Disclaimer: Although it's true that Richard Helms is no longer with us, his words, presented gently out-of-context, are his own.
SLP: Thank you Mr. Helms for being with us today to discuss the SERPO UFO Spy Games and the reason behind the apparent counterintelligence activities surrounding the tale.
Why do you think we may be seeing counterintelligence operations on the Internet?
Helms: Counterintelligence in any intelligence organization is obviously a key element for the simple reason that any [intelligence manager] is bound to be deeply concerned ahout the day that he may walk into the office and have someone tell him that a [foreign] penetration has been found in the organization.
SLP: It is my understanding that the so-called "Team of Five" who were looking into the SERPO affair -- the team consisted of persons with close ties to the world of intelligence, including your former associate from the Agency, Dr. Kit Green -- had been compromised through Internet trickery.
Helms: This is obviously a ... nightmare because in the tradition of intelligence, being penetrated by a hostile service is one of the real disasters. In other words, a man who is in a position to turn over your real intelligence secrets, your sources particularly, to a hostile service. This possibility that the service is penetrated ... is something that obviously should concern ... very deeply.
SLP: What would be the role for counterintelligence in the case of SERPO, which involved alleged releases of government information on the Internet, by dubious sources?
Helms: The Counterintelligence Staff in my view had two principal roles.
One: to identify wherever possible what hostile services are doling, what agents they were using, and in turn attempting to protect the [Intelligence Community] from penetration by these hostile forces.
The second big job was to ride, in a sense, sidecar with the positive intelligence operators who were recruiting agents and getting information through this device [The Internet], to see to it that those agents were clean.
SLP: It would seem that you are implying the possibility of intelligence collection on the Internet, and vetting of new sources by counterintelligence operatives?
Helms: In other words, that they were individuals that were really telling the truth (as they saw it) to their handlers ... and were not double agents penetrating [members of the intelligence community] on behalf of some hostile service.
SLP: If I understand what you are saying correctly, intelligence on the Internet may consist of two different operations ... intelligence collection, and counterintelligence elements which provide both protection and vetting?
Helms: ... the more controversial part of the CI Staff is the second element, where there is a normal and natural tension between the positive intelligence collector ...
SLP: The intelligence persons interacting with the Internet community ...
Helms: ... and the counterintelligence expert, who is wont to tell the positive intelligence collector that the agent he has just recruited is likely to be working for some foreign intelligence organization and therefore, either he should be treated as a double agent or should be dropped.
Now this tension sometimes creates, and has in the past created, real animosities.
SLP: It sounds as if the CI elements shadow the Internet collection efforts?
Helms: I don't know any way to run an intelligence organization properly without this kind of tension. The positive intelligence collector will say, "Look, we know whether the agent
is on the level or not. We don't need these fellows in the Counterintelligence constantly worrying us and harassing us ..."
SLP: Assuming they even know the identities of the CI operatives. It's possible to conceal your identity, cover your tracks on line ... even covertly remote control the collectors' computers ...
Helms: The counterintelligence fellows, on the other side, say the positive intelligence fellows fall in love with their agents, that they aren't careful enough in analysing the potential that that agent has for penetration or for being a double agent.
SLP: It almost sounds as if there is a potential for intentional covert interference with the collection operation?
Helms: ... on the one hand the positive intelligence collector is told to go out and recruit agents. And here on the other hand the person in his own organization is telling him his recruitments are no good. I don't know any way to eliminate that tension. I think it's built into the process.
SLP: And it would certainly seem to be an effective "spy game" to play on the Internet.
Helms: I realize that when I was Director some of the most difficult, in effect painful decisions I had to make were to resolve differences between the positive intelligence collector and the Counterintelligence Staff.
SLP: Mr. Helms, the SERPO affair has resulted in numerous and often baseless accusations. I understand that presents a problem of trust, and potentially might even damage a few careers without just cause. How did you deal with these kind of situations as the Director?
Helms: I had a policy with respect to, a personal policy with respect to people, staff members who were accused or where it was alleged that they might be in touch with a hostile service or
be a double agent or something of this kind.
And that was that I felt that we owed any staff man against whom allegations of this kind were made not only the fullest kind of examination but the fullest opportunity to clear himself if he could ... it's just honest-to-God fairness with respect to people with whom you'd worked, whom you had assumed were as dedicated as you were to the work of the Agency and that to have them smeared when sometimes there was no real basis for this was unfair, and I wanted to see justice done.
At least as imperfect as human justice can be.
SLP: Unfortunately, these kind of smear tactics become a permanent part of the Internet and the on-line culture ...
Helms: I wanted to at least satisfy myself that I wasn't simply being swept along by somebody who didn't like the man, or who had an odd beat in his head or felt that the chain of circumstantial evidence was so persuasive that it had to be proved.
SLP: There's been plenty of that in this entire sordid SERPO UFO Spy Game.
Helms: I just didn't like those things.
SLP: Thank you, sir, for preserving your thoughts, which are even more relevant today.
[Helms comments are sourced from the CIA released interview of March 2008, conducted by Dr. Robert M. Hathaway.]
Note added 7/7/2009:
The Defense Intelligence Agency, long a home for intelligence analysis, is joining the spy vs. spy game.
DIA joins just three other military organizations authorized to carry out offensive counterintelligence operations— the Army Counterintelligence office, the Navy Criminal Investigative Serve and the Air Force office of Special Investigations.
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