''CounterSpy'' was an American

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

that published articles on

covert operations A covert operation is a military operation intended to conceal the identity of (or allow plausible deniability by) the party that instigated the operation. Covert operations should not be confused with clandestine operations, which are performe ...

, especially those undertaken by the American government.Peake, Hayden B
"The Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf"
(Note 18). ''

Studies in Intelligence ''Studies in Intelligence'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal on intelligence that is published by the Center for the Study of Intelligence, a group within the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It contains both classified and ...

'', Vol. 47, No. 4, July 27, 2006
Archived
fro

/ref> It was the official Bulletin of the Committee for Action/Research on the Intelligence Community (CARIC). ''CounterSpy'' published 32 issues between 1973 and 1984 from its headquarters in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. MacKenzie, Angus
''Secrets: The CIA's War at Home''.

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 1999.
p. 59.
/ref> It was continued by ''The National Reporter'' starting in 1985.

Personnel

Former

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

personnel

Victor Marchetti Victor Leo Marchetti Jr. (December 23, 1929 – October 19, 2018) was a special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency who later became a prominent critic of the United States Intelligence Community and the Israel l ...

Philip Agee Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (; January 19, 1935 – January 7, 2008)Will Weissert"Ex-CIA Agent Philip Agee Dead in Cuba" Associated Press (sfgate.com), January 9, 2008. was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer of t ...

, and Stanley Sheinbaum joined ''CounterSpy''’s advisory board aimed at mitigating some of the pressure being exerted on the magazine by the CIA. ''CounterSpy'' was edited by Tim Butz and Winslow Peck. By April 1979, Philip Agee was no longer associated with CounterSpy in any capacity, his only institutional relationship at that point being with ''

CovertAction Information Bulletin ''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 Polic ...

''. Advisory board * Fred Branfman, Co-Director, Indochina Resource Center. * Sylvia Crane, Author, National Committee Against Repressive Legislation. * Dave Dellinger, '' Liberation Magazine''. * Dr. Ralph Lewis, Criminal Justice Research Director,

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. *

, Author, former agent,

. * K. Barton Osborn, former agent,

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

and

. * Col. L. Fletcher Prouty (ret.), Author, former military liaison,

. *

Marcus Raskin Marcus Goodman Raskin (April 30, 1934 – December 24, 2017) was an American progressive social critic, political activist, author, and philosopher. He was the co-founder, with Richard Barnet, of the progressive think tank the Institute for Poli ...

, Co-Director,

Institute for Policy Studies The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) is an American progressive think tank started in 1963 that is based in Washington, D.C. It was directed by John Cavanagh from 1998 to 2021. In 2021 Tope Folarin was announced as new Executive Director. ...

. *

Kirkpatrick Sale Kirkpatrick Sale (born June 27, 1937) is an American author who has written prolifically about political decentralism, environmentalism, luddism and technology. He has been described as having a "philosophy unified by decentralism" and as being " ...

, Author. * Stanley Sheinbaum,

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

. * William Turner, Author, former agent,

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

Outing CIA operatives

The magazine gained attention when ''CounterSpy'' founder and former

agent

advocated outing agents in their Winter 1975 issue. Agee urged the "neutralization of its IA/nowiki> people working abroad" by publicizing their names so that they could no longer operate clandestinely. The station chief in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

, Joseph F. Fernandez, first appeared in ''CounterSpy'' in 1975. However, the 1975 murder of

Richard Welch Richard Skeffington Welch (December 14, 1929 – December 23, 1975) was a career Central Intelligence Agency officer. He was the Chief of Station (COS) in Athens, Greece, when he was assassinated by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N ...

, the CIA Station Chief in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, by

Revolutionary Organization 17 November Revolutionary Organization 17 November ( el, Επαναστατική Οργάνωση 17 Νοέμβρη, ''Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri''), also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek far-left Marxist–Leninist urban g ...

was blamed by some on disclosures in magazines such as ''CounterSpy''. Walker, Jesse
"Agee's Revenge".
''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

'', July 14, 2005
Archived
fro
the original.
/ref>Staff report
"Kidnaping in Vienna, Murder in Athens".
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', Vol. 107, No. 1, January 5, 1976, pp. 40-46. Archived fro
the original.
/ref> Agee denied the accusation that he had leaked Welch's name.Staff report
"Philip Agee"
(Obituary). ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', January 9, 2008. Archived fro
the original.
/ref> Though U.S. officials, including then-CIA Director

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

, blamed ''CounterSpy'' for contributing to Welch's death, Welch was previously named as a CIA officer by several European publications, and the CIA had assigned him a house previously used by CIA station chiefs. Congress cited the Welch assassination as the principal justification for passing the

Intelligence Identities Protection Act The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (, ) is a United States federal law that makes it a federal crime for those with access to classified information, or those who systematically seek to identify and expose covert agents and have ...

in 1982 making the willful identification of a CIA officer a criminal offense.

References

External links

Full archives
''CounterSpy''
at altgov2.org. Single issues
''CounterSpy'', Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1976
at the Harold Weisberg Archive. {{italic title 1973 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1984 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Cultural magazines published in the United States News magazines published in the United States Defunct political magazines published in the United States Magazines about espionage Magazines established in 1973 Magazines disestablished in 1984 Magazines published in Washington, D.C.

Personnel

Outing CIA operatives

See also

References

Further reading

External links