In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Advisors, Technicians, and Foreign Troops [181]
us about their other allies: the Chinese, Portuguese, and South
Africans. The Pretoria and Paris stations were euphoric, having
greater access to BOSS and SDECE* representatives than ever in
agency history, but the intelligence exchange was entirely onesided.
The South Africans and French accepted voluminous intelligence
reports and detailed briefings from those CIA stations but
never reciprocated with much information about what they were
doing in Angola.
There was little reporting on UNITA and FNLA political organization
or diplomatic efforts. In November, when the two established
a provisional government in Nova Lisboa (renamed Huambo) and
sought international recognition, the CIA had inadequate coverage
of its substance, structure, or leadership.
And if the intelligence coverage of our allied forces was disappointing,
our knowledge of the MPLA was nil. Almost no information
was produced by the clandestine services about MPLA armies,
leadership, or objectives.
There was a fl.ow of intelligence reporting from the field-vague,
general, and often inaccurate. One important example: in October
numerous CIA agents began reporting the presence of MIGS in the
Congo (Brazzaville) and Angola. Eventually every CIA agent in
those areas reported their presence, and several claimed to have seen
them.
If true, this was an ominous development. Coupled with the arrival
of large numbers of Cuban troops, MIGs could dominate the
Angolan battlefields. The working group stirred uneasily and began
to discuss an answer: Redeye missiles. The Redeye was a small,
man-packed, ground-to-air missile designed to give infantry units the
capability of defending themselves against jet fighter bombers. Traveling
at mach 1.5, it homes on an aircraft engine's infra-red emissions
and explodes when very near the target. The Redeye was a sensitive,
classified weapons system that had been released only to close
American allies, including Israel.
useless, obsolete carbines into a river. This was reported by Leon Dash, a Washington
Post reporter who walked into Angola in October 1976 and spent six months
with UNIT A forces.
*The South African Bureau of State Security and the French Service de Documentation
Exterieure et Contre-Espionage.