Associated Press, 09/17/97 17:13
 

LANGLEY, Va. (AP) - Former President Bush, helping the CIA celebrate its
50th birthday Wednesday, called agency critics "nuts," derided the CIA's
"universally negative press" and labeled congressional staffers who
investigate agency misdeeds "crusading young zealots."

The podium-thumping speech brought repeated ovations from a crowd of about
4,000 CIA retirees - including all the living former directors of central
intelligence. Bush focused on his time as the CIA chief in 1976 and 1977,
in the wake of highly critical examinations of U.S. intelligence by the
press and congressional investigating committees.

"The entire agency," Bush said, "was demeaned by the universally
negative press coverage coming from mistakes made by but a handful of
people."

Not far behind the news media were the congressional investigators, who
examined the admission by the CIA that it had conducted surveillance on
U.S. citizens opposed to the Vietnam War, plotted assassinations and, at
times, misled Congress about its actions.

"The people of the CIA were roundly insulted by untutored, aggressive
staffers from the two committees in Congress, many, not all, but many of
whom came out here with no respect for classified information," Bush said.
"These crusading young zealots treated everyone that they encountered as
renegades at best, criminals at worst."

Next he turned to the nation's colleges and universities which, in the wake
of Vietnam, shunned CIA recruiters, some of whom were "bodily thrown off
campus." He condemned the "so-called broad-minded academicians" who
refused to cooperate with the CIA, as well as "many pusillanimous business
people (who) treated CIA exactly the same way."

The CIA's "embattled'' Directorate of Operations - the clandestine spy
service - deserves praise, not criticism, Bush said, and survived in spite
of its many critics, including some who did real damage to U.S.
intelligence-gathering.

Bush singled out for criticism Philip Agee, a former CIA agent and later
critic of the agency.

"Remember Philip Agee, who I consider a traitor to our country?" Bush
asked, referring to Agee's efforts to expose CIA operations and identify
spies.

Bush said some of the criticism of the Directorate of Operations ruined
secret U.S. clandestine operations in foreign countries and, in one
instance, blew the cover of CIA station chief in Greece, Richard Welch, who
was assassinated outside his residence in Greece in the mid-1970s. Bush was
careful not to directly link Agee to Welch's death. Agee dropped a
defamation suit against former first lady Barbara Bush earlier this year
after Mrs. Bush acknowledged that the first edition of her memoir was
erroneous in saying that Agee had exposed Welch's identity.

Striking an oft-repeated theme in a week of celebrations at CIA
headquarters, Bush said the CIA seldom gets credit for its successes.
Instead, he said, they focus on individual failures, such as the Aldrich
Ames spy case, and try to use them to tear down the agency.

"To those who say we no longer need a CIA, I say you're nuts," Bush said.
"To those who want to dismantle CIA or put it under some other department
... you're nuts, too. And to those who feel the right to know takes
precedence over legitimate classification of documents, or over protecting
our most precious asset, our people, the same to you. You're nuts, and so's
the horse you came in on."