James Jesus Angleton

James Angleton

James Jesus Angleton, (1917-1987) was head of CIA counterintelligence for more than 20 years.

Background

James Jesus Angleton was born in Boise, Idaho, on 9 December 1917, the son of James Hugh Angleton and his wife Carmen Mercedes Moreno.

OSS

Angleton was inducted into the US Army on 19 March 1943. By August, he had been offered work in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), thanks to the efforts of his father and his former professor Norman Pearson, both already OSS officers. In late December 1943, he left for London where he had been posted to the Italian desk of X-2, the counterintelligence wing of OSS.

Within six months, he had become head of the Italian Desk for the European Theatre of Operations. In October 1944, he was posted to Rome as head of Special Counterintelligence Unit Z. In March 1945, he became head of X-2 for Italy.

Strategic Services Unit

After the dissolution of the OSS, Angleton stayed on in the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) in Rome, as a captain in command of 2677 Regiment. He was the senior US intelligence officer in Italy. He continued to serve in Italy in the SSU's successor, the Central Intelligence Group.

CIA

Angleton joined the CIA in late 1948 as an aide to the director of the Office of Special Operations.

Under Walter Bedell Smith in the early 1950s, Angleton served as Chief of Staff A (foreign intelligence operations.

Israel Account

In early 1951, Angleton acquired responsibility for liaison with Israel, as head of the newly created Special Operations Group, which was kept separate from the CIA's Middle Eastern Division. The CIA's Tel Aviv station was not allowed direct contact with its counterparts in Arab capitals without going through Angleton's Washington office.

Angleton believed that Jewish emigration from the Soviet Bloc was a potentially valuable source of intelligence, but also feared that it would be exploited by the Soviet Union to infiltrate the west.

In the spring of 1974, incoming CIA director William Colby began to chip away at Angleton's control of the Israeli account by re-routing the Tel Aviv station's reporting through the Middle East Division and the Directorate of Operations.

Colby told Angleton he was losing the Israel account completely on 17 December 1974, only a few days before he was fired outright.

Counterintelligence chief

In December 1954, Angleton became chief of the newly-formed CIA Counterintelligence Staff.

Lovestone Account

From 1955, Angleton ran Jay Lovestone who provided material in memos known as 'JX reports'.

American Security Council

Angleton began working at the Washington office of the American Security Council in the summer of 1976. He served as President of an organization created by ASC and run out of the Council’s offices, known as the Security and Intelligence Fund. According to the ASC, Angleton gave a grim summary of the outlook for the CIA, during his first visit to the Council's Congressional Conference Center.

According to Angleton, the CIA’s counterintelligence division was effectively disbanded, and for all practical purposes covert operations were also shut down. He also said morale at Langley was dismal.

The ASC gives the following account of comments by Angleton, apparently at an ASC luncheon in May 1976:

Angleton said it was essential for America’s national security for both the CIA and the FBI to be rescued. He thought William Colby’s firing was an excellent start, and he had a high opinion of the current Director, George H.W. Bush. Because of the Church Committee and other investigations, he thought Bush needed considerable support. “This is the first time in history that the CIA needs overt public support, and we have to let the American people know what is happening,” Angleton said.

Affiliations

• Office of Strategic Services
• Central Intelligence Agency
• American Security Council

Connections

• William J. Hood - executive officer of the CIA Counterintelligence Division
• Mario Brod
• Jay Lovestone
• James Dudley
• Amos Manor
• Meir Deshalit

Intelligence fundamentalists

'Intelligence fundamentalists' is the term used by Tom Mangold for the counterintelligence officers who supported Angleton's belief in a monolithic Soviet threat.

• Raymond Rocca - Deputy Chief of the CIA Counterintelligence Division.
• Newton S. Miler - chief of operations of the CIA Counterintelligence Division.
• David Murphy - Chief of the CIA Soviet Russia Division c.1964.
• Joe Evans - Section chief, Counterintelligence Branch, Soviet Division, CIA.
• Peter Kapusta - Illegals section chief, Counterintelligence Branch, Soviet Division, CIA.
• Ed Petty
• Pete Bagley
• William Sullivan - FBI
• Sam Papich
• Arthur Martin - Head of D1 (Soviet counterespionage) MI5.
• Peter Wright - MI5.
• Stephen de Mowbray
• Philippe De Vosjoli - SDECE liaison officer in Washington 1951-1963

Molehunt targets

Operation HONETOL (CIA internal investigation)

• Peter Karlow
• Paul Garbler
• Vasia Gmirkin
• Richard Kovich
• David Chavchavadze

Operation GRIDIRON (Canada)

• James Bennett

Public figures

US

• Henry Kissinger
• Averell Harriman
• Armand Hammer

Canada

• Lester Pearson

UK

• Harold Wilson

France

• Jacques Foccart
• Louis Joxe
• Georges Gorse

Germany

• Willy Brandt

Sweden

• Olof Palme

Resources, Notes

Resources

• Spartacus Educational James Angleton, accessed 28 March 2009
• Edward Jay Epstein, James Jesus Angleton: The Orchid Man, edwardjayepstein.com
• David Robarge, Moles, Defectors, and Deceptions: James Angleton and CIA Counterintelligence, The Journal of Intelligence History, Winter 2003.
• Ronald Kessler, James Angleton’s Dangerous CIA Legacy, Newsmax, 28 March 2012.