'THEY'RE LAUGHING AT US IN MOSCOW'; AGENT QUITS THE CIA IN ANGER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79M00467A000200120026-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: January 1, 2000
• Content Type: BIO

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25 YEAR RE-REVIEW
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STAT
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Edition
50 Lents
Sunday,,,
65th Year ?
sa...91.110.Azaora44.
Report 0 ft' CI., 9
HOW Heroic! Go e Story
By WILLIAN1 MONTALBANQ
Heroic! Staff Writor ?
Copyright Tho Mtaml Hqrsigt Publishing Cm 100'
NVASITINCiTON One of An07,
ea's brightest' young sple,q, an earn!
est,. commitod profesVonal who
says be c,anc;,C,,,., operations
on four continents in the .1a.'st..1.4,e-'
cade as reigned cusau$L,fr,Rip.
, , ,
the -CIA: , . ?.; ? 7
"The. .CIA is partij)/i6d,!!, he.
charges. "They are laughirig ,atus
in Moscow and?kiayapa,,, .ven'cur
friends don't a-cst us,an'yrnOre,
quit because,1,,couN not, lopger. do
thy
lob." ? " , .
The sp,y is Mike Acoerman;.a 34-
year-old Miamian rtzes
tan-
of, the.
eise en er
rges- that ,e
iltide:r.r.".4 6y its' %.'"immi.stakez,..,
.:iadventu...ipplitielp7.15, by
coopert;c:r3 on- the Tart pf,
governm,ent agencies.,,.- by.. eiymonts
ertean', press "that-nave
tional intn
and
er,ent.tO
inte;tigence .
N'T"u; an intelligc-.1
agerg.4:y in agoldfish bowl, it
simple ." ?
For fou'r rears? 'Ackerman. dys,
ne- rn.l.,Jstiv
? as a soy
.4964 fie ..says,. -
t,,.:QelandeStine . opera
!!". ttle
Titan 'says ...he a c.spe-
and
'itat is...c;e.Scribedas ciamje.stine de-
.;pp.sitiVe
rnmunist Sources.. ?
?
'ectingintelligence, he says,
3-n,Jst? freOuerit ta'cgets vere RU6-
sian5 Cubans..
? Ackig'3.-nlm .resigned afi.t.T
11 yCtilfti' Siti a 'case offiver 1,1 the
C1A'.s'?.? Services.- I-fls
;2,11Lt.".;?' C;S-14t,. is. about that
of EA flcuterlf.?,7i; colonel in the .armed
20 cc.
Hen"
: .
forces. He was among the younc..A.
officers in the (LA, io hoL:i s?tIon
rank, according to 'an agency
ions n spokesman who confirmed his ern-.
:-.7esterrt ployinent and .resianation.
ACKERMAN hes not gore p
to tell stories out,ichooi. lie
he will not violate confidences.
goal is to make himself c'. edible and
to make credible his conieW.itu.
that a vital safeguard of JS
rity is being desroyed by e
calls "a hostile ici.11 olin
the United States."
Ackerman says ihi CIA
lost its effeetivenos.
"lf I were a Rust,ian wciu,y and
Turn it) Page 14A Co.
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;Ile to someItiody I would go
' (l3ritish intelligence) or
:soal (Israeli intelligence.)
old not haveibeen true a
S
frustration, Ackerman be-
speaks not only for him-
also for othea professional
ice officers of his genera-
ale personal' circumstances
ilow tbern- to speak public-1.,
that they are paying for--
a:fade- enother genera:-
iigee'. 4:cers.
e trade,- :Ackerman was,
5 a "street man," slang for
etll number.' of frontlineon tircii.e feet, usual- ,
alone and areat ii.orne. in
-alley woi'..0 a.iiiere intelli-
notient and sod.
