MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN THE SECRET REPORT ABOUT THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01482464
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2017
• Case Number: F-2007-00094
• Publication Date: April 1, 1976

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Information, 1 April 1976
MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN THE SECRET REPORT ABOUT THE
INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
The Pike Committee's report about the CIA and FBI mainly is not
a new Pentagon report. But the document is probably the most impor-
tant that yet has been written about the CIA, and its information may
very well turn out to be of greater importance for the understanding
of the future than the Pentagon report. The report's 350 pages dif-
fer from earlier reports by not being characterized by a prejudiced
pro-CIA attitude.
The following review concentrates on the report's chapter 2,
which is about the cost, effectiveness and risk of intelligence work.
Chapter 1 is a review of the obstacles that the Pike Committee
encountered.
A. The Cost
The Committee began its work by following the appropriations
through the system.
"The investigation was both fruitful and interesting. When it
was over, the auditors lent to the Committee by GAO had reached the
conclusion that the budget for intelligence activities with regard
to foreign countries is three to four times larger than Congress had
been informed... Total amounts do not tell everything. It was
found that Congress' and executive power's insight in these budgets
was somewhere between superficial and non-existing. The intelligence
services' own control of the expenses was also often insufficient,
which a couple of examples show:
- A CIA station in a small country used $41,000 for liquor
during one year.
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- The taxpayers' money was used to provide female companionship
for heads of state and to pay people with a questionable reputation
to make pornographic movies for blackmail purposes...
- An enormous arsenal of weapons and ammunition has been built
up by the CIA, so the organization now has a force that exceeds
most armies in the world..."
The Committee describes how the officially independent auditors
are closely tied to and dependent on the intelligence services.
"All in all a handful of people use more than ten million dol-
lars without much independent supervision; the supervision is insuf-
ficient, there is even less auditing, and there is profusion of
secrecy."
As far as domestic intelligence activities are concerned, the
expenses are more than five times as large as the organizations con-
cerned reported.
The Committee also points out that there are considerable coor-
dination problems between the organizations.
Agents stationed overseas have a sum placed at their disposal
to pay salaries, for instance. An agent may have up to ten local
agents in his service, who get from $50 to $3,000 per month in cash.
"Besides purchasing goods and services for its own use, the CIA
also provides supplies for foreign governments, officials, agents,
and others."
In this way they get a considerable discount.
"In one case a foreign official told the station chief about
his son's enthusiasm about model planes. The foreign official wanted
three model planes and even told the CIA official exactly where the
planes could be bought in the U.S.A."
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More advanced goods such as armored luxury cars and electronic
espionage equipment is also cheaply available via the CIA.
Contracts amounting to several millions dollars are made every
years with industry and universities for research purposes.
"In 1967 "Rampart's Magazine" disclosed CIA support of the
National Student Organization. As a result of this, President
Johnson issued a clear order prohibiting secret support of educa-
tional institutions, but the CIA reserved the right to deviate from
the President's order - and they do - when they find it necessary."
B. Productivity
"The most important questions are whether the expenses described
have fulfilled our needs satisfactorily, whether American citizens have
gotten enough for their money, and whether the cost that cannot be
made up in money has exceeded the usefulness sometimes... Let events
speak for themselves."
First the CIA's effectiveness during the Vietnam War was inves-
tigated. The organization was under strong pressure from the Govern-
ment to deliver material that proved that we were on the right way.
"Right up to the last days of South Vietnam, certain blfnkers
prevented objective reporting from the field and an accurate evalua-
tion from Washington of the situation."
During the crisis in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Army disappeared
for the CIA during the two decisive weeks.
"The intelligence services had understood and reported about
the fundamental questions in the confrontation between the Soviet
Union and Czechoslovakia while it was developing, and they had con-
cluded that the Soviet Union was able to start an invasion any time..
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"The intelligence services did not succeed, however, in warning
about the fact that the Soviet Union had decided to intervene with
force. President Johnson did not hear about the invasion until the
Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin visited the White House and told him
about it."
The Middle East: The System Is Breaking Down
"The war in the Middle East gave the intelligence services a
real try-out of their efficiency when all their best technological
and human expertise are concentrated around a world-known focus.
They failed."
The Department of State intelligence service had reported on
31 May 1973 that outbreak of war in the fall was likely. But in
the course of the summer all organizations reached the conclusion
that Egypt was not able to attack.
