demonstrated or exhibited
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150027-9
them is that they were morally wrong, what we were doing. And,
two, they were not advancing the national security interests of
this country in any positive way.
ANDERSON: Did you complain through channels while you
were in the CIA?
STOCKWELL: Yes, I did, indeed. I talked to my bosses
about it. I talked to them about my complaints in the Angola
,program, of the illegal operations, alliance with South Africa,
the hiring of mercenaries, manipulation of U. S. press, lying to
the Senate.
ANDERSON: Stockwell's claim that he submitted his
protest to his superiors is disputed by one of his superiors,
former CIA Director Stansfield Turner.
STANSFIELD TURNER: I have a standing rule that any
employee who wanted to see me or write to me privately had direct
access. A sealed envelope or a knock on the door and he could
get an appointment. Stockwell never tried that. What he did
instead was write a letter to me and publish it in The Washington
Post before I got it.
ANDERSON: John Stockwell told me that he went through
some anguished soul-searching before he made his complaints
public.
STOCKWELL: They have put in jeopardy this noble
country's moral right to leadership in the world of nations.
We've killed -- the CIA has killed more people than the PLO,
the Baader-Meinhof, the Red Brigade and the Israeli Army put
together.
ANDERSON: There has been anguish on both sides of the
David Atlee Phillips is also a former CIA agent. Like
Stockwell, Phillips has had his share of dangerous assignments.
He formerly directed covert operations in Latin America. Phillips
has often defended the CIA. But Phillips, too, has gone through
family trauma because of his CIA connections.
DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS: There's a myth that intelligence
officers don't tell their families what they do. But they must
tell their families, within reason, even teenage children. And
it was a very positive experience when I went through my first
four experiences telling teenagers that I really worked for the
CIA.
But in 1975 when I told my fifth child, a 15 year old
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girl, that I really worked for the CIA, her response was "But
that's dirty."
ANDERSON: Do you agree with what's called dirty tricks
as practiced by the CIA?
PHILLIPS: Well, using dirty tricks is the category for
covert action, meddling around in other people's affairs. There's
some question in my mind whether we should be doing that at this
time in history.
Quite frankly, one of the reasons is that if you are
going to engage in that kind of operation, don't do it unless
it's secret. I'm not really quite sure whether the intelligence
community and the administration in our country now is capable of
keeping many secrets from journalists who work hard to get them.
ANDERSON: Stansfield Turner is convinced of the need
for covert activities.
ADMIRAL TURNER: There are circumstances where I can see
it to be in the best interests of this country to try to over-
throw another government. But that's got to be a decision made
by the President of the United States. And the system is set up
today so that it cannot be done without the President's personal
approval, without the notification of two committees of the Con-
gress.
ANDERSON: Meanwhile, the CIA is using foreign forces,
some of them of questionable reliability, to carry out its clan-
destine activities. This raises a question. Should the CIA
finance groups that it cannot control?
This much is certain. The CIA is quietly returning to
its old ways of stirring up secret mischief abroad. This raises
another question. Will these dirty tricks enhance our national
security, or will they create more John Stockwells?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150027-9