"The cynics will no doubt,
conclude Abol this its a CIA
'erafwn.ft isr;t. iay op,
eration. And anybody who
listens to what I have to say
-11
To- sponsor
Alike Ackerman b
hover: thee. is
horId Y
u1khcded
Mee r
an
LL acknowledge by name
ay? countiaas where he
The Dominican Republic,
-rare. service there ,
isaesy cover is recoreed in
tit docuetterdis availabre.to
;
ean argues - intelli-
an indiejseniseNe! tool of
ns foreign poilcy.. In the
me United Stases, he says, --
al counterweitett to under-
esrations regtlarty under-
jiommunist countries.
ods covert action, the tar-
:ach of the recent outcry
ate CIA, as a legitimate
of an intelligence agency
-i action is in the national
lectuai Marine, Ackerman fits the
description-
In a lengthy series' of interviews
he emerged as hawkish, articulate,
somewhat..rigid and en-
iitely righteourtiin cc q'tCtiOtIri
is both- tense, and in, tene
CIA can no longer effec-
-ry out either clandestine
e-gathering. or covert
am, he says.aa.-.-:.?
_:ed to quit the day I met
?nth a Communist source
risking his,life to see
zed I could mot guarantee:''''
_Nes no way I could prom-
that some irresponsible
Congress or ex-employee
leak his information or
reperter wouldn't blat it
front page_
IS :he recent record. And
.t:cie a I tragedy."
'S must be allowed to
.secure boundaries,
:eerns general agreement
eintry that we shouldn't
the details of the Pola-
guidance system. Why is
also a consensus about
on of our principal Intel-
esetee without secrecy, a
?::aevice cannot func-
frein his post at a
ens nti Europe, Ackerman
,tirector of personnel
e only job he has had
eg college.
sy resign from effec-
1.975. I contirn sup-
srheartedly the zei. -f
5,IL do not beile
can fulfill that mission
_osti.e political climate
esenriy prevails in okir
1-lave reached the regrett-
ision that I can do more
unto/ and in support of
es- a private citiz- "
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
Ha is the soli Of an immigrant:
Russian Jew Irani Deriarabia and he.
is profoundly Oligious.. Orme: it;
order not to break cover, he :posed
as an Italian Jew to _worship at.a.
Latin' American. synagogue. Acker-
man's tnother," now widowed, keeps
a kosher home in North Dade? ? .
Ackerman was born in New:.
York. He is a: graduate of Dart-
mouth .(magna cum laude) and
earned:a master's degree' in politi-
cal science at Columbia Universityse
beforeil joining the CIA. (His mas-
ter's thesis compared the Autent-
icos-in Cuba with the:,F'opulares in
Puerto Rico.),
After more than a decade of life
in the shadows, Ackerman is now
uneasy, squinting a bit in anticipa-
tion, of the sunlight. It is his intelt.;c-
lect, the witsday which he has lived
as a spy, that he is relying on to see -
him through what he expects may
be a difficult transition. -
. 1-11S -7PLANS are uncertain. He.
has about $10,000 in pension money-
recovered from the government and
some $4,000 paid for unused -leave
time. Initially, at least, he will seek
public forums.
Ackerman anticipates a credibil-
ity problem.
"The cynics will, no doubt, con-
clude that this is a CIA operation.
It isn't. It's my operation. And -any-
body who listens to what I have to
say will quickly discover there is
nobody in the world who would
sponsor bull-headed Mike Ackerman
but me."
As avocations, Ackerman plays
the stock market and writes about
theology: last winter-he had a story
published under a pseudonym in
The Jewish Spectator.
Ackerman does not smoke, and
he drinks little, although he is an
expert handicapper of Miami sin-
gles' bars. In one of them, he was
once overwhelmed for the atten-
tions of a girl by a competitor who
told lurid stories of his career as a
CIA agent.
?
HE WAS BORN Emanuel C. Ack-
erman, but chose Mike as a prefer-
red first name when he joined the
aunts and uncles know him
Emanuel.
Ackerman's entire CIA career
was spent in the Clandestine Ser-
victo, which is known officially as
the Deputy Directorate of Opera-
tions and is sometimes referred to
by toe media as the "Dirty Tricks
eoistment."
pervisors, now working in Latin.
America, said flatly:
"He is the best C.O. (case officer) I
I have ever met?'
