''CounterSpy'' was an American

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

that published articles on

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 ...

, 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 u ...

'', 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 Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. 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; ) 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 ...

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) was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer of the 1975 bestseller, ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'', detailing his experiences in the Agency. Age ...

, and

Stanley Sheinbaum Stanley K. Sheinbaum (June 12, 1920 – September 12, 2016) was an American peace and human rights activist. One of the so-called Malibu Mafia, Sheinbaum joined with other wealthy Angelenos to fund liberal and progressive causes and politicians ...

joined ''CounterSpy''s advisory board aimed at mitigating some of the pressure being exerted by the magazine towards 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''. Advisory board *

Fred Branfman Frederick Robert Branfman (March 18, 1942 – September 24, 2014) was an American anti-war activist and author of a number of books about the Vietnam War and the Laotian Civil War who exposed the covert bombing of Laos by the US. Working as the ...

, 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 or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. *

, Author, former agent,

. * K. Barton Osborn, former agent,

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

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 Po ...

, Co-Director,

Institute for Policy Studies The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) is an American Progressivism in the United States, progressive think tank, formed in 1963 and based in Washington, D.C. It was directed by John Cavanagh (economist), John Cavanagh from 1998 to 2021. In 202 ...

. *

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 bei ...

, Author. *

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

. * William Turner, Author, former agent,

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

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, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, 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, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, by

Revolutionary Organization 17 November Revolutionary Organization 17 November (, ''Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri''), also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek Marxist–Leninist urban guerrilla organization. Formed in 1975 and led by Alexandros Giotopoulos, 1 ...

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 valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

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

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

'', 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. Though U.S. officials, including then-CIA Director

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

, 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 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