COLBY: CIA LEAKS COST U.S. 'CONTACTS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100016-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: January 28, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/21: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100016-4 ILLEGIB
114,VD Arrzniwul
28 JANUARY 1976
gate and Vietriam-!fexperiences caused 'economic threat, which was me: by the
.....
- Congress to turn-the-spotlight on secrets Marshall- Plan! the political subversion
-.
in government --; and the biggest secret threat represented by the Soviet-oriented
.
operation is, of course, the intelligence Communist parties, leftist trade unions,
1 business. . ?--. , .....'Soviet-sponsored cultural and youth ,
J eakis - - - ? ?
While the investigation of the CIA i..movements. That third threat was pet I
: by CIA operations, by its help to the
' - ? ? revealed some misdeeds,- which- the di--rt Democratic forces. And that battle was
.--,....,- . . rector attributes to an "excess of zeal,". essentially won."
.,..
he thinks the American people have been Q ? Do you mean the CIA pla-Yeil
st
given a "totally false image" of what is ., major role in saving the Western- Euro-
generally recognized as the world's best pean countries from Communist subver-
? ' intelligence service. ? sion?
'A ? "Yes, and not only Western Eu-
"If you asked the average American rope. In the early 1960s the general im-
' 2, citizen in 1975 to associate the word CIA
? pression was that the Cuban revolution
?
-
? -. with something you. would'probably
,- . .. . going , '_ ? ? Second of four articles based on an come up with assassination and the daft. was gong to sweep like wildfire through
''
'.. exclusive interview with CIA Director gun," Colby said. "But we never assassii; - Latin America. Che Guevara, that
. ? - , A . .;- -_, ,.-,,.... c ,great romantic hero, was going to lead
nated-anyone and the dart gun never was all Latin America and turn it around into
used.
'a totally hostile continent.
* . .. .
"If you read the Senate report rather "How did we meet that threat? With
'
carefully, you will note that we did take - a political program through the
steps to try to bring about the demise of, OAS;(0rganization of American States).
two individuals, neither of whom died as' ? with an economic program through
a result." Colby was referring to Cuban , the Alliance for Progress, and with CIA
dictator Fidel Castro and Congo leader assistance.-.. .
Patrice Lumumba._ , -- "As a result, -Latin America is- not
_ _ .... , ...
"There were certain other activities f hostile to the United States today. Gue--
that involved people getting killed in the vara and revolution did not sweep like
process of a coup or something like that 1- wildfire through Latin America. I am not
but they were not assassinated by us. i: saying that CIA did it alone, but it made
You come down to the fact that we did c a major contribution as part of a nation-
.,not assassinate anybody. To create the al program on- a strategic level. - .
--- -- "The Bay of Pigs was a mistake. It
William Colby. -
' Hy KINGSBURY SMITH -?:'
National Editor ' ?
The Hearst Newspapers, -
WASHINGTON ? America has lost
-.-50 foreign contacts and its intelligence.
?;.operatons have been "very badly" hurt
In the past few weeks by the leakage of
j;secret information given to congression-
;
al committees
This was disclosed by Williain-Colby,5
director'of the Central Intelligence Agen-
,??,e,yr,:;iir. an exclusive interview' with. The
Hearst Newspapers:
Last year 'Congress- -ena::.teea law
.compelling the CIA to report its covert
_operations to six-. eommittees. Almost.
!,leverything'reporteiLto thOSe-committees.r
'has;-Colby said, been leaked to the news ;
7media:and spread around the world; ".'7:4;
have lost something like 50 of,
? oui..7..foreign con ta cis,"'. he added. -:"It's
not the' numbers that is important.: It's'
the quality of the services rendered.";
- :=
-!'Some. of our best contacts have cut
.:.:Aftheir relationship With' us They have:
said they. just-cannot continue', to work'
:_with 115 because of our inability to keep.
i:. secrets: Many of, these people are very,
,:worried about the situation.-
Some of the. foreign intelligence
f.agencies which. have cooperated closely
with have; reduced the leverof. infor-
; mation they give us. They limit the seri-1
sitivity of the information. they,had
:-previously shared with Us.