For the first part of his reer,
Ackerman says, he 'wick a .try
,iricovert action ow-Tart:tit._ lie
e- Contra int; j.ed ii
strikes, 'he; tunneled funds to. the/
The, CS, as Ackerman calls it, .. .publisher of a moderate newspape4
runs dovert operations and seeks under attack; he helped a democrase
, intelligence from human sources. It Sicekfietion ward: off oorriirniao,t
, the most elite, the 'imost 'secretes ? 44.3tenver ,r);beit; political pe y.
and one of the smallest divisions of
Ackerniare.: says ,.hiS tradere7
the CIA, most of the Work .of which,
4ioto:: work ; a ti nort-A men n.
t -iIntF'digenee' analYs's ?,,'?..'OntiesselVt..f. posed harti-th le;
r`nuit'':5? such a-''',1,'European fishing industry
tyco
laahnical .;Ournals and the products 'Penetrate a hostile embassy: A
of electronic and photographic espi? er time he pretended to be a 'bliary
Trotskyite' to make contact
"Dear", -vas the nihknace tagged an African radical tnoveruer
on Ackem an by hire elilea es.
xceauSet of my Ritessan anees-
try, I supesise, and he-rinse I tend
to be slop-iy and clumsy." A col-
league, oncs writing a physical de-
scription i-Of Ackerman, noted play-
fully: "apeane have ketchup stains on
his tie and- ;leaves :after- lunch and
dinner." '
y-6peclalty was the - pitr,th
to mecta source, try to bithis,
.relatieruship and then :ithint. .Iu
an: aercpresen tat ive
gencerand think there; are compel-
ling reasons why yoti.,,,:hould Coop.
eiate with us.'
:-.t oroctirries yont.r,trike out. But. if .
bat. 1,000 friett you're pitching
'et- is nee
at con-
one rise things.
cernS A..5.1carin
"The :greatast
gence officer who eve 'eid was a.
great, messy, shambling man who
locked like Jackie Gleason with a '
mustache."
X -
HIGHEST honor ever ris-
en .f.i.i.,-,s olle.3g1.1e. .ivas the
.1 intelb- sent0 If ,s,e1.1 game for my
.?- 'edayr, ,
,,4'.t-A
ckermalt believes in classical in- 1,
gera:e 4ie way Bobby Fisher he-
ves in iess.- For Ackerman, the
The CIA ;,spokesman who ' an? 'highest aleolade is to be "profes-
knowledged '; Ackerman's service- _sio al." Efatig.a spy, he says. is to
saci he had reft the service "in the ord' :ice 4profession as honoiaies '
it
htghest repute." ' ; as it is okl?..X, . . -
. .
"He was an extremely well- "When loses needed spies to go
thought-of. operations officer with into Canaaithe didn't pick just any-
an _excellent record," the spokes- body. He clase 12 princes, includ-
man said. He was one of the ing Joshua.-
youngest of his rank we've got ? ,
here. It is unusual for an officer of Lite:I:gene says Ackerman, is a
his/ age to be so far' ahead of the cerebral gam t that.:demands more
pack," ,
,ect than 'n-awn. The popular image
, patience thart glamor, more
glamor,
high CIA executive, who has
been publicly identified as such bu,, ay-s,
t Cn? Et', 557 is to-far from the re3i
thingl s ,that :real, spies don't,
this way:
"I Seldom carried a gun. The only
"He gets extremely high marks
for intellect and imagination and
high marks for dedication. I rank
him in the top re,er cent among his
peers in pcietersneinee and in the top
10 Per cent over-all."
Another e:lA executive, now re-
. effer 2ln Years in inteiheence.
:steam: o'anon chief wnen Ack-
esan
vas
? ever- hlad.- r*.- bee., _ l'e%er caused a scar
prefers to remain anonymous in every ead spy stories.
this instance, evaluated Ackerman
tramirz ha firearms or unarmed
combat I ever go' t!was routine in-
strueion in the Air Force.
?
r-ever shot'-anybody, And'
have llever 'teen shot at. Once I had
to throw a block ons.-cop in Latin
America, 'ait th iivias because I
made a ----sl'akf\ Inen you have to
.do that .sUSually tocr late.
-rL n hassled, nevi:
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?
THE MIAMI HER.i,-5:1D Stmdav, June P, 19Th
?1 1TH
1.16"..4S
??????1115,3
How
By LARRY
HeraSet ExeC6rr,
Two months ago Bill Montalbano
introduced me to Mike Ackerman
at a restaurant on Dscasene Bay.
We were there because Ackerman
flatly refused to
come to The Her-
ald.
