CIA HAS GLOBAL MEDIA MACHINE, EX-AIDES SAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: October 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780004-3
ARTICLE APPEAR PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
ON PAGE 3 October 1986
CIA has global media machine,
ex-aides say
BBFranwomm- k Greve "Once you'd planted an article suc-
cessfully, you'd clip it and airmail it
WASHINGTON - "Our mighty around the world, get it placed in
Wurlitzer" is what Central Intelli- news media everywhere," he contin-
gence Agency personnel often call ued.
the agency's global propaganda ma. McGehee resigned from the CIA in
chine, according to retired operative 1977 after 25 years, mostly in the
Ralph McGehee. agency's directorate for operations.
The machine is a huge, far-flung Another player of the Wurlitzer
network of pro-American reporters, was Stockwell, who supervised the
editors and news media owners in agency's media campaign as.chlef of
foreign nations who, for ideologic or the CIA Angola Task Force in the
mercenary reasons, help the CIA mid-1970s.
"play an propaganda anywhere in "It's any to crank out the stories,"
the world at any time," McGehee he said in a telephone interview.
said. '"Me harder part is to create sources
Although the agency ended paid that check out. In Angola, we set up
participation by U.S. foreign corre- several stringers (free-lance
spondents in 1978, except at the di- an who served as local writers report-
spondents
rector's discretion, foreigt reporters many publications abroad) who
and media outlets play on at a price would send a hot story, with pia
estimated at S3 billion by Covert Ac- tures, or, if the bas came down to
tion, Washington-based watchdogs of check it out, would wine him and
the intelligence community. dine him and send him home satin
ried."
A Wurlitzer tune - in this case. Mostly, the propagandizing worked
unattributable propaganda intended smoothly and well, Stockwell re-
to keep Col. Moammar Gadhafi off called. His most celebrated coup, he
balance and deter Libyan-backed ter- said, was a false story carried world-
rorism - apparently was part of the wide that Cuban troops in Angola
Reagan administration's disinforma- had raped numerous native women.
tion plan against Gadhafi that was ("Nobody was going to say it didn't
developed late last summer and re- happen," he said.) His biggest gaffe
vealed yesterday in a Washington was an equally false story that 43
Post article that also appeared in The Soviet advisers had been captured in
Inquirer. Angola, which drew dozens of unan-
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes insisted yesterday that no
attempt had been made to provide
disinformation to U.S. media, but
would not comment about a White
House memo quoted in the Post as
calling for "foreign media place-
ments" by the CIA as part of the
Speakes declin repeatedly to say
whether CIA disthformation - that
is, false and-or misleading informa-
tion - was planted in foreign media.
It is a common CIA practice, ac-
cording to both McGehee of Hem-
don, Va., and John Stockwell of El-
gin, Texas, another former CIA
agent. In 1976, the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee estimated that 900
foreign journalists, or agents posing
as journalists, helped the agency
plant propaganda.
The phony news story "could be an
article we'd write and just give to a
reporter under contract," said McGe-
hee. "Or we'd give them guidelines,
saying. 'Here's the story we want
generated; you write it in the local
context.'
swerable inquiries. ("It died an em-
barassing, slow death," Stockwell
said.)
Both McGehee and Stockwell, au-
thor of In Search of Enemies: A CIA
Story, insisted that CIA propaganda
efforts abroad often reappeared in
U.S. media, in effect feeding disinfor-
mation to Americans. While CIA me-
dia director Kathy Pherson declined
to comment, as usual, on agency op-
erations, Speakes insisted that propa-
gandizing of Americans had not oc-
curred in the effort against Gadhafi.
"That's hard to imagine," said
McGehee. "Back when I was a CIA
analyst' preparing studies, I recall
drawing on what I assumed was gen-
uine info tion. Years later, I'd
find out a sources I was using
were ageurces. If the CIA can't
protect its own personnel from what
we called 'blowback,' how could it
protect newsmen?"
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780004-3