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How America's Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered it Up
BY CARL BERNSTEIN
n 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America's leading syndicated columnists,Went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA. Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty-five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these journalists' relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services--from simple intelligence&Alit .ng to serving as go-betweens with spies in Communisr countries. Rtporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors-

without-portfeho for their country. Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their work; stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring-do of the spe business as in filing articles; and, the smallest category, full-time CIA employees masquerading as journalists abroad. In many instance), CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of s leading news organizations. America' The itistory of the CliVs involvement with the American press obfuscation and continnes to be shrouded by an official policy deception for the following principal reasons; 11 The use of journalists has been among the must productive means of intelligence-gathering employed by the CIA. Although the Agency Ims cut back sharply on the use of reporters since 1973 (primarily as a result of presetwe from the media), same journalist-operatives are grill posred abroad. I Further investigation into the matter, CIA officials say, would inevitably reveal a series of embarrassing relationships in the 1950s and 19605 with some of the most powerful organizations and individuals in American journalism. Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were William Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Time Inc., Arthur Hays Subtberger of the New York Times. Barry Bingham Se of the Louisville Coulter Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the l'slational Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newswelt mageeine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herold and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-'Tribune. By tar the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Time., CIS and Time Inc. The CIA's use of the American news media has been much more extensive than Agency officials have acknowledged publicly or in closed sessions with members of Congress. The general outlines of what happened are indisputable; the specifics are harder to came by. CIA sources hint that a particular journalist was trafficking all over Eastern Europe for the Agency; the journalist says no, he just had lunch with the stantm chief. CIA sources say flatly that a well-known ABC correspondent worked for the Agency through 1973; they refuse to identify him. A high-level CIA official with a prodigious memory says that the New fork Times provided cover for about ten CIA operatives between 1950 and 1966; he does not know who they were, or who in the newspaper 's management made the arrangements. s special relationships with the so-called "majors" in The Agency' publishing and broadcasting enabled the CIA to post some of its most valuable operatives abroad without exposure for more than two decades. In most instances, Agency Mee show, officials at the highest levels of the CIA f usually director or deputy director)dealt personally with a single detignared individual in the top management of the cooperating news organization. The aid furnished often took two forms: providing jobs and credentials ("journalistic cover" in Agency parlance) for CIA operatives about to be posted in foreign capitals; and lending the Agency the undercover services of reporters already on staff, including some of the best-known correspondents in the business. In the field, American journalists were used to help recruit and handle inreigners as agents; to acquire and evaluate information, and to plant false information with officials of foreign goverienents. Many signed entereca agreements, pledging never to divulge anything about their deehnge with the Agency; some signed employment contracts; some were neeigned case officers and created with unusual deference. Others had ley, sttucrured relationships with the Agency, even though they pc. feeened similar tasks: they were briefed by CIA personnel before trips abroad, debrisied afterward, and esed as intermediaries

of

with- foreign agents. Appropriately, the CIA uses the terra "reporting" to describe much of what cooperating journalists did for the Agency. We would ask them, 'Will you do us a favor?' " said a senior CIA " official. " 'We understand you're going to be in Yugoslavia. Have they paved all the streets? Where did you see planes? Were there any signs y presence? How teeny Soviets did YOU see? If ;-ou happen to of m meet a 'envier. get his name and spell it right .... Can you se: up a meeting cur us? Or relay a message?'" Many CIA ia:Icials regarded these helpful sournaliets as operatives; the journalisrs tended ra see themseleire as trusted friends of the Agency who performed occasional favoteusually without payin the national interest. Joseph 'Tin proud they asked me and proud to have dune it,' said undertook Alsop, Stewart columnist brother, late his like who, Mop clandestine tasks for the Agency. "The notion that a newspaperman doeee't beet a they to his country is perfect balls." s perspective, there is nothing untoward in such From the Agency' relationships. and any ethical questions are a matter for the journalistic profession to resolve. not the intelligence community. As :3tuart Loory, Former Let A igcle.v Times correspondent, has writtee in the Columbia jortmu'i ,u, Re.view '"Tt even one American overseas carrying a press card is a paid informer for the CIA, then all Americans with chose - a-edemas are suspect ....If the crisis of confidence faced by the news bu:;'..les:. along is irh the governmentis to be overcome, journalists must be willing to focus on ihemselvet the same spotlight they so rebook_alt train on others." But ns Loory also noted: "When it was . that newsmen themselves were on :lie payroll of the CIA, used a brief stir, and then was dtneftd." etey the DUI i. h e !i'll's investigation of the CIA by the Senate Intelligence Comm erg chaired by Servitor Frank Church, the dimensions of the Aieenva .nweiveintec with the press became apparent to several the - d the panel, as wet' as to two or three investigators on 17117 rI start. Fie r . op officials of the CIA, including former directors William Ctrilw and George Bush, persuaded the c .mmicree to restrict its inquiry into the matter and to &Jibe. etely misrepresent the actual scope of the 3COVILIrS in Its final report. T: mulcivolume report contain:, nine pages is which the use Jr journalists is discussed in delikerarele vague and sometimes misleading terms. It makes name until, of the actual number of journalism who undertook covert tasks for the CIA. Nur does it adequately describe the role played by negepaper and broadcast executives in cooperating with the Agency. THE AGENCY'S 1)EALINGS WITH THE PRESS BEGAN during she earliest :sego.. of the Cold War. Allen Dulles. who became dine for the CIA in 14 5 3, sought to establish a rem iiiting-and-cover within America's most prestigious journalistic institutions. lie orcrating tinder the guise of accredited news correspondents. I 's ledieyed. CIA igieratives abroad woad he accorded a degree of .111,1 Freedom it movement unobtainable under almost any other r re ie'r eigeir. Anieocan publishers. like so many cithe t. corporate and institutional leaders it the time. were willing to commit the resources of their comp:mm.5 to the struggle against "globe' Communism:' Accordingly, the traditional line separating the American press corps and government was often indistinguishable: rarely was a news agency used to vidt. cover for CIA operatives abroad without the knowledge and pr, t inieent or either its principal owner. publisher or senior editor. Thus, ce etre y to ihe nont-n that the CIA insidiously infiltrated the jourrialiire: e ommurare there k ample ee idence that America's leading publish-RT erN end news executi as allowed themselves and their organkratiOns s not pick on IltCoollt ha:Id:TIM& ra. ro !he intelligence services. "Let' ,...claimed at one so inn: poor reporters, u.- Cat sake;' noire to rf. . Churc h coil-I:I - MO.S investigator-. "Lees ee r of the manage :nests_ The.: were witoni,:' In all, about twenty-fr. c ness organizations fan luiting those lute.: -7 the beginning of this rruthcm provided cover For ils Agency,

"llebriefing' In addition to cover capability, Dulles initteted procedure under which American correspondents returnieg from abroad routinely emptied their notebooks and offered their impressions to Agency personnel. Such arrangements. cosy. ined by Dulles' successors ro the present day. were made with lirrr,,lh de:ens 'sinews organizations. In the 1950s, it was no; uncommon for returning reporters to be met at the ship by CIA officers. " rarer would be then? guys from- the CIA flashing ID cards and looking like they belonged at the Yale Club," said Hugh Morrow. a former Sdturd.rt Esvninit Post correspondent who is now press secretary to fanner vice-president Nielson Rockefellee "It got to be so routine that you felt a lode miffed if you weren't asked:. CIA officials Almost always refuse to divulge the names, of Journalists who have eooperated with the Agency. They say it would io unfair to judge these individuals in a contest difTerent from the One that spawned the relationships in the first pia,-e. -The.re was 1 tav,e when it wasn't considered a crime to serve '.our government:* said one highlevel CIA official who makes no secret of its leitternees. -The ,dl has to be considered in the context of the morality of the nines. rather than against latter-day standardsanti hypocritical stan.tirds at that.' Many journalists who covered World War II were lose to people in the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime predecessor of the CIA. more important, thee were all on the same side. When tire w.ir enoed and many OSS officials went into the CIA, it was coils natural that these relationships would continue. Meanwhile. the first postwer generation ofjournalists entered the profession; they shared the same political and professional values as their mentors. "You had a gang of pce. plc who worked together during World War II and never got over it," said one Agency official. ''They were genuinely motivated and highly susceptible to intrigue and being on the inside. Then in the Fifties :led Sixties there was a national consensus el out a national threat. '1 he Vietnam War tore everything to piecesshredded the moist nem, and threw it in the air." Another Agency official observed: "Many journekers didn't give a second thought to associating with the Agency. Rost th.i.n. ant a point when the ethical ;:tstts which most people had submerged finalle surfaced. Today, a lot of thew guys vehemently deny that they had anyrelationship with the Agency:' From the outset, the se of jonrnaliste wee :tinting de' CI As most sensitive undertakings, with full kilns., ledge restrirred to Lite Director of Central Intelligence and a few or his ....hoseit deputies. I 'ulles and his successors were fearful of what would happen if a journalist-operatwe'e coves was blown, or if details of the Agency's dealings with the press otherwise became public. As is result. contacts with rite heads of news organizations were normally initiated by Dulles and eureeedIng Direcdivision chiefs tors of Central Intelligence; by the ,l epull dues-tore in charge of covert operationsFrank Wiener, Cent Meyer Jr., Richard Biseell, Deammmnd FinsGeiald, Trace Ba rnes, I'lloisas Karamessines and Richard Helms (lonsselt a former UPI correspondent}: and. occasionally. by others in the CIA literarelly know', to have an unusually dose social relationship with ,t particular publisher or broadteaec executive,' James Angleton, who was recently removed as the Agency's head of counterintelligence operations, ran a completely independent group of journalist-operatives who performed sensitive and frequently dangerous assignments; little is known about this group for the simple reason that Angleton deliberately kept only the vaguest of tiles, The CIA even ran a formal training program in the 19cUs to teach its agents to be journalists. lntellig,:nIce officers were "taught to make noises like reporters." explained a high CIA official, and were then placed in major news organizattons with help from management. "These were the guys who went through the rinks and were told, 'You're going to be a journalist: " the CIA official said. Relatively few of the 400-some relationships described in Agency files followed that pattern, however;most involved persons who were already bona fide journalists when they began undertaking tasks for the Agency. The Agency's relationships with journalises, as described in CIA tiles, include the following general categories:

