REQUEST BY SENATOR LLOYD BENTSEN (D., TEXAS) FOR UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION ON PHILIP AGEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600300055-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 29, 2006
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: September 7, 1978
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 2006/11/30: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600300055-3
OLC 78-2991/2
7 September 1978
SUBJECT: Request by Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D., Texas)
for Unclassified Information on Philip Agee
Attached is a three and one-half page unclassified
fact sheet delivered by the undersigned to Brent Budowsky,
of Senator Bentsen's staff, on 7 September 1978. This fact
sheet may or may not be used by Senator Bentsen in an
unclassified manner in support of his bill- e
of this fact sheet was coordinated with of
Attachment:
As Stated
Distribution:
1 = /PCS/LOC w/att
1 - OLC Subject w/att
1 - OLC Chron w/o/att
OLC:ABS:jms (12 September 1978)
 Approved For Release 2006/11/30: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600300055-3
Philip Agee has escalated his personal vendetta. against the CIA to a
declaration of open war. At the recent World Youth Festival in Havana,
Agee reaffirmed to the world his intention of fighting the CIA by continuing
to expose its personnel and operations. Towards this end he has announced
the publication of a new book entitled, Dirty Work: The CIA in Western
Europe. " The book contains instructions on how to identify and expose CIA
personnel and operations.---T-Ire-book is said to contain biographies of 700
CIA and NSA personnel abroad. Agee has also launched publication of
"Covert Action Information Bulletin," which Agee, along with others, plans
to publish bi-monthly with the hope the publication will become in its words,
"a permanent weapon in the fight against the CIA, the FBI, military intelli-
gence, and all other instruments of U.S. imperialist oppression throughout
the world.'.' Finally, Philip Agee states that he intends to organizea world-
wide network of "agents" to expose CIA personnel and methods of operation.
This will be called operation "CIA Watch."
Background:
As you may know, Philip Agee, now 43 years old, was employed by the
CIA for 11 years before resigning in November 1968. At the time of his
resignation in Mexico City, Agee gave no indication of disaffection. On the
contrary, his resignation letter had only praise and good wishes for the Agency
and his colleagues. Agee now claims that he had been dissatisfied with the
Agency for several years prior to his resignation. In fact, he was asked to
resign because of personal/ marital problems which threatened to expose him
publicly in Mexico City as a CIA officer.
 Approved For Release 2006/11/30: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600300055-3
Agee's disaffection with CIA first surfaced in 1971 when he wrote a
letter to a leftist Uruguayan newspaper identifying himself as a former CIA
officer and charging CIA with interference in the internal affairs of Uruguay,
Chile, and Brazil. Agee had already begun work on the book that he
researched during several trips to Cuba and eventually publishedtin 1975
as Inside the Company: CIA Diary. His, stated purpose was to raise an out-
cry against CIA in the U.S. press, arouse Congress to undertake an investi-
gation, and launch an action program to neutralize the Agency from within
and without.
Damage Assessment
Agee's first book exposed 170 Agency personnel and numerous agents and
operations in Latin America known to him during his years of service there.
These exposures resulted in the retirement of more than 100 active foreign
agents . As of June 1977, the monetary cost of Agee's exposures were estimated
to be more than $2,000,000. The Agency continues to incur other costs--
both direct and indirect. It is impossible to assign a dollar figure to the
damage done to the lives and careers of the staff personnel named by Agee.
This damage had included mental anguish and actual physical danger to
staff personnel and their families.
The damage to our cooperative relationships with friendly foreign
intelligence services is difficult to estimate, but there have been many
instances in which our liaison contacts are less cooperative an~ frank than
. ~,( rs 1V1 CU 1fl 4".. o'f- (C~4tx>~ lit.+ ~;~ ~~s ,K 1 i 4~' C:n
in the past because they feel we a - g lce r ee is . It is- impossible
to determine to what extent we are being denied information we would others..,
 Approved For Release 2006/11/30: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600300055-3
There are numerous cases of current and prospective clandestine
agents refusing to cooperate with CIA because they feel it may be unable
to protect their identities; they cite Agee's activities as an example.
Several officials of U.S. business corporations have explained their
reluctance to cooperate by citing Agee's exposes as a specific example
of the potential for other disaffected Agency employees engaging in
similar activities in the future.
Since the publication of Agee's first book in 1975, Agee has contributed
to press exposures of CIA personnel, made numerous public appearances,
and has written anti-CIA articles for various publications in the U.S. and
abroad. He has become a focal point for dispensing information about
CIA to a large number of organizations whose goals, considered collectively,
are to impede the gathering of foreign intelligence by the U.S. , to thwart U.S.
foreign policy, and to undermine U.S. influence throughout the world.
Conclusion:
The crux of the entire expose problem is the physical safety of CIA
personnel and their families. Agee has attempted to downplay his indirect
contribution to the assassination of Athens Station Chief Richard Welch,
but the fact that the uncovering of CIA personnel stations abroad serves
to make them the potential targets of terrorist and other violence-prone
groups cannot be minimized or ignored.
Agee not only condones the use of violence against our personnel, he
actually invites it. His advice to those who read his exposes is to "organize
public demonstrations against those named - both at the American Embassey
 Approved For Release 2006/11/30: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600300055-3
and at their homes - and where possible, bring pressure on the Government
to throw them out." Agee then goes on to say that "Peaceful protest will
do the job." But he advises that "when it doesn't, those whom the CIA
has most oppressed will find other ways of fighting back."
Exposure of abuses by our intelligence services is one thing, but
indiscriminately uncovering CIA personnel and inviting violence against them
is unconscionable; it also poses a serious threat to the national security that
must be dealt with promptly.