• by IPS Correspondents (washington)
• Thursday, December 29, 1994
• Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dic 29 (IPS) - The resignation of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director James Woolsey is seen by many as the most recent symptom of the agency's chronic ailments in the post-cold war period.

The administration of then-President Ronald Reagan (1981-1988) built up an elaborate espionage aparatus in the context of the East-West conflicts of the 1980s, but much of this system became obsolete with the breakup of the socialist bloc.

Since then, scandals within the CIA have led some to call for the dismantling of the agency, accused of being dominated by an arrogant culture, immense bureaucracy and a "wall" of secrets.

Many of these troubles came to light last year with the arrest of Aldrich Ames, a CIA agent who sold information to Moscow for nine years, both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Ames never had trouble with his superiors, although they were aware that he lived beyond the means of an average government employee, and that he had failed a polygraph (lie detector) test.

More recently, congressional committees that monitor the CIA discovered a multi-million dollar investment in a new building, for which they were never consulted.

Meanwhile, a female official from the CIA station in Jamaica took the agency to court for tolerating sexual harassment and for forcing her out when she went public with the accusations.

"The culture at the CIA has to be changed, and it is very difficult to do so. Mr. Woolsey made an early effort to do so, but couldn't pull it off," said Democratic Senator Dennis DeConcini, outgoing president of the Special Committee on Intelligence and a harsh critic of the former director.

What has become known as "the CIA culture" began to develop under former Director William Casey in the 1980s, as the agency was doubling in size and expanding operations against countries seen by Washington as allies of communism.

Casey won celebrated victories in that decade, supporting rebels in Afghanistan against a Moscow-supported government.

His agency also backed the enemies of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, then in power in Nicaragua, supporting a war which lasted nearly a decade and finally led to the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990.

Casey recruited agents behind the "Iron Curtain," supported the Catholic church against the Communist government in Poland and promoted presidential candidates in El Salvador and Panama.

However, his failures were equally notable, such as his widely recognised participation in the Iran-Contra scandal and failed operations in Cuba, where informers he recruited ended up working for the Havana government. The same occurred in East Germany.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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