IN Legitimate, accredited staff members of news organisations usually reporters. Some were paid: some worked for the Agency ou a purely voluntary basis. This group includes many of the best-known journalists who carried out tasks for the CIA. The tiles show that the ! salaries paid to reporters by newspaper and broadcast networks woe sometimes supplemented by nominal payments from the CIA, either in the form of retainers, travel expenses or outlays for specific sereieso performed. Almost all the payments were made in cash. IThe accredited category also includes photographers. administrative personnel of foreign news bureaus and members of broedcase technical crews.) Two of the Agency's most valuable personal relationships in the 1960siccorditsg to CIA officials, were with reporters who covered Latin AmericaJerry O'Leary of the Warbiligzon Sear and Hal Hen. drix of the Miami Nerve, a Pulitzer Prize winner who became a high official of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. Hendrix was extremely helpful to the Agency in providing information about individuals in Miami's Cuban cede community 'O'Lenry was considered a valued asset in Haiti and the Deminiren Republic Agency files contain lengthy reports of hod, men's activities on behalf of the CIA. O'Leary maintains that his dealings were limited to the normal give-and-take that goes on between reporters abroad and their sources. CIA officials dispute the contention: "There's no question Jeers reported for us." eau! one "Jerry did assessing and spotting l of prospective agents' bur he was better as a reporter fur us." Referring to O'Leary's denials, the official Added: "I don't know what in the world he's worried about unless he's wearing that mantle of integrity the Senate committee put on you journalists." O'Leary attributes the difference of opinion to semantics. "I might call them up and say something like, 'Papa Doc has the clap, did you know that?' and they'd put it in the file. I don't consider that reporting for them. ... It's useful to he friendly to them and, generally, I felt friendly to them. But I think they were more helpful to me than I was to Elwin." O'Leary rook particular exception to being described in the Same context as Hendrix. 'Hal was really doing %sock for them," said O'Leary. "I'm still with the Star. He ended up at Mr Hendrix could n ot be reached for comment. According to Agency officials, wither Hendrix nor O'Leary was paid by the CIA. Stringers' and freelancers. Most were payrolled by the Agency under standard contractual terms. Their journalistic credentials were often supplied by cooperating news organizations; some filed news stories; others reported only for the CIA. On some occasions, news orgenizatiotte were not informed by the CIA that their striegers were also working for the Agency. Employees of so-called CIA "proprietaries:' During the roe twenty-live veers, the Agency has secretly bankrolled non,r,n, foreign press services, periodicals and newspapersboth Engliell in foreign lang,singe which provided excellent cover for CIA eperenyee One such publication was the Rome Deity Ilnrrrir.rn, forty percent of Anvrican went which was wired ley the CIA until the 1970s. The out of business this year. NI Editors, publishers and broadcast network executives. The CI.Vs relationship with most news executives differed ffindamentally from those with working reporters and stringers, who were much more subject to dionstion from the. Agency. A few executivesArthur Hays Sulzberger of the New Yo;;C Timer among themsigned secrecy agreements. But such formal understandings were rare: relationships between Agency officials and media executives were usually social "The P and Q Street axis in Georgetown," said ore source. "You don't tell William Paley to sign a piece of paper saying he won't fink." III Columnists and commentators. There are perhaps a dozen wellknown columnists and broadcast commentators whose relationships with the CIA go far beyond those normally maintained between reporters and their sources. They are referred to at the Agency as "known assets" and can be counted on to perfornt a variety of undercover tasks; they are considered receptive to the Agency's point of view on various subjects.

Three of the most widely read columnists who maintained such ties with the Agency are C,... Sulzberger of the Nes Kirk, Tinte, Joseph Alsop, and rho are Stetvaet Alsop, whose enlunin appeared iti the New York Herald-liebuire, the Saturday Evening Am and aNewtit eek. CIA files contain reports of specific tasks all three undertook.. Saieberger is still regarded as an active asset by the Agency. According to a senior CIA official. "Young Cy Sulzberger had some Lvigt),,1 A secrecy agreement because we gave hirn classified U5CA information. fltere was sharing, give and take. We'd sass 'Vv'eli like to know this; it we tell you this will it helps you get access ro so-and-so?' Because of his eicess in Europe he had an Open Sesame. We'd ask him to just report: 'What did 10-and oo say, what did lie look like, is he healthy:" He was very eriger he loved to cooperate." On one occasion. according to several CIA officials, Sulzberger was given a briefing piper by the Agency which ran almost verbatim under the columnists hvlitte in the Tune,. "Cy came our and said, 'I'm thinking of doing a piece, eon you give nae some background?' " a CIA officer said, "We gave it to th, as a I :ickgrotind piece and Cee gave it to the printers and put his name oil Sulzberger denies that any such incident occurred. "A Lit of balone;:' he said. Sulzberger claims that he was never formally "tasked" by the Agency and that he "would never get caugWineat the spook business. My relations were totally informalI had a good many friends;' he said. "l'm sure they consider me an asset. They can ask me questions. They find our You're going to Slobovia and they say, Can we talk to you when you get beck?' ... Or they'll want to know if the head of the Rumanian government is suffering from psoriasis. But I never took an assignment frum one of those guys.... I've known Wisner well, and Helms and even McCone [former CIA director John ivIc.Cone] I used to play golf with, But they'd have had to be awfully subtle to have used RIC." Sulberger says he was asked to sign the secrecy agreement in the 14150s. "A guy came around and said, 'You are a responsible newsman and we need you to sign this if we are going to show you anything classified: I said I didn't want to get entangled and told them, 'Go to my uncle [Arthur Hays Sulzberger, then publisher of the New York Times] and if he says to sign it I will: " His uncle subsequently signed such an agreement, Sulzberger said, and he thinks he did, ma, though he is unsure. I don't knots; twenty-some years is a long time," He described the whole question as "a bubble in a bathtub." Stewart Alsop's relationship with the Agency was mach more extensive than Sulsberger's, One official who served at the highest levels in the CIA said dash,: "Stew Alsip was a CIA agent." An equally senate tifficinl refused to define Alsop's reIntionsItip with the Agency excepi to say it was a formal one. Other sources said that Alsop was parneularly helpful to the Agency in discussions with officials of foreign governmentsasking questions to which the CIA was seeking answers, planting misinformation advantageous to American policy, assessing opportunities for CIA recruitment of well-placed foreigners . "Absolute nonsense," said Joseph Alsop of the notion that his brother was a CIA agent ; was closer to the Agency than Stew was, rIzough Stew was very close.I dare say he did perform some taskshe just did the correct thing as an American.... The Fos:riding Feathers [uf the CIA] were close personal friends of ours. Dick 3issell [former CIA deputy director) was my oldest friend, from childhood. It was a social thing, my dear fellow. I never received a dollar, never signed a secrecy agreement. I didn't have to.... I've done things for them when I thought they were the right thing to do. I call it doing my duty as a cis,Alsop is willing to discuss on the record only two of the tasks he underroole: a nail. to Laos in 19s1. at the behest of frank W'isner, who felt other Americ.m reporters were using inch-American sources about uprisings there; and a visit to the Philippines in 1953 when the CIA thought his presence there ought affect the outcome of an elecciun. "Des FitzGerald urged me to go," Alum recalled. "It would be less likely that the election could be stolen f by the opponents of Ramon Magsaysayl if the eyes of the world were on them. I stayed with the eathassador and wrote about what happened."

Alsop maintains that he was never manipulated by the Agency. "You can't get entangled so they have leverege on you:" he said. "But what I wrote was true. My view was rut get the facts. It someone in the Agency was wrong, I stopped talking to them---they'd given me phony goods:' On one occasion, Alsop said, Richard Helms authorized the head of the Agency's analytical branch to provide Mates with information on Soviet mi4rary presence along the Chinese hordes The analytical
side of the Agency 11441 been dead wrung about the war in Vietnam they thought it couldn't be won:' said Mop. "And they were wrone, on t he Soviet buildup. l stopped talking to diem." Today, he says, "People

in our husinest would be outraged at the kinds of euggesrions that were made to me. They shouldn't he. The CV, did not open itself at all to people it did not trust. Stew mid I were crusted, and I'm proud of la"
MURKY OVI;411...ti OF Clrl.REIATIONSHIPS WITH INDIVID-

disclosed that the CIA had, on occasion, employed journalists. Those reports. combined with new information, serve as casebook studies of clude: 1 The New York Tames. The Agency's relationship with the Times was

