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{{Short description|CIA officer and author (1935–2008)}}
'''Philip Burnett Franklin Agee''' (born ]) is a former ] agent and ] who published a ] ], '']'', detailing his experiences in, and the operation of, the ] agency.
{{Infobox person
| name = Philip Agee
| image = Philip Agee (1977).jpg
| caption = Agee in 1977
| birth_date = {{birth-date|January 19, 1935}}
| birth_place = ], U.S.
| death_date = {{death-date|January 7, 2008|January 7, 2008}} (aged 72)
| death_place = ], Cuba
| education = ]<br />]
| employer = ]
| spouse = Giselle Roberge Agee
| children = 2
| resting_place = Canley Garden Cemetery and Crematorium, ], ], ], ]
}}
'''Philip Burnett Franklin Agee''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|eɪ|dʒ|i}}; January 19, 1935&nbsp;&ndash; January 7, 2008)<ref name=SF>Will Weissert, , Associated Press (sfgate.com), January 9, 2008.</ref> was a ] (CIA) ] and writer of the 1975 book, ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'',<ref name="Agee 1975">{{cite book| last=Agee| first=Philip| year = 1975| title = Inside The Company: CIA Diary| publisher =Penguin Books| isbn =0-14-004007-2}}</ref> detailing his experiences in the CIA. Agee joined the CIA in 1957, and over the following decade had postings in ], Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. After resigning from the Agency in 1968, he became a leading opponent of CIA practices.<ref name="Agee 1975"/><ref name = "sword">{{cite book| last =Andrew | first =Christopher |author2=Vasili Mitrokhin| year =2000| title =The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB| publisher =Basic Books| isbn =0-465-00312-5 }} p. 230</ref><ref name="business">{{cite journal|first=Jonathan |last=Kapstein |date=July 28, 1975 |title=Philip Agee: The spy who came in and told; Inside the Company: CIA Diary |journal=Business Week |page=12 |url=http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/98872.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061020013612/http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/98872.html |archive-date=October 20, 2006 }}</ref> A co-founder of the '']'' and '']'' series of periodicals, he died in ] in January 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22571961|title=Former CIA agent Agee dies in Cuba at age 72|author=The Associated Press|date=9 January 2008|access-date=9 January 2008|publisher=NBC News}}</ref>


== Early years ==
Agee joined the CIA in ] and worked as a ] in several ] countries, notably ] and ]. But his fame lies in his career after his resignation in ]. From the early 1970s he became the most celebrated CIA dissenter, the centre of a network of former agents, including ], who spoke out and wrote about the CIA’s role in the ].
Agee was born in ] and was raised in ], ].<ref name=WaPoObit>{{cite news |title=Philip Agee, 72; Agent Who Turned Against CIA |author=Joe Holley |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010903619.html |newspaper=] |date=10 January 2008 |access-date=13 November 2010 |quote=Mr. Agee was born in Tacoma, Fla., attended Jesuit schools and graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1956. He told the New York Times in 1974 that the CIA attempted to recruit him while he was at Notre Dame, offering a package plan that included Air Force duty. He said no but reconsidered while studying law at the University of Florida.}}</ref> He had, Agee wrote in ''On the Run'', "a privileged upbringing in a big white house bordering an exclusive golf club".<ref name="Shane">{{cite news|last=Shane|first=Scott|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/obituaries/10agee.html|title=Philip Agee, 72, Is Dead; Exposed Other C.I.A. Officers|work=The New York Times|date=January 10, 2008|access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref> After graduating from Tampa's ], he attended the ], from which he graduated ] in 1956.<ref name=WaPoObit /> Agee later attended the ].<ref name=WaPoObit /> He served in the ] from 1957 to 1960.<ref name=WaPoObit /> Agee then worked as a case officer for the ] from 1960 to 1968, including postings to ], ], and ].<ref name=WaPoObit />


== Leaving the CIA ==
Agee claimed that it was his ] social conscience which made him increasingly uncomfortable by the late ] with his work. He became disillusioned with the CIA and its support for ] ] across ] in the 1960s. He and other dissidents took encouragement in their stand from the ](1975-6), which cast a critical light on the role of the CIA in assassinations, domestic espionage, and other illegal activities. They wrote too about their outrage at the role of the CIA in the “destabilizing” and overthrow of democratically-elected governments, in particular in ] (1973) and Jamaica ].
Agee stated that his ] ] had made him increasingly uncomfortable with his work by the late 1960s leading to his disillusionment with the CIA and its support for ] governments across ]. In his book ''Inside the Company'', Agee condemned the 1968 ] in ] and wrote that this was the immediate event precipitating his leaving the agency. Agee wrote that the CIA was "very pleased with his work" and had offered him "another promotion", and that his manager "was startled" when Agee told him about his plans to resign.<ref name="diary">''Inside The Company: CIA Diary'', p. 640</ref>


Agee came to believe that the CIA was repressing legitimate national ideals to serve the interests of US multinational corporations. He was disturbed that US forces were used to quell the ] in 1965, "not because it was Communist but because it was nationalist".<ref name="business" />


