Reuters’ Headline Labels CIA Traitor ‘Whistle-Blower’

Reuters, in its headline for a story reporting the death of Philip Agee, a former CIA agent turned traitor, labeled Agee a "CIA whistle-blower" ("CIA whistle-blower Philip Agee dies in Cuba [1]"). As the blog Little Green Footballs put it [2], Agee was "the traitor who exposed fellow CIA agents to violence and murder by revealing their names" in his 1975 book "Inside the Company: A CIA Diary."

Agee, who had worked for the CIA for 12 years both in the United States and in Latin America, resigned from the Agency in 1968 after expressing "disagreement with U.S. support for military dictatorships in Latin America." Reuters then went on to say that Agee "became one of the first to blow the whistle on the CIA's activities around the world." He died on Monday in Havana, Cuba, where he had settled in the 1980s.

[Update, 4:03 pm Eastern: See Ken Shepherd's item [2] on AP's treatment of Agee's death.]

According to a Human Events article from 1993 [3], Agee "had thanked the Cuban Communist Party for the assistance it had given him" in preparing "Inside the Company." The book also "contained the names and identities of over 700 people in all parts of the world who Agee insisted were CIA officers, agents and cooperators."

Another detail that the Human Events article mentions is that Morton Halperin, the senior vice president for the Soros-funded Center for American Progress (which is also known as "Hillary’s think tank"), "championed the activities of Philip Agee." According to a 2004 article on FrontPagemagazine.com [4] written by Lowell Ponte, Halperin "during the mid-1970s befriended Philip Agee... [and] flew to Europe to help Agee find safe haven after Great Britain expelled him [in 1976]."

The last detail about Agee that Reuters notes in its article is how he "set up an online travel agency catering to Americans willing to defy a U.S. travel ban and visit the Communist-run island" in the year 2000. I guess Reuters was at least honest enough to note that Cuba has a Communist government.

OCTOBER 21, 2003 : (PLAMENAMGAME/NIGERFLAP - PHILIP AGEE, LYNDON LAROUCHE) The “scandal” over the naming of a CIA agent demonstrates the enormous liberal bias of the major media. The liberals were not concerned when pro-communist activists were naming CIA agents for the purpose of destroying secret operations against the Soviet Union and its client states. In fact, journalists relied on people such as CIA defector Philip Agee, who specialized in naming the names of CIA operatives, for stories. The federal law that prohibits the naming of agents under cover was passed in response to the activities of Agee and his associates.
Today, however, it has become a major controversy that one or two Bush administration officials have named a CIA employee to a respected conservative journalist, Robert Novak, who published the information. What those officials were doing, in their conversation with Novak, is far different than anything that Agee and his media collaborators ever did.
Incredibly, Agee, who wrote the book “Inside the Company: CIA Diary,” has come to the defense of Joe Wilson, whose wife’s employment by the CIA was revealed by Novak. Agee now runs a travel services business in—of all places—Havana, Cuba. Agee calls the outing of Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife “dirty politics.”
The affair is depicted as an attempt by the administration to take revenge on Ambassador Joseph Wilson for opposing Iraq policy. But the name of his wife was provided in the context of the administration trying to explain why Wilson was picked by the CIA to conduct a mission to investigate the Iraq/uranium matter. This is a potential conflict of interest with a possible partisan motivation. What’s more, as Internet writer Darren Kaplan points out, such a selection might violate the federal anti-nepotism statute, which prohibits federal employees from even recommending the appointment of family members for jobs. The real story, the Wall Street Journal reports, is whether a group of CIA bureaucrats is “hoping to defeat” Bush by undermining his foreign policy and whether the Wilson mission was part of that effort.
A group calling itself Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, representing former CIA employees, has fanned the flames of this controversy. But its spokesman, Ray McGovern, has some explaining of his own to do. He admits that he has given permission to reprint his articles critical of the Bush administration to publications associated with Lyndon LaRouche. McGovern, who had a 27-year career in the CIA, says researchers for LaRouche “do some fairly good work” and he sees “no downside” to them using his material. He claims to know nothing about LaRouche.
That’s hard to believe. Larouche is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, again, and served time in prison on financial fraud charges. He has said that Bush and Cheney should be declared insane. Back in 1976, LaRouche called for bringing into being “a new Marxist International throughout the capitalist sector” and, before the first Persian Gulf War, he issued a statement calling for support for Iraq.——— “CIA Defector Defends Joe Wilson,” By Cliff Kincaid , AIM Report, October 21, 2003

1970s : (NY TIMES REPORTER TAD SZULC IN CONTACT WITH THE KGB; HIS DAUGHTER IS LINKED TO PHILIP AGEE— See NY Times) [NY Times’ Tad] Szulc had been suspected by US intelligence of being a foreign agent since 1948, when an FBI file identified him as a Communist. In 1959 the CIA also became suspicious of him when he falsely claimed clearance in an attempt to obtain classified information. Later in the 1970s the FBI would observe him in contact with a KGB agent, and the CIA would link his daughter to Cuban spy Philip Agee. ————— “Traitors of Record: The Record of the New York Times,” By FR’s Fedora, Original FReeper Research, 12/19/2005

The IPS has managed to recruit CIA employees who broke with the agency and leaked top-secret information. Several IPS leaders also work with rogue CIA agent Phillip Agee, who has made career of propagating Soviet disinformation while openly acknowledging his own Communist sympathies and the support of Cuban Communists. And former US Senator James Abourezk, founder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and an outspoken supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is an IPS trustee.6[ 6 Broken Seals, Op cit., passim; Findley, P., They Dare to Speak Out, Lawrence HIll Books, Chicago, 1989. p. 98] via The Plot to Hijack the CIA, Anti-CommunistAnalyst.com
[IPS’] Abourezk maintains a friendly relationship with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whom he describes as “a very smart, charming guy.” He also represented Ayatollah Khomeni’s Islamic Republic of Iran in a $56 billion lawsuit against the deposed Shah.
Abourezk sued National Geographic magazine claiming they improperly acquired his original photographs. He also filed a suit against the Reagan administration to allow the Sandanista Interior Minister into the United States. Abourezk took New York Air to court for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress for not letting him off a plane that was delayed three hours on the tarmac.
——— “20-Year-Old Republican Website Owner Sued by Former Democrat Senator,” By Jeff Gannon, Talon News, July 31, 2003 via http://www.gopusa.com/news/2003/july/0731_probush_responds.shtml

... Those familiar with Agee, etc. may remember that CounterSpy played a role in blowing the cover of CIA operative Richard Welch, which led to Welch’s assassination. Powell’s book describes numerous contacts between Agee and Soviet and Cuban intelligence.
1 posted on 03/25/2004 1:38:19 PM PST by Fedora

He remembers clearly Philip Agee, the onetime CIA agent who vowed “to expose CIA agents” and drive them out of the countries where they were operating. He still remembers vividly the Covert Action Information Bulletin, which listed hundreds of names, including that of Richard Kinsman. Kinsman, who worked in Jamaica, would be killed in 1980 when his home was attacked with a submachine gun and an explosive device. ———Link

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