James Jesus Angleton: The CIA Man Who Did More Damage to CIA Than Anyone Else

Ever wonder why homeless schizophrenics wander the streets? Why CIA was powerless all through the 1960's until Nixon? Meet James Angleton!

Since 1942 The Pond had turned in the names of Soviet agents in the U.S. government to the FBI which would leave a paper trail that historians often confuse to mean the FBI was on top of the situation. It was not. It did not act on any of the names, nor did OSS and then CIA or The White House. Although the FBI had tried to warn The White House about spies, as the spies became higher ups in government, lack of interest by FDR and Truman kept them from doing any kind of real investigation. Many ended up retiring with pensions! When the FBI bothered to investigate they used illegal wiretaps and break-ins, gathering evidence that could never be used in court because of the way it was gathered.

Allen Dulles knew a list had been circulating of spy names but many of those names had retired. Dulles was head of CIA but an incompetent spy. He had been compromised in WW 2 while stationed in Switzerland and was used to spread false reports by the Germans. Grombach, the head of The Pond had urged the FBI to keep West German Otto John from seeing any classified documents after being told by CIA John was no security risk. When Otto arrived he was welcomed by CIA, but was prevented by the FBI from seeing classified documents. Sensing something was up, Otto fled to East Germany, revealing he was a spy. The CIA was now angry at The Pond, for being right.

Joe McCarthy called for a meeting with CIA head Dulles and gave him a list of names of security risks within the CIA. Dulles got in his limo and could not believe what he was reading. It was word for word taken from Pond reports. Dulles realized McCarthy was not just getting his names from the old spy list that almost everyone in government had seen, but McCarthy had a list of spies that had been ignored for years by The White House, OSS, CIA, State Department and the Army. A LIST THE AMERICAN PUBLIC TO THIS DAY DOES NOT KNOW EXISTED. A LIST OF SOVIET AGENTS WITHIN THE CIA! McCarthy informed him when he gave him the list, that after the Army hearings, CIA was next.

Dulles called in the man who did more to cripple CIA than McCarthy or any counter spy was able to do (more on that at the end of this page). James Angleton said CIA was on the road to being ended unless McCarthy could be shaken about his sources, and the only way to do that was to create a false report on a revered person, get it to him and scare everyone away from McCarthy. That name is still classified, but it is interesting to note the last and only person McCarthy would falsely accuse was an American officer in charge of the Marshall Plan. When he did, everyone from William F. Buckley to Ayn Rand would condemn Joe. The trick had worked.

For his work in destroying McCarthy, James Angleton would become the head of counter-intelligence in CIA after Dulles. A defector told him a mole was inside CIA (a mole is a spy from an enemy placed in the group). Angleton would place under arrest over 200 CIA agents. Most were fed LSD in massive quantities over a year- many were tortured in this state in an effort to find the "mole".

Turns out, the CIA people were all totally innocent. Angleton remained and demolished CIA year after year in the search for a mole. The person who told Angleton there was a mole in the agency- was the mole. The Russians had paralyzed CIA and did damage to it that lasts to this day.

Resulting lawsuits by the wrongfully accused who had been placed in hospitals and sanitoriums against their will would result in police and others being unable to place the mentally ill you see on the streets in hospitals, etc. because now they can sign themselves out. So, the next time you see someone taking a dump on the streets, you can thank James Angleton!

Behind the paywall: we begin the BBC series COLD WAR with Part 1: COMRADES.