AMERICA'S SPIES: COMING IN FROM THE COLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130075-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: October 28, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130075-4
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
28 October 1982
By Daniel Southerland
Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
The Soviets," says the bespectacled round-faced man who looks more like a
stockbroker than America's top spy, "got virtually a free ride on all of our research
and development."
He's talking about secret agents - from the Soviet bloc. And, he says, they
plundered America's technological secrets because our own spies weren't watching
them.
The speaker is William C. Casey, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
and coordinator for all intelligence gathering for the United States. He indicates
that things are likely to become much tougher for the Soviets in the world's lntersi-
t ing spy wars if be has his way.
After years of controversy and cutback, America's spies are finally getting a
break.
The Reagan administration is putting more money and manpower into the busi-
ness of spying, and into countering Soviet bloc spies both at home.and abroad.
Exact figures on recruiting for the spy trade and on the money spent on the
intelligence agencies are kept secret. But it is clear that after years of decline,
spying is now a "growth industry." One of the few government insti-
tutions which is hiring new employees in this time of recession is the
US Central Intelligence Agency.
In the view of some experts, the effort comes none too soon.
"We've got to strengthen HLTMINT," says one,of the experts who
has access to sensitive intelligence reports, speaking in the peculiar
argot of professional spies. He means "human intelligence
gathering".
"Our SIGINT (signal intellegence) and photo intelligence are
among the best, but in HUMINT ... we're lucky If we're among the
top 10.
The Reagan administration took power some 21 months ago deter
mined to strengthen intelligence collection, analysis, and operations,
and the dozen agencies that make up what is known in the trade as
the "intelligence community" are benefiting.
Take the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for example. According
to one high-ranking intelligence officer, FBI money and manpower
was once stretched to the point?wbere the bureau had to stop surveil-
lance of certain known Soviet spies, who, together with European
surrogate spies, were operating in an increasingly sophisticated and
aggressive manner in this country.
The FBI has become increasingly concerned over the loss to So-
viet spies of American high technology information. Although pre-
cise figures are closely guarded, It is now clear that the FBI is get-
ting
more in way of resources to conduct a more aggressive
counterespionage program.
Mr. Casey argues, however, that the intelligence agencies are not
so much increasing their budgets as they are building back to where
they were before they got cut during the 1970s.
In a more than hourlong interview with the Monitor, Casey said
that because of these cuts in money and manpower. intelligence re-
porting on an increasingly turbulent third world and on a variety of
other problems had been drastically reduced. According to Casey,
major intelligence analyses, known as "national estimates" often
failed to cover third world developments.
US inteiligsnee: Maus on the Kreniin, third world countries
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130075-4