Page 157 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 157 of 237

The two CIA agents appealed their conviction. President Truman stepped in and ended the farce by issuing
full pardons to Richardson and Holland, thereby saving the country the spectacle of two CIA men doing a
stretch in a Federal jail.

In March, 1954, Senator Mike Mansfield asked: "Does this incident mean that the CIA is getting into the internal
security field in competition with the FBI? Does it mean that officials of this government agency can defy the
courts?" Mansfield got no answers to his questions.

Overseas, the CIA operates principally under embassy cover and commercial cover. In several corners of the
world the CIA operates what appear to be small business concerns but which are really covers. No subject is
touchier to the agency than the question of cover, for cover is the "cloak" in cloak and dagger, the professional
intelligence man's sine qua non.

On February 1, 1963, J. Edgar Hoover, testifying before a House Appropriations Subcommittee, stated that
"historically, the official personnel of the Soviet bloc countries assigned to this nation, including those at the
United Nations, have been used extensively for espionage purposes ...

"At the same time," the FBI director added, "the Soviet bloc intelligence services make full use of their
commercial representatives, exchange groups and tourists visiting this country in their efforts to reach their
intelligence objectives.

"As of January 1, 1963, there were 761 Soviet bloc official personnel in this country. They were accompanied by
1,066 dependents, some of whom are also trained as intelligence agents."

Essentially, the CIA operates the same way. In United States embassies across the globe, there is a
restricted floor, or a section of the embassy, that houses the CIA mission. Each mission is headed by a
station chief with several intelligence officers reporting to him. These officers in turn recruit local "agents"
to collect intelligence information.

The CIA personnel are listed as State Department or Foreign Service officers. This is their "cover." In
many cases, the identity of the CIA station chief is quickly known to diplomats and newspapermen -- and, of
course, to their Soviet opposite numbers in the KGB and the GRU. This is in sharp contrast to the British and
Soviet secret service mission chiefs, whose identities are very seldom known. In the case of the CIA, agents
below the level of station chief are usually less well known outside of the embassy. Within the embassy, State
Department employees usually come to know in fairly short order who the CIA people are.

The fact that the CIA operates under embassy cover is not something that the government discusses or would be
expected to confirm. Very occasionally, references to it pop up in unexpected places, however.

On April 12, 1962, Navy Captain Charles R. Clark, Jr., the naval attache in the American Embassy in Havana
from 1957 to 1960, was being questioned at a hearing of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee by J. G.
Sourwine, the chief counsel.

MR. SOURWINE: Were there CIA people in the embassy?

CAPTAIN CLARK: Yes, sir. A considerable number.

MR. SOURWINE: Was their cover good?