SHOULD THE CIA'S BLACK ARTS GO BACK INTO DARKNESS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100170067-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 19, 2007
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: May 12, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100170067-3
AR i I CLE APPI-" D
ON PAGE
THE ECONOMIST
12-18 May 1979
Should the CIA's black arts
go back into darkness?
Washington. DC
ceen late ana maueyuatc, wrtn tnc twun 8a1 1wauvuv.. auu r..v,.. .. -.....???? ???-- c y
that subsequent American policies have the black arts should be restored to l 5
cnmorimes seemed dangerously make- - dimmer light, or to darkness where they f
In Nicaragua, Zaire and Yemen, 'ac- -ment circles it is now frequently argued
cording to American officials, intelli- that there has been too much congress.
le-
. - :--t7- nn?t invscinna has innat nverciaht. newSoacer exoosure. le-
...... t. .....- ...-.....' -- - y..
did not. from a surfeit of democracy--ln'govern-
E-
that he was about to be-toppled. Before years. -
that, the Shah knew that a communist But undoubtedly the diagnosis most -}. , . '
throne, but in 1978 it had scarcely a clue 1,000 of its men have left in the past two
the CIA helped restore the Shah to his the CIA has fallen so far that more than
law
that China would invade Vietnam and CIA. Appreciated at first as a man who
that the Soviet Union would not invade shared the president's forthright and
China. But, reassuring as those recent businesslike attitude, he is now accused
successes were, the Central Intelligence of arbitrarily switching people ' around
Agency's record elsewhere has been less and of trimming agency reports to suit
god Iran is the worst example. In 1953 White House political views: Morale at
American intelligence correctly predicted field Turner, President Carter's Naval
shift. Inter-agency ` reviews--after- the can thrive. -- t;
ca
g
information, especially by technical -virtually eliminates the possibility of se- stabilise'' the Allende regime in Chile,
means, it lacks the skilled manpower to cret? American interventiorc`ur-other infiltration of American protest groups
make sense of what it collects. And then countries and limits the Cl-A7to "doing and illegal surveillance both of radical
there is deep unhappiness in the intelli- research that might as well be done in the political parties and of private citizens.
gence community with Admiral-Stans-3-.Library of Congress'. ? .;. But- now Republicans, conservative
subversives. - .rate congressional cornmittees:conslsttng Vietnarn and the disclosures or excesses
A more: intractable problem is that' -of'163 legislators and 41 staffrmembers. - by the CIA and the Federal Bureau of
although American ? - intelligence is ''The 'requirement, according 16-Senator investigation-assassination attempts
abi- of atherino vast quantities of 'Daniel- Patrick Moynihan of. New-York, against Mr Fidel Castro, efforts to "de-
0 f
in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as it did in `'undertake- covert political-actloii in' an- sional restrictions on intelligence are
Iran,- to make contact with potential other country, it must notify eightsepa- born of America's bad experiences in
`
a out .ts a y. u y
the administration, in order. to avoid - the 1974 Hughes-Ryan- .amendment, countries.
offendhto allies has forbidden its agents- -which-; holds that before the CIA= can The president's attitudes and congres--?
c
b
House did not want to hear a new, nn- x
b #1 A f rther difficult is that -~Anothei special target of criticism is for interference in the affairs of other
embassy in- -Teheran, but the White .--lawsuit under the Freedom ,of Informa- not the only reason, however. President
t ? :~: Carter has openly declared his distaste
d -A
preconceptions--' i5raeil IDlciul~cuaa, Aulcua.au _-
warned the-Carter administration about back after their travels because they-fear American officials confirm that the
the Shah's peril months before his fall. So - that'-'their- actions might -- later- become . CIA now engages in only a few minor
did tow-level members of the American known through a congressional leak ora covert operations.. Legal restrictions are
tendency for-palicymakers to ignore in- are reluctant to share infor nation, poten-
next door, in Mexico. ? sure.- According to CIA -officials, this .
Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia or even protect intelligence sources from expo-
intelligence does not know much, either, - according to the CIA's deputy director,
about what is happening in such places as Mr-Frank Carlucci, is an inability to
Approved For Release 2007/06/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100170067-3