] wrote in his book ''The KGB Today'' (1983) that Agee's resignation was forced "for a variety of reasons, including his irresponsible drinking, continuous and vulgar propositioning of embassy wives, and inability to manage his finances".<ref name="barron">{{cite book
In ], ''Inside the Company'' was finally published worldwide, in 27 different ] while Agee was living in London. According to Edgar Anatolvevich Cheporov, London correspondent of the Novosti News Agency and KGB agent who claimed to have worked with Agee on “Inside the Company, Agee removed all references to the CIA’s penetration into Latin American Communist parties from his transcript before final publication on the direction of the KGB’s Service A.
| last =Barron
| first =John
| author-link =John Barron (American journalist)
| year =1983
| title =KGB Today: The Hidden Hand
| publisher =Reader's Digest Association
| isbn =0-88349-164-8
| pages =
| url =https://archive.org/details/kgbtodayhiddenha00barr/page/227
}}</ref><ref name="LondonTimes">{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/philip-agee-w9tk9g78zhp|title=Philip Agee|work=The Times|location=London|date=January 9, 2008|access-date=December 14, 2018}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Agee said these claims were '']'' attacks meant to discredit him.<ref>Philip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Allen Lane, 1975</ref>


== Allegations of links to Cuban intelligence ==
Agee became somewhat of a minor celebrity in the ] after ''Inside the Company'' revealed the identities of dozens of CIA agents in their London station. After numerous requests from the American government as well as an ] report that blamed Agee’s work for the execution of two of their agents in ], a request was put in to deport Agee from the UK. Although Agee fought this and was supported by dozens of left wing MP’s, journalists, and private citizens, he was eventually expelled from the UK on ] ], and traveled to ]. Agee was also eventually expelled from Holland, ], ], and ]. The head of the ] Division of the CIA, ], was tasked with stopping the ] of Agee's ''CIA Diary''.
Russian exile ], former head of the ]'s Counterintelligence Directorate, claimed that in 1973 Agee approached the KGB's ] in ] and offered a "] of information." According to Kalugin, the KGB was too suspicious to accept his offer.<ref name = "sword3">Andrew p. 230, referencing {{cite book
| last =Kalugin
| first =Oleg
| year =1995
| title =Spymaster: The Highest-ranking KGB Officer Ever to Break His Silence
| publisher =Blake Publishing Ltd
| isbn =1-85685-101-X
}} p. 191-192 Andrew states: "The KGB files noted by Mitrokhin describe Agee as an agent of the Cuban ] and give details of his collaboration with the KGB, but do not formally list him as a KGB or DGI agent. vol. 6, ch. 14, parts 1,2,3; vol. 6, app. 1, part 22."</ref>


Kalugin writes that Agee then went to the Cubans, who "welcomed him with open arms." The Cubans shared Agee's information with the KGB, but Kalugin continued to regret the missed opportunity to have direct access to this asset.<ref name = "sword3" />
In ], Agee and a small group of his supporters began publishing the ] with, according to Vasili Mitrokhin, the help of both the ] and the Cuban ], promoted "''a worldwide campaign to destabilize the CIA through exposure of its operations and personnel.''". In ] and ], Agee published the two volumes of ], which exposed over 2000 covert CIA agents in Western Europe and Africa as well as details about their activities. Of the KGB’s work, Agee told Swiss journalist Peter Studer that “The CIA is plainly on the wrong side, that is, the capitalistic side. I approve KGB activities, communist activities in general. Between the overdone activities that the CIA initiates and the more modest activities of the KGB, there is absolutely no comparison.”


According to Mitrokhin, while Agee was writing ''Inside the Company'' the KGB kept in contact with him through a London correspondent of the ].<ref name = "sword2">Andrew, p. 231</ref>
US ] was revoked in 1979. In 1980, ]'s government conferred citizenship of ] on Agee, and he took up residence in that island. But the collapse of the ] removed that safe haven, and Agee then was given a passport by the ] government in ]. He later found refuge in ]. Agee description of his odyssey was published in his ], '']'', in ].


Agee was accused of receiving up to US$1 million in payments from the Cuban intelligence service. He denied the accusations, which were first made by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence officer and defector in a 1992 '']'' report.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/cuba.tourism/ |title=Former CIA agent attempts to draw U.S. tourists to Cuba over Internet |work=] |date=2000-06-25|access-date=2008-12-12 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080317151632/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/cuba.tourism/ |archive-date = March 17, 2008}}</ref>
In 1982, ] passed the ], legislation that seemed directly aimed at Agee's works, the law that would later figure in the ] investigation into the ] scandal into whether Bush administration officials leaked an agent's name to the media as an act of retaliation against her husband (Ironically, it was Bush’s own father, former DCI ], who had vigorously lobbied for the IIPA as ]).


A later ''Los Angeles Times'' article claimed that Agee posed as a ] staff member in order to target a member of the CIA's Mexico City station on behalf of Cuban intelligence. According to this story, Agee was identified during a meeting by a CIA case officer.<ref>"Once Again, Ex-Agent Philip Agee Eludes CIA's Grasp", ''Los Angeles Times'', October 14, 1997</ref>
Today, Agee runs a ] from his home in ], , which uses ] to arrange holidays to Cuba for American citizens, who are generally prohibited by the Trading with the Enemy statute of US law from spending money in Cuba


]'s KGB files claim that ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'' was "prepared by Service A, together with the Cubans". Mitrokhin's notes however do not indicate what the ] and ] contributed to Agee's text. Mitrokhin claims that Agee removed all references to CIA penetration of Latin American Communist parties from his typescript before publication at the request of Service A.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Andrew, Christopher M.|title=The sword and the shield : the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of the KGB|others=Mitrokhin, Vasili, 1922-2004|date=23 September 1999|isbn=0-465-00310-9|location=New York|oclc=42368608}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}
Agee is a ] and a strong supporter of ] and of the ].