Ids and news organizations began trickling out in 197.3 when it was first

the ,Agency's use of journalists for intelligence purposes. They in-

by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. From 1950 to 1066, about ten CIA employees were provided TOMS cover under arrangements approved by the newspaper's late publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger. The rover arrangements were part of a general Timer policyset by Sulzbergerto provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible. Suleherger was especially close to Allen Dulles. 'At that trVel of contact it H as tile mighty talkiag to the mighty;" said a high-level CIA official who was present at some of the discussions. "There was an agreement in principle that, yes indeed, we would help each other. The question of cover came op on several occasions. It was agreed that the actual arrangrierits would be heitelled by subordinates. ,.. The mighty didn't want 04 know the specifics; they wanted plausible deniability:' is son it CIA official who reviewed a portion of the AgeneV.'s files on journalism for two hours on September 15th, l'277, said-he found docementation of five instances in which the Timet had provided cover for CIA employee:, be t44 ren 1954 and :ib2.In each instance he sae-la-he rramsemencs were handled by executives of the Times; the documents all contained standerd Agency language "showing th.0 this had been checked ant at higher levels of the New Iiirk Times," said the official. The docmnents not mention Sulzberger's 11.31T:C howeveronly those of aillordinates whom the official refiesed to identify-. The CIA emplayees sslio received Timer credentials posed as stagers for the paper abroad and worked as members of clerical staffs in the Thee,' foreign bureaus. Most were American; two or three were foreigners. CIA Oicials cite two reasons why the Agency's working redarionellip with the Times was closer and more extensive than with any other paper: the tact that the Times maintained the largest foreign news per-mon in Amerteen daily journalism; and the close personal ties between the men who ran both institutions. Sulzberger informed a number of reporters and editors of his general policy of cooperarion with the Agency, "We were in touch with themthey'd talk to us and sonic cooperated' said a CIA official. The cooperanon usually involved passing on information and "spotting" prosper:nye agents among foreigners. Arthur Hays Sulzherger signed a secrecy agreement with the CIA in the tuade, according to CIA ofticialsa finer canfiimed by his nepltets Cl.. . Sulzberger. However, there are varying interpretations of the purpose of the agreement: C.L. Sulzberger says it represented nothige more than a pledge nor to disclose classified information made available to the publisher, That contention is supported by sonic Agency officials. Others in the Agency maintain char the agreemen t represented a pledge never to reveal any of the Timer' dealings with the CIA, especially those involving covet. And there are those .eho note that. heratiie etc:el' arrangements are classified, a secrecy agreement wohld automitically apply to them.

Dr. Frank Stanton. for 25 years president of the network, was aware of the general areinzements Paley made with Dulles including those fur rover, according to CIA officials. (Stanton, in an interview last year, said lie could not recall any covet arrangements.) But Paley's designated contact for the Agency was Sig Mickelson, president of CBS News between 1954 and 1961. On one occasion, Mickelson has said, he complaint.:inStanton about has itig to use a pay telephone to call the CIA, and Stanton suggested he install a private line. bypassing the CBS switchboard, for the purpose. According to Mickelson, he did so. Mickelson is now president of Radio Free Europe and Radio liberty, both of which were associated with this CIA for many years. In 1976. CBS News president Richard Salm ordered en in-house investigation of the networks dealings with the CIA. (Some of its Whigs were first diseloeed by Robert Scheer in the Los Angel's Times.) But Salaries report makes no mention of some of his own dealings with the Agency, which continued into the 1970s. Many details elsolit the CBS-CIA relationship were found in Mickelson's files In two investigators for Salant. Among the documents they found was a September 13th, 1957, memo to Mickelson from Ted Koop, CBS News horeao chief inWashington from 1948 to 1961.It describes a phone call to Koop from Colonel Stanley Grogan of the CIA:"Grog an phoned to say that Reeves LLB. Love Reeves. another CIA official] is going to New York to be in charge of the CIA contact office there and will call to tar you .ind some of' your confreres. Grogan says normal On January 3Ist, 1976. the Times carried a brief story describing the activities will continue to channel through the Washington office of CIAs attempt to recruit Phillips. It quoted Arthur Ochs Sulzberg er, CBS News." Tlw report to Salant also scares: "Further investigation of the present publisher, as follows: "I never heard of the Times being Mickelson's files reveals some details of the relationship between the approached. either in my capacity as publisher or as the son of the CIA and CBS News Two key administrators of this relationship late Me Sulzberger." The 'rinses story, written by John M. Crewdson , also were Mickelson and Koop.... The main activity appeared to be the reported that Arthur Hays Sulzberger told an unnamed former corredelivery of CBS liewsfilm to the CIA.... In addition there is evidence spondent that he might be approached by the CIA after arriving at that, during 1964 to 1971, film material, including some outtakes, were a new post abroad. Sulzberger told him that he was not "under any supplied by the CBS Newsfilm Library to the CIA through and at the obligation to agree," the' story said, and that the publisher himself direction 01' Mr. Koop 4.... Notes in Mr. Michelson's his indicate that would be "happier" if he refused to cooperate. "But he left it sort of the CIA lewd CBS films for training.... All of the above l'vlickelso up n CO me," the Timer quoted its former reporter as saying. -The message activitica til.re handled on a confidential basis without mentioning the was 11 1 really wanted ro do that, okay, but he didn't think it appropriat words Central Intelligence Agency. The films were sent to individual e s for a Times correspondent." at post-office box numbers and were paid for l'y individual, not C.L. Sulzberger, in a telephone interview, said he had no knowledge government. checks...." Isliekelson also regularly sent the CIA an of any CIA personnel using Times cover or of reporters for the paper intermil r.BS newsletter. according to the report. working actwely for the Agency. He was the paper's chief of foreign Saltines investigation ledhim to conclude that Frank Kearns, a service from 1944 to 1954 and expressed doubt that his uncle would CBS-TV reporter from 1958 to 1971, "was a CIA guy who got on the have approved such arrangements. More typical of the late publisher. payroll somehow through a CIA contact with somebody at CBS." -aois has denied the charge, But according to CIA .officials, both said Sulzberger, was a promise made to. Allen Dulles' brother, John Kearns end Austin Goodrich. a CBS stringer, were undercover CIA Faster, then secretary of state, that no Times staff member would be permitted to accept an invitation to visit the People's Republic of China employees. hired under arrangements approved b', Paley. Lain veer a %nukes:rem for Paley denied a report by former CBS without John Foster Dulles' conseriTch an invitation was extended to the publisher's nephew in the 1950s; Arthur Sulzberger forbade him correspondent Daniel Schorr that Mickelson and he had discussed Goodrich's CIA status during a meeting with two Agency represent to accept it. "It was seventeen years before another Times correspon adtives in 1914. The spokesman claimed Paley had no 'Knowledge that ent was inviter C.L. Sidzberger recalled, II The Columbia Broadcasting System. CBS was unquestionably Goodrich had worked for the CIA. "When I moved into the job I was the told by Pales' that there was an ongoing relationship with the CIA," CIA's most valuable broadcasting asset. CBS president William Paley and Allen Dines enjoyed an easy working and social relationship. Over Mickelson said in a recent interview. "He introduced me to two agents who he said would keep in touch. We all discussed the Goodrich the years, the network provided cover fur CIA employees, including at least one well-known foreign correspondent and several stringers; situatio ns and film arrangements. I assumed this was a normal relait tionship at the time. This was at the height of the Cold War and supplied outtakes of newsfihn to the CIA'; established a formal channel I assusor d die communications media were cooperatingthough the of communication between the Washington bureau chief and the Agency; gave the Agency access to the CBS newsfilm library: and Goodrich matter was compromising." allowed reports by CBS correspondents to the Washington and New At the headquarters of CBS News in New York, Paley's coopersnen with the CIA is taken for granted by many news executives and Yorl: newsrooms to he routinely monitored the CIA. Once a year reporters. despite the denials. Nets 76, was not interviewed by Solent's during the 1950s and early 1960s, CBS torrespondenta joined the CIA investigators. "It wouidn't do any good," said one CBS executive. "It hierarch., for orivote dinners and briefings. is The derails of the CBS-CIA arrangements were worked our by the sttqe subject about shirk Ins memory has failed." sotonosnotes of both Dulles and Paley. "The Salem. demuseed his own contacts with the CIA, and the fact that he head of the company doesn't want to know the fine points, nor does the director," said a CIA confirmed many of his predecessor's practices. in an interview with this reporter /am year. The contacts. hr said, began in February MI, "when official "Both designate aides to work that out. It keeps them above the I .dept phone call foots a CIA marl who said he had a working battle." relationship oith Sig Nil:keit:on. The man said, 'Your bosses know all

Attempts to find out which individuals in the Times organization made the actual arrangements for providing credentials to CIA personnel have been unsuccessful. In a letter to reporter Stuart Loory in 197o, Timmer Cadedge, managing editor of theTimes from 1951 to 1964, wrote. that approaches by the CIA had been rebuffed by the newspape r: "I knew nothing about any involvement with the CIA... of any of our foreign correspondents on the New York Times. I heard many times of overtures to our men by the CIA. seeking to use their privileges . caiiirecta, immunities and. shall we say, superior intelligence in the stoma business of spying and Informing. ifany one if them succumbe d to the blandishmeurs or cash offers, I was not aware of it. Repeated ly, the CIA and other hush-hush agencies sought to make arrangements for 'cooperation' even with Times management, especially during or soon after World War II, but we always resisted. Our motive was to protect our credibility." According to Wayne Phillips, a former Times reporter. the CIA invoked Arthur Hays Sulzhe rger's name when it tried to recruit him as an undercover operative in 1952 while he was studying at Columbia University's Russian Institute. Phillips said an Agency official told him chat the CIA had "a working arrangement" with the publisher in which other reporters abroad had been placed on the Agency's payroll. Phillips, who remained at the *nth:, until 1961, later obtained CIA documents under rite Freedom of Information Act which show that the Agency intended to develop him as a clandestine "asset" for use abroad.

