'COUNTER-SPY' AIDE DENIES DIRECT LINK IN DEATH OF AGENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300490004-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 2, 2006
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 4, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/06/02: CIA-RDFD11314R000
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By Jim Adams
. Associated Prc'
A co-editor of "Counter-
Spy" concedes the publica-
tlon of CIA staticn chief
Richard S. We'ch's name
could have figured in his
assassination in Greece, but -
he denies any direct con-
rection. -
The co-editor of the
quarterly, Doug Porter,
contends Welch was so
widely known in Greece to
be the CIA station chief that
the assassins did not need
news disclosures of the
name to get it,
But he said in an inter-
view that publication of
1"rr'elcli's name last month
by the English-language
Athens News could have led
to his assassination a week
later.
t 'And it's conceivable:
COUNTER-SPY is pub-
'lisped by a nee rofit group
called Fifth Estate Sacurity
Education, set up ? three
years ago by former intelli-
gence agents and Vietnam
war protesters.
The 13-member advisor
hoard inciua s Chicago-
e,endant avid Dellinger
and Anthony Russo, who
was associated with Daniel
Ellsberg in the Pentagon
Papers case.
The paper is produced by
a staff of about seven, in-
cluding Porter', a former
editor of a San Diego coun-
terculture Ilewsr.nner -1-
supplements his income
now by tending bar three.
times a week. -
He said Counter-Spy's in publishing t h
names of senior CIA
agents, including 1, lelch, in
nearl
ico
y
countrie lt
sas the) (the Athens News) - -year was to expose and
could have gotten it frcrn - neutralize covert political
us," Porter said. operations. Despite the no-
toriety the once-obscure
PUT HE INSISTS even publication has received
that would not link Counter- ~r n
since t".e,I,,h s death, Porter
Spy directly to Welch's NO said ai?.l "Counter-Spy" will
inn because it had only re- continue publishing CIA
primed Be fact that lie was ngen*e names, about 70 in
CIA station chief in Peru. the next issue in February,
Porter said the quarterly
f`ot that inforrnati , h fresh, a " IEI; Tr
So'.I':h American u:';;sprtper lu'Ha `~, A lot O
and r' t I` i h S'i t
a 1927 directory pub- Yle feel uneasy about it.
lished in Germany. But we're still going to do
..,
..'~,e didn't Wen know he i,
.
was in Athens until he was Agents' lives are not
' 'killed,' Porter said. "If endangered Porter con-
tlhey got it from. us they ' tended, because the guar-
would have had to Mn uit, to terly only ? reprints names
gethe_ with something else. already publicly exposed.
"It's a really sad thing l.,,- said the mimes, in-
that he was killed," Porter - cleding the first 100, are
said. "We're not promoting only' of agents under light
terrorism." Cover. lie said "anyone
\Vclch, who was shot with a third-grade cauCa-
down by three masked gun- ticn" can pick these r.anhes
men in front of his home in out of U.S. embassy tcl-
Athens Dec. 23, is to be h^ books t,
bun Tu,_sd:iy :i in
I, A:'iil:g- po si'ii ns nsrr-iaiJy tlel by
CIA ---rents against the
StetC ~Dc nartment blo
phy t`-at stows what kind of
work they have done in the
past. -
THE QUARTERLY will
not publish names of agents
under "deep cover," Porter
said.
He said Fifth Estate
waists to expose covert po-
litical operations but agrees
that secrecy is nee red to
protect agents who gather'
military, economic and nail tror12 contril,.~tio:i~
other types of. intelligence. mail fund appeals and lec?`
Lure proceed;;.
In the issue carrvinc, the " Asked if Fifth NOW I.ac
100 Hanes, former CIA ever received rno ;.rp iror.,
:.
age; . and author p':'t:l> a known Communist tg-o
y ~
Agee said an article By any group that 1iuli!iciiy
"he most effective and advocates overthrovi of t c
irr portarlt Systematic cf.. g O V e r n Me n t, Porte
forts to combat CIA that replied, ''No rind v-
con be undertaken right. wouldn't accept that kind of
.
now are, I thin':, the identi- money.
'
ficSio:h, expcsure and new
'
tra':izatcn of its
wort:! g abroad."
Vii` - e said CIA people
cal Vb> ,7tified and ex-
posed through periodic
bulletins d'issemi:lated to
SubsCri`iers, Particularly
r%('i , and l''rgarn