In 1978 Agee began the publication of the '']''. Mitrokhin's files claim that the bulletin was founded on the KGB's initiative and the group running it was "put together" by First Chief Directorate counter-intelligence and that Agee was the only member of the group who was aware of KGB or DGI involvement. According to Mitrokhin's files, KGB headquarters assembled a team to keep the Bulletin supplied with material specifically designed to compromise the CIA. A document titled ''Director of Central Intelligence: Perspectives for Intelligence, 1976-1981'' was supplied to Agee by the KGB. Agee highlighted in his commentary ] ]'s complaint that the ''Covert Action Information Bulletin'' was among the most serious problems facing the CIA.<ref name=":0" />{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} Also from Mitrokhin's files: In Dirty Work 2: The CIA in Africa, it is said that Agee met with Oleg Maksimovich Nechiporenko and A. N. Istkov of the KGB, and they gave him a list of CIA officers working in Africa. The files also claim that Agee decided not to identify himself as an author out of fear he would lose his residence permit in Germany.<ref name=":0" />{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}
==External links==

*
To the end of his life, Philip Agee consistently and categorically denied ever having worked for any intelligence service after leaving the CIA. He said that his motives were purely altruistic. In support of this he adduces the relentless persecution he endured from the CIA, as it and the ] revoked his passport and succeeded in having him deported from several Western European countries, one after the other, until he finally found refuge in Cuba.<ref name="Agee, Philip 1987">Agee, Philip (June 1987). On the Run. L. Stuart.</ref>{{Page needed|date=October 2023}}
*

*
== ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'' ==
*
Agee's memoir of his time in the CIA was titled ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary''. Because of legal problems in the United States, ''Inside the Company'' was first published in 1975 in ], while Agee was living in ].<ref name = "sword2" /> The book was delayed for six months before being published in the United States; it became an immediate best seller.<ref name = "sword2" />
]

]
In a '']'' magazine interview after the book's publication, Agee said: "Millions of people all over the world had been killed or at least had their lives destroyed by the CIA ... I couldn't just sit by and do nothing."<ref name="Davison">{{cite news|last=Davison|first=Phil|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/philip-agee-former-cia-agent-who-accused-his-government-of-state-terrorism-769468.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/philip-agee-former-cia-agent-who-accused-his-government-of-state-terrorism-769468.html |archive-date=2022-05-26 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Philip Agee: Former CIA agent who accused his government of 'state terrorism'|work=The Independent|location=London|date=January 11, 2018|access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref>
]

Agee said that "Representatives of the ] also gave me important encouragement at a time when I doubted that I would be able to find the additional information I needed."<ref name="diary"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rid |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zR6ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT137 |title=Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare |date=2020-04-21 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-71865-7 |language=en}}</ref>

The '']'' called ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'' "a frightening picture of corruption, pressure, assassination and conspiracy". '']'' called the book "inescapable reading". ], a former CIA station chief in ], said the book was "as complete an account of spy work as is likely to be published anywhere"<ref name = "sword4">Andrew, p. 231 referencing {{cite book
| last =Agee
| first =Philip
| date =June 1987
| title =On the Run
| publisher =L. Stuart
| isbn =0-8184-0419-1
| url =https://archive.org/details/onrun00agee
}} p. 111-112, 120-121.</ref> and it is "an authentic account of how an ordinary American or British 'case officer' operates ... All of it ... is presented with deadly accuracy."<ref name="facts2">{{cite journal
|date=January 25, 1975
|title=Book details CIA activities
|journal=Facts on File World News Digest
|pages=37 B3
|url=http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/98872.html#C
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061020013612/http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/98872.html
|archive-date=October 20, 2006
}}</ref>

The book describes how US embassies in Latin America worked with right-wing ], and funded anti-communist student and labour movement fronts, pro-US political parties and individuals.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Coyle |first1=Kenny |title=What is the National Endowment for Democracy and how does it promote regime change around the world? |url=https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-national-endowment-democracy-and-how-does-it-promote-regime-change-around-world |website=Morning Star |access-date=1 August 2024 |language=en |date=25 February 2019}}</ref>

''Inside the Company'' identified 250 alleged CIA officers and agents.<ref name = "sword" /> The list of officers and agents, all personally known to Agee, appears in an appendix to the book.<ref>Philip Agee, ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'', Allen Lane, 1975, pp 599-624.</ref> While written as a diary, the book actually reconstructs events based on Agee's memory and his subsequent research.<ref>Philip Agee, ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'', Allen Lane, 1975, p 9.</ref>

Agee describes his first overseas assignment for the CIA in 1960 to ], where his primary mission was to force a diplomatic break between Ecuador and ]. He writes that the techniques he used included bribery, intimidation, bugging, and forgery. Agee spent four years in Ecuador penetrating Ecuadorian politics. He states that his actions subverted and destroyed the political fabric of Ecuador.<ref name = "business" />

Agee helped ] the ] code-room in ], ], with two contact microphones placed on the ceiling of the room below.<ref name = "business" />

On December 12, 1965, Agee visited senior Uruguayan military and police officers at a Montevideo police headquarters. He realized that the screaming he heard from a nearby cell was the torturing of a Uruguayan, whose name he had given to the police as someone to watch. The Uruguayan senior officers simply turned up a radio report of a soccer game to drown out the screams.<ref name = "business" />

Agee also ran CIA operations within the 1968 ] and he witnessed the events of the ].{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

Agee identified President ] of ], President ] (1970&ndash;1976) of ] and President ] (1974&ndash;1978) of ] as CIA collaborators or agents.<ref name = "economist" />