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about h.' " According to Saint, the CIA repreentanye ...ked that C BS continue to supply the Agency with Unedited neneetpee eed make its eorreepondeme available fee debriefule !iv Agree , : ,rn robs. Said Selene: "I said no nu talking to the rine trees, and let them set
hroadmit czyw-L. but no onttakeS. 11.9,

the 1950e and e.)6(ls encouraged their foreign correspondents provide help to the CIA, particularly information that might lie usefet to the Agency for intelligence purposes or recruiting foreigners. At Neetweek. Agency sources reported. the CIA engaged tin services of several foreign correspondents and stringers under ar. :engem-ems approved by senior editors at the magazine. ,Vets-wit'. stringer in l! nine in the mid-Fifties made little se.. ref of the fact that le worked for the CIA. Malcolm Muir, Nrs tweei's editor from it founding in 19.'37 until its sale to the Weshinetton poor Company it WO. said in a recent interview that his dealings with the CIA wen limited to private briefings he gave Allen Dulles after trips abroad an arrangements he approved for regular debriefing of Netoweek corre eponderirs by the Agency. He said that he had never provided euver fn CIA operatives, but that others high in rho News-week orgenizetiel might have done so without hie knowledge. "I would hue thought there might have been stringers who wee, agents, but I didn't know who-they were." said Muir. "I Jo think it .motel, those days the CIA kept pretty close touch with all revs reporters. Whenever I heard something that I thoogin might he , interest to Allen Dunes, I'd call hi m up...TAt one point he appointee one of his CIA men to keep in regular contact with our reporters. chap that I knew but whose name I can't remember. I had a number o friends in Allen Dulles' organization." Muir said that Harry Kern Neese week's Foreign editor from 1945 until 1956. and Ernest K. Lindle; the magazines Washington bureau chief during the same period "regularly checked in with various fellows in the CIA." "To the best of my knowledge;' said Kern, "nobody at Newsweo worked for the CIA... ,The informal relationship teas there. Why hay. anybody sign anything? What we knew we told them [rile CIA] and rh State Department.... When I went to Washington, I would talk Foster or Allen Dulles about what was going on.... We thought it we admirable at the time. We were all on the same side." CIA officiate se that Kern's dealings with the Agency were extensive. In 1956, he lel Nene-week to run Foreign Reports, a Washington-based newsletter when subscribers Kern refuses to identify. Ernest Lindley, who remained at Newsweek until 1%1, said in a recer interview that he regularly consulted with Dulles and other high CI: officials before going abroad and briefed them upon his return. "Able was very helpful to me and I tried to reciprocate when I could." he sair "I'd give him my impressions of people I'd met overseas. Once or rive: he asked me to brief a large group of intelligence people; when I camback from the Asian-African conference in 1955, for eeample; the mainly wanted to know about various people." As Washington bureau chief, Lindley said he learned from Malcolm Muir that the magazine's stringer in southeastern Europe was a CIe contract employeegiven credentials under arrangements worked 0.: with the management, "I remember it came up--whether it WAS is gore idea to keep this person from the Agency; eyenrualle it was decided t discontinue the association," Lindley said, When Newsweek was purchased by time Waehingenti Post Compan publisher Philip L. Graham was informed by Agency officials that th CIA occasionally used the magazine For cover purposes, accordim!, ; CIA sources. "It was- widely known that Phil Graham was some hoc you could get helpp from,' said a former deputy lirector of the Agent"Frank Wisner dealy with him." Wisner, deputy director of LiliT from 1950 until shortly before his suicide in 1963. was the Agency premier orchestrator of -black': operations, including many in whit journalists were involved. (Wisner liked to boast of his -milev Wurlieger:' a wondrous propaganda instrument he built, and plate, with help from the press.) Phil Graham was probably Wisner's close: friend. But Graham, who committed sole:de in 1%3. apt:an:ridy krie little of the specifics of any rover arrangements with ee., ttri4 , CI, source; said. In 1965-66, sin accredited Niworcek srrinur in the Far East was it

ritunt,er yearsinto the early Seventws,In 1964 and 190, Salem served on a supersecret CIA task force whic.b, explored methods of beaming Anweican premagende broadcasts .eve People:, Republic of Cuna. The ocher me inbeee of the four-man study team were Zbigniew Lirzultinski, then a professor at Columbia University; William fTeriffith, then professor tzf potiticel science at the Inlassechueeres Immure of Technology; and John E levee, then vicepresident of the Washington Poo- Company for nicht i-TV`. The principal government officials associated with the rt te Cord Meyer of the CIA; McGeorge Bundy, (1101 Special r,, the president for national security; Leonard Marks, then direee . Ile USIA; and Johnson and Bill Moyers, then special assistant to President now a CBS correspondent. Salaries involvement in the project bcgan with a call trims Leonard Marks, "who told me the White House wanted to forme committee of four people to make a study of U.S. overseas broadcaete behind the Iron Curtain." When Selene arrived in Washingein for the first meeting he was told that the project was CIA sports, wed. "Its purpose," he said, "was to determine how best to set up ebortwave hr. tadcasts into Red China." Accompanied by a CIA officer named Peul Henzte, the committee of four subsequently traveled around the world inspecting facilities rim by Radio Free Europe am! Radio Liberty (both CIA-run operations at the rime), the Voice of America and Armed FtlITES Radio. After more than a year of study, they submitted a report to Moyers recommending that the government establish a broadcast service, run by the Voice of America, to be beamed at the People's Republic of China. (Salem has served CWS I tours as head of CBS News, from 1961-64 and 1966-present. At the time of the China project lie was a CBS corporate executive.)

III Time and Newsweek magazines. According to CIA and Senate sources, Agency files contain written agreements with former foreign correspondents and stringers for both the weekly news magazines. The satne sources refused to say whether the CIA has ended all its associations with individuals who work for the two pubLeanons. Allen Dulles often interceded with his good Friend, the late Henry Luce, founder of Time and Lift magazines, who readily dlltiwed certain members of his staf. tee work for the Agency and agreed to pruride subs and credentials for other CIA operatives who lacked journalistic experience. For many years, Luce's pe r.7,1,nal emissary to the CIA was C.D. Jackson, a Time Inc., vice-president who was publisher of Life maga. zine from 1960 until his death in 1964. While a Time executive, Jackson coauthored a CIA-sponsored study reci.onmending the reorganization of the American intelligence services in the early 1950s. Jackson, whose Time-Life service was interrupted by a one-year White House lour as an assistant to President Dwight Eisenhower, approved epeeitie arrangements For providing CIA employees with Time-Life cover. Some_ of these arrangements were made with the knowledge of Luce's. wife, Clare Boothe. Other arrangements for Time rover, according to CIA officials (including Those who dealt with Luce), were made with the knowledge of Heelley Donovan, now editor-in-cluef of Time Inc. Donovan. who took over editorial direction of all Time Inc. publicsteens in 1959, denied in a telephone interview that he knew of any such was never approached and I'd he amazed if Luce arrangements. approved such arrangements:' Donovan said. "Luce had a very scrupulous regard for the difference between journalism and government . In the 19501 and each; I960s. rime magazine's foreign correspondent, attended CIA -brie fing" dinners similar to rhose the CIA held for 0355. And Luce, according to CIA officiate. made it a regular pracrice to brief Dulles or other high Agency officials when he returned from his frequent trips abroad. Luce and the men who ran his magazines in

