PHILIP AGEE AND 'SPY BULLETIN' DRAW BEAD ON TIMES, ITS EDITOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460015-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: June 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460015-6
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WASHINGTON TIME
18 June 1985
Philip Agee and 'spy bulletin'
draw bead on Times, its editor
Last week, Covert Action Informa-
tion Bulletin (CAIB), which special-
izes in exposing CIA agents, called
the publicity department at The
Washington Times and asked for a
photograph of the new editor-in-
chief. The caller said that he needed
it then, being on deadline. This was
the first anyone at The Times had
heard of the CAIB story. CAIB
reporters never called the editor. The
following is the story behind the story
of the CAIB and its activities, which
this newspaper's new editor has been
tracking for several years.
The CIA's best known ideological
defector, Philip Agee, is the "godfa-
ther" of an international network of
researchers and writers who spe-
cialize in disruptive exposes of U.S.
and other Western intelligence agen-
cies.
Their stories, undermining the
secret intelligence activities of the
Central Intelligence Agency, mili-
tary and electronic intelligence
endeavors, are picked up by mag-
azines, newspapers and television in
the United States and abroad. The
U.S. television networks appear to
regard the material merely as
"news" as do certain well-known
reporters for some of the largest cir-
culation newspapers.
Even that bastion of business and
finance, The Wall Street Journal, has
run Agee network materials on its
front page on several occasions in
recent years. In one of these,
reporter Jonathan Kwitny used
material from an Agee network
group in Washington to suggest that
compromising documents captured
from guerrillas in El Salvador and
released by the U.S. State Depart-
ment, were forgeries. Curiously, the
Agee groups have themselves been
documented as circulating a noted
KGB forgery of a faked U.S. Army
manual.
Yet they have acknowledged that
they have a "hidden agenda" - the
destruction of the CIA and other ele-
ments of America's intelligence col-
lection and covert action
capabilities.
When Philip Burnett Franklin
Agee (born Jan. 19, 1935), then a
10-year veteran of the CIAs Latin
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American operations, quit while
serving in Mexico city in 1969, he
embarked on a new profession -
that of full-time saboteur of
American intelligence activities
around the world. He later described
himself as a convert to "revolution-
ary socialism."
In his first expose book, "Inside
the Company: CIA Diary," which
appeared 10 years ago, Mr. Agee
acknowledged the assistance of
members of the Central Committee
of the Cuban Communist Party,
agencies of the Cuban government,
and a variety of pro-Castro
"researchers" associated with the
North American Congress on Latin
America (NACLA) and other groups.
While Mr. Agee has
acknowledged "visiting" Cuba, he
has never described what
"research" documents regarding
the CIA the Cuban government pro-
vided. Neither has Mr. Agee
acknowledged that his 1971
"research" visit lasted about six
months, during which time it is
inconceivable that he was not
debriefed at length to establish the
sincerity of his disaffection.
After his first book was pub-
lished, he visited Moscow - a trip
Mr. Agee explained as aimed at
arranging details for a Russian edi-
tion of "Inside the Company." Mr.
Agee has not discussed the financial
arrangements he made for "royal-
ties" with the Soviets.
But in an interview with Peter
Studer, published in the Zurich
Thges-Anzeiger, Mr. Agee said: "The
CIA is plainly on the wrong side, that
is, the capitalistic side. I approve
KGB activities, communist activi-
ties in general, when they are to the
advantage of the oppressed. In fact,
the KGB is not doing enough in this
regard, because the U.S.S.R.
depends upon the people to free
themselves. Between the activities
that the CIA initiates and the more
modest activities of the KGB, there
is absolutely no comparison."
Mr. Agee began to travel to var-
ious countries conducting highly
publicized exposes of alleged CIA
activities and, in a number of areas,
helping set up and instruct networks
of "new left" researchers and writ-
ers to carry out a sustained series of
exposes and attacks on intelligence
operations. His networks in Eng-
land, the U.S. and West Germany
have been among the most active.
In the United States, among the
organizations supporting Agee
exposes have been NACLA, the Insti-
tute for Policy Studies (IPS), several
so-called investigative journalism
groups, such as the Center for Inves-
tigative Reporting, the Pacific News
Service, a news service sponsored
by IPS (with more than 200 newspa-
per clients), and most especially
CounterSpy magazine and the
Covert Action Information Bulletin.
CounterSpy is the oldest. It was
founded in the early 1970s by Tim
Butz and Perry Fellwock, alias Wins-
low Peck, members of Vietnam Vet-
erans Against the War (VVAW) who
had served in military intelligence
and the National Security Agency
(NSA).
The CounterSpy expose concept
attracted support not only from Mr.
Agee, but from members of the
National Lawyers Guild. The guild is
the American section of a Soviet-
controlled "active measures" front,
the International Association of
Democratic Lawyers (IADL). Two
laywers, William Schaap and Ellen
Ray, had worked on the NLG's Mili-
tary Law Project in Southeast Asia.
