Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 24, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press wednesday june 7 focus Cia left with Little but gadgets by Robert c. Toth the los Angeles times Washington the soviets knew the schedule of the United states Kh-9 spy satellite to the minute and when it flew Over the Uzbekistan missile Centre everything was tucked out of sight. But a few hours later another . Satellite the Kh-11, passed Over the same Field and caught an aerospace glider out in Plain View giving this country its first evidence that the soviets were making a Craft similar to the . Space shuttle. In the kind of games modern spy masters play the soviets had exposed the secret space glider because they had been tricked into believing the second satellite was electronically among other ploys it was made to seen silent. Instead of trans mitting its to like pictures Down to Earth As other satellites do the Kh-11 radioed its pictures up into space to a communications satellite that relayed them to a . Intelligence Sta Tion half Way around the world. The deception worked until Excia employee William Kampiles sold the opera Lions manual of the multimillion Dollar Kh-11 to the soviets for a Mere 000. Technological cleverness is the Pride of . Intelligence no nation is bet Ter at it and that supremacy can be a source of Comfort to the american people As . Military vulnerability in the Early 1980s puts greater Reliance on intelligence to avoid dangerous sur Prises. But american supremacy in technical intelligence is profoundly mislead ing. It stands not As representative of . Intelligence capabilities As a whole but in Stark contrast. For in every other Field human spies analysis of data collected and ability to conduct secret operations the . Intelligence Community appears to be dangerously deficient. Except for technical surveillance of the soviet said one highly knowledgeable source we re in Lousy shape throughout the some examples d human intelligence sources have largely dried up because of leaks. Some potentially co operative sources say frankly they Are afraid they might find their names in our a very knowledgeable source said and i must say for myself that if i were a libyan or pakistani to say nothing of a soviet i would not co operate today with any american intelligence Agen d recent Waves of firings and Early retirement Cost the Cia Many hundreds of senior personnel with special Lan Guage abilities and regional expertise. In 1978, when Iran s Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was ousted the Agency did not have a single regular who could speak persian. A Large percentage of the Field officers of its near East division which includes South West Asia Are former employees re called on temporary duty according to an informed source. Q in Africa and latin America the United states must rely heavily on information supplied by British French and West German agencies. But co operation has slowed significantly since the congressional and press exposes of Cia abuses and mis deeds in the mid-1970s, officials say. There Are whole lists of cases in which Friendly agencies have stopped helping one source said. D collection of Public and Semi Public information by . Diplomats and Mil itary attaches has been significantly slowed too As a result of budget cuts. Two thirds of the attaches of the de Fence intelligence Agency have been eliminated since 1968. Rising . Tour ism and business interests abroad particularly in communist nations have increasingly diverted american Diplo Mats away from the political and eco nomic reporting that intelligence analysts need d analysis of available information is uneven in Quality. Cia analysts Are technically one National Security official said but they almost missed the Afghanistan invasion after watching the soviet buildup for six months because they focused on Rea sons Moscow would not move de Tente Salt ii Trade. They Are biased to predict the Ordi nary not he said. D the Cia s Covert action capability which once mounted everything from propaganda campaigns to secret wars has been virtually dismantled. The raid to free . Hostages in Iran for example would have had a better Chance if it had been organized and run by the Cia according to several Intelli gence officials As Well As one military officer who took part in the Pentagon Effort. At a less dramatic level the Cia s ability to Aid insurgent groups Short of intervention is almost non existent. If we wanted to help the afghan Freedom fighters with one source said there is no Supply of untraceable arms no experienced gun runners no transportation assets available readily. And the soviets know political Covert action such As Plant ing newspaper stories and aiding sym pathetic officials abroad was never totally suspended by the Cia even in the Carter administration. But it s on a piddling one official said and what s left is rather Carter became angry at Cuba s continued use of its troops in Africa after his initial overture to Fidel Castro in 1977 to normalize relations. He ordered accounts of Castro s activities to be disseminated internationally. But most of the machinery for such propagandize mighty Wurlitzer once boasted by the Cia had deteriorated into Rusty silence. Even the . Information Agency resisted Carter s orders to play up anti Castro stories. This