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fact a CIA contract employee earning an annual salary of $10,000 from dent and publisher of the Wilmington (Delaware) Newt & Journal; the Agency, according to Robert T. Wood, then a CIA officer in the said: "All I can do is repeat the simple cruth--thar never, under any Hong Kong station. Sonar Newsweek correspondents and stringers circumstanc es, or at any rime, have I ever knowingly hired a governcontinued to maintain covert tics with the Agency into the 1970s, CIA ment agent. I've also tried to dredge my memory, but Campbell's hiring sources said. Informatina about Agency dealings with the Washington Post news- meant sti Little to me that nothing emerges... . None of this is to say that paper is extremely sketchy. According to CIA officials, some Port I couldn't have been 'had:" Barry Bingham Se said last year in a stringers have been CIA employees, but these officials say they do not telephone interview that he had no specific memory of Campbell's hiring and denied that he knew of any arrangements between the know if mimic in the Post management was awrite of the arrangenewspaper's management and the CIA. However, CLA officials said ments. All editors-in-chief and managing editors of the Post since 1950 say char the Courier jeered, throueli contacts with Bingham, provided they knew of no finitaal Agency relationships with either stringers or other unspecified assistance to the Agency in the 1950s and 1960s. The Courier -faunal detailed. front-page account or Campbell's hiring was members of the Post staff. "If anything was done it was done by Phil initiated by Barry Bingham Jr., who succeeded his &thee as editor ailfi without our knowledge," said one. Agency officials, meanwhile, make no clai. a that Post staff members have had covert affiliations with the publisher of the paper in 1971. The article is the cabby major piece of self-investigation by a nmenpaper that has appeared on this subjects Agency while winking For the paper.' Katharine Graham, Philip Graham's widow and the current pub- MI The American Broadcasting Company and the National Broadcastlisher tif the Poo, says she has never been informed of any CIA ing Company. According to CIA officials, ABC continued to provide relationships with either Port or Newsweek persnimel. In November of cover for some CIA operatives through the 1960s. One was Sam Jaffe 1973, Mrs. Graham called William Colby and asked if any Port who CIA officials said performed clandestine tasks for the Agency. stringers or staff members were associated with the CIA. Colby Jaffe has acknowledged only providing die CIA with information. In aseured her that no staff members were employed by the Agency but addition, another well-known network correspondent performed covert tasks for the Agency, said CIA sources. the the rime of die Senate refused to discuss the question of stringers. MI The Lauinille Courier-Journal. From December 1964 until March hearings, Agency officials serving at the highest levels refused to say 1965, a CIA undercover operanve named Robert H. Campbell worked whether the CIA was still maintaining active relationships with on the CourierVournal. According to high-level CIA sources, Campbell members of the ABC-News organization. All cover arrangements was hired by the paper under arrangements the Agency made with were made with the knowledge of ABC executives, the sources said. These same sources professed to know few specifics about the Norman E. Isaacs, then executive editor of the Courier Journal. Barry Bingham Sr., then publisher of the paper, also had knowledge of the Agency's relationships with NBC, except that several foreign correarrangements, the sources said. Both Isaacs and Bingham have denied spondents of the network undertook some assignments for the Agency in the 195t1s and 1960s. "It was a thing people did thee said Richard knowing that Campbell was an intelligence agent when he was hired. The complex saga of Campbell's hiring was first revealed in a Wald. president of NBC NCWA since 1973. "I wouldn't be surprised if C.,urier-journal story written by James Herzog on March 27th, 1976, people hereincluding some of the correspondents in those days during the Senate committees investigation. Herzog's account began: had connections with the Agencn" When 28-year-old Robert H. Campbell was hired as a Courier Journal El The Copley Press, and its subsidiary, the Copley News Service. reporter in Del ember 1964, he cot;Idn't type and knew little about news This relationship, firm disclosed publicly by reporters Joe Trento and writing." The account then quoted the paper's former managing editor Dave R0111:111 in Pentbotoe magazine, is said by CIA officials to have as saying that Isaacs told him that Campbell was hired as a result of a been among the Agency's most productive in retina of getting "outside" CIA request: "Norman said, when he was in Washington bin 19641, he cover for irs employees. Copley owns nine newspapers in California and had been coiled to lunch with some friend of his who was with the CIA Illinoisamen them the San Dietv Union and Evening Tribune. The [and thati he wanted to send this young fellow down to get him a little Trento-Roman account, which was financed by a grant from the Fund knowledge of newspripering:' All aspects of Campbell's hiring were For Intiestrgative Journalism, asserted that at least twenty-three Copley highly unusual. No effort had been made to cheek his credentials, and News Service employees performed work for the CIA. "The Agency's his employment records contained the following two notations: "Isaacs involvement with the Copley organization is so extensive that it's almost has files of correspondence and investigation of des man -; and, "Hired imps asenile to sort out," said a CIA official who seas asked about the relationship lase in 1976. Other Agency officials said'then that James S. for temporary work--no reference checks completed or needed." The letie! of Campbell's journalistic abilities apparently remained Copley. the chain's owner until his death in 1973, personally made most consistent during his stint at the paper. "The stuff that Campbell of the cover arrangements with the CIA. orklint; to Trellis, and Roman. Copley personally volunteered his turned in was almost unreadable:. snail a former assistant dry editor. One of Campbell's major reporronal projects was a feature about news service to d ler, -preside' it Eisenhower to act as "the eyes and ears" woo tier: Indians. It was never published. Doting his tenure at the paper, against -the Communist threat in Latin and Central America" for our Campbell frequented a bar a few steps frum the ornce where, on intelligence services.' James Copley was also the guiding hand behind occasicn, he reportedly confided to fellow drinkers that he was a CIA the Inter-American Press Association, a CIA-funded organization with heavy membership among right-wing Latin American newspaper employee. According to CIA sources, Campbell's tour at the Courier Journal -afoot:a was arranged to provide him with a record of journalistic experience Si Other tromit news iieganizatinns. According to Agency officials, that would enhance the plausibility of future reportorial cover and CIA files document additional cover arrangements with the follow.. mien him something about the newspaper business. The Courier- ing news-gathering organizations. among others: the New York HeraldJournal's investigation also turned up the fact that before coming to Tribune . the Saturday Evening Pont, ;Scripps-Howard Newspapers, Louisville he had worked briefly for the Hornell, New York, Evening Hearst Newspapers (Seymour K. Freidin, Hearst's current London Tribune, published by Freedom News. Inc. CIA sources said the bureau chief and a former Herald-T-ibrine editor and correspondent, has Agency had made arrangements with that paper's management to been identified as a CIA operative by Agency sourceel, Associated Press, United Press Interne:ion:1k the Mutual Broadcasting System, employ Campbell: At the Courier-Journal, Campbell was hired under arrangements Reuters and the Miami Herald. Cover arrangements with the Herold, made with Isaacs and approved by Bingham, said CIA and Senate according to CIA officials, were .musual in that they were made "on the sources. "We paid the Courier Journal so they could pay his salary," said ground by the CIA station in Miami, nor from CIA headan Agency official who was invoked in the transaction. Responding by amerce rS. letter to these assertions, Isaacs, who left Louisville ro become presi-

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dine he rook over. 'Too prominent," the director frequently said of some of the individuals and news organizations then workrrtg with the CIA. (Others in the Agency refer to their best-ki.nven journalistic assets .1711111d. names.") "Colby's concern was that he might lose the resource altogether unless we became a little more careful about who we used and how we got them," explained one of the former director's deputies. The thrust of Colley's subsequent actions was to move the Agency's effiliansons away from the so-called "majors" and to concentrate them instead in smaller newspaper chains, broadcasting groups and such specialized publications as trade journals and newsletters. Met Colby left the Agency on January 28th, 1976, and was LBY CUTS H1S LOSSES j succeeded by George Bush, the CIA announced a new policy: "Effec; rive immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contractual relationship with any full-time or part-rime news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper; periodical, radio or television network or station." At the time of the announcement, the 7'HE CIA'S USE OF JOURNALISTS CONTINUED VIRAgency acknowledged that the policy would result in termination of wally unabated until 1973 when, in response to public disclosure that less than half of the relationships with the 50 U.S. journalists it said the Agency had secretly employed American repotters, William Colby were still affiliated with the Agency. The text of the announcement began scaling down the program. In his public statements, Colby conveyed the impression that the use of journalists had been minimal 'noted that the CIA would continue to "welcome" the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists. Thus, many relationships were permitted to and of limited importance to the Agency. remain intact. He then iniriated a series of moves intended to convince the press. The Agency's unwillingness to end its use of journalists and its Congress and the public that the CIA had gotten out of the news continued relationships with some news executives is largely the business. Bur according to Agency officials, Colby. had in fact thrown a product of two basic facts of the intelligence game: journalistic cover is protective net around his most valuable intelligence assets in the , : and many ideal because of the inquisitive nature of a renortern jet journalistic community. He ordered his deputies to maintain Agency other sources of institutional cover have been denied the CIA in recent ties with its best journalist contacts while severing formal relationship7T . years by businesses, foundations e id educational institutions that once with many regarded as inactive, relatively unproductive or only marginconsecrated with the Agency. Ay important. In reviewing Agency files to comply with Colby's "It's tough to run a secret :sg.:ricy in this country," explained one directive, offireaLs found that many journalists had not performed useful high-level CIA official. "Vie have a curious ambivalence about infunctions for the CIA in years. Such relationships, perhaps as many as a telligence. In order to stove overseas we need cover. But we have been hundred, were terminated between 1971 and 1976. fighting a rear-guard action to try and provide coven The Peace Corps Meanwhile, important CIA operatives who had been placed on the staffs of some major newspaper and broadcast outlets were told to is off-limits, an is USIA, the foundations and voluntary organizations resign and become stringers or freelancers, thus enabling Colby to have been off-limits since '6Z and there is a self-impased prohibition on assure concerned editors that members of their staffs were not CIA Fulbnghtr, [ Fulbright Scholars). If you take the American community employees. Colby also feared that some valuable stringer-operatives and line up who could work far the CIA end who couldn't there is a might find their covers blown if scrutiny of the Agency's ties with very narrow potential. Even the Foreign Service doesn't want as. So journalists continued_ Some of these individuals were reassigned to jobs where the hell du you go? Business is nice, but the press is a naturalon so-called prpprietary publicationsforeign periodicals and broad- One journalist is worth twenty agents. He has access, the ability to ask cast outlets secretly funded and staffed by the CIA. Other journalists .ourstinns without arninina ausokinn".

And thsat's just a small part of the list." in the words of one official who served in the CIA hierarchy. Like many sources, this official said that the only way to end the uncertainties about aid furnished the Agency by journalists is to disclose the contents of the CIA filesa course opposed by almost all of the thirty-five present and former CIA officials ninnies:wed over rile course or 4 year

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who had signed formal contracts with the CIAmaking them employees of the Agencywere released from their contracts and asked to continue working under less formal arrangements. I n November 1973, after many such shifts had been made, Colby told reporters and editors from the New York Times and the Washington Star that the Agency had "some three dozen" American newsmen "on the CIA payroll," including five who worked for "general-circulation news org.unzations." Yet even while the Senate Intelligence Committee was holding its hearings in 1976, according to high-level CIA sources, the OA continued to maintain ties with seventy-five to ninety journalists of every descriptionexecutives, reporters, stringers, photographers. columnists, bureau clerks arid members of broadcast technical DESPITE THE EVIDENCE. OF WIDESPREAD CIA USE OF crews. More Aran half of these had been moved off CIA contracts and journalists, the Senate Intelligence Committee and its staff decided payrolls but [hey were still bound by other secret agreements with the against questioning any of the reporters, editors, publishers or broadAgency. According to an unpublished report by the House Select ' cast executives whose relationships with the Agency are detailed in Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Representative Otis Pike, at CIA files. least fifteen news organizations were still providing cover for CIA Accordirie to sources in the Senate and the Agency, the use a1 operatives as of 1976. journalists was one of two areas of inquiry which the CIA went to Colby, who built a reputation as one of the most skilled undercover extraordinary lengths to curtail The other was the Agency's confirmtacticians in the CIA's history, had himself run journalists in clandestine * and extensive use of academics for recruinneet and informationoperations before becoming director in 1973. But even he was said by gathering purposes. his closest associates to have been disturbed at how extensively and, in In both instances, the sources said, former . directors Colby and Bush his view, indiscriminately, the Agency continued to is.:e journalists at the and CIA special counsel tvlitehell Rogov in were able to convince key members of the committee that full inquiry or even limited public disclosure of the dimensions of the activities would do irreparable