"One of the reasons for the analysts' optimism can be found in
a CIA handbook from 1971 where there is a passage that was repeated
and stressed in discussions in the beginning of October 1973. "The
Arab soldier, it says, lacks the necessary physical and cultural
abilities to be able to do effective military service." The Arabs
were considered so clearly inferior that a new attack would be
senseless and therefore unlikely."
As late as almost concurrently with the attack, the organiza-
tion that is responsible for warning about crises met and concluded
that there was no imminent danger of war.
"Efficiency did not become measurably better after the outbreak
of the war when the total resources of the intelligence services
were concentrated about the area."
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The analysts drowned in chaos and technical information. They
trusted Israel's own intelligence service.
"Misled in this way, the U.S.A. clashed with the better informed
Soviets because of their strong reactions after Israelian violation
of the cease-fire. Soviet threats to intervene militarily was met
with a world-wide state of preparedness for American troops. Thus
poor intelligence work had brought American to the brink of war."
The coup in Portugal on 25 April 1974 was a complete surprise
to the CIA.
Shortly before India exploded its first nuclear warhead on 18
May 1974, the Defense Ministry's intelligence service, DIA, had
written a report with the title, "India: A Program to Develop
Atomic Weapons Will Probably not be Started in the Nearest Future."
In connection with the Cyprus crisis the Committee is sur-
prised that the CIA overlooked clear signs of an impending coup.
It raises the question of whether the CIA was behind it, but this
problem is not analyzed.
The Committee has also examined the effectiveness of FBI's
domestic espionage. They conclude, among other things, that despite
34 years of intensive investigation of the Trotskyist Socialist
Workers Party, the FBI has not found any signs of illegal activities.
"FBI detectives from the Department of Internal Security made
a massive effort to question SWP members' landlords, employers,
colleagues and relatives. The FBI also kept intensive watch over
most, if not all, SWP members."
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C.
Risk
"It is clear that America's taxpayers do not get the full
profit out of the dollars that are used for intelligence activities.
But the price of intelligence work should not only be made up in
dollars. Many everyday activities inevitably are a real risk... It
is disquieting that the consequences of intelligence activities
apparently are not thought much about by those responsible. Even
more disquieting are indications that this lack of attention con-
tinues even when real danger (as a result of the activities) turns
up."
The report then analyzes ten years of covert actions during
the period from 1965 to 1975.
"The Committee has investigated covert CIA actions and has
considerable evidence that the are approved contrary to regulations,
that they are carried out carelessly and at times have been forced
on a reluctant CIA by the President and his advisors in national
security affairs.
"Covert action can be described as secret activities beyond
�
mere collection of information for the purpose of causing a specific
political, mtliary, or economic result... It is believed that the
Committee's analysis of ten years of covert activities iy unprece-
dented in Congress of the Executive Branch...
"The total picture does not support an allegation that covert
action has been used to further any special principle, any form of
government or demonstrable national interest. The course (of ten
years of actions) indicates �a general lack of long-range planning
in the U.S. foreign policy."
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OaNAelo
Covert action has functioned as "sticking plaster" (sic) in
situations that needed long-range solutions. Very expensive projects
and politically sensitive projects had to be approved by the 40-
cornmittee , which includes five high-ranking members of the National
Security Council.
"In practice the 40-Committee has often just functioned as a
rubber stamp... The origin of many covert actions is in the luckiest
case sinister... Everything indicates that the CIA is far from
uncontrolled, but on the contrary has been extemely willing to fol-
low the instructions that the President and his advisors in national
security affairs gave. It must, however, be remembered that it is
the CIA Director who decides which covert action projects started by
the CIA are sensitive enough to require the President's sanction."
The following was written about supporting political parties
before an election:
"From 1965 to today, 32 percent of the covert actions that the
40-Committee has approved has concerned some kind of economic sup-
port in election situations to foreign parties or individuals...
This is the largest category within covert action, and the financing
has mainly taken place in developing countries. With a few excep-
tions the financial support has been given to moderate party leaders
who were up for re-election and heads of state."
Twenty-nine percent, perhaps more, of the covert actions have
concerned mass media.
