76-18-A3

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Justice Department

Transcript Recently a news story announced that Britain had resolved its own legal questions about expelling an American expatriate. Former C.I.A. agent Philip Agee has been ordered to leave England. If that name doesn't ring a bell, Agee is the agent who turned against the C.I.A. -- apparently became a follower of Marx and Lenin - - and wrote a book about the Agency, obviously aimed at destroying it. He's been accused of spilling secrets and naming C.I.A. agents and informers all over the world. Britain charges he has been involved in activities that -- "could be harmful to the security of the United Kingdom. " -- Whether his actions were responsible for the arrest of a large number of Western Intelligence Agents in Poland has not been established, but the C.I.A. has spent a lot of money moving and transferring agents it believes are endangered by his actions. In protesting his ouster from England, Agee for months now has stated he feared arrest and prosecution under the Espionage Act if he returned to America. As a matter of fact, the Justice Department under the previous administration had told him he would be. C.I.A. agents take an oath that they will never reveal secrets or identify and thus endanger those still serving in our intelligence-gathering service. Mr. Agee has violated that oath and betrayed his country. But, on March 21st the new head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, Ben Civiletti, -- it is reported -- has told Agee he would not be prosecuted if he came home. Whether this influenced England's decision to oust him, I don't know -- but he's free to come home and continue trying to carry out his pledge to destroy the C.I.A.. One can almost be sure he'll get T.V. talk show invitations and may very well prosper on the college campus speaking circuit. And, of course, his every word will be a bullet aimed at the destruction of the C.I.A. Now about that inconsistency I mentioned earlier -- Ben Civiletti, head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, who has informed Agee he will not be prosecuted for his turncoat activities, is, on the other hand, pressing charges against F.B.I. agents and officials who he alleges have violated civil rights of American citizens. These are men who risked their lives courageously to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in search of murderers; who made surreptitious entry; and, yes, opened letters and bugged phones in the fight against terrorists and organized crime. Mr. Civiletti will, if he has his way, jail these men as common criminals even though they were trying to protect us and this nation. Come to think of it, maybe Mr. Civiletti isn't being inconsistent. He'll let Agee return to American where he can carry out his oath to destroy the C.I.A. while he (Civiletti) is striking a blow against the F.B.I. for practices he says are illegal snooping. We should all be reminded of that day in March, 1970 when Greenwich Village in New York City was rocked by a tremendous explosion. A townhouse had been made into a weatherman bomb factory. The accident killed three young members of the underground group, two escaped. One, Kathy Boudin, dropped completely from sight. Several weeks ago former counterintelligence chief James Angleton revealed to reporters in Washington that the C.I.A. had located Kathy. She is in Moscow with the K.G.B. -- the Soviet spy organization. And how did the C.I.A. learn this? By opening incoming mail from Russia -- Kathy's letters to her associates in this country. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 76-18-A3 Production Date 08/15/1977 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
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