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH COMMITTEE

well as to damage to the nation's intelligence-gathering apparatus, as to have reported was Colby ls. individua of s hundred the reputations of bring on a been especially persuasive in arguing that disclosure would rs, latter-day "witch hunt" in which the victims would be reporte

ts had tindmover operations in which it ieemed logical that journalis tell the Agency for s reporter by work all antly. been used. {Signific ce.) Old under the t etegory of covert operations, not foreign intelligen one offistation records were culled. "We really had to scent:We said

publishers and editors. the Walter Elder, deputy to former CIA director McCone and that the principal Agency liaison to the Church committee, argued misuse of committee locked jurisdiction because there had been no y. Elder voluntar been had hips relations the journalists by the CIA; -Journal. "Church cited as an example the case of the Louisville Courier about the and other people on the committee were on the chandelier out that we pointed we "until said, official Agency one journal:' Courierhad said, had gone to the editor to arrange cover, and that the editor

cial. which After severd weeks, Bader began receiving the summaries, ed numbered over 40(1 by the time the Agency said it had complet searching its files. The .Agency played an intriguing numbers game with the commitle to tee. Those who prepared the material say it was physically impossib gave produce all of the Agency's tiles on the use of journalists. "We "We them a broad. representative picture;" said one agency official. over activities of range the of on descripti cotal a was it d pretende never for us." 25 years, or of the number of journalists who have done things Tine: fl activities of that A relatively %mall number of the summaries described the Some members of the Church committee and staff feared stringers for Amerias working those ding ts--inclu journalis foreign they were Agency officials had gained control of the inquiry and that geable about the subject it and the can publications. Those officials most knowled being hoodwinked. "The Agency was extremely clever about n journalists is on the low side of the America 4(10 of figure a that say source sional committee played right into its hands," said one congres hips and undertook the other actual number who maintained covert relations familiar with all aspects oldie inquiry. "Church and some of in doing clandestine risks. members were much more interested in making headlines than sumBader and others to whom he described the contents of the up a serious, tough investigating. The Agency pretended to be giving ions: the sheer conclus general some reached tely immedia maries and ions hat whenever it was asked about the flashy stuffassassinat ts was far greater than it came to number of covert relationships with journalis secret weapons and James Bond operations. Then, when of reporters and news use s Agency' the and more the CIA had ever hinted; things that they didn't want to give away, that were much of the first magnitude. Reporters asset ce intelligen an was es executiv the And chits. his in important to the Agency, Colby in particular called . Of the had been involved in almost every conceivable kind of operation committee bought it." 200 between ized. summar were activities whose ls ts was 400-plus individua The Senate committee's investigation into the use of journalis journalists" in the usual sense of the term--"working were who 230 and officer ce intelligen CIA former a supervised by William B. Bader, the rest were emdirector reporters, editors, correspondents, photographers; returned briefly to the Agency this year as deputy to CIA trade publications and rs, publishe book by ly) nomireil least lac the at official ployed Starmfield Turner and is now a high-level intelligence who now newsletters. Defense Department. Bader was assisted by David Aaron, . Still, the summaries were just ;hat: compressed, vague, sketchy naserves as the deputy to Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's could be subjeer to ambiguous interpretation. And They ete. incompl tional security advisee by both they contained no stiggestiiiii that the CIA had abused its authority According to colleagues on the staff of the Senate inquiry, content of Arnett, an newspapers or broadeditorial the tine CIA in noiniptile d containe ion informat the by d Bader and A aron were disturbe be under- cast reports. files about journalists; they urged that further investigation from Bader's unease with mhat he had fiend led him to seek advice ee. That committ t oversigh CIA nt permane new Senate's the by taken inand relations foreign of fields the in hands ced several experien a new committee, however, has spent its first year of existence writing d that he press for more information and give suggeste They e. telligenc in interest little been has there say charter for the CIA, and members ce is those members oldie committee in whom he had the most confiden delving further into the CIA's use of the press. . Bader again went to revealed ies summar the what of idea general conchBader's investigation was conducted under unusually difficult Mathias. Meanwhile, ts Senators Huddleston, Bakes Harr, Mondale :led a nons. His first request for specific information on the use of journalis wanted to 3ev more--the full files on perhaps he that CIA the told he abuse no been had there was turned down by the CIA on grounds that activities had been summarized. whose ls individua the of or so hulidted . combe of autisoory and that current intelligence operations might Agency would provide no Hart, The request was turned down outright. The promised. Senators Walter Huddleston, Howard Baker. Gary Period. subject. the more information On interest in at Walter Mondale and Charles Mathiaswho had expressed The CIA's intransigence led to an extraordinary dinner meeting at the the subject of the press and Elie CIA=shared Bader's distress included present Those 1970. March late in arters headqu Agency with CIA CIA:s reaction. In a series of phone calls and meetings Bader), and insisted Senators Frank Church /who had now been briefed by director George Bush and ocher Agency officials, the senators irman of the committee: Bader; William vice-cha the Towe; of John scope the about ion informat that the committee staff be provided Agency Miller, director of the committee staff; CIA director Bush; the files CIA press actividea. Finally, Bush agreed to order a search of CIA operative who h-level g hi a Buiten, r Seymou anti ; Rognvin where counsel ns and have those records pulled which dealt with operatio y and Willy Brandt's case available for years had been a station chief in German journalists had been used But the raw files could not be mule deputized by Bush to deal with the committee's ken had Bolten decided, officer. director the Instead, insisted. to Bader or the committee, Bush dinner, requests for information on journalists and academics. At the sumhis deputies would condense the material into one-paragraph Nor would it give files. full any provide to refusal its to held Agency the each s of maries describing in the most general terms the activitie d in the the committee the names of any individual journalists describe individual journalist. Most important, Bush decreed, the names of of the news organizations with whom they were ot ies summar 400 affiliated were they which with journalists and of the news organizations The affiliated. The discussion, according to participants, grew heated. would he omitted from the summaries. However, there :night be some thc'r mandate honor not could they said tatives represen e's committe a general indication of the region where the journalist had set ved and further to determine if the CIA had abused its authoritywithout description of the type of news organization for which hr worked. ed it could not protect its legitimate meintain CIA The tion. inf,atma officials CIA to g accordin Assembling the summaries was difficult, res were intelligence operamins or its employees if further disclosu se and who supervised the job. There were no "journalist files" per employcontract were ts journalis the of Many e. committe the to made information had to be collected from divergent sources that reflect the , Bosh said at one point. and the CIA was no less Astencv ees had who officers r ed Cme CIA. characte mentalie the of cotnpart highly various ' ohliemoi ro Chem than rn any other agents. handled journalists supplied some names. Files ware pulled on

side," recruitment still open. "The danger of exposure is not the otgiFinally, a highly unusual agreement was hammered out: Bader and operations. "This is not stuff the covert in expert CIA one explained Miller would be permitted to examine "sanitized" versions of the full' other side doesn't know about. The concern of the Agency is that liles of twenty-five journalists selected from the summaries; but the another area of cover will be denied." names of the journalists and the news organizations which employed A senator who was the abject of the Agency's lobbying later said: then' would be blanked out, as would the identities of other CIA the CIA point of view this was the highest, most sensitive covert "From permitbe employees mentioned in the files. Church and Tower would of all.... It was a much larger part of the operational :mem program ted to examine the uneanitieed versions of five of the twenry-five been indicated." He added, "I had a great compulsion to press has than filesto attest that the CIA was not hiding anything except the names. the point but it was lime If we had demanded, they would have gone The whole deal was contingent on an agreement that neither Bader, i the legal route to fight it." other to files Mille; Tower nor Church would reveal the contents of the Indeed, rime was running out for the committee. In the view of many members of the committee or staff. staff members, it had squandered its resources in the search for CIA object His again. Bader began reviewing the 400-some summaries assassination plots and poison pen letters. It had undertaken the was to select twenty-five chat, on the basis of the sketchy information inquiry into journalists almost as an afterthought. The dimensions of they contained, seemed to represent a cross section. Dates of CIA the program and the CIA's sensitivity to providing information on it activity, general descriptions of news organizations, types ofjournalists had caught the staff said the committee by surprise. The CIA oversight and undercover operations all figured in his calculations. committee that would succeed the Church panel. would have the From the twenty-live files he got back. according to Senate sources inclination and the time to inquire into the subject methodically; if as and CIA officials, an unavoidable conclusion emerged: that to a degree seemed likely, the CIA refused to cooperate futther, the mandate of the . and even early '70s never widely suspected. the CIA in the 1950s, 'f 0s. successor committee would put it in a more advantageous position to had concentrated its relationships with journalists in the most promiwage a protracted fight....Or so the reasoning went as Church and the nent sectors of the American press corps, including lour or live of the few other senators even vaguely familiar with Bader's findings reached a two the largest newspapers in the country, the broadcast networks and nut to pursue the mater further. No journalists would be decision major newsweekhy magazines. Despite the 'mission of names and about their dealings with the Agencyeither by the staff interviewed affiliations from the twenty-five derailed files (each was between three in secret or in open session. The specter, first raised senators. the by or and eleven inches chick), the information was usually sufficient to CIA officials, of a witch hunt in the press corps haunted some by tentatively identify either the newsman, his affiliation of borh--parcicmembers of the staff and the committee. "We weren't about to bring ularly because so many of chem were prominent in the profession. up guys to the commirrre and then have everybody say they've been "There is quire an incredible se read of relationships." Bader re- traitors to the ideals of their profession:. said a senator. nine magazine, manipulate to ported to the senators. -You don't need Bader, according m associates, was satisfied with the decision and for example. because there are Agency people at he management believed that tfur successor committee would pick up the inquiry where lever he had le ft it. He was opposed to making public the names of individual (Ironically, one major news organization char set limits on its journalists. He had been concerned all along char he had entered a dealings with the CIA, according to Agency officials, was the one uith "gra; area" in which there were no moral absolutes. Had the CIA perhaps the greatest editorial affinity for the Agency's long-range goals manipulated" the press in the classic acme: of the term? Probably not, and policies: U.S. News and War& Report. The late David Lawrence. lie concluded; the major news organizations and their executives had of friend the columnist and founding editor of U.S. Neal, was a close willingly lent their resources to the Agency; foreign correspondents Allen Dulles. But he repeatedly refused requests by the CIA director to had regarded work for the CIA as a national service and a way of use the magazine for cover purposes, the sources said. At one point, getting better stories and climbing to the top of their profession. Had according to a high CIA official, Lawrence issued orders to his the CIA abused its authority? It had dealt with the press almost exactly sub-editors in which he threatened to fire any U.S. New; employee who as it Rad dealt with other institutions from which it sought cover--the was found to have entered into a formal relationship with the Agency. ' diplomatic service, academia, corporations. There was nothing in the Forster editorial executives at the magazine confirmed that such orders CIA's charter which declared any of these institutions off-limits to had been issued. CIA sources declined to say, however, if the magazine America's intelligence service. And, in the case of the press, the remained of f-limits to the Agency after Lawrencee death in 1974 or if Agency had exercised more care in its dealings than with many other Lawrence's orders had been followed.) institutions; it had gone to considerable lengths to restrict its role to Meanwhile, Bader attempted to get more information from the information gathering and covet CIA, particularly about the -Agency's current relationships with jourBider was also slid to he concerned that his knowledge was so nalists. He encountered a scone wall. "Bush has done nothing to date," heavily based on information furnished by die CIA : he hadn't Bader told associates. "None of the important operations are affected gotten the other side of the story from those journalists who had in even a marginal way" The CIA also refused the staff's requests for associated with the Agency. He could be seeing only "the lantern more information on the use of academics. Buell began to urge show" he told associates. Still. Bader was reasonably sure that he had members of the committee to curtail its inquiries in both area., and seen pretty much the foil panoply of what was in the files, If the CIA conceal its findings in the final report. "He kept saying. 'Don't fuck had wanted co deceive him it would have never given away so much, he these goys in the press and cn the campuses,' pleading that they were reasoned. it was smart of the Agency to cooperate to the extent of the only areas of public life with :lily credibility left," reported a Serrate showing the material to Bader:. observed a committee source. "That source. Colby, Elder and Rogovin also implored individual members of W.AS. if one Fine day a file popped up, the Agency would he covered. the rommitice to keep secret what the staff hr,d found. "There were a They could say they had already informed the Congress!' ' ,,..ge$r lot of representations that if this stuff got out eoine of the 0 The dependence on f...1A files posed another problem. The CIA's rattles in journalism would gee aineared," said aranizer source. iexpo-. perception of a relationship with a journalist might he quite different rhe academics, and journalists with relationships CIA's the of sure than th.Li of the journalist: a CIA official might think he had exercised Agency feared, would dose down two ed the k's avenues of agent control ,r,et ournalt...t; the journalist might chink he had :amply had a

