In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Postscript [253]
the CIA is essential to our national security.
Where is the ancient American skepticism, the "show-me" attitude
for which our pioneer forefathers were famous? We only need
the CIA if it contributes positively to our national interests. Obviously,
our nation needs broad intelligence coverage, and we have
been getting it. It comes through the Directorate of Information of
the CIA, the central intelligence office which collates, analyses, and
disseminates information from all sources. Our presidents receive the
DDI reports and briefings and, with some misgivings about their
quality,* insist that they are essential to the wise functioning of that
office. But even presidents forget to distinguish between the Directorate
of Information and the clandestine services, quite possibly not
realizing how little of the DDl's information actually comes from the
covert human agents of its shadowy alter ego. The bulk of all raw
intelligence, including vital strategic information, comes from overt
sources and from the enormously expensive technical collection systems.
The human agents, the spies, contribute less than 10 percent,
a trivial part of the information which is reliable and of national
security importance. Good agent penetrations of the "hard targets,"
individual spies who have confirmed access to strategic information,
who are reliable, and who manage to report on a timely basis, are
extremely rare. It is a shocking truth that the clandestine services
have failed to recruit good agents in Moscow (Pentkovsky and Popov
walked in on the British service which shared them with the CIA).
It has failed completely in China-not even a walk-in. In Pyongyang,
North Korea-not one Korean agent. And CIA case officers are
literally afraid of the Mafia, the Chinese Tongs, and the international
drug runners. They have recruited scores of thousands of Third
World politicians, rebels, and European businessmen, whose voluminous
reporting scarcely justifies the clandestine services' existence.
In March 1976 President Ford reorganized the National Security
Council, renaming the 40 Committee, calling it the Operations
Advisory Group. At that time he expanded the CIA charter,
authorizing it to intervene even in countries which are
friendly to the United States, and in those which are not threatened
by internal subversion.
In January 1977, at the crest of two years of exposure of its short-
*See Armies of Ignorance, William Corson (New York: Dial, 1977).