Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Quotes

Most CIA Directors have not had this extreme attitude, but because Casey did, journalists, members of Congress, other government officials and even Presidents have often distrusted the CIA and their personnel more than was necessarily warranted.

In her younger days Steinham worked with the CIA. Originally the Office of Strategic Service, the precursor to the CIA, was an amalgam of some of the nation’s most educated and dedicated people who tended to be very idealistic in saving the world from fascists like Nazi Germany and Japan. The were extremely nonpolitical and were not involved in the liberal conservative battles that the agency got itself into as the Red Scare and the fear of Communism affected much of the society including the CIA.

This quotation comes as a major surprise to most people who perceive modern CIA as the MAJOR U.S. spying and covert action organization. It is a marvelous case study of agency “mission creep”.

The popularly elected president Salvador Allende was a left leaning socialist and Nixon wanted a right wing Government in place who would deal more firmly with the communists. General Augusto Pinochet thus came to power, murdered Allende, and instituted a reign of terror with death squads, torture and disappearances, that eventually led him to be indicted for crimes against humanity.

This is a major issue for the nation. How can the president be responsible if he is not informed? However, some argue that the President must have “plausibility deniability” so he can deceive foreign leaders without lying to them. The laws require that nothing may be withheld from the President but there are some in the agency including past directors who believe that they sometimes should lie to the President or withhold information when it is in the national interest—which of course only they judge without any checks and balances.

Intelligence agents tend to prefer covert activities to the less dramatic, non-exciting, activity of gathering and analyzing intelligence. Most national intelligence services tend to enlarge their portfolio to include covert activities regardless of what the national leaders intended. Because of the secrecy, they can often get away with this.

The then CIA Director, Allen Dulles, fostered a practice of “adjusting” intelligence reports to support ideological policies and theories that were then in vogue. The agents in the field knew what was wanted and many adjusted their reports to coincide with the overall intelligence and policy. The station chiefs and other supervisors often ignored reports of their agents that they knew were not exactly accurate. Copeland however, just fabricated reports and “information” from sources. The honesty and integrity of the CIA intelligence operations have varied from time to time and depended much on the CIA Director at the time. Allen Dulles, though brilliant and able, fostered an ideological intelligence agency. He even went so far as to lie to the President on several occasions.

The scandals of the past of CIA lies to Congress and the President, mistakes they had made, and a raft of illegal activities, had eroded support for the agency. The reason for the minimal funding was that, and not the lack of interests. We still had the NSA and the Military Intelligence Agencies which had not been involved in the CIA scandals

Wilson had been successful in getting money and arms to the Muslim Mujahedeen in Afghanistan to fight the Russians who had invaded and occupied the country. But the Russian armed helicopters gave the Russians control of most of the company. Wilson wanted to send Stingers to the Mujahedeen, but the agencies were worried that the missiles might fall into the hands of anti-American radical Muslims. It turned out that the agencies were correct and after the defeat of Russia, many of the Mujahedeen then, buoyed by their great victory over a Superpower, came after the United States and Western nations who were “occupying Islamic land”. The terrorist tactics, that the United States ignored when the Russians were the victims, became the major military and foreign policy problem of America and the West.

The “wrong” people to Helms. Were Americans who disagreed with his methods and politics—especially members of Congress who wanted to make the CIA more accountable for its actions. If nothing is ever written down and everything is secret, there is no practical way of holding the agency accountable in a democracy. Helms was later convicted to perjury for lying to Congress.

When he became a candidate, he modified this position and stated that he would abolish both agencies spying on Americans activities but not necessarily abolish all the functions of the agency.

The Khmer Rouge were as brutal as any, regime that ever was in power. Undoubtedly he was tortured so it is hard to tell if he was confessing to something real or saying what his torturers wanted to hear.

Dulles lied to Congress. The CIA at the time was supplying planes and American pilots in support of an anti-Sukarno Government faction that was in armed revolt. It is not clear whether or not Dulles knew the truth when he had so testified.

Webster had been a lawyer his entire professional life and served as a distinguished Federal Judge and later as Director of the CIA and FBI. He was a stickler for adhering to the law. Casey, in contrast, was very frequently trying to get around any legal or Constitutional restrictions that might prevent him from doing what he liked. Since most of the CIA activity is secret and not amenable to oversight, his violations were not known to Congress and the public until years after his service.

The call for embedding the balance in the law is in contrast to the past where the balance was left to the discretion of the intelligence agency leadership but technological limitations curtailed their ability to unbalance things too much.