few drinks with a spook. It was possible that CIA case officers had written self-serving memos for the files about their dealings with journalists. that the 'CIA was just as subject to common bureaucratic -cover-your-ass" paperwork as ,...rty other agen.:y of government. A CIA official who Arrempred to persuade members of the Senate committee time the Agency's use of journalises had been innocuous maintained that the files were indeed filled with "puffing" by case officers. "You can't establish what is puff and what isn't;' he claimed. Many reporters. he added, "were recruited fur finite [specific" underwould be appalled to find that they were listed [in Agency rai .age files' as CIA operatives." This same official estimated that the files contained descriptions of about half a dozen reporters and correspondems who would he considered " famous"that M. their names would be recognized by most Americans. "The files show that the CIA goes to the p ress fur help and just as often that the press comes to she CIA," he observed. " There is a tacit agreement in many of these cases that there is going to be 2 quid pro quo"ie., that the reporter is going to get good stories from the Agency and that the CIA will pick up some valuable. services from the reportet. Whatever the interpretation, the findings of the Senate committee's inquiry into the use of journalists were deliberately buriedfrom the full membership of the committee, from the Senate and from the public. "There was a difference of opinion on how to treat the subject," explained one source. "Some [senators] thought these were abuses which should he exorcized and there were those who said, 'We don't know if this is bed or not.' " Bader's findings on the subject were never discussed with the full committee, even in executive session. That might have led to leaks-especially in view of the explosive nature of the faces. Since the

be ginning 41 he

committee's investigation, leaks had been the

biggest collective fear, a real threat to its mission. At the I panel's sligluest sign of a leak the CIA might cut off the flow of .sertsitym information (as it did several Limes in other areas), claiming that the eommittee could nor be trusted with secrets. "It WAS as if we were on trialnor the CIA, - said .1 member ache committee staff To describe. in the committee's final report the true dimensions of the Agency's use of journalism would cause a Tutor in the press and on the Senate floor. And it would result in heavy pressure on the CIA to sad its use of journalists altogether. "IiiVe just weren't ready to take that seep," said a senator. A similar decision was made to conceal the resoles of the staff's inquiry imu the use of academics. Bader, who supervised both areas of inquiry, concurred in the decisions and drafted those sections of the Committee's final report. Pages 191 to 201 were entitled "Covert Relationships with the United States Media." "It hardly reflects what we found." stated Senator Gary Hart. "There was a prolonged and elaborate negotiation with the CIA] over what would be said." Obscuring the facts was relatively simple. No mention was made of the 41}0 summaries or what they showed. Instead the report noted blandly that some fifty recent contacts with journalists had been studied by the committee staffthus conveying the impression that the Agency's dealings wills the press had been limited to those instances. The Agency files, the report noted, contained little evidence that the editorial content of American news reports had been affected by the CIAs dealings with journalists. Colby's misleading public statements about the use of journalists were repeated without serious contradiction or elaboration. The role of cooperating news executives was given slion shrift. The fair that the Agency had concentrated its relationships in the most prominent sectors oldie press went unmentioned. That the CIA continued to regard the press as up for grabs was cot even suggested.

'

TO OWN THEM IS TO KNOW THEMNOLSON RCOKEFELLER ON THE CIA When Gerald Ford chose Nelson riciekefeiler to he his vice president, he was quick to point out that his nominee would dome In handy. Rockefeller. Fe rd assured the evening news, wee A man of many talents, The president told no lies. Nelson Rockefeller comae In handy just about anywhere he's used. Less than a month after his confirmation the new vice president found a ready outlet for his skills. The Central Intelligence Agency was accueeci of spying stateside, and Rockefeller was Palled upon to head the Blue Ribbon Commission to Investigate the CIA. Ford was sure that Rockefeller was Just the mart to sort the charges out. A few folks have cried foul, pointing to the former New York governor's hive-year stint on the committee that Oversees the agency he is now to investigate. But Rockefeller views his appointment differently. His prior fob was, he explained, all part of his "working knowledge of intelligence," and a central resource for a man conducting investigations such as the Blue Ribbon Commission, That kind of working knowledge shouldn't be sep,..Indefrod. If It weren't for his 1 amity's business. Nelson Rockefeller might not know nearly as much about intelligence as he does. The Rockelellane business is moneyits management and its accumulation. In three generations the family has bought control of 250 billion dotter& worth of icorporations. It has also cornered one-half of the total of American private Investments in Asia. Africa, and Latin America. Inevitably, the CIA and the family business crossed paths early in the agency's career. Alien Dulles was appointed director of the CIA in 19.53he came to government service straight from a Job as a Rockefeller lawyer. Thal same year, the CIA, worried that the ox-

feting Iranian govemmeso might nationalize lotaign Investments. engineered a coup and replaced the premier with a former Nazi, Shortly thereafter, Standard Oil, the foundation of the Reckefellers' family business, began to tap Iranian oil reserves. In 1961, the same script was acted out In the CongoPatrice Lumumbe, that country's premier. was murdered by his own army and replaced by a soldier named Mobutu. In the aftermath of the Congolese revolution, David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank and Nelson's brother, fed an expedition of business. men Into Mobutu-lend to explore the "investment climate." It must have been good Using Rockefeller financing, Pen.Am acquired the local airline. AT&T built 4 cubeldiary. Esse drilled for oil, and Standard of Indiana went into the copper bualnesa. The next CIA director, John :JcCone. took over the reins of intelligence after working ae a Standard Oil attorney. Following McCone's appointment the familiar pattern ef CIA Inter. melon in foreign governments recurred. Salvador Allende, the first Communist president In, Chile's history, was overthrown by a CIAfinanced coup in 1973. The year before, Allende had expropriated the Arieconda copper mules, an Important wing of the Rockelellers' family business. Henry Kissingerchairman Of the security council that approved, and may even have ordered, CIA intervention In Chile --is a longtime Rockefeller family employee, With a background like that, Neeen Rockefeller is establishing a whole new level of expertise In government service. He :s Eiso insuring himself of a lot ot work in the future. it wilt be nearly Impossible !o convene any more commissions without calling cn Nelson Rockefeller's mass of "working knowledge," The commission on nigh interest rains will certainly need the counsel of a rnsi wheats

