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Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe
The CIA in Western Europe
268 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
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275 people want to read
About the author
Philip Agee
16 books19 followersPhilip Burnett Franklin Agee was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer, best known as author of the 1975 book, 'Inside the Company: CIA Diary', detailing his experiences in the CIA.
Agee joined the CIA in 1957, and over the following decade had postings in Washington, D.C., Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. After resigning from the Agency in 1968, he became a leading opponent of CIA practices. A co-founder of CovertAction Quarterly, he died in Cuba in January 2008.
Agee joined the CIA in 1957, and over the following decade had postings in Washington, D.C., Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. After resigning from the Agency in 1968, he became a leading opponent of CIA practices. A co-founder of CovertAction Quarterly, he died in Cuba in January 2008.
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September 3, 2023
Having read Agee's first book exposing the CIA, "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," I must say "CIA Diary" was the more exciting book. This was perhaps inevitable, since it's told from Agee's point of view, seemingly as events unfolded, so there was always the undercurrent of risk, of how things might go wrong in for example efforts to bug a room from the floor above, and similar such exploits. The current volume, which is supposed to show that the same methods were used in Western Europe, consists of articles, some of which were written by Agee, describing the results of investigations by journalists in a number of Western European countries. Some of the articles are better-written than others. There is an element of repetition as the same things are going on in each country - surveillance, the attempt to enlist informants, bribery to get people to report back by putting them on the payroll. All of the things that Agee revealed in his first book, are in evidence in this second book. For this reason, even though there were a few exciting articles, this book lacked the gripping interest of the first book. If you assume the US government is going to use all the means at its disposal - such as propaganda outlets, the creation of think tanks and journals, putting scores of journalists on the payroll, bringing security and military personnel from Western Europe to the US to be trained in the latest methods of law enforcement etc., the infiltration of labor unions, student organizations, and so forth - in order to (in those days) fight communism - the same way it was doing those things throughout Latin America (as reported in "CIA Diary") then your assumptions will be confirmed in reading this book. In a way, "Dirty Work" is boring because all the "secrets" were revealed in "CIA Diary" and most any reader can figure out that the same methods described in "CIA Diary" would unsurprisingly be in use in Western Europe - and worldwide. Still, this 1978 book was interesting; it did give some information on the effect on the CIA of the Congressional investigations and the subsequent efforts of various presidential administrations to rein them in (which were mostly unsuccessful). Some of the insights are interesting, such as, that the orientation of the security services and the military has always been to ensure that trade/commerce can continue safely; with the extension of this protection to American corporations operating abroad. This is why if a foreign government appears to take a turn to unfriendliness or even to nationalize local US companies, the CIA might act to destabilize or encourage a coup. The results might be favorable in the short term, but long term, there might be negative blow back. The classic example of blow back is us helping the mujaheddin fight the USSR in Afghanistan during the time of Reagan, but then the mujaheddin (Taliban) allowing bin Laden to operate in Afghanistan once they had beaten the USSR, which allowed bin Laden to launch the 9/11 attack in the USA - leading to the decades-long war in Afghanistan that ended up in the end with another Taliban victory over the (US-supported) government of Afghanistan.
We thought we were doing the right thing in helping the mujaheddin fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, but once the Taliban won, we washed our hands of the entire matter - and the Taliban were then probably paid big bucks by bin Laden to allow his terror organization to operate in Afghanistan in safety. The results were 9/11. What was worse: A Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan, or the Taliban (the first time around) - which harbored bin Laden? Most Americans would probably say the latter, since the USSR never actually attacked us while bin Laden certainly did attack the US on 9/11.
I am not sure I can recommend this book to anyone although it does contain some things of interest, there is not much that is new. It is a look back in time - 50 years ago or so - when the Cold War was still definitely on, although there was an ongoing thaw with Nixon even having traveled to the PRC by the time the book was written, and us having pulled out of Vietnam by then. There are references to names and occurrences that might take some remembering or looking up, which were probably well-known at the time - references that might be completely lost on any reader who did not actually live through that era. That is one of the problems with reading narratives from a prior era.. unfamiliarity with scandals, personalities of the prior era, or even attitudes of the past. If you are a scholar or historian of an era, then you "get it" but for the ordinary layperson who doesn't study the past (or doesn't study it much) then the references become cryptic, and that makes the book opaque and in the end, hard to "get" and boring. For anyone though, interested in Agee, who was after all, the Snowden of his time, Agee's first book "CIA Diary" is definitely worth a read, but "Dirty Work" can be skipped.
