DON'T BRING ON THE CLOWNS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200036-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2007
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: May 1, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200036-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE ZZ
Ti3E PROGRESSIVE.'
MAY 1980
In the wake of the seizure of the
U.S. hostages in Iran and the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, every-
body-the Carter Administration,
Congress, and the press-began
talking about the need for remilita-
rization. My problem is that I
missed altogether the presumed de-
militarization that brought about
the need for remilitarization. I must
have been in the bathroom.
I hope they tell us next time we
demilitarize. It's something many of
us would enjoy. The novelty value
alone would make it worth watch-
ing. Given a little advance notice I,
and I'm sure many others, would
willingly adjust our ablutionary
habits not to miss the spectacle.
I confess I have been unable to
grasp just how remilitarization is ex-
pected, retroactively, to prevent the
seizure of the hostages or the inva-
sion of Afghanistan. On the other '
hand, I understand perfectly the
compulsion our leaders-and, to
some extent, even the. American
people-feel to take arms against a
sea of trouble, regardless of the like-
lihood that they will turn out to be
no- more effective than those King
Canute aimed at his own troubled-
sea. The hardest ad-
vice in the world to
accept is to: do
nothing, though of-
ten enough that is the
only thing to be done.
What I find abso-
lutely incomprehen-
sible is the parallel
determination to
"unleash" the CIA
and recall to duty the
-old dirty tricksters
who were laid off by
Admiral Turner in
one of the few pe-
riods of right reason
the Agency has ever
experienced. The
new demands to restore the CIA's
capacity and license for covert ac-
tions are tantamount to advocating
the return of Spiro Agnew to the
Government because' of the need
for honesty. .
It is a matter of public record that
the'CIA 'is responsible for the
seizure of the American embassy in
Iran. It is no secret that the Iranians,
in the turmoil of the years after
World War II, elected a leader, Mo-
hammed Mossadegh, who prom-.
ised to nationalize the country's oil.
It is no secret that Anglo-Iranian oil
enlisted the CIA to depose this up-
start and bring back the Shah-then
in exile in Rome and. elsewhere-to
insure Anglo-Iranian's 'continued
proprietorship over the oil. It is no
secret that the Shah, once returned
to power, did, in fact, nationalize
the oil, after a fashion: He personal-
ized it, family-ized it, stole it for
himself and his relatives and friends.
Moreover, he proceeded to erect a
powerful secret police force with the
support and instruction of the CIA.
This force, SAVAK, kidnapped,
jailed, tortured, and killed all the
anti-tyranny people it could. To our
amazement, the Iranians, when at
last they got rid of the tyrant and tor-
turer, seemed strangely to resent
America's crucial help in putting
him into power in the first place,
maintaining him there, and instruct-
ing him in the uses of electricity for
his pastimes.
All'of this i:: rehearsed here not to
spell out what is universally known,
except by the Carter Administra-
tion, but to marvel at minds which
can seriously advance the notion
that reconstituting the Derring-Do
Division of the CIA will provide in-
surance against the Ayatollahs and
revolting students of the future.
Of course, this country needs an
intelligence agency, and it's too bad
that we don't have one, or that the
one we have has been grievously
harmed by the kooks who believe it
possible to govern the world by as-
sassinations, rigged up counterrevo-
lutions, and what can only be called
schoolboy mischief, as in the fa=
mous plot to destroy Castro by caus-
ing his beard to fall, out. The trou-
bles encountered by Admiral
Turner apparently stem from the
simple fact that he is the first grown-
up to attempt to run the CIA.
If, for whatever reasons, it is
'I told you if we just laid low this would all blow over'
A ah. T1:ePhilaletp)ia taquirer
thought necessary for
this country to have
an agency devoted to
lunacy in foreign pol-
icy, by all means let
us have one. But the
function of gathering
and evaluating infor-
mation is too impor-
tant to allow it ever
again to come under
the dominance of the
clowns who are at-
tracted to covert ac-
tion.
-FRANK GETLEIN
(Frank Getlein is a
contributing editor of
The Progressive.)
Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200036-3