DON'T PIN ATTACKS ON CIA, VETERAN SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100040027-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: September 28, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100040027-0
HARRISBURG NEWS (PA)
28 September 1984
By MARK ROLLENHAGEN telligence.agents is that they can
Staff. Writer: report on; the -.political climate
The Central ..Intelligence and be able to say-when precau-.
Agency suffers from a morale tions should be taken,", Phillips
problem that began in the mid- said.
1970s, but the- agency can't. be He _ said terrorist-.: attacks
blamed for failing to. prevent such as last week's in- Beirut,
last week's suicide bombing of Lebanon, can only be stopped
the U.S. Embassy annex in. "when.:the U.S.. ambassador
Beirut, a former CIA officer said ' learns to, get out of 'his car out-
last night. side the embassy-compound and
David Atlee Phillips, a 25- walk in."
year CIA veteran who retired in ' "No cars should be allowed
1975, spoke to the Executives within the compound," Phillips.
Club of Central Pennsylvania at said.
the Sheraton Harrisburg-West .. He said policy decisions, in-
in Fairview Twp.- . cluding CIA budget and staff
In an interview before his cuts, under both the. Ford. and
speech, Phillips. said-President Carter administrations, hurf
Reagan's criticism of the lack of U.S. intelligence efforts.
presidential support for U.S. in- . "But the main thing is not
telligence activities from prior .- what Carter or Ford did, but the
administrations "didn't directly [congressional] investigations of
address the problem. ' ' 1975," 'Phillips said. "Suddenly
The former chief of Latin . it became fashionable to have no
American and Caribbean opera- secrets. There weren't any co-
tions for the CIA's Operations . , vert activities anymore - you
Directorate said U.S. intelli- could read about them in the
gence agents can do little about Washington-Post."
specific terrorist attacks. After retiring: from the CIA,
Even if an undercover. agent Phillips, 61, founded a non-parti-
is able to penetrate a :terrorist san group-of retired intelligence
,group, he'll rarely ' be able to officers. He % declined to 'say
contact U.S. officials before a whether he thought the CIA'was
terroristic action, Phillips said. improving under Reagan, except
Terrorists groups keep all mem- to say, "Mr.. Reagan has made
bers who know about an upcom . more money available for intelli-
ing bombing or kidnapping un- gence operations,". and the mo-
der strict security, he said. rale among CIA agents 'is im
David Atlee Phillips
25-year CIA', veteran
In his speech to the group of
executives, Phillips said that a
"great debate erupted regarding
U.S. intelligence activities," and
"our best agents. started telling
us, 'thanks, but no thanks.' "
The open national. debate
and. the establishment of the
magazine Counterspy by for--
mer-CIA agent Phillip Agee
scared many foreigners away
from working with ,the CIA,
Phillips said. The magazine pub=
lished the names - "quite accu-
rately" - of CIA station chiefs
in foreign countries, he-said.
Phillips said he left the CIA
because, when he told his 15-
year-old daughter that he
worked for the CIA, she said,
"That's dirty.".
In"previous years, he said,
when he had told his older chil-
dren that he worked for the CIA.,
they were proud.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100040027-0