WORKING
PRESS — CIA STYLE
(from CIA
and the Media, by Carl Bernstein, originally published in Rolling
Stone,
To understand the role of
most journalist‑operatives, it is necessary to dismiss some myths about
undercover work for American intelligence services. Few American agents are
“spies” in the popularly accepted sense of the term. “Spying” — the acquisition
of secrets from a foreign government—is almost always done by foreign nationals
who have been recruited by the CIA and are under CIA control in their own
countries. Thus the primary role of an American working undercover abroad is often
to aid in the recruitment and “handling” of foreign nationals who are channels
of secret information reaching American intelligence.
Many
journalists were used by the CIA to assist in this process and they had the
reputation of being among the best in the business. The peculiar nature of the
job of the foreign correspondent is ideal for such work: he is accorded unusual
access by his host country, permitted to travel in areas often off‑limits
to other Americans, spends much of his time cultivating sources in governments,
academic institutions, the military establishment and the scientific
communities. He has the opportunity to form long‑term personal
relationships with sources and—perhaps more than any other category of American
operative—is in a position to make correct judgments about the susceptibility
and availability of foreign nationals for recruitment as spies.
“After
a foreigner is recruited, a case officer often has to stay in the background,”
explained a CIA official. “So you use a journalist to carry messages to and
from both parties”
Journalists
in the field generally took their assignments in the same manner as any other
undercover operative. If, for instance, a journalist was based in
The
tasks they performed sometimes consisted of little more than serving as “eyes
and ears” for the CIA; reporting on what they had seen or overheard in an
Eastern European factory, at a diplomatic reception in Bonn, on the perimeter
of a military base in Portugal. On other occasions, their assignments were more
complex: planting subtly concocted pieces of misinformation; hosting parties or
receptions designed to bring together American agents and foreign spies;
serving up “black” propaganda to leading foreign journalists at lunch or dinner;
providing their hotel rooms or bureau offices as “drops” for highly sensitive
information moving to and from foreign agents; conveying instructions and
dollars to CIA controlled members of foreign governments.
Often
the CIA’s relationship with a journalist might begin informally with a lunch, a
drink, a casual exchange of information. An Agency official might then offer a
favor—for example, a trip to a country difficult to reach; in return, he would
seek nothing more than the opportunity to debrief the reporter afterward. A few
more lunches, a few more favors, and only then might there be a mention of a
formal arrangement — “That came later,” said a CIA official, “after you had the
journalist on a string.”
Another
official described a typical example of the way accredited journalists (either
paid or unpaid by the CIA) might be used by the Agency: “In return for our
giving them information, we’d ask them to do things that fit their roles as
journalists but that they wouldn’t have thought of unless we put it in their
minds. For instance, a reporter in
Formal
recruitment of reporters was generally handled at high levels—after the
journalist had undergone a thorough background check. The actual approach might
even be made by a deputy director or division chief. On some occasions, no
discussion would he entered into until the journalist had signed a pledge of
secrecy.
“The
secrecy agreement was the sort of ritual that got you into the tabernacle,”
said a former assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence. “After that you
had to play by the rules.” David Attlee Phillips, former Western Hemisphere
chief of clandestine services and a former journalist himself, estimated in an
interview that at least 200 journalists signed secrecy agreements or employment
contracts with the Agency in the past twenty‑five years. Phillips, who
owned a small English‑language newspaper in
“One
of the things we always had going for us in terms of enticing reporters,”
observed a CIA official who coordinated some of the arrangements with
journalists, “was that we could make them look better with their home offices.
A foreign correspondent with ties to the Company [the CIA] stood a much better
chance than his competitors of getting the good stories.”
Within
the CIA, journalist‑operatives were accorded elite status, a consequence
of the common experience journalists shared with high‑level CIA
officials. Many had gone to the same schools as their CIA handlers, moved in
the same circles, shared fashionably liberal, anti‑Communist political
values, and were part of the same “old boy” network that constituted something
of an establishment elite in the media, politics and academia of postwar
The
Agency’s use of journalists in undercover operations has been most extensive in
In
the Sixties, reporters were used extensively in the CIA offensive against
Salvador Allende in
According
to CIA officials, the Agency has been particularly sparing in its use of
journalist agents in
The
Soviets, according to CIA officials, have consistently raised false charges of
CIA affiliation against individual American reporters as part of a continuing
diplomatic game that often follows the ups and downs of Soviet‑American
relations. The latest such charge by the Russians—against Christopher Wren of
the New York Times and Alfred
Friendly Jr., formerly of Newsweek,
has no basis in fact, they insist.
CIA officials acknowledge, however, that such charges will persist as long as the CIA continues to use journalistic cover and maintain covert affiliations with individuals in the profession. But even an absolute prohibition against Agency use of journalists would not free reporters from suspicion, according to many Agency officials. “Look at the Peace Corps,” said one source. “We have had no affiliation there and they [foreign governments] still throw them out”