CovertAction Quarterly

(Redirected from Covert Action Information Bulletin)

CovertAction Quarterly (formerly CovertAction Information Bulletin) was an American journal in publication from 1978 to 2005, focused primarily on watching and reporting global covert operations. CovertAction relaunched in May 2018 as CovertAction Magazine.

It is generally critical of US Foreign Policy, the Central Intelligence Agency, KGB and capitalism. CovertAction relaunched in May 2018 as CovertAction Magazine.

History and profile

Covert Action Information Bulletin

The first issue of the Covert Action Information Bulletin was launched at a press conference in Havana, Cuba, coinciding with the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students.

The magazine was founded by former CIA officer turned agency critic Philip Agee, William Schaap, James and Elsie Wilcott, Ellen Ray, William Kunstler, Michael Ratner, and Lou Wolf in 1978. It was created in order to carry on the work of the preceding publication CounterSpy magazine, which the editors claimed had been shut down as a result of CIA harassment. Contributors included critics of US foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti and Christopher Hitchens.

Agee said the Bulletin's goal was "a worldwide campaign to destabilize the CIA through exposure of its operations and personnel." The Mitrokhin Archive, by ex-KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin and British intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, alleged that Covert Action Information Bulletin received assistance from the Soviet KGB and Cuban DGI. Mitrokhin claimed that the Soviet group RUPOR was responsible for the Bulletin, although cautioned that of the publication's members, only Agee would have been aware of the foreign government connection. KGB files recovered by Mitrokhin boasted of their ability to pass information and disinformation to Agee.

The magazine was based in Washington, D.C.

In 1992, with the issue #43, the magazine was renamed as CovertAction Quarterly. In 1998, the magazine won an award from Project Censored for a story by Lawrence Soley in the Spring 1997 issue Archived 2018-10-17 at the Wayback Machine titled "Phi Beta Capitalism", about corporate influence on universities.

Publication of CovertAction Quarterly ceased in 2005 with issue #78, only to be resurrected as CovertAction Magazine in 2018.

Several articles from CovertAction Quarterly were collected in two anthologies, CovertAction: The Roots of Terrorism and Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars The American Way, both published by Ocean Press in 2003.

Selected personnel

Jim Wilcott, member of the Board of Advisors. He spent nine years with the CIA as a finance officer, and his wife Elsie also worked for the Agency during the same period.

Publications

Anthologies

CovertAction: The Roots of Terrorism, edited by Ellen Ray & William H. Schaap. Ocean Press (2003). ISBN 978-1876175849. 310 pages. Excerpts.
Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars the American Way, edited by Ellen Ray & William H. Schaap. Ocean Press (2003). ISBN 978-1876175641. 80 pages.

Magazines

CovertAction Information Bulletin (1978–1992).
- Issues no. 1–42.
CovertAction Quarterly (1992–2005).
- Issues no. 43–78.
CovertAction Magazine (2018–present).
- Issues no. 79–present.

References

Notes

According to Christopher Andrew (who joined the British intelligence service MI5 in order to create its official history), documents in the Mitrokhin Archive indicate that the magazine was established "on the initiative of the KGB" and that the group responsible for producing it was "put together" by Soviet counterintelligence. Andrew writes that there is "no evidence" that anybody associated with the magazine, apart from Agee, was aware of the KGB's role.