Anyway, here are some quotes from "Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe:"
From the article "Cord Meyer: Superspook" by Godfrey Hodgson:
"...the transformation of Cord Meyer is a story of broader relevance than any banal American tragedy or private grief, frustrated ambition or embittered idealism. It is the tragedy of an entire generation of the American ruling class."
From the article "The CIA in Portugal" by Philip Agee:
"Recently a reliable source in Washington told me that large amounts of money are going from the United States to the Catholic Church for combating the revolution in Portugal."
From the article "The Fifth Estate Responds by The Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate:"
"This [Greece] CIA Station Chief [Richard Welch] died as a direct result of world-wide hostility which the CIA has helped generate against the United States. As a CIA operative, Welch knew that his role in coordinating covert operations to secure the exploitative investment climate for multinational corporations could, someday, lead to his death."
From the article: "The CIA in Italy: An Interview with Victor Marchetti:"
"[Marchetti:] With that motivation [shoring up democracy] we went to the extent of supporting corrupt dictatorial regimes, such as those in South Vietnam and South Korea, to mention only two examples. Yes, we wanted to export democracy. We exported fascism instead. Democracy is like religion: it cannot be imposed. It can be spread only if those who preach it practice it. One day I finally understood these things. That was why I decided to leave the secret service."
From the article: "West Germany: An Interview with Philip Agee by Philip Agee and Informations Dienst:"
"[Agee:] Since World War II, the aim of U.S. foreign policy has been to guarantee the coherence of the western world under the leadership of the U.S.A. CIA activities are directed toward achieving this goal."
"[Informations Dienst:] It is now known that the CIA used the English news agency Reuters to push specific propaganda stories into well-known newspapers. How does this system work? [Agee:] Most CIA stations pay journalists to publish the CIA's propaganda as if it were the journalist's own work. They pass on faked and true news as authentic news to agencies and important newspapers."
From the article "How the CIA Took the Teeth Out of British Socialism" by Richard Fletcher:
"...the CIA carries out, at a more sophisticated level, exactly the same sort of organized subversion as Stalin's Comintern in its heyday."
"Through its network of front organizations, magazines, and subsidies, the CIA in the late Fifties and early Sixties had a decisive effect on socialism throughout Western Europe, and in Britain in particular..."
From the article "The CIA Makes the News" by Steve Weissman:
"The ... records [of the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC), US/UK-funded, likely as a US/UK security services covert operation] ... show close contacts with top police officials in Rhodesia and South Africa, as well as with other leaders around the world. But (ISC Director journalist Brian) Crozier's biggest impact could come in the United States, despite a supposed ban on any CIA-backed propaganda within the country."
From the article "Where Do We Go From Here?" by Philip Agee:
"When we read of "national security" and "survival" in the various reports on the CIA and the FBI, we're reading about *their* security and survival, not ours. Those are *their* security services, not ours. It's their *class* security that they equate with the "nation's survival." Probably not even Marx himself could have imagined the kind of public debate within the ruling class over security services that would demonstrate so clearly the nature of class struggle."
"...the real principle in operation is that "free" institutions, such as foreign electoral processes, must be made to work in favor of "American interests."
"By concentrating on rights of Americans and compliance with American laws, the various reports interpose nationalism and the liberal concept of the state in order to obscure and conceal the national and international class interests that are the raison d'etre for the security services and for what they do."
"...the revelations, especially those relating to Chile, demonstrate more clearly than ever how the activities of the CIA are tailored to meet the security needs of American-based multinational companies. Much of the CIA's operational program in foreign countries, particularly in the Third World, can now be seen as designed to promote optimum operating conditions for these companies."