Following this he details how he resigned from the CIA and began writing the book, conducting research in Cuba, London and Paris. During this time he said that the CIA spied on him.<ref name = "business" /><ref name = "economist">{{cite news
| date =January 11, 1975
| title =Secret agent; Inside the Company: CIA Diary. By Philip Agee. Penguin. 640 pages. 95p
| newspaper =]
| page =87
}}
</ref><ref>
Philip Agee, ''Inside the Company: CIA Diary'', Allen Lane, 1975, pp 573-583</ref>
The cover of the book featured an image of the bugged typewriter given to Agee by a CIA agent as part of their surveillance and attempts to stop publication of the book.<ref name="Agee, Philip 1987"/> According to a former CIA officer, ], when the CIA discovered that Agee was going to publish a book it began what Phillips refers to as "a program of cauterization", wherein every CIA official and agent known to Agee were "terminated, and some relocated for their safety; and every operation which Agee might have been privy to was being terminated". Phillips says that this cost the agency millions of dollars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=David Atlee |title=The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service |date=1977 |publisher=Atheneum |pages=238–9}}</ref>

In response to Agee's book, the ] passed the 1982 ], which made it a crime to intentionally reveal the identity of a covert intelligence officer. Use of the law was later considered during the 2003 ].<ref name="Shane"/>

== Expulsion ==
Agee gained attention from the ] media after the publication of ''Inside the Company''. He revealed the identities of dozens of CIA agents in the CIA London station.<ref name = "sword2" /> After numerous requests from the American government as well as an ] report that blamed Agee's work for the execution of two MI6 agents in ], a request was put in to deport Agee from the UK.<ref name="sword2"/> Agee fought this and was supported by MPs and journalists. The Labour MP ] promoted a parliamentary bill, gaining the support of more than 50 of his colleagues, which called for the CIA station in London to be expelled.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1575097/Philip-Agee.html|title=Philip Agee|date=January 10, 2008|access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref> The activity in support of Agee did not prevent his eventual deportation from the UK on June 3, 1977, when he traveled to the ].<ref name = "sword5">Andrew, p. 232-233.</ref> Agee was also eventually ] from the ], ], ] and ].<ref name=wpobit/>

On January 12, 1975, Agee testified before the second ] in ] that in 1960 he had conducted personal name-checks of Venezuelan employees for a Venezuelan subsidiary of what is now ]. Exxon was "letting the CIA assist in employment decisions, and my guess is that those name checks ... are continuing to this day". Agee stated that the CIA customarily performed this service for subsidiaries of large U.S. corporations throughout Latin America. An Exxon spokesman denied Agee's accusations.<ref name = "facts2" />

In 1978 Agee and a small group of his supporters began publishing the '']'', which promoted "a worldwide campaign to destabilize the CIA through exposure of its operations and personnel". ] states that the bulletin had help from both the ] and the Cuban ].<ref name = "sword5" /> The January 1979 issue of Agee's Bulletin published the infamous ],<ref>CovertAction, Number 3, January 1979.</ref> which was claimed by the United States House Intelligence Committee to be a hoax produced by the Soviet intelligence services.<ref>{{cite news
| title = The West Wakes Up to the Dangers of Misinformation
| author = Elizabeth Pond
| work = ]
| date = 1985-02-28
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title = House Intelligence Committee Begins Inquiry into Allegations of Forgeries
| newspaper = ]
| date = 1979-01-17
}}</ref><ref>U.S. House. Hearings Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. ''Soviet Active Measures''. 97th Congress, 2nd session. July 13, 14, 1982.</ref><ref>U.S. House. Hearings Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. ''Soviet Covert Action (The Forgery Offense)''. 96th Congress, 2nd session. February 6, 19, 1980.</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = A Review of: 'Falling Flat on the Stay-Behinds'
| author = Peer Henrik Hansen
| journal = ]
| year = 2005
| volume = 19
| issue = 1
| pages = 182–186
| doi = 10.1080/08850600500332656
| s2cid = 154096664
}}</ref>
In 1978 and 1979, Agee published the two volumes of ''Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe'' and ''Dirty Work: The CIA in Africa'' which contained information on 2,000 CIA personnel.<ref name = "sword5" />

Agee told ] journalist {{illm|Peter Studer|de}}: "The CIA is plainly on the wrong side, that is, the ] side. I approve KGB activities, communist activities in general. Between the overdone activities that the CIA initiates and the more modest activities of the KGB, there is absolutely no comparison."<ref name="Commentary">{{cite journal
|first=David
|last=Horowitz
|date=December 1991
|title=The Politics of Public Television
|journal=Commentary Magazine
|volume=92
|issue=6
|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V92I6P27-1.htm
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050423131446/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V92I6P27-1.htm
|archive-date=April 23, 2005
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author = William E. Simon | title = You can't trust the news | work = The Saturday Evening Post |date=December 1980}}</ref>

Agee's US ] was revoked by the US government in 1979. The State Department offered him an administrative hearing to challenge the passport revocation, but Agee instead sued in federal court. The case ], which ruled against Agee in 1981.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/453/280/case.html|title=Haig v. Agee 453 U.S. 280 (1981)|publisher=supreme.justia.com}}</ref>

In 1980 ]'s government conferred citizenship of ] on Agee, and he took up residence on that island. The collapse of the ] removed that safe haven, and Agee then received a passport from the ] government in ]. After a change of government there, this passport was revoked in 1990, and he was given a ] passport, in accordance with the working status of his wife, the American ballet dancer ] who was working and living in Germany at the time. Agee was later readmitted to both the U.S. and ].<ref name = "guardian">{{cite news|author= Duncan Campbell|title= The spy who stayed out in the cold|url= https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1986660,00.html|work= The Guardian |date= January 10, 2007|access-date= March 10, 2007| location= London
}}</ref> Agee's recounted this period in an ], ''On the Run'', published in 1987.<ref name="Davison"/>