particularly incensed the president and led to a minor shake up within that Agency informants said. Such is the debris left from the unprecedented campaigns against the intelligence and counterintelligence agencies in the government particularly the Cia. To a considerable degree the Agen a president Carter s emasculation of the Cia hindered the Agency s intelligence work on the soviet troops in Cuba the invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran. A Cia agent was murdered after Philip Agee broke his cover. Cies brought it on themselves with foreign and Domestic crimes and excesses in the name of National Security. As a result powerful figures in the Carter administration including former vice president Walter Mondale who served on the Senate committee that publicized Cia abuses seemed intent initially on punishing the intelligence Community. Their approach seemed to be if they Don t have the capacity they can t misuse according to one highly knowledgeable source. The solution should have been better control and accountability of the intelligence Community not emasculation. But Carter sent Admiral Stansfield Turner with orders to clean up the Cia and chop a half billion dollars from the Community s Turner a Carter classmate at Annap Olis took Over As the new and promptly eliminated 800 jobs Al most overnight in 1977 and a comparable additional number in 1978 and 1979. Morale understandably plummeted. There s still a siege mentality out one Cia Veteran said. Almost no one moves without consulting a lawyer these Days and there Are lots of them ten years ago the Cia Legal staff consisted of six persons. Now it has 240 persons. Not All of the Cia s troubles Are american made of course. The soviet Kab has naturally done All it can to reinforce the image of a Leaky . Intelligence Community and govern ment for example. One Way is to exploit the anti Cia activities of a renegade sex agent Philip Agee who pub Lishes the names of . Agents abroad. At least one agent has been murdered and others attacked after his Publica Tion of their identities and several have been quietly recalled for fear they were in danger sources said. Even if Agee does not collaborate consciously with the Kab and dig cuban they use one official said. The Day after he comes out with a list a russian will drop it off to the thai government if it names an american in Bangkok for example. Newspapers around the world get copies of his lists too fast for them to have travelled by Turner in addition to slashing personnel saved Money by focusing tech Nical surveillance on the soviet Union at the expense of the rest of the world. Technical surveillance includes photo reconnaissance radio intercepts radar monitoring breaking codes and the like As a result there is practically no data base now for collecting radio technical data has continued High Little detailed analysis of the information was conducted until the Surprise disco very of the soviet mini brigade in 1979. Then the National Security Agency which collects communication Intelli gence found in its files evidence from More than a year earlier pointing to the existence of the unit. The problem of Ever growing vol Umes of information which the Intelli gence agencies pay to collect but do not pay to be Analysed is caused in Large part by Congress. You can get Capitol Hill to budget Clever technical collection systems quite one official said but then they balk at Money for the True challenges of the decades ahead lie More in the intellectual gymnastics of coping with the flood of information than in the physical or even sexual gymnastics of latter Day James former Cia director William Colby said recently. Despite what intelligence specialists see As a gloomy picture Overall there Are some Bright spots. More Money generally has been signals from third world states or going into intelligence in the past year Central one official said. We Don t know the radio frequencies used by their military by their politicians their codes the patterns of radio traffic that might give very important clues about the timing of even in Cuba where the collection of including funds for analysis with the new perception of the soviet threat by former president Carter after the inva Sion of Afghanistan. Another positive sign is the Rise in number enthusiasm and Quality of applicants to the Cia. More than half of the new officers last year had advanced degrees one official said. But it will be a Long time before those fresh can substitute for a Guy with 15 years experience i the he added. Congress has also moved to ease restrictions if not the intelligence agencies. It reduced from eight to two the number of committees to which the agencies had to report and it is Likely in the coming session to curtail Freedom of information act Access and to impose sanctions against persons such As Agee on publishing the names of agents. The courts seem similarly inclined to favor Cia Legal positions ruling for example that sex agents surrender All profits from books if they publish contrary to their signed contracts without submitting them first to the Cia for clearance but How soon or even whether the . Intelligence Community can be reinvigorated under proper control and congressional oversight cannot be predicted. To Many the key will be the Quality of leadership provided by the Reagan