In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES
channeled to them via overseas banks. The officer at first resisted, on
the grounds that this was cumbersome, that he or one of his assistants
could just slip them some money when they needed it, say s500
every few days. But Potts insisted, and after the officer went back to
New York the task force worked out the details by cabling New
York, Lusaka, Kinshasa, and key European stations. Each delegation
opened a bank account in Europe to which European-based CIA
finance officers could make regular deposits. Thereafter the CIA
could plausibly deny that it had funded anyone's propagandists in
the United States. It would be extremely difficult for any investigators
to prove differently.
This arrangement continued throughout the duration of the program,
long after the UN General Assembly closed. The UNITA
delegates in New York and Washington were increasingly effective.
They managed to see State Department officials, White House representatives,
and congressmen, as well as American journalists. Care
was taken by their CIA case officers not to record their visits to
Washington, although some visits were reported in official memos
written by unwitting State Department officers and White House
staffers, who did not know they had been visited by CIA agents.
UNIT A's "news" from Angola continued to be drawn from CIA
propaganda, fed to them by their case officers in New York.
In January 1976 Director Colby testified before the House Select
Committee on Intelligence, saying: "We have taken particular caution
to ensure that our operations are focused abroad and not at the
United States to influence the opinion of the American people about
things from the CIA point of view.,,• A remarkable statement in
view of what we had been doing in the task force.••
It was impossible to measure the full impact in America of the
FNLA and UNIT A propagandists, except, perhaps by the response
of American citizens who were inspired to enlist to fight communists
in Angola. The news services reported that Roy Ennis of the Congress
on Racial Equality was seeking one thousand volunteers to join
the FNLA in Angola. Another group began training in jungle tactics
on a farm in North Carolina. Adventurers, self-styled mercenaries,
*Final Report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations
with Respect to Intelligence Activities, April 26, 1976, p. 129.
••Director Colby received copies of all IAFEATURE cables and memoranda.