University of Virginia Library

Trying To Put A Band aid On The Malignant Tumor

WASHINGTON (LNS)- In
an effort to improve
"efficiency and effectiveness",
President Nixon announced
what the papers called "the
reorganization of the U.S.
intelligence community". What
it meant was that the various
surveillance agencies from the
CIA to the FBI to the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA)
which, at times, have jealously
competed with each other will
be under more centralized
control so that information
will be shared and there will be
less of that inter-agency rivalry.

The "sprawling intelligence
conglomerate," as Newsweek
called it, will be brought under
the firm hand of Richard
Helms, tireless worker in the
CIA from its beginning in
1947, and its director since
1966.

Covert Action

The CIA, or Central
Intelligence Agency, is the
primary intelligence agency in
the US Government-but it
does more than just collect
intelligence.

As a report from a secret
meeting of the Council on
Foreign Relations, an elite
group of corporation
presidents, bankers and
government officials, in New
York stated, the CIA's
functions in the field of covert
action includes:

"1. political advice and
Counsel

2. subsidies to an
individual

3. financial support and
'technical assistance' to
political parties

4. support of private
organizations, including
labor unions, business
firms, cooperatives, etc.

5. covert propaganda

6. "private" training of
individuals and exchange
of persons

7. economic operations

8. paramilitary for
political action operations
designed to overflow or to
support a regime (like the
Bay of Pigs and the
programs in Laos)."

Secret Report

The Pentagon Papers have
shown the CIA's part in the
Diem coup. Besides the
programs in Laos mentioned in
the secret report the Agency's
role in the heroin traffic there
is becoming more and more
clear.

[OMITTED]

In the October 11 copy of
US News and World Report,
hardly what anybody would
call an organ of the left, there
was an interview with a former
CIA official-Victor Marchetti.
The interview which took place
at least a month before Nixon's
announcement of the
reorganization of the
intelligence network, expressed
Marchetti's fears that
CIA-sponsored coups and
covert activities are increasing.
His solution? - more
congressional control-letting
the congress look over its
budget.

Marchetti's solution seems
like putting a band aid on a
malignant tumor since as he
says: "There are people in the
CIA who-if they aren't right
now actually already running
domestic operations against
student groups, black
movements and the like-are
certainly considering it.

"You have the danger of
intelligence turning against the
nation itself, going against 'the
enemy within.'

"I know this was being
discussed in the halls of the
CIA, and that there were a lot
of people who felt this should
be done."

The CIA is near the top of a
huge network of intelligence
agencies working both within
and without the United States.
The Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA) keeps its eye on
"troublemakers" in the
military for example.
Underneath the DIA is the
Army intelligence which, it
was revealed last year, has
computers full of names of
people not at all connected to
the military but involved in
demonstrations and peace
groups. Then of course there is
the FBI of television saga and
the Treasury Department with
its endless supply of narcs who
often work in conjunction with
local police.

Beyond The CIA

Above the various agencies
is the newly-revived US.
Intelligence Board whose job it
will be to advise Helms. Sitting
on the Board with Helms as
chairman will be such notables
as the directors of the FBI,
DIA, Atomic Energy
Commission and others.

Above the Board is the
National Security Council
which is headed by Henry
Kissinger, Nixon's chief
advisor. "National security
affairs" are defined very
broadly and the Council acts as
a basic decision making body
under the president. There is a
NSC Intelligence Committee
on which sit Attorney General
John Mitchell, the CIA
director, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
Under Secretary of State, and
the Deputy Secretary of
Defense.

There isn't much more
generally known information
about the various intelligence
agencies. A slick news
magazine commented about
the CIA: "Its employees
compose what is very likely,
with the possible exception of
the Mafia, the most closed
corporation in American
society."

Publicly, the intelligence
network employs 200,000
people and has a budget of $6
billion a year, but ex CIA
official Marchetti estimates
that for example "85 per cent
of the CIA's money is hidden
in the Defense Department
budget."

CIA headquarters is situated
in the woods of Langley,
Virginia, marked only with a
modest sign announcing
"Fairbank Highway Research
Station"

"They work together, play
together and sometimes live
together," said one journalist
breezily. "They go to the same
doctors and if need be, to the
same psychiatrists; their talents
and triumphs are rarely sung
outside the agency's walls and
often not even within them;
even when they quit their
friends can never be sure that
they are not simply
establishing a deep cover. The
CIA is not a profession; it is a
way of life."

'Dead Mackerel'

Richard Helms, the new
overseer of every piece of
intelligence that will be
collected by an agency of the
US and every "dirty trick" (as
they call the plots and coups)
initiated, once was described as
having "the personality of a
dead mackerel" by a Johnson
aide.

That personality seemed
just what is necessary for the
CIA since he has been with
that organization since its very
conception. The son of an
aluminum executive, Helms
was educated in posh schools
in Switzerland and Germany.
When he graduated from
Williams College, he was voted
by his classmates as "most
respected" and "most likely to
succeed."

Through his family
influence he got a job in the
Berlin Bureau of UPI and at 23
got the privilege of having an
exclusive interview with
Adolph Hitler.

Involved in intelligence
work during World War II., he
easily slid into the embryonic
CIA. For 15 years he led an
anonymous life in the "plans"
section-the nice word for
those people handling covert
activities, like, for example, the
1954 coup in Guatemala. In
1962 he was named the head
of the section and in 1966
Johnson rewarded all his loyal
years of service by making him
director.

Now living on his $42,500
salary inc ountry-clubbish Chevy
Chase, Maryland, he is part of
the Washington social whirl. In
fact, he is considered second
only to Henry Kissinger as a
prize catch on the social
circuit.

But Richard Helms will
probably be seeing more of his
cream-colored office in
Langley, Virginia, and less of
his Chevy Chase home in the
weeks ahead.