MUSEUM NO SOLACE FOR SPOOKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200790009-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: November 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : Cl
PORTLAND EXPRESS (ME)
17 November 1983
MUSEUM
T he Senate Select Intelli-
gence Committee this
month heard a proposal to es-
tablish a National Historical In-
telligence Museum. What a
dumb idea.
The hearing, of course, was
public. So, too, would be the
museum. And if that doesn't
create any' problems, U.S.
secret intelligence must be
worse than we thought.
As it is, the Central Intelli-
gence Agency recently over-
counted the Cubans in Grenada.
-Critics suggest that human
spies cruising seedy bars count
better than satellites cruising
high in the air.
Maybe so. But human spies
also know enough not to get
caught dead in a museum.
- What's left? Paraphernalia.
The leading candidate is a
wooden American eagle the
Russians once bugged in the
U.S. embassy in Moscow. The
eagle made good television 20
years ago, co-starring with U.N.
Ambassador Adlai Stevenson.
But can it still draw the crowds?
Nobody knows.
The same goes for satellite
No solace for spooks
photographs. Paraphrasing
Groucho Marx, does anyone
want to see a spy picture the.
CIA is willing to show them?
Don't worry. Real spies won't
stand still for the museum. For
a time, former spy Edwin
Wilson even refused to stand
still long enough for the courts.
We can - guess where he
learned the technique. CIA Di-
erector William J. Casey genially
boosted the museum when he
testified at .this month's hear-
ing. The way he did it would
-warm a double-agent's heart.
First Casey "heartily endorsed"
the museum, then he said some-
one else would have to stock it:
" l would not want to mislead
anyone into expecting us (the
CIA) to be a major source of ex-
hibits ..."
So much for that. The Depart-
ment of Agriculture doesn't spy
much, and the Navy's so tight
with its secrets it still won't say
what the Monitor found out
about the Merrimack.
No, the CIA is the store-
house. If the spies won't come
in from the cold, the museum's
out in it, too.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200790009-4