Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

(Martin Jones) #1
by agents of the Chilean secret police exploded under the car of
Pinochet’s leading critic in the United States, Orlando Letelier,
killing him and his American colleague, Ronni Moffitt. Until the ter-
rorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the Letelier-Moffitt assassi-
nationwas considered the most egregious act of international terror-
ism ever committed in Washington, D.C.

CONFEDERATE SECRET SERVICE.The secessionist Confederate
States of America (CSA) had at least two intelligence organizations,
the first being the Secret Service Bureau, organized in 1862 as part
of the CSASignal Corps. The head of the bureau, Maj. William Nor-
ris, eventually coordinated the activities of dozens of espionageand
counterespionage agents who operated along the “Secret Line,” an
underground link between Richmond and the Washington-Baltimore
region. In time, Norris and his assistant, Captain Charles Cawood,
sought to extend this network of intelligence outlets as far north as
Canada. Arguably the most effective military intelligence establish-
ment of the war, Norris’s bureau directed all espionage activity along
the Potomac River, supervised the passage of agents to and from en-
emy lines, and forwarded dispatches from the Confederate War and
State Departments to contacts abroad. Asecond Confederate secret-
service unit was organized early in 1864. Aprototype commando out-
fit, it was attached to the Torpedo Bureau of Brig. Gen. Gabriel J.
Rains, but was neither as large nor as well administered as the agency
headed by Major Norris.

CONGRESS FOR CULTURAL FREEDOM.Considered to be one
of the more daring and effective Cold War covert actionsby the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Initiated as a conference of in-
tellectuals in West Berlin in June 1950, the congress published liter-
ary and political journals and hosted dozens of conferences bringing
together some of the most eminent Western thinkers. Its purpose was
to demonstrate that communism, despite its rhetoric, was an enemy
of art and thought. By doing so, it sought to negate communism’s ap-
peal among artists and intellectuals, and, at the same time, to under-
mine the communist claim to moral superiority. The work of the con-
gress was an integral part of the CIA’s strategy of promoting the
noncommunist Left. The CIA’s sponsorship of the Congress for Cul-

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