The CounterSpy legal counsel was
Alan Dranitske, an NLG member
whose partners, now dead, were vet-
eran members of the Communist
Party, U.S.A. (CPUSA), and had
become paid agents of the Cuban
government once Castro took power.
Mr. Agee's English group cen-
tered around Time Out magazine.
Among Agee's London-based
friends were Duncan Campbell,
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Jonathan Bloch (a South African), Richard Welch in Athens, internal was allowed to operate for years so
Mark Hosenball (an American), Pat factional disputes brought a suspen- that his entire network of contacts
rick Fitzgerald, Phil Kelly, Andrew sion of publication several months and agents could be identified. Some
Weir and John Aubrey. later. In 1978, Messrs. Agee, Schaap,
In 1976, Mr. Agee and Mr. Hreports indicated that more than 100
ball, 1 a reporter for and Mr. r. Hosen- os Everning Ray and other veterans of Counter- people were arrested in April 1975
py held a press conference in with Mr. Pawloski.
Standard in London, whose father, S. Havana to announce formation of Since 1978, the publication with
Neil Hosenball, was general counsel the "Covert Action Information Bul- which Mr. Agee has been most
for the National Aeronautics and letin." directly and openly associated has
Space Administration (NASA), were Mr. Agee, meanwhile, had other been the Covert Action Information
ordered deported. problems. Despite support from a Bulletin (CAIB). A year later, Coun-
The British Home Office stated trio of American lawyers - ACLU terSpy also was revived by John
that Agee: legal director Melvin Wulf, former Kelly and a German, Konrad Ege.
"A. Has maintained regular con- U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark With its Winter 1985 issue, Counter-
tacts harmful to the security of the and Morton Halperin, leader of the Spy changed its name to the lower-
United Kingdom with foreign intelli- Center for National Security Studies profile National Reporter. Mr. Kelly
gence agents; - who flew to London to help, Mr. "B. Has s been and continues to be p, remains editor. Both Mr. Kelly and
involved disseminating andipo o be Agee lost his fight against deporta- Mr. Ege write frequently for the
tion from the United Kingdom. Paris-based "Afrique-Asie" mag-
tion harmful to the security of the Mr. Agee moved to the Nether- azine, published by Egyptian Com-
United Kingdom and lands where it was reported that his munist Simon Malley. Mr. Ege also
"C. Has aided and counseled oth- entry was secured with the assis- writes for the West German mag-
ers in obtaining information for pub- tance of the Institute for Policy Stud- azine "Konkret" which was set up
lication which could be harmful to ies' Amesterdam subsidiary, the with subsidies from East'Germany.
the security of the United Kingdom." Transnational Institute (TNI). While The CAIB was launched on July
In February 1977, two London in England, Mr. Agee and company 28, 1978, during a press conference
members of Mr. Agee's network, had been involved with another IPS- in the Havana Libre Hotel in
Duncan Campbell and John Aubrey, and TNI-affiliated "new left" Havana.
were arrested leaving the apartment research group called Counter The event was crowded with
of John Berry, a former army signals Information Services (CIS). reporters for the foreign press who
intelligence technician, who had Dutch hospitality was quickly were in Havana to cover the week-
provided the two with a long inter- withdrawn and Mr. Agee was long 11th World Youth Festival. The
view on the United Kingdom's elec- ordered deported. The Agee travels Soviet-controlled "active measures"
tronic intelligence system. Messrs. to expose alleged CIA agents event drew youthful leftists and rev-
Campbell and Hosenball had written brought expulsion from France, and olutionaries from more than 100
an article on the Cheltenham elec- the Italians flatly barred him from countries and provided the Agee
tronic intelligence center, "The entering their country. Eventually, group with an opportunity to
Eavesdroppers," in the May 1976 Mr. Agee married an American bal- instruct scores of young leftists in
Time Out. let dancer who had residence and a the non-communist countries in
In November 1978, after two tri- work permit in Hamburg, West Ger- techniques useful in collecting infor-
als, Mr. Berry was convicted of many,
divulging motion on defense and intelligence
information without Mr, Agee called the British depor- installations and producing expose
authorization in violation of the Offi- tation order "political persecution." articles.
cial Secrets Act and was given a six- But at the time he also allowed that This technique is reminiscent of
month suspended sentence. Messrs. it might have "something to do with the Comintern's RABCOR networks
Campbell and Aubrey were given
" exposing a Western spy ring in (called after the Russian contraction
conditional discharges."