faintly controls 20 peeceet of the banks In the United States, it would he foolish to pass over his experieree. And the commission on gas prices Is a natural, too. The Rockefeller Semite has controlling interests in Standard, Mobil, Amoco. Arco, Esso, American. Citgo, Exxon, and Humnle 011 companies. if Gerald Ford decides to take on the insurance companies, we can all rest easy knowing he has expert help. The Reckefelters neve their hands on one-quarter of all the life insurance sold in this country, After that we can look forward to the Blue Ribbon Commission on Consumer Prices. With Nelson Rockefeller In the administration, Gerald Fore has the inside track here as well, The vice president In one of the owners of Mazola Corn Dil, Karo Syrup, Kleenex, Nuto Margarine, Kotex Sanitary Napalm,. Skippy Peanut Butter, Best Food Mayonnaise, Orange Crush, and the American Sugar Company. Its hard to imagine that the commission on corporate taxation would get far without the mart whose company, Standard Oil of Ohio, earned 508 million last year and paid no taxes. Or that the commission on the distribution of wealth would be complete without the leadersnip of a man whose family's personal fortune is larger than the total worth of 100 million Americans. And just think how useful the vice president could be to the commission on urban renewal and safer neighborhoods. The Rocket-ester Pocantico Hilts estate, which Is slatted bs tive hundred servants and protected by thirty-five armed guar's, covers five square miles and is surrouneed by electric barbed wire. Living !ilia that must nave taught Nelson Rockefeller .7. lot, It's a shame not to put his knowledge to good use. Gersie Ford made a shrewd appointment: whatever the subject, Nelson Rockefeller knows if like he owns it.Dave! Harris
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'V'";'c'YING PR ES3
o onderetand the role of most journal= istooperatives,it is necessary to dismiss some myths about undercover work for American intelligence services. Few American agents are "spies" in the popularly accepted sense of the term. "Spying"the acquisition id' secrets free a foreign governmenta almost always done by .foreign nationals who have been recruited by the CIA and are under CIA control in their own commies. Thus the primary role of an American working undercover abroad is often to aid in the recruitment and "handling" of foreign nationals who are channels of secret iofurination reaching American intelligence. Many journalists were used by the CIA to assist in this process and they had the reputation of being among the best in the business. The peculiar nature of the Oh of the Foreign correspondent is ideal for such work: he is accorded unusual access by his host country, permitted to travel in areas often off-limits to other Americans, spends much of his time celtivating sources in governments, academic institutions, the military establishment and the scientific communities. He has the opportunity to form longterra personal relationships with sources endperhaps more than any other rut-gory id' American operativeis in a position to make correct judgments alnico the susceptibility and availability of foreign nationals for recruitment as spies. "After a foreigner is recruited, a case officer often has to stay in the background," explained a CIA official. "So you use a journalist to carry messages to and from both parties." Journalists in the field generally toek their assignments in du same manner as any other undercover operative. If, for inetence, journalist was based in Austria,

Of 47 cry F 7:1
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fices. A foreign correspondent have thought of unhe ordinarily would be under the they wouldn't with tics to the Conn-limy [the For it in their minds. general direction of the Vienna less we put CIA] stood a much better chance Vienna in r reporte a e, instanc station chief and report to a case rhea his competitors of getting an Intl 'I man, our to officer. Some, particularly roving would say the hood stories:* at ry secreta correspondents or U.S.-based re- inceimstine second Within the CIA, journalistsay, We'd y-' Embass Czech the i'vequera trips porters who made operatives were accorded am And him? know to get you Can ' abroad, reported directly CO CIA a consequence of the coinafter you get to know him, can statue, officials in Langley Virginia. ence journalists experi mon And then, min The tasks they performed you assess him? shared with high-level CIA offias-with touch in him i:ia you more sometimes consisted of little cials. Many had gore to the same us using your than serving as "eyes and eats" would you mind schools as - their CIA handlers, for the CIA; reporting on what apartment?'" in the same circles, shared moved reportFormal recruitment of they had seen or overheard in an Fashionably liberal, anti-Comhigh at handled y generall was ers a at Eastern European factory, values, and were the journalist had munist political diplomatic reception in Bonn, on levelsafter "old boy" netsame the of part backh thoroug the perimeter of a military base in undergone a something ted constitu that work The actual apPortugal. On other occasions, ground check. of an establishment elite in rite a by made be even might their assignments were more proach and academia of division chief. media, politics complex: planting subtly con- deputy director or . The most valAmerica postwar on s, no discussi cocted pieces of misinformation; On some orcasien therneelves for lent these of ued into until the hosting parties or receptions de- would be entered reasons of national service, not of pledge a signed bad t signed to bring together Ameri- journalis money. can agents and foreign spies; secrecy. The Agency's use of journalent was agreem secrecy "The nda propaga "black". up serving ists in undercover operations has into you got that ritual of at son sts the to leading foreign journali extensive in Western a former as- been most hunch or dinner; providing their the tabernacle," said was the big focus, ("That Europe ntral Ce of hotel rooms or bureau offices as sistant to the Director where the threat was," said one "drops" for highly eenstrive infor- Intelligence. "After that you had CIA official), Latin America and mation moving to and from to play by the rules." David Attlee the Far East. In the 1950s and foreign agents; conveying in- Phillips. former Western Hemi- 1960s journalists were used as instructions and dollars to CIA sphere chief of clandestine serv- termediariesspotting, paying, controlled members of foreign ice,: and a former journalist him- passing instructionsto governments. se;f, estimated in an interview that members of the Christian DemoOften the CIA's relationship at least ZIT[) journalists signed se- cratic parry in Italy and the Social with a journalist might begin in- cret, agreements or employment Democrats in Germany, both of timmally with a 'inch, a drink, a coronets with the Agency in the which covertly received millions casual exchange of information. pair twenty-five years. Phillips, of dollars from the CIA. During An Agency official might then who owned a email Beglish-len- those years "we had journalists all offer e favorfor example. a trip guege newspaper in Santtego, over Berlin and Vienna just to_ to a country difficult to reach; in Chile, when he was recruited by who the hell was keep track return, he would seek nothing the CIA in Mete described the East and what the from in coming more than the opportunity to de- approach: "Somebody from the they were up to:' explained e CIA brief rite reporter afterward. A ..'egensey ides. 'I wJer you to help me I know you are a true-blue few more lunches, a few more In the Sixties, cepor.ers were American, bur 1 want you to sign favors, and only then might there extensively in the CIA offenused you piece of paper before I tell be a mention of a formal arrangeSalvador Allende in against sive what it's About: I didn't hesitate to ment"That came later," said a Chile; they provided funds to Aldidn't n the had newsme of you for a "after and tame CIA official, lende's opponents and wrote antihesitate over the next twe nty journalist on a string." Allende propaganda for CIA years:' Another official described a tary publications that proprie "One of the things we always typical example of the way ac.were distributed in Chile. (CIA e nticOf terms in us for going paid had (either credited journalists officials insist that they make no ing reporters," observed a CIA or unpaid by the CIA) might be attempt to influence the content of official who coordinated some used by the Agency: "In return o f American newspapers, bur the arrangements with journalists. for our giving them information, some fallout is inevitable: during them make could tit we that that things "was do to we'd ask them the Chilean offensive. CIAofborne their with that look eerter their roles as lournalists but

generated black propaganda transmitted on the wire services our of Santiago often turned up in American publications.) According to CIA officials, the Agency has been particularly sparing in its use of journalistagents in Eastern Europe on grounds that exposure might result in diplomatic sanctions against the United States or in permanent prohibitions against American correspondents serving in some countries. The same officials claim that their use of journalists in the Soviet Union has been even more limited, bur they remain extremely guarded in

discussing the subject. They are insistent, however, in maintaining that the Moscow correspondents of major news organixations have not been "tasked" or controlled by the Agency. The Soviets, according to CIA officials, have consistently raised false charges of CLA affiliation against individual American reporters as part of a continuing diplomatic game that often follows the ups and downs of SovietAmerican relations. The latest such charge by the Russians against Christopher Wren of the New York Times and Alfred

Friendly Jr., formerly of Newsweek, has no basis in fact, they insist. CIA officials acknowledge, however chat such charges will persist as long as the CIA continues to use journalistic cover and maintain covert affiliations with individuals in the profession. But even an absolute prohibition against Agency use of journalists would not free reporters from suspicion, according to many Agency officials. "Look at the Peace Corps.' said one. source. "We have had no affiliation there and they [foreign governmental still throw them our."

441

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art of the confusion surrounding the use of American journalists by the CIA stems from semantic distinctions peculiar to the intelligence-gathering profession. By carefully (and often misleadingly) using such spyspeak tams as "co,ntract employee:. "agent," "control capabilit." "unilateral memo of understanding." "agent of opportunity" and "intelligence asset," Agency has made it virtually impossible for almost any layman including reporters experienced in covering intelligence activities and senators accustomed to being

the

technical briefed by intelli gence officers the CIA's use of cqualk to determine the exact nature of terms peculiar u, die profession of many relationships maintained by jeur-alism among them "strinthe CIA over the years with indiareredited correspondent:* ger" vidual journalists. The Agency " emplovce," -general e ditor has also managed to obscure the n," -level:nice" and even circulatio moat elemental fact about the repartici:-reporter.- [CIA lationships detailed in its tiles: t.e.. have consistently enc:olive, lark that there was recognition by all ,;ed sa a se enanrie thicket the tan,) parties invoked chat the coopei, io such seemingly simple ansv, erating journalists were working quebt , ins as. -1-las Ste Nan Alsop not or hether fur the CIAw ever 011:rd SOr the CIA!" or they were paid or had signed emevel used rim, Has the ployment contracts. linert spondents : tic The problem of determining magi: -r ,. an . r; the precise role labia iiiii.;1 iota- & rciive r wer u;estions ves. nalists has liren corn pnuilded

The figure of 401.) journalists who maintained covert relationships with the Agency refers only to those who were "tasked" in their undercover assignments or had a mutual understanding that they would help the Agency or were subject to some /corm of CIA contractual control. It does not include even larger numbers of journalist's who occasionally traded favors with CIA officers in the normal give-and-take that exists between reporters and their sources. Their activities, ton, are derailed in Agency files.

answer either.

though Colby has refused to