THE SICK ELEPHANT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500420020-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 5, 2004
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: February 10, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/02/101_ C11
THE NATION FEB. l0, 196+
The Sick E,ephar t
One almost begins to feel sorry for the Central Intcl-
ligcncc Agency. It would seem that an agency which
spends about $750 million a year, a good deal of it in
and around Washington, should have friends in the
capital, including a few newsmen. Not so: the press, .
almost to a man, seems to detest the CIA. It is almost
as if the press, weary of baiting the Communists, had
turned on the very agency which has claimcd to be in
the front line against the Red menace.
Such unpopularity must be deserved. One might
STAT
discount James R. Newman's philippic in The Wash-
ington Post; Mr. Newman, after. all is only a scholar.
But Mr. Newman's venom is exceeded by that of'
henry J. Taylor, who not only writes a column for
Scripps-Howard but who has also been an ambassador
and knows the diplomatic service from the inside.
Beginning with a good word for the FBI, whose few
agents in embassies abroad are said to be well-bc-
haved, Mr. Taylor refers to the CIA as an."overblown
agency," a "sick elephant" that `frequently occupies
an entire floor or more in an embassy and several
separate buildings, plus its auxiliary installations,"
-ranging from small apartments used as letter drops to
country estates. For all its unaudited billions, however, _
it is said to be no match for its Soviet counterparts. One, :viumccted with the House Approlwia-
Unaudited billions? But haven't we been told that I ion Cc,rnmittce, refuses to say how often it meets; a
a "watchdog committee" of the Congress stringently 5'~ ?te subcommittec manages to get together from
supervises the CIA's activities? We have been so told, two to six times a year.
sure enough, but the information has been about as For the past ten years Rep. Clement J. Zablocl