MEANWHILE, THE ANTI-CIA BRIGADE TURNS ON THE HEAT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100360062-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 2004
• Sequence Number: 62
• Publication Date: January 4, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP88-01314ROOa
THE LONDON SUNDAY TIMES
4 January 1.976
e anti.
e turn - s on the lea
Peter Pringle reports
from Washington
POLICE surrounded' a seven
storey office- block in central
Washington on Friday after an
anonymous telephone caller
threatened to speed past in his
car and spray the fourth floor
with bullets.'. .. His ambitious aim was to
liquidate seven people working
in Suite 403 for the Fifth
Estate, an organisation active
in America's growing "alterna-
tive " intelligence movement.
The . Fifth Estate is currently
accused -by the CIA of aiding
and abetting the assassination
of Richard Welch, the chief
undercover agent in Athens, by
publishing his name in their
quarterly magazine Counterspy.
The caller did not appear: as
was expected, and - the Fifth
Estate and the police logged the
incident with a growing number
of death threats made to it-
and several liberal senators-
since the CIA's accusations. But
the event illustrates the extreme
reaction now building up against
the anti-intelligence groups.
including Congressional commit-
tees, that have.+-been nibbling
away at the CIA.!
Retired intelligence', officers
have ? formed ap.: old boys "
association' lopromote and -pro-
tect their still active colleagues.
In Welch the association has its
first martyr. President Ford will
attend the burial in Arlington
Cemetery on Tuesday.
The people prising open the
CIA's dirty tricks bag have
made the running so far against
others who would keep .it shut.
The old - boys association has
made little impact since its
formation in July. But in the
wake of Welch's death and CIA
Director William Colby's plea
to Congress to help. turn the
heat off his men, the work of
tiny groups like the Fifth
Estate and its hitherto little-
known publications (Counterspy
has a circulation of only 3,000).
are under inspection, too.
But who is the Fifth Estate
and what did it do with Welch's
name? It is a group of people
of Left-wing views, some of whom
used to work in intelligence and
are now regarded by their for-
mer colleague as, at best rene-
gades, ' and at worst Russian
spies. One of the group's men-
tors, for example, Philip Agee,
an ex-agent in Latin America
abentsfrom their-foreign-service-
records were named, of whom 59
were in London. I.ichard, eich
was listed at attache in the US
Embassy in Lima. It was the first
and last time Counterspy me:i-
tioned his name. The editors of
the magazine. did not know he
had moved before the news
broke that- he had been. gunned
down in Athens.
In the winter issue of the
magazine Philip Agee explains
the policy behind naming the 1.
agents.. "The most effective and
important systematic efforts to
combat CIA that can be under-
taken right now are. I think, the
identification, - exposure and
neutralisation of its people;
working abroad." Mr Agee was;
working on past experience. In
October 1974 he revealed the
names and addresses in 'Mexico
City of 35 official (embassy) CIA
agents and two non-embassy
ones. Within a few days two of
those named, the station chief
and his deputy, were wi.thdratrn.
An editorial in the magazine
expresses regret over the locus
on the CIA, particularly over
the current wave of "myopic
rage" about the agency. "We
believe that the whole system,
not merely its most mystifying
appendage is worthy of exami-
nation," it declared. But of the
list of 150 station chiefs printed
inside it said: "This-is certainly
information that the American
public should have in order to
understand how the CIA works."
The Fifth Estate. says that it
has not been difficult to compile
these lists: one of the simplest
ways is to note all those foreign
service officers who have been
attached to the " Office of
Special Assistance to the Am-
bassador.". That is diplomatic
language for the CIA, it says.
But spotting US "spooks"
abroad is not a new pastime.
A small volume entitled Who's
Who in the CIA appeared in
Germany in 19&7.. but no one
took it very seriously.
Senator Frank Church. the
champion CIA exposer of the
Senate intelligence committee,
was listed. So was Lyndon John-
son. But so was Richard
Welch. Then in November 1974
in the Washington Monthly
John Marks, a former State
Department intelligence officer,
wrote an article uncompromis-
Approved For Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP88-01314R0001
who has written a book about
his intelligence work called
Inside the Company: CIA Diary,
is seen by the old boys as an
agent of Russia's KGB.
The group's aim is to foster
it new force "capable of pene-
trating the excessive secrecy
rampant in politics today,"
a phenomenon which they
call " technofascism," cover-
ing any clandestine govern-
ment or corporate action-by
the 'White House, the army or
the police. Since it was formed,
three years ago, however, the
group has concentrated on the
more extreme activities of the
CIA. ' '
This is fully approved of by
backers like the writer Norman
hailer. He says: "In this con-
text the Fifth Estate is homeo-
pathic medicine-one small
drop for a large disease, but at
least it is an instrument by
which people interested in a par-
ticipatory democracy may begin
to create the possibility of
centres of alternate intelligence
staffed by citizens for the use of
citizens."
in the spring issue of Counter.
spy, almost 100 people the Fifth
Estate had deduced to; be CIA
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