RECENT SETBACKS ASIDE, C.I.A. MORE 'HUMAN' SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100030010-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100030010-9
ARTICLE AP NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 14 November 1985
genre Agency r~w?+. w,aauaa..o.. -- Lion's is ving to recant s1Wuu su the C.I.A. -'go[ law um Wa'1 v[
rebuilding this country's netwotk of -.-have agents and detectors in trvina to recruit Soviets." because the
c
WASHINGTON. Nov. 13 - Despite
bulk of hatenll~ is gathered through I g a officers stationed abroad is to re.
recent problems with c4etectors and its m That balance is un trait local officials or others as spies.
Warn emnloveee. the
Central Intelli Ah.n..- hurt the Administra- n?t it was TI until the late 1a70', that teCWCI'
Recent Setbacks Aside, C.I.
,More `Human' Spie
Despite these cases, Administration "human into lli t~space" because acquir-
The following dispatch is based on re- officials say their faith in the potential ing saunas - agents willing to
porting by Joel Brinkley and Stephen of ,human Intelligence" is use. work secretly for United States -
Engleberg and was written by Mr. En- "This will just be a mini-blip on a large takes years of nurturiw
gelberg. radar screen, a senior inter igenoe of- part of the problem, officials said, is
tidal said. "I don't think this will Mu- that for a long time the United States
sosa.l to Te. New Yolk TI ence the rebuilding program-" did A not try to recruit Soviet agents.
als say that by far the greatest rlncipal mission of most intelli-
offi
covert intelligence operauves, rvveia- third-world countries as well-as in the wan convinced that it was im-
ing a trend of extensive reliance on Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. pmgble, a senior intelligence officer
technological intelligence gathering. Virtually every pdmt in recent I said in an Interview.
The Reagan Administration, with the years has complained about so-called Until then, added, '.most of the
of Corlgres' lacxd too much Soviet souroea were walk-ins," mean-
that its predeoessors intelligence failures, in Iran, South Af- I jag people who came forward on their
emphasis on the ga o! tst~- rice, Lebanon and Grenada, amalg own, volunteering to spy.
genre by sophisticated a tes, corn- f other places. Most of those failures Other' officials said the United States
mi
munications listening posts and high' I have been blamed on a lack of reliable' reliance on unmanswd
's
Turner, the Carter Administration
Director of Central Intelligence, in his
move to trim the size of the agency's
clandestine services.
Administration officials say the es-
pionage branch has benefited from sig-
nificant increases in resources. They
low
from
say morale has improved
of the mid-1970's, when it was the
focal point of several highly critical
Congressional investigations.
The events of the last few weeks have
demonstrated the potential for dra-
matic reverses, which, officials say,
prompted the Carter Administration to
prefer technical methods to traditional
espionage. In a recent interview, a sen-
ior Carter Administration intelligence
official said the Government then be.
lieved human spies were "messy" and
prone to cause embarrassment.
The YmchsWm Affair
Days later, there was evidence sup
porting such doubts. Vitaly S. Yurcben-
ko, a K.G.B. officer whose defection
was hailed as a major intelligenog.
coup, appeared at a news conference th
denounce the C.I.A. and say he was re.
turning to the Soviet Union.
Just a few weeks before, Edward Lee
Howard, a former C.I.A. officer who
had been forced to resign by the aseo-
cy, fled the country after officials
determined that he had helped Soviet
intelligence identify a valued Amer-
ican anent in Moscow.
Under William J. Casey, Director of
Central Intelligence. the Reagan Ad.
ministration has embarked
effort to expand "human
traditional espionage, le the iuW-
intelligence" in the jargon
gene field.
Many Agents Rehired
Officials said Mr. Casey had rehired
many of the veteran intelligence
Stuns offi-
cers dismissed by
eyewitness reports. and cameras in the last years helped
This fall, Robert C. McFarlane, insure the need for more human
president Reagan* national security agents. Knowing that the United states
adviser, told a grmq;Lof business Iead- was listening and photographing, the
ers that he believed some American Soviet Union has stopped doing certain
servicemen might still be held captive - is view, over unlecure telo-
in Vietnam and said the United States .things open publications.
needed "better human intelligence in phones or in open t
Vietnam to find them." in a recent speech, Robert Gates, the
"Now we don't have it,?, he said. C.I.A's Deputy Director for Intellli-
gence, said that "the data we need is
'So much More Insw harder and harder to get," and added
Senator Dave Durenberger, Republi- that "in the Soviet case, economic in-
can of Minnesota, the chairman of the formation which has been available for
Senate Intelligence Committee, said: years is no longer released."
"A human source can give YOU ss much in addition, to Senator
more insight. We can listen all we want Malcolm Wallop, Rettub can offal
acc
to the Nicaraguan traffic, but we don t
know what's going on in the heads of
the anyone Sandinistas n Govveernnm Government" relaying
a
telli to United States agencies.
i
niigeace committee until this year,
el-
SSttates dep~enecan e on ~electtroonnic Intel-
n
8
0-
Reagan Administration officials say- As an example, a few years ago an
satel-
that American American photo-recom
h recognized telligence" was inadequate lice passing over the Soviet Union
when they took office five yearsago. photographed unusually large
_.a- et h.rth- On a subsequent pass,
came in that human intelligence had to
h. reinvigorated." a senior White;
Administration officials also note)
fives, such as stopping terrorists by
be accomplished only by human
agents.
Richard Helms, a former Director of
Central Innt~elligence, said, "You're al-
ways to tie are a t of things
you just because can't do" by technical means.
But even with the hiring and training
of hundreds of additional intelligence
officers in the last few years, a senior
intelligence official said, it will take a
long time to rebuild the nation's
was a fake, made of rubber, designed
M
res
any p
---
gence officials say . the deception
wash." said Adm. Darnel d . Mu, l+.y,
who was a senior C.I.A. official in the
mid-1970's and recently resigned as
chief of staff for vice President Bush.
But Mr. Gates said that "we are see-
ing
flage and ode epti vibes" i~n-
tended to thwart technical espionage.
II' Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100030010-9