"The activities have included support to friendly media, large
propaganda campaigns, placement of articles in the local press, and
distribution of books and handbills. The biggest receiver by far
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has been a European publishing house which has been financed since
1951. Around 25 percent of this program has been turned against the
Soviet Bloc in the shape of publication of and secret export and
import of oppositional Western and Soviet literature."
Twenty-three percent of the approved projects are of military
type:
"Secretar armies; financial support to groups involved in war
activities; para-military training and counseling; shipping of wea-
pons, ammunication and other military equipment... By far the most
interesting and important condition that was discovered was that
these covert action projects were suggested by parties outside the
CIA... At times the CIA has been used as a tool for supplying
weapons for the purpose of avoiding Congress' knowledge..."
"A profusion of foreign interest groups, religious groups,
profession groups and trade union organizations have received sup-
port from the CIA. It has not been concentrated on any geographic
area.
The Committee concludes that it is unlikely that there has
been any decline in the number of covert actions during the past
years.
JD
FOR WHOM ARE THE CIA SCANDALS HIDDEN?
The Real Espionage Budget - the Russian Army Disappeared
for the CIA - Covert Action as Sticking Plaster in Foreign
Policy Without Perspective - a People Sacrificed as Favor
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By Joergen Dragsdahl
At a ballot in the House of Representatives on 29 January it
was decided that a report about the intelligence services which an
investigation committee had prepared should not be made public.
The majority thus followed a request from the White House and the
CIA. The Director of the CIA at that time, William Colby, felt
that publication of the report would harm national security.
The result of the ballot was surprising for several reasons.
The Committee that had prepared the report wanted it to be made
public. And a great deal of the central information had already
been leaked to the press.
However, towards the end of February 1976 the report came out
anyway, since a weekly in New York, The Village Voice," brought
most of it.
In reading through the pages it is difficult to find anything
that KGB, for instance, can make use of. More likely is the weekly's
own explanation: "Once more the White House has tried to protect
the American population against reading part of its own history."
The so-called Pike Committee does not believe that the American
people is protected by the CIA's activities. The 'let offensive in
Vietnam, the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia, the war in the Middle
East in 1967, the coup in Portugal, India's atomic armament, and the
CyprUs crisis have been investigated. In all cases the CIA work was
misleading.
But not only does the warning service not functions. CIA work
in itself is a risk to civic rights and national security.
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In the first part of the report it is documented how the White
House, the CIA, the Department of State and the FBI tried to obstruct
the work of the popularly elected. "To judge from the Committee's
experience during recent months, the intelligence services that must
be supervised by the legislators in Congress today outside the range
of the legislators as far as insight is concerned."
Material that was requested was delayed, denied, or censored
so strongly that it was impossible to understand. On one page only,
the TOP SECRET stamp was left.
One witness was looked up by two FBI men who cross-examined him
for six hours about the evidence he had given and afterwards forced
him to sign a retraction of his allegations. However, afterwards
the witness stuck to his first explanation again.
Henry Kissinger especially is attacked in the Pike Committee's
report. He allegedly has a "passionate craving for secrecy" and he
has made statements that "deviated from the facts."
The CIA Director, William Colby, has called the report 'gross
slander," and continued, "I think that it gives a completely dis-
torted picture and it is a disservice to our nation." Colby went on
to say, "We gave a lot of information to this committee on basis of
the condition that secrets would be protected... The Committee has
apparently neither been able to keep secrets nor its promises."
� His annoyance is apparently especially over the fact that
details about CIA activities in Italy, Angola, and Iraq have come
out. There is also anger over the fact
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The Chairman of the Committee, the Democrat Otis Pike from
New York, is not known for leftist liberal views. His district is
conservative and dominated by armament industry. He has been
strongly attacked because of his efforts. In the beginning of
March he accused the CIA of conducting a campaign against him per-
sonally to lead the attention away from the report. "Pike is going
to pay for this. Just wait and see - we are going to destroy him
because of this," a high-ranking CIA man, allegedly
said to one of the Committee's assistants. denies having
made this statement, however.
The man who gave the report to"The Village Voice" has also been
attacked strongly. His name is Daniel Schorr, he is a journalist
at the TV company CBS and has covered the FBI and, CIA misuse of
power for years. Now he has been suspended from his work and is -
the target of a number of official investigations.
'"The happiness of martyrdom is strongly exaggerated," he
assured his colleagues recently.
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