== Later activities ==
In the 1980s ] founder Daniel Brandt had taught Agee how to use computers and computer databases for his research.<ref name=Ste21>{{cite book |last1=Stevenson |first1=Jonathan |title=A drop of treason : Philip Agee and his exposure of the CIA |date=2021 |publisher=] |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226356686 |page=140 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo23027534.html |language=en}}</ref> Agee lived with his wife principally in Hamburg, Germany and Havana, Cuba, founding the Cubalinda.com travel website in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite news|last=Campbell|first=Duncan|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2008/jan/10/mainsection.duncancampbell|title=Philip Agee|work=The Guardian|location=London|date=January 10, 2008|access-date=December 14, 2018}}</ref>

], who considered Agee a traitor,<ref name="Shane"/> accused him of being responsible for the murder of the head of the CIA Station in ], ], by the ]. Bush had directed the CIA from 1976 to 1977.<ref name=wpobit>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010903619_pf.html |title=Philip Agee, 72; Agent Who Turned Against CIA |newspaper=] |date=2008-01-09 |access-date=2013-12-14 | first=Joe | last=Holley}}</ref> Agee and his friends rejected Bush's assertion about Welch.<ref name="Shane"/> When this accusation was included in ]'s 1994 memoir, Agee sued her for ]. Barbara Bush agreed to remove the allegation from the paperback edition of her book as part of a legal settlement.<ref name=wpobit/>

On December 16, 2007, Agee was admitted to a hospital in Havana, and surgery was performed on him for ]s. His wife said on January 9, 2008, that he had died in Cuba on January 7 and had been cremated.<ref name=SF/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/death-of-cia-whistleblower/IL4OQFPZID6YL324OKJKAX34NQ/ | title=Death of CIA whistleblower - World News | date=8 May 2024 }}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
'''Articles'''
*. ('')]'', June 1975. .
* . '']'', No. 1, July 1988. (pp.&nbsp;4–7) .
* . '']'', No. 19, Spring–Summer 1983. (pp.&nbsp;33–34) .
* . '']'', No. 35, Fall 1990. (pp.&nbsp;3–4) .

'''Books'''
* '']''. ], 1975. {{ISBN|0-14-004007-2}}. 629 pages.
* ''''. Edited by Lois Wolf. Lyle Stuart, 1978. {{ISBN|0-88029-132-X}}. 318 pages.
* ''''. Edited by Lois Wolf. Lyle Stuart, January 1979. {{ISBN|0-8184-0294-6}}. 258 pages.
* ]. Lyle Stuart, June 1987. {{ISBN|0-8184-0419-1}}. 400 pages.
* ]. Edited by Warner Poelchau. Deep Cover Books, 1982. {{ISBN|0-940380-00-5}}, {{OCLC|557663936}}. 203 pages.

'''Interviews'''
* . ''Ann Arbor Sun'', February 28, 1975.

'''Reports'''
*. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility (]), December 2014.

'''Articles by other authors'''
* Kaeten Mistry, , ''Journal of American History'', Volume 106, Issue 2, September 2019, Pages 362–389
*Shane, Scott. (Obituary). '']'', January 10, 2008.
* Agee, Chris John. . ''NACLA Report on the Americas'', January/February 2009. pp.&nbsp;9–13.
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815143529/http://sdonline.org/51/remembering-philip-agee/ |date=2019-08-15 }}. ''Socialism & Democracy Online'', March 6, 2011.
::Talks given by ], ], and Len Weinglass at a memorial for Philip Agee held at the West Side Y in ], on May 3, 2009.

==Filmography==
'''Documentaries'''
* '']''. Directed by Estela Bravo. First Run/Icarus Films, 2001. {{OCLC|52742983}}. 91 min.
** Commentary provided by interviews with Agee.
* '']''. Directed by Allan Francovich. 1980. 2h 54min.

'''Television'''
*'']'', with Frank Morrow & ].
** (November 1995)
** (November 1995)
** (May 1991)
*** Speech recorded April, 1991 at ].

'''Public Speaking'''
* in Havana regarding US ] against Cuba. '']'', 1997.

== See also ==
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== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
* {{C-SPAN|41554}}
* {{IMDb name|id=2017945}}
* {{WorldCat|id=lccn-n81112432}}
*, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University.

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Latest revision as of 04:20, 19 November 2024

CIA officer and author (1935–2008)
Philip Agee
Agee in 1977
BornJanuary 19, 1935 (1935-01-19)
Takoma Park, Maryland, U.S.
DiedJanuary 7, 2008 (2008-01-08) (aged 72)
Havana, Cuba
Resting placeCanley Garden Cemetery and Crematorium, Canley, Metropolitan Borough of Coventry, West Midlands, England
EducationUniversity of Notre Dame
University of Florida
EmployerCentral Intelligence Agency
SpouseGiselle Roberge Agee
Children2

Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (/ˈeɪdʒi/; January 19, 1935 – January 7, 2008) was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer of the 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, detailing his experiences in the CIA. Agee joined the CIA in 1957, and over the following decade had postings in Washington, D.C., Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. After resigning from the Agency in 1968, he became a leading opponent of CIA practices. A co-founder of the CounterSpy and CovertAction series of periodicals, he died in Cuba in January 2008.

