PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM AIRS ANTI-CIA PROPAGANDA: PART 1

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000403950010-1
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RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
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1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 16, 2010
Sequence Number: 
10
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
May 29, 1980
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000403950010-1.pdf162.68 KB
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STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403950010-1 t i< 1 klay,29, 1980 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-Extensions of Renia EXTENSIONS OF -REMARK .t1 } PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM mentary to amplify charges made by aware of that fact and there is a con- AIRS ANTI-CIA PROPAGANDA: other ex-CIA agents. PART I siderable body of evidence, much of it Although it is obvious and a part of provided by defectors ,from the KGB the public record that a substantial and other Communist secret services, HON. LARRY McDONALD number of the CIA defectors used In indicating that the KGB's disinforma- . hostile of GEORGIA the film have links with Cuba or other tion department is directing more IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Ices, AgCem is utstandi genin serv- th this each year in the free world press and Wednesday, 1VTay 28, 1980 regard. Agee openly thanked agencies that they are utilizing people under e Mr. McDONALDMr. Speak er, in of the Cuban Government and repre- their control or Influence in govern- ., the battle over the Mr. ed er in sentatives of the Communist Party of ment, academia, and the media to leak gec chartv for the Central Intelli- Cuba for providing him with informa- disinformation stories to reporters. gence Agency, the lobby of. CIA lion for his first CIA expose book, The technique is simple: They feed a . antagonists antagonists has concentrated hbytheir IA "Inside the Company," and according reporter several true ..scoops before on a has ed, that f- to CIA officials Agee made at least giving him the phony one. forts whether the CIA gn Issue, is five clandestine trips to Havana during An excellent background 'report on tted to engage the C shall l be be pee, that rms against sub- the process of writing that book. Just the film, its producers, and its origins in covert actions prior to his efforts in 197? in Jamaica, with the U.S. Castroite left has been version, terrorism, and other destabili- Agd zation ersio operations, and , the ee was sighted in Moscow,, a curious published in the Information Digest, Communist totalitarian regimes place to do research on alleged CIA the authoritative news a er on operations in the Caribbean. And ac- political and social movements, subver. headed by the Soviet Union and often cording to columnist Robert Moss, sion, and terrorism which is published carried out through their empire of writing in the London Daily Tele- by John Rees. The article follows:._ surrogate and satellite regimes, par- graph, Agee met with the Cuban DGI ties, and fronts. All are willing to station chief in London on at least 30 ON Cebu uvY Busixsss permit the CIA to have as many Sur- occasions before being expelled from Sys 16, 1980, The taxpayer-funded Public Broadcasting at veillance satellites as possible, to look that country. Agee is currently living the ftem (PBS) ouy,long May 9 omand nt of a airphotographs, to read Pravda, to in Hamburg, West Germany, after the documentary, two s , Company of an anti- monitor radio broadcasts, and so forth, being expelled y European. wit t three oa ot Business. But the CIA's antagonists do not countries onaccountof his continuing On Company Businesbroadcast been descr > ed want the United States of America intimate relationship with Cuban in. by PBS as "'perhaps the most important and its principal foreign ? intelligence telligence personnel. film we've ever shown"; while its director agency to have a capacity for covert It should be noted that a number of and co-producer, Allan Francovich, ' was quoted ediorial page actions against Soviet-backed destabi- veteran CIA officials appear briefly in Oakland in Tribune (4/f5 80) by article in the actions and aggression in the Third the film shown over the Public Broad- Parts magazine ne staffer 8Marina former Ra as World which is, of course, the princi- casting System. In most instances, saying. made thisfilm as both a political pal arena of conflict now between the these individuals were filmed during weapon and an educational tool. Everything Communists and the free world. or immediately after various public the CIA does is secret for a very specific During this month, the Public speaking appearances and were not reason. If the American people knew what Broadcasting System aired in succes- aware of the Marxist-left backgrounds was really going on, they wouldn't stand for sive weeks a three-part anti-CIA film of the producers of this film. it. entitled "On Company Business." The I would also point out that since the In a PBS interview. Howard geDratch t of, cu- film's coproducer and director has publication this month' of a roman a producer and production manager of the boasted that he made it "as a political, clef entitled "The Spike," coauthored were trying toed that Part fiof what at s In the weapon" which is scarcely surprising by Arnaud deBorchgrave and Robert covert acts nhasbeen continuing; itheeas since it featured a number of anti-CIA Moss, there has be a growing aware- been no change from the time of the- defectors who had participated in the ness of Soviet disinformation oper- Church Committee: that these covert ac- Cuban Government's 1978 people's tri-. ations to plant stories in the Western tions continue and they continue to be very bunal held in conjunction with the media from which they can be picked dangerous ? ? ?." Francovich has empha- 11th World Youth Festival which ex- up and requoted to legitimize Commu- sized, "You have to realize that ? ? ? the coriated the U.S. intelligence agencies nist propaganda themes. One of the Cforeign IA is nptoicy of this The problem is the for opposing Soviet-backed Marxist- more well known disinformation sto- problem, ppees specifically, is countcat And the Leninist insurgencies. These defectors ries that appears in "On Company film lad by writings and statements oft its included John Stockwell, responsible Business" Is the article by Seymour producers, Is U.S. intervention against for "blowing" the covert actions Hersh published by the New York Soviet-sponsored aggression. against the MPLA In Angola; Jesse Times that incorrectly alleged the CIA Although the documentary was rushed Leaf; and Jim and Elsie Walcott. Also supported a truckers strike in Chile through to completion last year thanks to a featured was Victor Marchetti, a during Allende's regime. As the $60,000 grant via the TV Laboratory at former CIA official like Stockwell as- Church committee reports eventually Fund, a in New York from the Film sociated with the institute for Policy showed, this was not true; however, Fund, a grant from sp the independent Docu- Studies, a Marxist think tank with ties the filmmakers use that Times story Nor mentary Unitarian sh Veatch Fund supported t which c Unitarian to Soviet and Cuban intelligence. Al- and then follow it with an identical al- heavily financed the Center for National See-- t hough Marchetti has also obtained legation by Agee to reinforce in the curity Studies (CNSS); the Corporation for hs 178. effort to influence the Norwegian elec- viewers som;7 small notoriety for I do mind use false example charge. to single a Public o tax-exempt 5 Production, Inc., lions by naming names, the film's out Mr. Hersh for criticism. Anyone anonon' non-profit, , tFord out c- lion; and the Ford Foundation; on; Its producing, - principal adviser. and indeed apparent- familiar with the -profession of jour- This reticent about its ininte est because ly originally a 20 percent partner in nalism is aware of the dependence of Thts isources ?f have reported Dartir rit that tt in 976. a this film. "On Company Business," investigative Journalists on their proposal to Bu, Philip Agee provided a constant com- sources. The Soviet strategists are also ness 0.subheadedp1A Feaaturee.Length Docu. 0 This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403950010-1