can ambassador in Britain touched down at Heathrow Airport last Wednesday night, Red Weekly arranged its own sort of welcome for Mrs Anne Armstrong.
Not wanting the ambassador to be ignorant of the ant hill she will preside over. we printed me names and addresses of 60 CIA and other intelligence agents operating from the American Embassy According to the International Heral Tribune, Mrs Armstrong was briefed about our report on her arrival. She was. however, unavailable for comment.
But what of our fearless reporters of the capitalist press? Mrs Armstrong's evening, the pubs had been open hours, and perhaps they were feeling tired. Or perhaps Fleet Street simply has more than its fair share of those 200 or so journalists recently alleged by an ex-CIA journalist' to be on the payroll of the "Company'!
On 22 December 1975 Bernard Nossiter, the London correspondent of ay 18th, 7.300mrk Walk. Brix: the Washington Post, reported that all 24th, 12 noon London newspapers are at least partially staffed by writers on the payroll of the British SIS military intelligence unit. He quoted a Fleet Street editor as saying that more than half of that particular paper's full time staffers are on the SIS Well Louis Heren, deputy editor of The Times, wrote on 22 March 1975: The two agencics (the CA and the SIS) have always closely so-operated with each other since the SiS helped to organise the CIA in the late 1940s* three And what has this to do with the CIA? at best, always had an ambiguous position on CIA stories. On at least five previous •Case One: In the spring of 1972 Richard Fletcher was commissioned by the Sunday Times magazine to write the final part of their Unofficial History ot the Twentieth Centurv Fletche agreed to do a piece on CIA attempts to mantrate ine Labour rary Six weeks intensive activity followed, involving many of the Sundar Times's _top correspondenis around ure wore The CIA had indeed tried to subvert the Labour Party, and the 5,000 word piece said so. The piece was vetted for libel by sundar Times lawyers, art work prepared, and a final draft sent upstairs for editor Harold Evans formal approval.
Evans immediately refused publication. When told it had been cleared for libel, he said that it was unfair and "anyway, these are the people we supp•Case Two: In October 1974, three monts pror to tne publication or nis CIA Diary, Philip Agce held a packed press conference in London. At it he listed the names and addresses of 35 CIA people operating from the US Embassy in Mexico. Barely a word apppicked up in Mexico through Reuters. press Within a few days the station chief and his deputy were withdrawn. •Case Three: Throughout February 1975. Martin Walker of the Guardian workca m con unction will sime our and Workers Press reporters on a story to pe pubasaca simurraneously on o March. The material was submitted to the Guardian news-desk on 5 March and Walker went to see the then editor of the Guardian Alistair Hetherington Hetherington was the editors' champion in the great press freedom debate But he would have nothing to do with this particular story, which was to list names and addresses together with photographs and material on how to spot your own CIA agent. So he supp ressed it.
netnerington Is alleged to have tok Walker in justification of his decision: These people are our allies; we are not in business to help the KGB' •Case Four: Last spring, after the first Time Out exposure, Steve Weissman working with Time Out and some new information - identified over 50 CIA operatives in Britain. The story was accepteu and paid lot by tne Coserver Weissman was even told that they might put it on page one and the Observer's overseas wire.
That was on Friday night. On Satur day morning, Weissman received a phone call saying that the Observer's editor didn't consider the story "newsworthy"
• Case Five: Last June Time Out's story exposing the Forum World Features news agency in London as a CIA front was big news in the United States. But not a word appeared in the British There's an old story told to first year students of journalism, that when a dog bites a man that's not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news The CIA appears to have been biting the british press tor so long that when it's bitten back the newspaper editors do not consider it 'newsworthy'