Early years

Agee was born in Takoma Park, Maryland and was raised in Tampa, Florida. He had, Agee wrote in On the Run, "a privileged upbringing in a big white house bordering an exclusive golf club". After graduating from Tampa's Jesuit High School, he attended the University of Notre Dame, from which he graduated cum laude in 1956. Agee later attended the University of Florida College of Law. He served in the United States Air Force from 1957 to 1960. Agee then worked as a case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1960 to 1968, including postings to Quito, Montevideo, and Mexico City.

Leaving the CIA

Agee stated that his Roman Catholic social conscience had made him increasingly uncomfortable with his work by the late 1960s leading to his disillusionment with the CIA and its support for authoritarian governments across Latin America. In his book Inside the Company, Agee condemned the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City and wrote that this was the immediate event precipitating his leaving the agency. Agee wrote that the CIA was "very pleased with his work" and had offered him "another promotion", and that his manager "was startled" when Agee told him about his plans to resign.

Agee came to believe that the CIA was repressing legitimate national ideals to serve the interests of US multinational corporations. He was disturbed that US forces were used to quell the revolution in the Dominican Republic in 1965, "not because it was Communist but because it was nationalist".

John Barron wrote in his book The KGB Today (1983) that Agee's resignation was forced "for a variety of reasons, including his irresponsible drinking, continuous and vulgar propositioning of embassy wives, and inability to manage his finances". Agee said these claims were ad hominem attacks meant to discredit him.

Allegations of links to Cuban intelligence

Russian exile Oleg Kalugin, former head of the KGB's Counterintelligence Directorate, claimed that in 1973 Agee approached the KGB's resident in Mexico City and offered a "treasure trove of information." According to Kalugin, the KGB was too suspicious to accept his offer.

Kalugin writes that Agee then went to the Cubans, who "welcomed him with open arms." The Cubans shared Agee's information with the KGB, but Kalugin continued to regret the missed opportunity to have direct access to this asset.

According to Mitrokhin, while Agee was writing Inside the Company the KGB kept in contact with him through a London correspondent of the Novosti News Agency.

Agee was accused of receiving up to US$1 million in payments from the Cuban intelligence service. He denied the accusations, which were first made by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence officer and defector in a 1992 Los Angeles Times report.

A later Los Angeles Times article claimed that Agee posed as a CIA Inspector General staff member in order to target a member of the CIA's Mexico City station on behalf of Cuban intelligence. According to this story, Agee was identified during a meeting by a CIA case officer.

Vasili Mitrokhin's KGB files claim that Inside the Company: CIA Diary was "prepared by Service A, together with the Cubans". Mitrokhin's notes however do not indicate what the KGB and DGI contributed to Agee's text. Mitrokhin claims that Agee removed all references to CIA penetration of Latin American Communist parties from his typescript before publication at the request of Service A.

In 1978 Agee began the publication of the Covert Action Information Bulletin. Mitrokhin's files claim that the bulletin was founded on the KGB's initiative and the group running it was "put together" by First Chief Directorate counter-intelligence and that Agee was the only member of the group who was aware of KGB or DGI involvement. According to Mitrokhin's files, KGB headquarters assembled a team to keep the Bulletin supplied with material specifically designed to compromise the CIA. A document titled Director of Central Intelligence: Perspectives for Intelligence, 1976-1981 was supplied to Agee by the KGB. Agee highlighted in his commentary Director of Central Intelligence William Colby's complaint that the Covert Action Information Bulletin was among the most serious problems facing the CIA. Also from Mitrokhin's files: In Dirty Work 2: The CIA in Africa, it is said that Agee met with Oleg Maksimovich Nechiporenko and A. N. Istkov of the KGB, and they gave him a list of CIA officers working in Africa. The files also claim that Agee decided not to identify himself as an author out of fear he would lose his residence permit in Germany.

To the end of his life, Philip Agee consistently and categorically denied ever having worked for any intelligence service after leaving the CIA. He said that his motives were purely altruistic. In support of this he adduces the relentless persecution he endured from the CIA, as it and the U.S. State Department revoked his passport and succeeded in having him deported from several Western European countries, one after the other, until he finally found refuge in Cuba.

Inside the Company: CIA Diary

Agee's memoir of his time in the CIA was titled Inside the Company: CIA Diary. Because of legal problems in the United States, Inside the Company was first published in 1975 in Britain, while Agee was living in London. The book was delayed for six months before being published in the United States; it became an immediate best seller.

In a Playboy magazine interview after the book's publication, Agee said: "Millions of people all over the world had been killed or at least had their lives destroyed by the CIA ... I couldn't just sit by and do nothing."

Agee said that "Representatives of the Communist Party of Cuba also gave me important encouragement at a time when I doubted that I would be able to find the additional information I needed."

The London Evening News called Inside the Company: CIA Diary "a frightening picture of corruption, pressure, assassination and conspiracy". The Economist called the book "inescapable reading". Miles Copeland, Jr., a former CIA station chief in Cairo, said the book was "as complete an account of spy work as is likely to be published anywhere" and it is "an authentic account of how an ordinary American or British 'case officer' operates ... All of it ... is presented with deadly accuracy."

The book describes how US embassies in Latin America worked with right-wing death squads, and funded anti-communist student and labour movement fronts, pro-US political parties and individuals.

Inside the Company identified 250 alleged CIA officers and agents. The list of officers and agents, all personally known to Agee, appears in an appendix to the book. While written as a diary, the book actually reconstructs events based on Agee's memory and his subsequent research.

