Inside Covert Action: CIA, Media Self-Censorship, and Constitutional Challenges (1982)

More CIA stories from John Stockwell: https://thememoryhole.substack.com/

The video series delves into the secretive world of covert action, featuring insights from former CIA official John Stockwell and Louis Wolf, co-editor of the Covert Action Information Bulletin. In the initial segment, the focus lies on an overview of the CIA's operations, shedding light on its activities and nature.

As the discussion progresses, attention turns to the ramifications of the "Intelligence Identities Protection Act" and the Reagan executive order on intelligence agencies. These legislative actions, as outlined by Stockwell and Wolf, seem to create an environment fostering media self-censorship. This, in turn, suppresses public scrutiny and criticism of intelligence operations, which encompass controversial actions like assassination plots, government destabilization, and other clandestine tactics.

Stockwell articulates how these legal measures effectively impact the First Amendment, curbing freedoms of speech and press without undergoing the constitutional amendment process. Recorded in May 1982, during a pivotal period of political discourse, this hour-long installment prompts viewers to reconsider the balance between national security interests and the fundamental principles of transparency and free expression. The video captures a crucial juncture in history where the boundaries of government secrecy and public awareness were fiercely debated.

CovertAction Quarterly (formerly CovertAction Information Bulletin) was an American journal in publication from 1978 to 2005, focused primarily on watching and reporting global covert operations. It is generally critical of US Foreign Policy, the Central Intelligence Agency, and capitalism. CovertAction relaunched in May 2018 as CovertAction Magazine.

The first issue of the Covert Action Information Bulletin was launched at a press conference in Havana, Cuba, coinciding with the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students.[2][3]

The magazine was founded by former CIA officer turned agency critic Philip Agee, William Schaap, James and Elsie Wilcott, Ellen Ray, William Kunstler, Michael Ratner, and Lou Wolf in 1978.[4][5][a][8] It was created in order to carry on the work of the preceding publication CounterSpy magazine, which the editors claimed had been shut down as a result of CIA harassment.[9] Contributors included critics of US foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti[5] and Christopher Hitchens.[10]

Agee said the Bulletin's goal was "a worldwide campaign to destabilize the CIA through exposure of its operations and personnel."[3][11] The Mitrokhin Archive, by ex-KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin and British intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, alleged that Covert Action Information Bulletin received assistance from the Soviet KGB and Cuban DGI. Mitrokhin claimed that the Soviet group RUPOR was responsible for the Bulletin, although cautioned that of the publication's members, only Agee would have been aware of the foreign government connection. KGB files recovered by Mitrokhin boasted of their ability to pass information and disinformation to Agee.[2][12][13]

The magazine was based in Washington, D.C.[5][14]
CovertAction Quarterly

In 1992, with the issue #43, the magazine was renamed as CovertAction Quarterly.[5][3] In 1998, the magazine won an award from Project Censored for a story by Lawrence Soley in the Spring 1997 issue titled "Phi Beta Capitalism", about corporate influence on universities.[15][16]

Publication of CovertAction Quarterly ceased in 2005 with issue #78, only to be resurrected as CovertAction Magazine in 2018.[17]

Several articles from CovertAction Quarterly were collected in two anthologies, CovertAction: The Roots of Terrorism and Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars The American Way, both published by Ocean Press in 2003.
Selected personnel

Jim Wilcott, member of the Board of Advisors. He spent nine years with the CIA as a finance officer, and his wife Elsie also worked for the Agency during the same period.[18][5]

Publications

Anthologies

CovertAction: The Roots of Terrorism, edited by Ellen Ray & William H. Schaap. Ocean Press (2003). ISBN 978-1876175849. 310 pages. Excerpts.
Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars the American Way, edited by Ellen Ray & William H. Schaap. Ocean Press (2003). ISBN 978-1876175641. 80 pages.

Magazines

CovertAction Information Bulletin (1978-1992).
Issues no. 1–42.
CovertAction Quarterly (1992-2005).
Issues no. 43–78.
CovertAction Magazine (2018–present).
Issues no. 79–present.

See also

CounterSpy
Lobster

References
Notes

According to Christopher Andrew (who joined the British intelligence service MI5 in order to create its official history),[6] documents in the Mitrokhin Archive indicate that the magazine was established "on the initiative of the KGB" and that the group responsible for producing it was "put together" by Soviet counterintelligence. Andrew writes that there is "no evidence" that anybody associated with the magazine, apart from Agee, was aware of the KGB's role.[7]

Footnotes

“History”. CovertActionMagazine.com
Andrew, Christopher & Mitrokhin, Vasili (1999). The Sword and The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. New York: Basic Books. pp. 230–234. ISBN 0-465-00310-9. OCLC 42368608.
Hastedt, Glenn P. (2011). Spies, Wiretaps, and Secret Operations: An Encyclopedia of American Espionage. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-807-1.
"About Us".
Peter Knight (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 212–213. ISBN 978-1576078129. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
David Walker (February 18, 2003). "Just How Intelligent?". The Guardian. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
Andrew, Christopher; Mitrokhin, Vasili (2001) [1999]. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. New York: Basic Books. pp. 232–233. ISBN 978-0-465-00312-9.
"Lou Wolf of CovertActionMagazine.com & Covert Action Information Bulletin". Internet Archive (Interview). Our Hidden History. May 31, 2018.
"Covert Action Information Bulletin Premier Issue". archive.org. 1978.
Christopher Hitchens on Noam Chomsky (1995), archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2021-09-12
Baer, Robert (2010-11-10). "Foreign Policy: Spy Versus Rogue Spy". NPR. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
Weiss, Michael (2016-07-26). "Russia's Long History of Messing With Americans Minds Before the DNC Hack". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
Selvage, Douglas (2019). "Operation "Denver": The East German Ministry of State Security and the KGB's AIDS Disinformation Campaign, 1985–1986 (Part 1)". Journal of Cold War Studies. 21 (4): 92. doi:10.1162/jcws_a_00907. ISSN 1520-3972.
Allen, Terry, and Barbara Neuwirth, Sanho Tree. "CAQ Purges Workers" (letter). (May 14, 1998). Addressed to "Everyone who has supported CAQ."
"Big Business Seeks to Control and Influence U.S. Universities". Project Censored. 1998. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
Yee, Angie; Sims, Katie (April 30, 2010). Hurtado, Sally (ed.). "Big Business Seeks to Control and Influence U.S. Universities". Project Censored.
"CovertAction Quarterly: Back Issues". Redacted News. Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
Wilcott, Jim. "The CIA and the Media: Some Personal Experiences." CovertAction Information Bureau, no. 7 (Dec. 1979-Jan. 1980), pp. 23-24