U.S. INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS BEING DOWNGRADED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120040-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 17, 2007
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: November 26, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/09/17: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100120040-7
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O, !;(IGE HUMAN EVENTS
26 November 1977
U .S. intelligence Operations
Being Downgraded
Veterans of the very highest levels of Central In-
telligence Agency operations, though not speaking
for the record, are considerably alarmed about the:
elimination of some 800 agency positions under a
personnel reduction *plan largely instigated by
Director Adm. Stansfield Turner. Some insiders- !
though by no means all-maintain that the cuts will
seriously impair the CIA's once-elite clandestine
service. -
The scheduled personnel cut represents about 25'
per cent of those primarily concerned with the
espionage and counterespionage facets of intelli-
gence operations, the so-called "cloak-and-dagger"
area. Most of the firings and forced retirements will
involve officers and other top personnel rather than
clerical and technical support.
The cutbacks will deeply wound the top ranks
of the Clandestine Operations-Division, with a
number of station chiefs throughout the world
being axed. Many of those to be severed are
among the most seasoned and knowledgeable in
the agency; their loss represents thousands of
years of hard-gained intelligence savvy.
Former CIA Director George Bush told HUMAN
EVENTS: "I've not discussed this cutback with any-
one in the Central Intelligence Agency, and can't "
pass judgment on this specific cutback. But, as -a
matter of principle we should do nothing to further
weaken our ability to collect -human intelligence
"abroad. There are very real limits on what science
and technology can provide in the way of informa-
tion.
Human intelligence remains absolutely essen-
tial to the survival of the free world."
Syndicated columnist Col. Robert D. Heinl
(USMC-Ret.) explained that the decision to slash
what some may regard as ."the old-fashioned if not
outmoded human functions of the intelligence game
is based, according to supporters of the plan, on
enormous increases during the past decade in what
can be learned through satellite- and electronic
means, sources a clandestine-services veteran dis-
missed as 'gadgets: "
Those who back Turner's position maintain that
today 80 per cent of this nation's secret intelligence
gathering is obtained through electronic rather than
human agents- Administration sources also contend
that most of the operatives who will be "cut" are
Asian specialists, who had no function to fulfill
after the fall of Indochina. ? , "
The cutbacks are thought to be the brainchild of
Turner, his special assistant, Robert D. Williams,
Vice President Mondale and David- Aaron, the
White House deputy assistant for National Security
e fr-'- --h-\ -*C, Approved For Release 2007/09/17
morale was at "the lowest point since the abortive"
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in- 1961. One source
Heinl spoke with, vehemently opposed to the cut-
backs; said "there's-no gadget that can look inside.
Brezhnev's head or find out any of the human fac-
tors that provide vital shading to the raw facts we
get from the satellites."
One very highly placed former CIA operative
told HUMAN EVENTS: "Notwithstanding my own
CIA perspective, which was technically oriented. I
must point out that Turner is anti-human resource.
He is technically oriented to the point where he
wouldn't know a heavy piece of intelligence if it hit
him in the shoulder. He has neither the flexibility
nor imagination to oversee an intelligence opera-
tion that must, by its very basic nature, rely heavily
on human contacts and human input."
-
Another, paratroop-trained former CIA opera-
tive (who worked in Asia and Latin'America) re-?
sponded: "You can't run an intelligence operation
on just computers. You need to develop-personal i
touch, personal sources of information. That's what
this cutback doesn't take into account. And most
of the personnel tightening measures that seemed
.reasonable were made in previous years. It doesn't
make sense, and it doesn't say much for Turner's
understanding of the operation he oversees.`.
--
A' current CIAer told us: "When George
Bush came in, we thought we were getting an
on-the-make. politician. After six months, he
proved us wrong. Now we see Turner clearly
doing what we expected of Bush-playing pol-
itics. He wants eventually to head the Joint
Chiefs,'and that means hopping in bed with the _
Carter people." _ i
At the bottom of the severe personal-infiltration
intelligence cutbacks, most agree, is the inward-
turn mentality of highly placed liberals within the
.government. - "
In the words of one intelligence official, the Car-
ter Administration's responsible parties are "so
afraid to get their hands caught in the cookie jar of 1
international rough play that they are petrified
when it comes to versonal operations. To them, a
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