Agee describes his first overseas assignment for the CIA in 1960 to Ecuador, where his primary mission was to force a diplomatic break between Ecuador and Cuba. He writes that the techniques he used included bribery, intimidation, bugging, and forgery. Agee spent four years in Ecuador penetrating Ecuadorian politics. He states that his actions subverted and destroyed the political fabric of Ecuador.

Agee helped bug the United Arab Republic code-room in Montevideo, Uruguay, with two contact microphones placed on the ceiling of the room below.

On December 12, 1965, Agee visited senior Uruguayan military and police officers at a Montevideo police headquarters. He realized that the screaming he heard from a nearby cell was the torturing of a Uruguayan, whose name he had given to the police as someone to watch. The Uruguayan senior officers simply turned up a radio report of a soccer game to drown out the screams.

Agee also ran CIA operations within the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and he witnessed the events of the Tlatelolco massacre.

Agee identified President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica, President Luis Echeverría Álvarez (1970–1976) of Mexico and President Alfonso López Michelsen (1974–1978) of Colombia as CIA collaborators or agents.

Following this he details how he resigned from the CIA and began writing the book, conducting research in Cuba, London and Paris. During this time he said that the CIA spied on him. The cover of the book featured an image of the bugged typewriter given to Agee by a CIA agent as part of their surveillance and attempts to stop publication of the book. According to a former CIA officer, David Atlee Phillips, when the CIA discovered that Agee was going to publish a book it began what Phillips refers to as "a program of cauterization", wherein every CIA official and agent known to Agee were "terminated, and some relocated for their safety; and every operation which Agee might have been privy to was being terminated". Phillips says that this cost the agency millions of dollars.

In response to Agee's book, the United States Congress passed the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which made it a crime to intentionally reveal the identity of a covert intelligence officer. Use of the law was later considered during the 2003 Valerie Plame affair.

Expulsion

Agee gained attention from the United Kingdom media after the publication of Inside the Company. He revealed the identities of dozens of CIA agents in the CIA London station. After numerous requests from the American government as well as an MI6 report that blamed Agee's work for the execution of two MI6 agents in Poland, a request was put in to deport Agee from the UK. Agee fought this and was supported by MPs and journalists. The Labour MP Stan Newens promoted a parliamentary bill, gaining the support of more than 50 of his colleagues, which called for the CIA station in London to be expelled. The activity in support of Agee did not prevent his eventual deportation from the UK on June 3, 1977, when he traveled to the Netherlands. Agee was also eventually expelled from the Netherlands, France, West Germany and Italy.

On January 12, 1975, Agee testified before the second Bertrand Russell Tribunal in Brussels that in 1960 he had conducted personal name-checks of Venezuelan employees for a Venezuelan subsidiary of what is now ExxonMobil. Exxon was "letting the CIA assist in employment decisions, and my guess is that those name checks ... are continuing to this day". Agee stated that the CIA customarily performed this service for subsidiaries of large U.S. corporations throughout Latin America. An Exxon spokesman denied Agee's accusations.

In 1978 Agee and a small group of his supporters began publishing the Covert Action Information Bulletin, which promoted "a worldwide campaign to destabilize the CIA through exposure of its operations and personnel". Mitrokhin states that the bulletin had help from both the KGB and the Cuban DGI. The January 1979 issue of Agee's Bulletin published the infamous FM 30-31B, which was claimed by the United States House Intelligence Committee to be a hoax produced by the Soviet intelligence services. In 1978 and 1979, Agee published the two volumes of Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe and Dirty Work: The CIA in Africa which contained information on 2,000 CIA personnel.

Agee told Swiss journalist Peter Studer [de]: "The CIA is plainly on the wrong side, that is, the capitalistic side. I approve KGB activities, communist activities in general. Between the overdone activities that the CIA initiates and the more modest activities of the KGB, there is absolutely no comparison."

Agee's US passport was revoked by the US government in 1979. The State Department offered him an administrative hearing to challenge the passport revocation, but Agee instead sued in federal court. The case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled against Agee in 1981.

In 1980 Maurice Bishop's government conferred citizenship of Grenada on Agee, and he took up residence on that island. The collapse of the Grenada Revolution removed that safe haven, and Agee then received a passport from the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. After a change of government there, this passport was revoked in 1990, and he was given a German passport, in accordance with the working status of his wife, the American ballet dancer Giselle Roberge who was working and living in Germany at the time. Agee was later readmitted to both the U.S. and United Kingdom. Agee's recounted this period in an autobiography, On the Run, published in 1987.

Later activities

In the 1980s NameBase founder Daniel Brandt had taught Agee how to use computers and computer databases for his research. Agee lived with his wife principally in Hamburg, Germany and Havana, Cuba, founding the Cubalinda.com travel website in the 1990s.

U.S. President George H. W. Bush, who considered Agee a traitor, accused him of being responsible for the murder of the head of the CIA Station in Athens, Richard Welch, by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November. Bush had directed the CIA from 1976 to 1977. Agee and his friends rejected Bush's assertion about Welch. When this accusation was included in Barbara Bush's 1994 memoir, Agee sued her for libel. Barbara Bush agreed to remove the allegation from the paperback edition of her book as part of a legal settlement.

On December 16, 2007, Agee was admitted to a hospital in Havana, and surgery was performed on him for perforated ulcers. His wife said on January 9, 2008, that he had died in Cuba on January 7 and had been cremated.

Bibliography

Articles

Books

Interviews

Reports

Articles by other authors

Talks given by Melvin Wulf, William Schaap, and Len Weinglass at a memorial for Philip Agee held at the West Side Y in New York City, on May 3, 2009.