administration. The appointment of William to be the new Cia director has been generally praised within the Community because of Casey s service in the Cia s precursor Agency the office of strategic services and because of his close rapport with the president. Fund raising letter indicates tory worries we face a Tough Battle we have to get the Manitoba and Sterling Lyon Story to the i am Happy to report the party is ready. But we Are lacking one thing these Are excerpts from the fund Rais ing letters Manitoba s two major Politi Cal parties Are sending to their Mem Bers. They present an interesting contrast in tone. The tories Are Wor ried. The nip is optimistic. The tory letter signed by party president Harold Piercy is More than twice the length of the nip missive signed by Transcona la Wilson Parasiuk who is chairman of the party s election planning committee. Both letters refer to the opponent in alarmist terms. But the tory letter indicates a fear of the opposition s strength while the nip letter merely warns of the rival s considerable Finan Cial resources. The nip opposition has suffered some serious internal says the tory letter but they will still conduct a Tough hard hitting Campaign to undermine our efforts. As in the past they can Call on the support of dozens of Union and party organizers both within and outside the province. The nip is not going to be beaten easily. They la wage a very Strong Campaign. We can t be complacent about the the Only similar Section in the nip letter says we need to prepare television and radio commercials to counter the expensive advertising the tories Are sure to do. You can be sure the corporations won t let Down their Friend Sterling Lyon we be got to be on to to make sure the people know the facts about the the nip letter is Short and upbeat keying its message almost entirely on the need for Money. The tory letter is defensive. It devotes several Para graphs to plumping the government s record and especially Lyon s Leader ship. It concludes with this equivocal sentence unfortunately not every one is aware of How much Effort must be made if we Are to the portions of the letters used to sell the faithful on the merits of the cause Are very different. Sterling Lyon has Given the people of Manitoba solid leadership for the past four says the tory letter. He has a record of accomplishment. He s made things happen. His fair arid evenhanded manner has helped to re Duce divisiveness within our province. You must have been As proud As i was when As the spokesman for the other provinces As Well As Manitoba he spoke out so clearly on the Canadian Constitution. Our Leader is respected and trusted by the other provincial premiers and highly regarded by Citi Zens across Canada. But All the progressive conservative government achievements and the personal accomplishments of Premier Lyon could be lost at the next election. Each of us must do whatever we can to make sure we win a solid mandate on election on the other hand the nip letter contains just this Short statement we have to win Back the government so we can get Manitoba moving again. The Economy must be restored so our sons and daughters will have jobs Here at Home. Decency and humanity must be restored to our health care services. Lyon s policies have served to Pii the sections of this province against each other. Under an nip government Winnipeg Rural Manitoba and the North will work together harmoniously for a better future for All Manito the nip letter contains no reference to Leader Howard Pawley. Both letters also Tell party members what organizing Progress has been made to Date. Again the nip letter is Brief. We have doubled our member ship to there is a spirit of optimism and renewal that has led to the nomination of 18 Good new Candi dates already. Weekend organizational schools Are churning out top notch Campaign workers and the january convention provided us with a solid policy the tory letter says the party is targeting each Riding which it won or lost by 15 per cent of the vote in 1977. These Ridings Are where we Are most it is building an improved communications program and we re working to expand our membership. We had Over Mem Bers going into the 1977 election and we Are aiming to increase that number. A Large committed membership is the key to the tory letter reflects the fact the party is further behind in nominations than its rival. Possibly most important is candidate recruitment selection and training. Manitoba voters want to support Good candidates whom they can Trust and believe in. We re making special efforts in the next while to find such Piercy winds up his letter with a request for help at this critical Parasiuk concludes by saying that with a donation you la be making the first step towards re electing an nip government Here in it is Only natural that governments will be More defensive than oppositions. Also alarming people is one Way to goad them into action. Nevertheless the tories seem less certain of support from their own members than does the nip. The election could be next fall or delayed until next Spring. Time can change party fortunes. But the letters Are a snapshot of the self Confidence of the two protagonists As of june 1981 and a clue As to Why. The election was postponed. Doonesbury first reap Shafik Pokk Matofa communist i was hum a h5ufsin a jeep arc ;