From the article "Turner's "Born Again" CIA" by CovertAction Information Bulletin:
"No matter who rules, says Donald S. Jordan, [a 26-year veteran in the domestic collection service] it's run by elitists, most of whom are contemptuous of "idiots" in the unwashed general public and who are willing to lie to Congress whenever necessary."
"For thirty years the CIA has been engaged in an unremitting, though largely unrecognized, effort to shape foreign opinion in support of U.S. policy abroad. American journalists were just one part of its propaganda campaign, and its efforts contributed to distortion of the news at home as well as abroad. Why are we to believe it has ended?"
"A substantial number of the bogus news stories planted abroad were published as genuine in the United States, a phenomenon the CIA calls "blow-back," "replay" or "domestic fallout."
"But how is the public to sift out the lies and dis-information? Some CIA propaganda efforts, especially during the Vietnam War, were set in motion specifically for U.S. consumption."
"The Central Intelligence Agency is but one branch of the U.S. intelligence community, and that community is only one very deeply-rooted tree in the enormous forest constituting the military-industrial establishment, that continuously rips away large chunks of the government budget from the social areas desperately requiring attention, including public health, welfare, unemployment, housing and education."
"If liberation movements continue to challenge the decaying leaderships that are backed up by the Western world, the administration will need more popular support for some sort of intervention, be it small covert operations teams or economic pressure. Thus the re-creation of the emotive and bogus external threat wrapped in the Soviet or Cuban flag or fear of terrorism."
"...the American corporate empire......will always require covert action and intervention in the internal affairs of other nations."
We thought we were doing the right thing in helping the mujaheddin fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, but once the Taliban won, we washed our hands of the entire matter - and the Taliban were then probably paid big bucks by bin Laden to allow his terror organization to operate in Afghanistan in safety. The results were 9/11. What was worse: A Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan, or the Taliban (the first time around) - which harbored bin Laden? Most Americans would probably say the latter, since the USSR never actually attacked us while bin Laden certainly did attack the US on 9/11.
I am not sure I can recommend this book to anyone although it does contain some things of interest, there is not much that is new. It is a look back in time - 50 years ago or so - when the Cold War was still definitely on, although there was an ongoing thaw with Nixon even having traveled to the PRC by the time the book was written, and us having pulled out of Vietnam by then. There are references to names and occurrences that might take some remembering or looking up, which were probably well-known at the time - references that might be completely lost on any reader who did not actually live through that era. That is one of the problems with reading narratives from a prior era.. unfamiliarity with scandals, personalities of the prior era, or even attitudes of the past. If you are a scholar or historian of an era, then you "get it" but for the ordinary layperson who doesn't study the past (or doesn't study it much) then the references become cryptic, and that makes the book opaque and in the end, hard to "get" and boring. For anyone though, interested in Agee, who was after all, the Snowden of his time, Agee's first book "CIA Diary" is definitely worth a read, but "Dirty Work" can be skipped.
Anyway, here are some quotes from "Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe:"
From the article "Cord Meyer: Superspook" by Godfrey Hodgson:
"...the transformation of Cord Meyer is a story of broader relevance than any banal American tragedy or private grief, frustrated ambition or embittered idealism. It is the tragedy of an entire generation of the American ruling class."
From the article "The CIA in Portugal" by Philip Agee:
"Recently a reliable source in Washington told me that large amounts of money are going from the United States to the Catholic Church for combating the revolution in Portugal."
From the article "The Fifth Estate Responds by The Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate:"
"This [Greece] CIA Station Chief [Richard Welch] died as a direct result of world-wide hostility which the CIA has helped generate against the United States. As a CIA operative, Welch knew that his role in coordinating covert operations to secure the exploitative investment climate for multinational corporations could, someday, lead to his death."
From the article: "The CIA in Italy: An Interview with Victor Marchetti:"
"[Marchetti:] With that motivation [shoring up democracy] we went to the extent of supporting corrupt dictatorial regimes, such as those in South Vietnam and South Korea, to mention only two examples. Yes, we wanted to export democracy. We exported fascism instead. Democracy is like religion: it cannot be imposed. It can be spread only if those who preach it practice it. One day I finally understood these things. That was why I decided to leave the secret service."
