SECRET SERVICES ARE A PREREQUISITE FOR MUTUAL FORCE REDUCTIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 1, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
TVE, ,~ -
STAT
Former CIA chief William E. Colby interviewed by NORG :
SECRET SERVICES ARE A PREREQUISITE FOR MUTUAL FORCE REDUCTIONS
William Colby was'head of the U.S. intelligence organization CIA
?
from 1973 to the end of 1975. He was then replaced by Defense
Minister James Schlesinger in the so-called "Sunday massacre"
it the White House. Colby has also been chief of the operations
department, which handles secret actions in other countries.
NORGES FORSVAR has succeeded in obtaining an exclusive interview
with the former CIA chief about his time in the powerful and much
discussed U.S. intelligence organization.
Question: The organization that you headed is credited with
a number of arias attempted assassinations. How difficult would
it be for the CIA to kill a man such as Idi Amin?
Answer: I am against assassinations and I gave the CIA quite clear
orders against such activities. Well, we tried at one time to
kill Fidel Castro on several occasions but we did not succeed.
Murdering politicians is both stupid and axxxg wrong. This is
true also for Amin, although I recognize how difficult it would be.
Question: You were CIA chief precisely at the time that a number
of scandals were uncovered, which you had to answer to for...
Answer: Tn CIA we looked back and found a number of things we did
not like. We corrected them. Several years later something of this
was discovered by the press, and naturally enough.,Va after Watergate
and Vietnam people were concerned that such things were still going on.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11 CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7 ,,,,
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
Thus we had constant exposures and investigations that I had
to 3m"axdxtwx- answer for.
Question: And so you were fired?
Answer: After all the retrospection it seems that it was a good
idea to get a new CIA chief so that we could begin to look ahead
and not simply to continue to discuss the fifties and sixties.
Question: How open can an intelligence organization allow itself to be
Answer: The CIA must be able to have secrets but not to tell lies.
What we say must be true but it does not mean that we always tell
the whole truth. I will not call that lying even if you might
leave kaae with the wrong impression...
Previously, one used * so-called "plausible denials" to cover
secret operations. The CIA could, for example, establish private
airline companies which W. - operated over enemy areas. If the
planes were then shot down and the press did not have direct proof,
the government could deny all involvement in the matter by saying
that it was a matter of unofficial activity. This has now ended.
Question: Former employees often say that the CIA is an enormous,
ineffective bureaucracy full of so-called "yes-men" in sections
that fight against one another.
Answer: I do not believe that the CIA is worse than any other
bureaucracy, whether it is a government administration or a large
txtxai:xX enterprise. Our special problem is that we work iwt with
secrets, so that it is only the chief who has the right to know
everything, and this creates problems that do not exist in ordinary
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
organizations. As for the criticism that we are yes-men,
I will point out that the CIA was one of the most sceptical
in regard to the balance of power in Vietnam. We have to report
the facts as correctly as possible so as to be taken seriously
on later occasions.
Question: Does the CIA engage in industrial espionage against
other Western countries, as for example, the Norwegian oil
industry?
Answer: Not what I would call espionage, but ~edo have a
section that studies the world economy on the basis of sources
that are already public, as for example, oil publications.
must know what is going on within the Norwegian oil industry and
lar a the
how gasssH$assa*NsswsxWssss resources are in Norway, the
Middle East and Latin America in order to be able to plan our own
energy policy. This is a subject for research, not espionage.
Question: So the Norwegian oil directorate is can be left alone?
Answer: Espionage does not at all enter the picture. We operate
more in the way of an ordinary university in this area. The
development of intelligence in the direction
of research and the use of advanced technology, such as computers
and satellites.
For awhile you were chief of the operations department, which its
is responsible for the more traditional secret services. Is
this, therefore, a less important department?
Answer: It is still important because 1txwax%1xxwaxta there
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
 . Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
continue to-be secrets that cannot be learned from photographs.
Future plans are among these secrets, as one example.
In the fifties and sixties we used over 40 percent of the budget
on military groups while it is now at 2-3 percent. Secret agents
are still necessary, particularly in the control of mutual
force reductions. Many agreements can be controlled only through
technology, but some new weapons systems also require the use
of agents. Therefore, traditional espionage is a prerequisite
in observing whether new SALT agreements are really being adhered to.
Question: Is it tit difficult to compete with the KGB, which does
not have to consider public opinion?
Answer: We can do it better, even if they have the advantage
of working in an open society such as ours. I believe that the
CIA is still the world's most effective intelligences organization.
We must see to it that the CIA follows our laws, rather than do
away with the organization. That would be to make ourselves blind
in a dangerous world.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/11 : CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100004-7
William Colby_ var sjef for
den amerikanske etterret-
ningsorganisas.jonen ('IA fra
1973 til slutten av 1975. Da
ble han avsatt samtidig med
forsvarsminister James
Schlesinger tinder den sa-
kalte ? sondagsmassakreno i
Del Hvite Hus. Colby liar
ogsa vart sjef for opera-
sjonsavdelingen som omfat_
ter henunelige aksjoner i an-
dre land. Det liar Iykkes