Filmography

Documentaries

Television

Public Speaking

See also

References

  1. ^ Will Weissert, "Ex-CIA Agent Philip Agee Dead in Cuba", Associated Press (sfgate.com), January 9, 2008.
  2. ^ Agee, Philip (1975). Inside The Company: CIA Diary. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-004007-2.
  3. ^ Andrew, Christopher; Vasili Mitrokhin (2000). The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00312-5. p. 230
  4. ^ Kapstein, Jonathan (July 28, 1975). "Philip Agee: The spy who came in and told; Inside the Company: CIA Diary". Business Week: 12. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006.
  5. The Associated Press (9 January 2008). "Former CIA agent Agee dies in Cuba at age 72". NBC News. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  6. ^ Joe Holley (10 January 2008). "Philip Agee, 72; Agent Who Turned Against CIA". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 November 2010. Mr. Agee was born in Tacoma, Fla., attended Jesuit schools and graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1956. He told the New York Times in 1974 that the CIA attempted to recruit him while he was at Notre Dame, offering a package plan that included Air Force duty. He said no but reconsidered while studying law at the University of Florida.
  7. ^ Shane, Scott (January 10, 2008). "Philip Agee, 72, Is Dead; Exposed Other C.I.A. Officers". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  8. ^ Inside The Company: CIA Diary, p. 640
  9. Barron, John (1983). KGB Today: The Hidden Hand. Reader's Digest Association. pp. 227–230. ISBN 0-88349-164-8.
  10. "Philip Agee". The Times. London. January 9, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2018. (subscription required)
  11. Philip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Allen Lane, 1975
  12. ^ Andrew p. 230, referencing Kalugin, Oleg (1995). Spymaster: The Highest-ranking KGB Officer Ever to Break His Silence. Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-85685-101-X. p. 191-192 Andrew states: "The KGB files noted by Mitrokhin describe Agee as an agent of the Cuban DGI and give details of his collaboration with the KGB, but do not formally list him as a KGB or DGI agent. vol. 6, ch. 14, parts 1,2,3; vol. 6, app. 1, part 22."
  13. ^ Andrew, p. 231
  14. "Former CIA agent attempts to draw U.S. tourists to Cuba over Internet". CNN.com. 2000-06-25. Archived from the original on March 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
  15. "Once Again, Ex-Agent Philip Agee Eludes CIA's Grasp", Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1997
  16. ^ Andrew, Christopher M. (23 September 1999). The sword and the shield : the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of the KGB. Mitrokhin, Vasili, 1922-2004. New York. ISBN 0-465-00310-9. OCLC 42368608.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. ^ Agee, Philip (June 1987). On the Run. L. Stuart.
  18. ^ Davison, Phil (January 11, 2018). "Philip Agee: Former CIA agent who accused his government of 'state terrorism'". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  19. Rid, Thomas (2020-04-21). Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-71865-7.
  20. Andrew, p. 231 referencing Agee, Philip (June 1987). On the Run. L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0419-1. p. 111-112, 120-121.
  21. ^ "Book details CIA activities". Facts on File World News Digest: 37 B3. January 25, 1975. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006.
  22. Coyle, Kenny (25 February 2019). "What is the National Endowment for Democracy and how does it promote regime change around the world?". Morning Star. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  23. Philip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Allen Lane, 1975, pp 599-624.
  24. Philip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Allen Lane, 1975, p 9.
  25. ^ "Secret agent; Inside the Company: CIA Diary. By Philip Agee. Penguin. 640 pages. 95p". The Economist. January 11, 1975. p. 87.
  26. Philip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, Allen Lane, 1975, pp 573-583
  27. Phillips, David Atlee (1977). The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service. Atheneum. pp. 238–9.
  28. "Philip Agee". January 10, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  29. ^ Andrew, p. 232-233.
  30. ^ Holley, Joe (2008-01-09). "Philip Agee, 72; Agent Who Turned Against CIA". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-12-14.
  31. CovertAction, Number 3, January 1979.
  32. Elizabeth Pond (1985-02-28). "The West Wakes Up to the Dangers of Misinformation". Christian Science Monitor.
  33. "House Intelligence Committee Begins Inquiry into Allegations of Forgeries". The Washington Post. 1979-01-17.
  34. U.S. House. Hearings Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Soviet Active Measures. 97th Congress, 2nd session. July 13, 14, 1982.
  35. U.S. House. Hearings Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Soviet Covert Action (The Forgery Offense). 96th Congress, 2nd session. February 6, 19, 1980.
  36. Peer Henrik Hansen (2005). "A Review of: 'Falling Flat on the Stay-Behinds'". International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. 19 (1): 182–186. doi:10.1080/08850600500332656. S2CID 154096664.
  37. Horowitz, David (December 1991). "The Politics of Public Television". Commentary Magazine. 92 (6). Archived from the original on April 23, 2005.
  38. William E. Simon (December 1980). "You can't trust the news". The Saturday Evening Post.
  39. "Haig v. Agee 453 U.S. 280 (1981)". supreme.justia.com.
  40. Duncan Campbell (January 10, 2007). "The spy who stayed out in the cold". The Guardian. London. Retrieved March 10, 2007.
  41. Stevenson, Jonathan (2021). A drop of treason : Philip Agee and his exposure of the CIA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 140. ISBN 9780226356686.
  42. Campbell, Duncan (January 10, 2008). "Philip Agee". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  43. "Death of CIA whistleblower - World News". 8 May 2024.

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