FORMER CIA AGENT KEPT LOOK-OUT FOR 'THE LAMBS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200150017-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 5, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For. Release 2005/01/13: CIA-RDP88-01350R0002&506 6 P rs "'
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MARY BRI
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The-Cray not live up to the spirit of 1776 but it isn't strictl
y
from 1984.
Between these chronological and: philosophical extremes Fort
-Worth ex-resident David Attlee Phillips put in 25 years with. the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency, gathering stories and forming. conclusions
which he shared with a Dallas audience this week:..
While Phillips holds the agency accountable for grave moral sins,
and errors in judgment, he likes to tell those who would wipe out the
CIA a tale about Americans visiting the Moscow zoo.
"This shows you how detente works," the keeper assured them
proudly, adding, "Of course, we have to change the lamb every day."
"in the final analysis, someone has to look out for all the lambs,
the ex-agent reminded the Mary K. Craig Class Wednesday morning at
th
ll
D
W
e
a
as
omans Club. t ?, j ?g
Phillips, who retired 16-months ago after service under six presi-
dents, expects to see restrictions on the CIA's "covert actio
th
b
n
e
ig
banana peel
HE TRACES the agency's major blunders to that part of its charter
authorizing performance of "such other functions and duties as may.':.
be directed from time to time by the National Security Council." He
believes "the important thing is tb have rules of the game instead of
that dangling authority."
But Phillips doesn't feel. that Jimmy Carter's elect
on will have any
idded effect He remembers the anger of President. John F. Kennedy
ind-his brother over the Bay of Pigs fiasco and. the way that anger.
-turned to fascination with the CIA.
"History shows that presidents and 'secretari es of state use. the
agency; regardless of what they say in the beginning..''., tr.gt:,; r
Phillips makes no excuses for certain CIA actions, even though he
-understands the thinking which led to them --and; in some cases, the
prodding from superior authority.
These actions included plans for two assassinations, of Fidel Castro
in Cuba and of Patrice Lumumba in Africa (neither plan. was carried
-out); dealings with the Mafia, in violation of "the basic tenet that you
-don't do business with people who might blackmail you"; experimen-
-tation with drugs on unknowing victims and a few violations of civil
rights described in the "very thorough Rockefeller. Commission
report
Despite the limits he expects will be set on CIA efforts to influence
the affairs of other nations, the Texas-born former agent believes cer-
tain functions will remain vital. the gathering of intelligence and the i
protection of U.S.diplomats and officials traveling abroad, for;
instance:
He knows he's part of an unpopular minority just now, but this fact
hasn't stopped him from writing a book scheduled for publication in
February by Atheneum and already named an alternate Book of the
Month Club selection.
IT'S TO BE CALLED "The Night Watch: Twenty-five Years of Peru- a
liar Service," the subtitle a reference to espionage borrowed from Na-;
than Pale, hanged by the British as a spy during the Revolutionary',
War. .. r .. . _
The. one-time head of the CIA's Latin-American desk is proud of,'
having been a spook, in. agency jargon- "Espionage, illegal in ever]
country, has been practiced since Moses sent men to spy out the Land
of Canaan."
Approved For Release 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88-013' ttR000200150017-0