Thsrc' 1.4u.,1*
way he would
enter a newspaper"
office, be said. At
that time, he was
still on the payroll
of the Central In-
telligence Agency.
He appeared to JLNKS
be ill at ease, but he was sure of
what he wanted to say: He had de-
cided to quit the Central Intelli-
gence Agency because he felt he
could no longer do the job he was
paid to do. And, he wanted to tell
his story.
That's where Montalbano and I
came in.
He and Ackerman had known
each other when both were gradu-
ate students at Columbia in the
early 1960's. They had talked once
several years ago after Ackerman,
whose mother lives here, had seen,
Montalbano's byline in The Herald.
:AS WE TALKED he spoke angri-
ly:abaUt CIPe critids,..including the
press. He referred i: to Philip Agee,
the turncoat agent who wrote a
book about the. agency, as a
traitor. He argded passionately for
the. need .ofsia sophisticated intelli-
gence -operatOM,-including a capaci.
ty for covert operations, in.toda.y's
ot r.e
it he ?tga..'alinoSt gs vigocot
criticizing some of the agency's- ac..
tivit;:es.. He thought - many .of the
OS S CbA, leaciers bad
- been - guil ty - of bad judgreceit and
with special contempt ? a lack of
professionalism. He expressed con-
cern that the principles he had been
taught as a young agent had been
.,flouted by some of those who did
the teaching.
s We made it clear we were only
, interested in his story if it included
.? a fair balance of ,his opinions, pro
and con, and if he offered enough,
facts about his career to help our,
- readers understand better how the
- agency operates.
?.., .
HE WAS WILLING, with the -
clear stipulation that he would not
violate his oath to the agency.
Since he was not a professional
writer he was willing, too, to work!
with Montalbano in preparing his
articles.
It was not too difficult to verify
that Ackerman was who he said he
was.. We started with Montalhano's
personal knowledge, and made full'
use of the kinds of contacts a news "
organization develops with even a
supersecret government agency.
Tougher to deal with was the
question of whether the resigra.tion I
was a pretense, part of a planned
defense of a CIA under assault.
After all, we were dealing with a
man who by his own account had
been a skilled con man as a case of-
ficer.
ULTIMATELY, deciding that the
resignation was for real was a mat-
ter of judg,ment judgment. based
on logic, on investigation, on per-
sonal contact.
GENERALLY WARY of the
press, he trusted Bill -- more or
less. Generally wary of intelligence
agents, Bill trusted Ackerman
more or less.
Ackerman had told Montalbano
whet be. wanted to do. Montalhano
expressed interest; and suggested
the meeting with roe.
If he quit, Ackerman asked us,
was The Herald interested in print-
ing his story?
Well, we were interested in talk-
ing about it ? but we had reserva-
tions. What did he want to say?
How could we be sure he was what
he said he was? For that matter,
how could we satisfy ourselves that
his resignation and public state-
ments were not themselves a CIA
operation?
Neith Ackerman's name nor his
position gives his words automatic
? weight, Many of his opinions are
controversial, including his view of.
:. CIA history.
If the resignation were a ruse, its
? Public nature would forever limit
his. ability to go back to doing what
he dld. His action is consistent-wittb.
te.t.
he fact.;
all hold together.
HIS STORY, told with Mootalba.-
:no's help, begins in today's Herald.
It offers a different perspective on
the CIA, a deeply concerned insid-
er's view.
At a time when the agency's fu-
ture is -being- debated, we think it is
a view worth presenting to our
readers,
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Continued from Page ..
uted, to our political institutions
axid not to William Colby.
II DID HIS BEST In whet wris
sn Impnssiblo situation. He made
signifitkint strides in restoring pub.
/lc confidence in the CIA end in the
proii-eis achieved for himself
grce, of credibility with Congress,
the press end the public at-large'
tvbjch is quite rerearltehle for a CIA
dire.ctor In the current national
At the serne time Colby was zeal-
out le defending the ;wit to protect
the secrecy of intelligence sources
and techniques. If some informatio
of this nature has been leaked by
.congressIonal Investigating commit-
tees, ne cannot be held responsible.
Colby wr.s lees zealous in pre:lc:at-
log information on the genesis of
CA covert action operations which
could be embarrassing to adminis-
tration officials, nod particularly
Secretary of State if enry I