HOW MANY REPORTERS RELY ON PHILIP AGEE?

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160022-6
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
April 20, 2011
Sequence Number: 
22
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
September 26, 1981
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160022-6.pdf81.46 KB
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/20: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160022-6 ,S r t "IT F- t 20' Sep eriher 1981 How Many Repo e Rely on Pbilip Agee? The Wall Street Journal in its August 21 issue acknowledged that two viciously anti-American publications were important sources for its huge assault on the State Department's "White Paper" on El Salvador (see September 5 HUMAN EVENTS). Those two publications were John Kelly's CounterSpy and Philip Agee's Covert Action Information Bulletin. Kelly's CounterSpy, aside from "exposing" CIA agents abroad, has said this about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: "Although questions re- main regarding how Afghan President Amin was overthrown and replaced by Babrak'Karmal on Dec. 27, 1979, one fact appears to be certain: The main thrust of the U.S. government version of events-that Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan and put Karmal in as their puppet is pure propa- ganda." Agee's Covert Action Information Bulletin, which was actually launched in 1978 in Havana, had this to say in its first issue (July 1978): "We are; confident that there will besuf icient subscribers to make this publication a permanent weapon in the -fight against the CIA, the FBI, military intelligence and all the other instruments of U.S. imperialist oppression throughout the world." In criticizing the Journal for appearing to rely on such tainted sources, we remarked: "And our hunch is that a'lot of other major publications rely on these same kinds of sources.". That hunch` now seems to have been confirmed by three co-editors of Agee's Covert Actionlnfor- mation Bulletin,. Ellen Ray, William H. Schaap and Louis Wolf. In a recent letter to the Washing-. ton Post, they- lashed out at a Post editorial for condemning their activities of "exposing" CIA agents abroad as-"contemptible" and for suggest- ing they were not honorable journalists.., But we are honorable journalists, they argued, for . the Post's reporters-and, indeed, reporters .I around the world-rely on them for.stories and scoops. "Your diatribe," they remarked, "only high- lights'the gaps between the editorial offices and the reporters, for your people are among the large number of working journalists from virtually all the major printed and electronic media in the coup- try who call upon us daily for help, research, and, of all things, names of intelligence operatives in connection with articles they are writing." They are not "terrorists," as the Post contends, for, "You may disagree with our-contention that i the United States-and especially. the CIA-is responsible for more terrorism, more death and dtstructibn, over the past several decades than any other single institution in the world, but you coujd not read our publication without knowing that we are opposed to violence and terrorism-and as American citizens fighting hard against that for which the CIA is responsible. ' "Not one single person has been physically harmed on account of what Nye do, while the CIA has been responsible for literally millions of. deaths, in Chile, in Indonesia, in Laos, in South Korea, in Guatemala,, in Jamaica, to cite just a few examples." Yet it is this publication-with these remarkable. -views--which has become a major source for. the.; "large number of working journalists. Is it any wonder that the anti-American -and pro-Corn-.! munist viewpoint is so frequently presented in the t media? - - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/20: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100160022-6