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• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300040008-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2004
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 10, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300040QQ.P-9-
G L>1 G I'D
TIIE DES MOINES REGISTER KIowa)
10 August 1979
Id d 2.-Als
,o fhe had D
The Republican National
Committee is trying to play
overthrow of a freely elected -
but Marxist - government in
Chile . was arranged under
politics with something that all
Americans should be, ashamed of:
the dirty history of dirty tricks of
the Central Inte14geu a .Agency.
The Gl)P committee accused
President Carter and the Dern-
ceratic Party of bringing abdut
" massive intelligence failures."
It said efforts by Carter and the
Democratic-controlled Congress,
including reduction of secret op-
erations abroad, have hurt
morale and created uncertainty
about the reliability of U.S. Intel-
ligence.
The committee. therefore
proposed a U.S. intelligence
overhaul to lift many of the re-
strictions. It seeks the creation of
a Foreign Operations Service,
i which would use agent spies in
civilian jobs abroad as cover for
secret operations. The CIA's
directive against the use of jour-
nalists, clergymen and educators
would be nullified.
The Democratic Party does
not have a monopoly on CIA
abuses or intelligence failures.
The agency planned assassina-
tions, tried to destabilize govern-
ment3 and engaged in other
sleazy activity during the ad-
ministrations`-of Republicans and
Democrats. The -debacle of the
Bay of Pigs was the work of John
F. Kennedy (Democrat) and the
Richard M. Nixon (Republican)...
Serious proposals to reform the
CIA have-been made by Republi-
cans (like Nelson A. Rockefeller)
and. Democrats (like Frank
Church).
The' no-holds-barred years.
were not the glory days of the
CIA. They were. the years of its
greatest failures, and the agency
and the country are still paying
for these failures, particularly in
the Third World, where the CIA
is remembered (often accurate-
ly) as the ally of dictators.
The best way to erode morale
in the CIA and to create uncer-
tainty about its product is to
exploit- the agency.. for political
advantage. That will drive out
the professionals faster than any
prohibition against poison plots,
LSD experiments or back-alley
bordellos.
The GOP committee's proposal
to allow the CIA to use journal-
ists is particularly dangerous.
Journalists must be independent
of any government agency -- es-
pecially agencies like the CIA.
The minute one reporter Is
exposed as a part-time CIA
agent, all reporters will be under
suspicion.
The CIA ought to do its. own
work:
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300040008-0