''CovertAction Quarterly'', formerly ''CovertAction Information Bulletin'' (CAIB), was an American publication in existence from 1978 to 2005. From its inception, CAIB saw itself as "a watchdog journal that focused on the abuses and activities of the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
" by reporting on global
covert operations
A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible.
US law
Under US law, the Central Intelligence Ag ...
. According to the
Mitrokhin Archive
The Mitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secret KGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin which he shared with British intelligence in the early 1990s. Mitr ...
, CAIB was instigated by a Soviet
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
active measures
Active measures () is a term used to describe political warfare conducted by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The term, which dates back to the 1920s, includes operations such as espionage, propaganda, sabotage and assassination, b ...
program.
In 1992, CAIB was renamed ''CovertAction Quarterly'' (CAQ). Over the years, the publication broadened its scope beyond intelligence matters to be generally critical of US foreign policy,
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
, and
imperialism
Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...
. More than a decade after CAQ ceased operations in 2005, it was revived in May 2018 as ''CovertAction Magazine''.
History and profile
''CovertAction Information Bulletin''
CAIB was co-founded in 1978 by former CIA officer turned agency critic Philip Agee, along with William Kunstler, Michael Ratner, Ellen Ray, William Schaap, James and Elsie Wilcott, and Louis Wolf.
The ''Bulletin'' was launched by Agee at a
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.11th World Festival of Youth and Students.
The new publication was based in Washington, D.C. According to a "Who We Are" column printed in the premier issue in July 1978, CAIB was carrying on the work of '' CounterSpy'' magazine, which was said to have been shut down as a result of CIA harassment. Agee declared that the goal of CAIB was "a worldwide campaign to destabilize the CIA through exposure of its operations and personnel."
The publication's "Naming Names" column, which published the names of covert CIA agents, was halted in 1981 due to the imminent passage of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The Act would make it a criminal offence to identity covert US intelligence agents.
The
Mitrokhin Archive
The Mitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secret KGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin which he shared with British intelligence in the early 1990s. Mitr ...
, by ex-KGB archivist
Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was an archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1992. Mitrokhin first offer ...
and British intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, alleged that CAIB received assistance from the Soviet
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
and Cuban DGI. Mitrokhin claimed that a Soviet project (code-named RUPOR) was responsible for the ''Bulletin'', although it cautioned that of the publication's founding 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.
CovertAction Magazine Podcast rl=https://wbai.org/program/?program=862is an hour-long radio program broadcast on
WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...
Starting with issue #43 in 1992, ''CovertAction Information Bulletin'' was rebranded ''CovertAction Quarterly'' (CAQ). Contributors to CAIB and CAQ included many well-known critics of US foreign and domestic policy such as
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
,
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian and a veteran of World War II. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn ...
,
Michael Parenti
Michael John Parenti (born September 30, 1933) is an American political scientist, academic historian and cultural critic who writes on scholarly and popular subjects. He has taught at universities as well as run for political office. Parenti is ...
,
Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, and United States Federal Government, federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States ...
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
Ward Churchill
Ward LeRoy Churchill (born October 2, 1947) is an American activist, author, and former academic. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1990 until 2007.
, and
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...
.
In May 1998, the ''Quarterly'' dismissed several members of its editorial staff. The publication ceased operating in 2005 with issue #78.
An article by Lawrence Soley entitled "Phi Beta Capitalism: Universities in Service to Business", which appeared in the Spring 1997 issue, would later be singled out for distinction by Project Censored. Project Censored named an article by Michel Chossudovsky entitled "Seattle and Beyond: The Illegality of the
WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
" as one of the top 25 censored stories of 2001.
Articles from CAQ were collected in two anthologies, ''CovertAction: The Roots of Terrorism'' and ''Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars The American Way'', both published by Ocean Press in 2003.
''CovertAction Magazine''
In 2018, Louis Wolf resurrected CAQ as ''CovertAction Magazine''.
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.Wilcott, Jim "The CIA and the Media: Some Personal Experiences." ''CovertAction Information Bureau'', no. 7 (Dec. 1979-Jan. 1980) pp. 23-24. /ref>
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...