I am, quite frankly, very upset-
- about,this.? Up to a few weeks ago -I had
hoped we might get through this situa=;;
tion without any serious damage to our
? foreign sources and friends.. That we
.'could say to them: 'We haven't exposed ;
you and we-haven't exposed individuals:!-.
_"Unfortunately, the erosion in _the:::
past few weeks of all the secret reports':
to Congress has frightened a lot of our:,
friends around the world. I have to sar:
our position has gone very badly in the ;
past few weeks .in terms of confidence 7
requirements.!! *-:
? :Colby recalled reading a recent col-
umn in the-London Daily Telegraph
which said, in effect: "What is. America
doing itself? Come,- we dOn't mind you
playing around, but don't destroy the sin-
gle best hope in the world," meaning a-
strong
services.
strong America with ?efficient '
Colby says he' feels that- the Water--
--
- impression that our business is plotting , .
;assassinations gives a totally false im-
. ?
* didn't work. It went wrong-. But to char-
,
, age of the CIA."..:?.: . ..- , .? ? y.4 actenzeithe-. CIA's operations in Latin i
?- The 56-year-old; -'St. Paul-born CIA '.America as the Bay of Pigs is just plain
"veteran, -whose intelligence work dates: ? wrong. also-. A lot of -things?the CIA -did
--- ?? ? - ? -.??-- -.fere very successful. , . .- . - -,--.
to 1944 whea he parachuted behind the ,,"1 don't mean the- overthrow Of. Chi: .
. German lines in France to join a 'resist- an President Allendec.Wedid not over'-.
ance group, was appointed director- in row President Allende. What the CIA
May 1973. ? ' '- - id in Chile was to' try to support the. .
.*. , Formerly head of the CIA's clandes- emocratic: forces there, as we had done ,
-tine (covert) operations, otherwise ,Western_Europe....
known as the "Department of Dirty - "President,Allende exacerbated -the,
Tricks," Colby thinks the good things - ituation with his economic policies, with:.
achieved by the agency's covert work iis pressures-on the middle class and on .
have been ignored while attention has he country:to the extent that finally the,
been focused on some illegal activities . Military overthrew him. We had nothing .
which he admits were wrong and should to do with -that coup. - -, .. - , -, not be be allowed to happen in the future. :- "Over:theyears .there was- only one
. However, he points out the wrongdo- time when-We wept out with the idea of
ing was mostly due tcran excess of zeal .trying to- Overthrow him. In 1970 there
encouraged by a long time presidential was a- period of about a month in which
and congressional policy towards the in- - ,we were' looking around to see what we
telligence service -of: "Do it and don't . could do at-the specific direction of our
tell me.',' ' ? .: --" - - : ::*.,President.'All we were trying to do there
.-
,'-t: _' dangerous," he said. "I ? was to help the democratic forces with a
i believe-One of the reasons we did get into . view to free elections.
_ ?
yised. There .should. be active supervi- . . PreSident--...Allende.got himself ' in a
trouble-was because we were not super-
` position where.the Chilean congress, the
sion by;responsible people, but the
-leakage cif secrets and confidential inforz supreme court and the controller general
mation concerning intelligence activities:. all issued__statements saying the presi--
.must-. be plugged."- dent wasr operating .outside the constitu-
--Wit'n regard to the covert -operationS,.
.
. , , ._., tion: Imagine what would happen in this
--
...,,country under such circumstances.
which represent in terms of cost only 5" _-- -
per cent of the CIA's functions, Colby'
.suggested people look. at the record.
"It is popular to point to the Bay'of i
Pigs and things like that,- he said. "The 1
impression is created that these covert
operations were all a disaster. but the 1
facts are different. : . - , -
"For example, Western Europe in the ,
late 1940s_ wasfaced :with- three grave-.
threats: the military-- threat,- wich was.. ,
rnPt hv rho actnk/iel............? ...t nt t -...". .t._ .