Mr. Poland." He denied having done so. of the works for "worker correspon-
Campbell, who has been writ- However, it will be recalled that in dents). During the 1920s and 1930s,
ing for the socialist weekly "The
New April 1976, Jerzy Pawlowski, a these networks, operated by the
Statesman," for several years, Polish UNESCO official and mem- Comintern under the direction of
has made exposes of British- ber of the 1968 Polish Olympic fenc- Soviet military intelligence (then the
American military and electronic ing teen, was sentenced to 25 years Fourth Bureau of the Red Army)
intelligence cooperation his special- imprisonment for espionage. The mobilized ideologically committed
ity. Polish government papers stated Marxists to gather information on
His most recent book (1985) "The that Mr. Pawlowski had been areas of interest and value to the
Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier: recruited by NATO intelligence Soviet Union.
American Military Power in Brit- agency in 1964 and that he had pro- The old RABCOR agents were tar-
ain," acknowledged particular vided military information on the geted primarily on industrial and
indebtness to Bill Arkin, the IPS Warsaw Pact. AF ns t h l th A
e e e ec no o
t
researcher whose expose of nuclear
storage sites in the U.S. (published
last Thursday) appears intended to
be as much a "targeting guide" for
the U.S. disarmament movement as
Campbell's book has been for the
British "ban-the-bombers."
In the aftermath of the contro-
versy over Mr. Agee and Coun-
terspy's role in the December 1975
assassination of CIA station chief
gy. gee ne
-
Mr. Agee had been at the 1968 works are targeted at the U.S. and
Olympic Games in Mexico under NATO intelligence and defense
cover as a U.S. representative on the structures.
Olympic Organizing Committee. Mr. A key feature of the 11th World
Agee has written that his assign- Youth Festival was a "Youth Accuses
ment was in "spotting and assess- Imperialism Tribunal" to judge "the
ment of new access agents" But it is crimes of imperialism" which were
not inconceivable that he became defined principally as "imperialist
aware of Mr. Pawlowski. political, economic and military
Intelligence officers indicate that organizations and criminal agencies
it was probable that Mr. Pawlowski such as the CIA." The affair was
broadcast over Havana television
and was picked up by residents of
southern Florida.
The leading founders of the CAIB
publication - Philip AgeetWilliam
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Schaap, Louis Wolf, and former CIA
employees Elsie and James Wilcott
- all were particiapants in the
Havana anti-CIA "tribunal" The
first issue of the CAIB contained an
editorial statement, "Who We Are,"
that was signed by Messrs. Agee,
Schapp and Wolf and Ellen Ray and
the others. It said:
"We are confident that there will
be sufficient subscribers to make
this publication a permanent
weapon in the fight gainst the CIA,
the FBI, military intelligence, and
the other instruments of U.S. impe-
rialist oppression throughout the
world. Most especially we will never
stop exposing CIA personnel and
operations whenever and wherever
we find them."
Louis Wolf, Agee's co-author
("Dirty Work"), lectured to "several
hundred delegates" at the World
Youth Festival, instructing them on
methodology for identifying CIA
personnel stationed outside the U.S.
with diplomatic covers. Mr. Wolf
said his work had been "inspired by
the victories of revolutionary move-
ments in Indochina, Mozambique,
Angola, Guinea-Bissau...."
From 1978 through 1981, the
CAIB continued the Agee tradition
of "naming names" of CIA officers
serving overseas under diplomatic
cover. Most often, those designated
as "Foreign Service Reserve" - a
designation insisted on by the pow-
erful State Department lobby -
were fingered as CIA.
Although many journalists and, of
course, the KGB, were long aware
that a "Foreign Service Reserve"
designation was a signal that the
person might well be an intelligence
officer, the names and the informa-
tion were splashed over the press.
Contacts and information evap-
orated.
But when the State Department
ceased identifying FSRs, CAIB con-
tinued to expose allege intelligence
officers in countries including Colo-
nel Qaddafi's Libya, citing only mys-
terious "sources"
The CIA's counterattack by
lawsuit against those who violated
its secrecy contracts prompted Mr.
Agee and the other former CIA
employees at CAIB to redesignate
their roles. Once members of the
editorial board, they became mem-
bers of the "board of advisers." Pas-
sage of the Intelligence Identities
Protection Act in 1981 put a lid on
CAIB's regular exposes of CIA offi-
cers abroad, but the magazine has
continued more as an outlet for
slanted commentaries and smears
of democratic anti-communist
groups and individuals, CAIB sto-
ries dismiss the exposures of Soviet
use of chemical warfare (Summer
1982, Number 17-"U.S. Fakes Data
in Chemical War"), accused the U.S.
government of conducting chemical
warfare in citing only mysterious
sources.
Certainly, the senior KGB Service
A officers appreciate the work of the
CAIB and other elements of the
Agee networks in defending the
Soviet Union from having its dirty
tricks placed for judgment before
Western public opinion.
The Washington Times and its
new editor-in-cheif are now on
CAIB's hit list. This presumably is
because The Times has exposed sto-
ries that CAIB attempts to censor -
by omission.
3.
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