From the article: "West Germany: An Interview with Philip Agee by Philip Agee and Informations Dienst:"
"[Agee:] Since World War II, the aim of U.S. foreign policy has been to guarantee the coherence of the western world under the leadership of the U.S.A. CIA activities are directed toward achieving this goal."
"[Informations Dienst:] It is now known that the CIA used the English news agency Reuters to push specific propaganda stories into well-known newspapers. How does this system work? [Agee:] Most CIA stations pay journalists to publish the CIA's propaganda as if it were the journalist's own work. They pass on faked and true news as authentic news to agencies and important newspapers."
From the article "How the CIA Took the Teeth Out of British Socialism" by Richard Fletcher:
"...the CIA carries out, at a more sophisticated level, exactly the same sort of organized subversion as Stalin's Comintern in its heyday."
"Through its network of front organizations, magazines, and subsidies, the CIA in the late Fifties and early Sixties had a decisive effect on socialism throughout Western Europe, and in Britain in particular..."
From the article "The CIA Makes the News" by Steve Weissman:
"The ... records [of the Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC), US/UK-funded, likely as a US/UK security services covert operation] ... show close contacts with top police officials in Rhodesia and South Africa, as well as with other leaders around the world. But (ISC Director journalist Brian) Crozier's biggest impact could come in the United States, despite a supposed ban on any CIA-backed propaganda within the country."
From the article "Where Do We Go From Here?" by Philip Agee:
"When we read of "national security" and "survival" in the various reports on the CIA and the FBI, we're reading about *their* security and survival, not ours. Those are *their* security services, not ours. It's their *class* security that they equate with the "nation's survival." Probably not even Marx himself could have imagined the kind of public debate within the ruling class over security services that would demonstrate so clearly the nature of class struggle."
"...the real principle in operation is that "free" institutions, such as foreign electoral processes, must be made to work in favor of "American interests."
"By concentrating on rights of Americans and compliance with American laws, the various reports interpose nationalism and the liberal concept of the state in order to obscure and conceal the national and international class interests that are the raison d'etre for the security services and for what they do."
"...the revelations, especially those relating to Chile, demonstrate more clearly than ever how the activities of the CIA are tailored to meet the security needs of American-based multinational companies. Much of the CIA's operational program in foreign countries, particularly in the Third World, can now be seen as designed to promote optimum operating conditions for these companies."
From the article "Turner's "Born Again" CIA" by CovertAction Information Bulletin:
"No matter who rules, says Donald S. Jordan, [a 26-year veteran in the domestic collection service] it's run by elitists, most of whom are contemptuous of "idiots" in the unwashed general public and who are willing to lie to Congress whenever necessary."
"For thirty years the CIA has been engaged in an unremitting, though largely unrecognized, effort to shape foreign opinion in support of U.S. policy abroad. American journalists were just one part of its propaganda campaign, and its efforts contributed to distortion of the news at home as well as abroad. Why are we to believe it has ended?"
"A substantial number of the bogus news stories planted abroad were published as genuine in the United States, a phenomenon the CIA calls "blow-back," "replay" or "domestic fallout."
"But how is the public to sift out the lies and dis-information? Some CIA propaganda efforts, especially during the Vietnam War, were set in motion specifically for U.S. consumption."
"The Central Intelligence Agency is but one branch of the U.S. intelligence community, and that community is only one very deeply-rooted tree in the enormous forest constituting the military-industrial establishment, that continuously rips away large chunks of the government budget from the social areas desperately requiring attention, including public health, welfare, unemployment, housing and education."
"If liberation movements continue to challenge the decaying leaderships that are backed up by the Western world, the administration will need more popular support for some sort of intervention, be it small covert operations teams or economic pressure. Thus the re-creation of the emotive and bogus external threat wrapped in the Soviet or Cuban flag or fear of terrorism."
"...the American corporate empire......will always require covert action and intervention in the internal affairs of other nations."
January 19, 2022
A good collection of article published in the late 70s on CIA operations in Western Europe at the time. Nothing too revelatory, but interesting to see some of the things that were known even at that date, such as specifics from MKULTRA. Some of the articles are a bit dry and the information they present themselves not super informative, but they still function as a good primer on how the CIA actually operated at that time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews