Louis Wolf on Investigative Reporting Before WikiLeaks

Updated 12/7/10, 11:21 AM: To listen to the podcast of this program, click on:


Before there was WikiLeaks there was CounterSpy (1973-1984) and
CovertAction Information Bulletin (later Covert Action Quarterly), which ran from 1978-2005.

These alternative magazines exposed U.S. government shenanigans, sometimes relying on leaked documents.

On KUCI's Subversity show today, we talk with the co-founder of CovertAction, Louis Wolf, who also co-edited the massive CIA-focused missives, Dirty Work (with former CIA operations officer Philip Agee, 1978) and Dirty Work 2 (1979).

We discuss with Wolf how his and Agee's work at exposing U.S. imperialism and covert action was a pioneering prelude to WikiLeaks today.

Agee, like WiikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was hounded from country to country, a scenario recounted in Agee's biographical "On the Run" (1987). A frequent guest, Wolf last appeared on Subversity in January 2008 when we aired a tribute to Agee.

The show airs today, 6 December 2010, from 5-6 p.m. Pacific time on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

John Prados on the CIA and Vietnam

On the August 31, 2009 edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we talk with National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados, about his research into declassified CIA documents from the Vietnam War. He has just compiled the National Security Archive's new analysis, The CIA's Vietnam Histories which shows the extent of CIA intervention in Vietnam. He is also the author of numerous intelligence-related books, including the latest, Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War,
1945-1975 from the University Press of Kansas.

In the massive book, Prados weaves together U.S., South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese perspectives, as well as those from the anti-war movement. UCI is included in the book: Surveillance of UCI students protesting the war in the 1960s at the El Toro Marine base gets a paragraph, relying on Naval Intelligence surveillance files declassified to Subversity's host Dan Tsang which Tsang wrote up as: The Few, the Proud, the Spies: Spying on civilians was part of El Toro's mission, OC Weekly, 15 July 1999.

Prados was last on Subversity talking about then-CIA Director Robert Gates, George W. Bush's nominee as Defense Secretary in 2006.

To listen to that 13 November 2006 show, click here: .

Prados' bio:

John Prados is an analyst of national security based in Washington, DC. Prados holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and focuses on presidential power, international relations, intelligence and military affairs. He is a senior fellow and project director with the National Security Archive, leading both the Archive's Iraq Documentation Project and its parallel effort on Vietnam. His current book is Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975 (University of Kansas Press). Now out in paperback is Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA (Ivan Dee Publisher). In addition Prados is author or editor of sixteen other books, with titles on national security, the American presidency, intelligence matters, diplomatic history and military affairs, including Iraq, Vietnam, and World War II. Among them are Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War; Inside the Pentagon Papers (edited with Margaret Pratt-Porter); Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of U.S. Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II; Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby; White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President (written and edited); Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh (with Ray Stubbe); America Responds to Terrorism (edited); The Hidden History of the Vietnam War; Operation Vulture; The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War; Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from World War II Through the Persian Gulf; Keepers of the Keys: A History of the National Security Council from Truman to Bush; and The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Intelligence and Soviet Strategic Forces. The works Keepers of the Keys and Combined Fleet Decoded were nominated by their publishers for the Pulitzer Prize. Combined Fleet Decoded was the winner of the annual book award of the New York Military Affairs Symposium and a 'notable naval book of the year' for the U.S. Naval Institute. The Soviet Estimate was the winner of the annual book prize of the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence. Valley of Decision became a 'notable naval book of the year' for the U.S. Naval Institute. Prados has chapters in thirty-two other books, and entries in six reference works. He is also an award-winning designer of board strategy games for many publishers. Prados is a contributing editor to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, and a former contributing writer to The VVA Veteran. His articles and op-ed pieces have appeared widely, including Vanity Fair, The Washington Post Outlook, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Naval History, The American Prospect, Scientific American, and elsewhere. His internet articles have appeared at NeimanWatchdog.com, Tompaine.com, TNR.com, American Prospect Online, and elsewhere. His book reviews have also appeared widely.

To listen to the 31 August 2009 show, click here: .

James Petras on CIA Destabilization in Venezuela

Irvine -- On our next show, to air Monday 3 December 2007, Subversity focuses on the situation in Venezuela, a day after a referendum to decide whether or not President Hugo Chavez can re-run for office indefinitely, but also to decide on various measures to improve conditions of the poor in Venezuela. We talk with Prof. James Petras, a long-time observer of Latin American social change, about the role of the CIA in stirring up opposition to Chavez, in the wake of the disclosure of a secret document alleged to be drafted by the CIA to destabilize the country.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.

His publishers have included Random House, John Wiley, Westview, Routledge, Macmillan, Verso, Zed Books and Pluto Books. He is winner of the Career of Distinguished Service Award from the American Sociological Association's Marxist Sociology Section, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968. His most recent titles include Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America (2000), System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social Movements and State Power (2003), co-author Empire With Imperialism (2005), co-author)Multinationals on Trial (2006).

His website is: petras.lahaine.org.
See:
James Petras, "CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces," CounterPunch, 28 November 2007.
James Petras, "Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets," CounterPunch, 14 November 2007.
James Petras, "China Bashing and the Loss of U.S. Competitiveness," CounterPunch, 22/23 2005.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The Enigma of Chavez," Le Monde Diplomatique, 4 October 2000.

To listen to the show, click here:

CIA at 60: Domestic Surveillance Continues

Sixty years ago, the U.S. National Security Act led to the creation of the CIA. The spy agency was not supposed to spy on Americans, but KUCI's Subversity host Dan Tsang found out the CIA was spying on him. He took the CIA to federal court, with the help of the ACLU and the Center for National Security Studies, and prevailed. In an out-of-court settlement, the CIA promised to not spy on him again and promised to expunge anything collected on his First-Amendment-protected activities.

Subversity takes this 60th anniversary of the CIA as the opportunity to look back at the CIA and its history of domestic surveilance, before and after 9/11. We air a 1999 interview we did with attorney Kate Martin, of the Center for National Security Studies, who represented Tsang in his Privacy Act lawsuit against the CIA, as well as portions from an hour-long interivew, taped this past July for KUCI show host Mari Frank's "Privacy Piracy" show (www.kuci.org/privacypiracy/#09_12_07) where Frank interviewed Martin and Tsang about his lawsuit that exposed CIA domestic spying after the Privacy Act was enacted supposedly to prevent such illegal activities. We talk about how the CIA used the National Security Act to illegally spy on Tsang. Although the CIA settled the case with Tsang, a U.S. citizen at birth, it refused to promise to not spy on other Americans (or permanent residents).

To listen to the entire show, click here:

For more information, see press release.

Robert Gates: From CIA to Pentagon? Who is the Nominee to Head the Defense Department?

On the next Subversity show, slated for Monday 13 June, 2006 on KUCI, we chat with national security analyst and author John Prados about former CIA director Robert Gates, who is George Bush's nominee to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary. We will discuss what has Gates done in the past and how quickly will he withraw U.S. troops from Iraq? Gates, after all, was deputy CIA director when the U.S. sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet with Saddam Hussein and shake his hands, sealing the U.S. effort to arm Iraq. Gates was also implicated, but never charged, in the Iran-Contra scandal.

For more information with links to resources, see our press release.

To hear audio of the show, click here: .