A PLUS FOR CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300100004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2004
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 1, 1975
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

ISTAT
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A Plus
Reviewed by Jay Mallln
CIA Diary is a valuable book -
perhaps not in the manner it was meant
to be, but nonetheless a valuable book.
Agee's stated reason for writing the book
is that "a book describing CIA operations
might help to illustrate the principles of
foreign policy that got us into Vietnam
and may well get us into similar
situations." Also: "A book on the CIA
could illustrate how the interests of the
privileged minorities in poor countries
lead back to, and are identified with, the
interests of the rich and powerful who
control the U.S."
This is the expectable rationale of a
former CIA agent who writes an "inside
the company" book about the CIA
because he now feels that "national
security for me lies in socialism, not in
protection of CIA operations and
) agents."
Thus the rationale offered by Philip
Agee. Perhaps he has achieved his aim -
certainly the book offers ample fodder
for leftwing propagandists who are
-ideologically committed to assailing any
activity by the U.S. government, at home
at carrying out its objectives, objectives
which are the same for all intelligence
encies: to further the national policies
of their respective governments.
Agee, just out of college, joined the CIA
in 1957. He describes his recruitment, the
structure of the CIA (there is also an
organizational chart at the back of the
book) and his training. Here is what Agee
says about training for infiltration into
Communist countries:
or abroad. But this reader comes away
from the book with impressions entirely
different than what Agee says he desires
to create.
Impression one on the reviewer: This
book is a marvelous textbook on the
conduct of intelligence operations
abroad. No James Bond here but rather
difficult and patient work by teams of
operatives.
Impression two: The CIA is very good
hese events, however, o serve As
ecessary backdrops to the detailed
history Agee provides of CIA operations
in these countries. One becomes truly
impressed with the extent of CIA
penetration of governments and of
Communist apparatuses. In the case of
governments, this penetration ranged
from CIA agents working closely with
government and police officials to
placing officials actually on the CIA
payroll.
Penetration of Communist ap-
paratuses is, of course, a primary goal of
the CIA anywhere abroad, just as it is a
basic goal of the KGB, GRU, DGI and
other Communist intel services to
penetrate the CIA (Was Philip Agee one
of their successes?). The CIA goes to
painstaking lengths to obtain information
from within Communist apparatus, by
penetrating (recruiting a defector),
intercepting mail, tapping phones or
placing bugs. Agee relates that the CIA
photographed electrical sockets in the
conference room at Communist Party
headquarters in Montevideo. These
photographs together with duplicate
sockets were sent to Washington so that
identical sockets could be made which
would each contain concealed "bugs."
These were to be used to replace the
existing sockets in the conference room
so that the CIA could bug the room. Why
the photographs? So that even drops of
paint on the sockets could be duplicated.
Agee served in the CIA until 1969,_
resigning during his tour of duty in
Mexico., He mentions a "serious and
deepening relationship" with a leftish
woman, altho ugh he was married and the
father of children. He also mentions that
he had been "regularly meeting" two
Soviet intel and other Communist agents,
with the full approval of the CIA which
presumably hoped Agee would get one or
more to defect (Did they instead turn the
tables?). And of course the inevitable
ideological rationale: ". . . My fuller
comprehension of the class divisions of
capitalist society based on property or
the lack of it." -
of authenticit
The book has the rin
y
g
The need' for getting agents into
# about it in its descriptions of CIA
t
k
i
s o
n par
denied areas li
e certa
the Soviet Union, China and other operations, and it is therefore of value to
communist countries, is satisfied anyone interested in how a major intel
in part by illegal infiltration by marked long- and short-range organization carries out its respon-
land, sea or air. The agents, aircraft including the versatile sibilities. But in regard to Agee himself,
usually natives of the denied area, Helio Courier that can be used in the book .raises more questions than it
are given proper clothing,, infil-exfil operations with landings answers. A congressman has publicly
documentation and cover stories as well as parachute drops .... said that Agee was a "defector to the
and, if infiltrating by land, may be Communist cause." Agee seems to
required to pass secretly through His training completed, Agee served support this statement, particularly
heavily guarded borders. Training successively in Ecuador, Uruguay and since he admittedly received assistance
in border crossing is given in a Mexico (in addition to stints in from leftists and leftist organizations.
restricted area of Camp Peary (the Washington). The intricacies of politics Agee even travelled to Havana for
CIA's training establishment) in those countries are of little interest . "research" purposes.
where a mile or f VH Relea ~ j s.o t r s re w ver, not always what
communist borders F'is opera~ecl anc"l 1VI4op~ri~t7(j the gray world of in
with fences, watch-towers, dogs, . the narrative concerns events that took telligence operations. So two other
alarms and patrols. Maritime place a decade or more ago.
For CIA I
infiltration involves the use of a
mother ship, usually a freighter
operated by an agency cover
shipping company which ap-
proaches to within a few miles of
the shore landing-site. An in-
termediate craft, often a souped-up
outboard, leaves the mother ship
and approaches to perhaps a mile
off the shore where a rubber boat
with a small silent outboard is
inflated to carry the infiltration
team to the beach . . . Infiltration
by air requires black overflights
for which the Agency has un-
INSIDE THE COMPANY: CIA
DIARY by Philip Agee; Penguin
Books, London, 1975
.Intelligence work is not just ad-
venture. it's not some kind of
stunt, it's not gay trips abroad.
- Rudolf Abel
PPHILI
PPAGEE
I
INSIDE THE COMPANY
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 Approved For Release 2004/09/03 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000300100004-8
possibilities should be considered.
One: That Agee was a Communist
agent all along, a successful penetration
from the beginning. The book runs to
over 600 pages and, written in almost-
daily diary style, contains a wealth of
information. Agee says he did con-
siderable research after his tenure with
the CIA, but no amount of research in the
Biblioteca Nacional in Havana, the
British Museum and other libraries is
going to produce the detailed "inside"
information that characterizes this book.
Clearly Agee -- contrary to basic intel
rules - was keeping copious notes and
copies of documents. Why did he do so?
Two: That Agee is playing the most
dangerous game of all: that of a double
agent. True he reveals CIA operations.
True he reveals the names of. agents
(Could there really have been an agent
named "Alexander Zeffer"?). But isn't it
likely that Soviet intelligence eventually
became fully cognizant of all this in-
formation? Lord Radcliffe, reporting on
British security, stated bluntly, "The
Government's secrets are quite often
ephemeral." At any rate, in any double-
agent case the "defector" must always
give away some information in order to
prove his sincerity. In regard to one of his
trips to Cuba Agee admits plaintively,
"For reasons I fail to understand there is
a lack of confidence in my intentions
about the book's political content." The
Cubans are no slouches at the in-
telligence game.
Whatever Agee's reasons for writing it,
DJA Diary is an interesting, informative
and well-paced book. The book proves
that the CIA. does what it is supposed to
do, and does it very well.
Approved For Release 2004/09/03 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000300100004-8