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/21: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100016-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/21: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100016-4
? Q- ---.What role has the-CIA played
in averting- wars?
- A "Sometimes you predict the pos-
sibility of an event that doesn't happen.
:Were you ? wrong?-:Maybe. --But _maybe':
also you generated action that preventedH:
the. event. In other words, you caused !
your government to take diplomatic
steps that averted the war. ? 7
"Another example is the SALT agree-
ments, which curbed the-nuclear arms ?
'race between the United States and the
Soviet Union. Those agreements would
not have been possible without the intel---
ligenceinformation supplied by the CIA.
? "Even in the more precise question of ?
local wars, there have been several oc-
casions on. which we have informed bur
government that two countries were
building up to a situation where they
were likely to have a fight pretty soon
' unless something was done. Our govern-
merit?has gone to both parties and per-
suaded them to avoid a conflict_ That has
, happened on at least two occasions."
; Q ? Has the CIA helped to save the'
lives of allied or friendly foreign leaders
and political personalities?
know of one situation in which
we .got a tip oni an assassination plot.
;;-against 'an' individual_ and., passed: the
word along: He still is alive, though he iss-A
not very fziendly
?
? (hiCh
\inn'
_ Q ? In what pan of me World?'
A ? "The Middle ?East:7-There
been other occasions when-ye have:-at-:,
erted foreign governments !about pos:FL:.-
ble assassination attempts. -on
from the East. Certain Eastern intejlti-,"!
gerce services have assassination
ir-
who have 'been out in the West lookIng17-
_. for people."
_
Q ? Were lives saved?
A ? "Sometimes. Sometimes not:: r\
Ukrainian exile leader was killed -lir:
.Munich. It was pure murder:- You don't.-
win them all. We have a very carehil--:
way of handling people like. that.. When::
they come to this country, we give them:.
...another name, a new.identity and reset--
tie them sone place with ii background::
that enables them to explain theoretiCal--;
ly where they came from so that they:-
- disappear into our society/We support-4
them." - - ? '
? ? _
Q ? Have the activities of the CIA::
generally been within the scope of the:-
, practices of the world's- leading esplo-
nage services? -1- -
. A? "I would say yes. CIA has 'run ail
American. service., It has generally.lre-
_ flected American? standards and Ameri-
can ways.-. ?-? ,
- "Twenty, years !ago, 'America w-is
deeply concerned about the coldwai-.fWe:.
- did a lot of things to fight that war and-2.
with a few-exceptions; we -did it 'within::
American standards of ?decency.: -?
"Take the: mail interception, -far?-tri,!'
`stance. There is which says _*y(26".
-; cannot 'open ---first Class :pail:: -Wt
--!shouldn't have:-`6Peneefirst class
-?but transport yourself back:to the 195q,
_s when this happened. At.a time whe.p 2,re:
haCSoviet spies in this country, *ileD-
1they were stealing our atomic and piker::
secrets. - --
-"There was a threat around-the
_world. We began to-open some mail to
and from the Soviet Union: Not all maiL :
'-.Not internal American mail; but mail to
the Soviet Union wich' then was consid-
ered a great danger ta:our- country. .We
shouldn't have done it without authoriia-
tion. It was illegal, but I certainly under;
--stand why people did it
'The misdeeds in CIA's history have,'
I think, been the result either of-a direct
order by the President or because there _r
-?1' was a gray area as to what was proper.
'?
and what was not, -1- ?-?
- _
'.pn* things we did Were wrong. They
Z.,- were done through an excess of zeal and ?
because it was believed they were in the..
interests of or, country at the time.: I
think the CIA is a lot milder than-most ?
other intelligence services. We reflect
America- and the people here are good
Americans:".-- : 7 .
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/21: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100100016-4