Page 146 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 146 of 237

Torpats decided if Dulles could name names, so could he. In an affidavit filed June 30, 1961, in answer to the CIA
director, Torpats said:

"In early 1956 a situation had developed in a European mission of CIA which my then area superiors, Frank G.
Wisner, Richard Helms, John M. Maury, Jr., and N. M. Anikeeff, felt had been mishandled by the personnel of
the mission. The mission reports were considered to be unsatisfactory in our component. My superiors felt that I
could handle the problem more effectively and expeditiously and decided to send me to do it. The principal
figures in this particular mission were Mr. Tracy Barnes, Mr. Thomas Parrott and Mr. Paul Losher. At the time of
my separation, Mr. Barnes and Mr. Parrott were employed by the Agency in the Washington, D.C., office.

"Notice was given to the mission in April of 1956 that I was being sent over. I was given no special instructions
before I left; I was to be on my own. The mission had sent a report on the problem which I later proved was
incorrect. Had the mission report been followed, it would have done incalculable harm to the United States.

"When I finished my assignment, for which I received several commendations from headquarters, but before I
could file my report, Mr. Barnes, on a complaint by Mr. Parrott, put me under house arrest; ordered an
investigation, shipped me home; cabled charges against me to headquarters with a demand that I be fired."

The ousted CIA man then detailed a long history of his case as it dragged on through the agency bureaucracy for
several years. He said one charge against him was that he had disobeyed a high CIA official in the office of the
DDP "and visited a station contrary to his orders."

In addition, Torpats said, a CIA fitness report claimed he had an "inability to handle agents" and "total lack of
objectivity where Estonian emigre matters are concerned." He said he was transferred out of the Clandestine
Services and eventually fired.

Dulles angrily filed an answer to Torpats on July 2, citing an old Civil War case to support his contention
that employees of secret services cannot air their grievances in court. Torpats, Dulles said, "understood that
the nature of his work was secret, and that the disclosure of his duties and the names of fellow employees would
not be in the best interest of his government. Moreover, he swore, as a condition of his employment that he would
never reveal such information."

If CIA employees can go into court every time they feel they are treated unfairly, said Dulles, it would be no way
to run an espionage apparatus. "Operation of the Central Intelligence Agency, with liability to publicity in this
way," he said, "would be impossible." *

Even CIA employees who make it to the top can look forward to little overt recognition after their long years of
service. President Kennedy, speaking to CIA employees at Langley on November 28, 1961, told them: "Your
successes are unheralded -- your failures are trumpeted."

President Eisenhower voiced a similar sentiment when he spoke at the cornerstone-laying at Langley on
November 3, 1959. "Success cannot be advertised: failure cannot be explained," he said. "In the work of
intelligence, heroes are undecorated and unsung, often even among their own fraternity."

This is not completely correct. The truth is that some CIA men are decorated. Despite the fact that he was eased
out after the Bay of Pigs, for example, Richard M. Bissell received a secret intelligence medal honoring him for
his years as deputy director for plans.

There was no public announcement of the award, and Bissell was not allowed to talk about his medal, to show it
to anyone or to wear it. As far as the CIA was concerned, officially the medal did not exist.