Would you die
for a computer error?

For almost 10 minutes in the
past eight months the world
was at war.

On November 9, 1979 a
computer at U.S. Defence
Command Headquarters at
Colorado Springs signalled a
Soviet attack on the United
States. During the six minutes
it took to discover the error the
war apparatus was activated.
Nuclear bombers were scram-
bled and rockets readied.

It was a technical break-
down.

On June 3, 1980 it happened
again. And again, on June 6,
1980 the computer flashed the
warning and the world was at
war. On these two ocassions it
took three minutes to stop.

People wouid scoff at films
such as Dr... Strangelove,
Seven Day in May and the

Bedford Incident. ‘*‘Im-
possible’’, they'd say. “Can't
happen.”

Certainly it can. Three com-
puter errors in eight months
shows how close our fate is
tied in with technology (and its
inherent capacity to fail) and
human error.

Soviet journalist. Gennady
Gerasimov asks, **How: long
can we tempt fate?’” He writes
about the constant possibility
of technical error leading to a
“no return” position and re-
sulting thermonuclear devasta-
tion.

But he makes another key
point:

“The errors of American
computers are secondary, so
to speak, to the fact they re-
sulted from a gross political
mistake — the belief that a sur-
prise Soviet attack was highiy
probable. ‘

“There may be two reasons
‘for this: one, that so many lies
have been told about the old
‘Russians are coming game’,
the inventors are beginning to
believe it themselves. .

**Secondly, there's a habit of
judging others by yourself.
Ellsberg revealled the U.S.
plan for a nuclear first strike.
There’s a chance the Pentagon
may use a computer error to
launch a first strike and re-
name it a ‘pre-emptive’ strike

Gerasimov’s point is well-
taken in these days of inter-
national tension. The solution,
of course, is to build the fight
for peace, for disarmament, for

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS ——

negotiation to replace con-
frontation.

That nuclear war could ex-
plode because of faulty wiring
is unacceptable to rational

people.

Telling who, why, where
— examining the CIA

At the back of each issue of
“Covert Action Information
Bulletin”’ is a list of CIA op-
eratives functioning in various
countries. The June, 1980
issue lists 40 officers, their ~
rank, record, and current post
in 31 countries.

‘‘Naming Names’’, as the
section is called, is but one of
many intriguing, revealling and
sometimes terrifying faces of
the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency this magazine un-
covers. It has been publishing
out of Washington, D.C. , for
two years and, in that time has
given its readers details,
methods and history of the
world-wide octopus that is the
CIA.

The most well-known name -
associated with CAIB is Phillip
Agee. Others have had exten-
sive contact and experience
with the CIA. The magazine’s
sources are extensive and its
research meticulous.

It’s not a bad idea for people
to know the scope of this secret
body, its connections and the
way it penetrates. One of the
things the CIA (and the RCMP)
fear most is public exposure of
their work. It’s dirty, illegal,
immoral — and growing.

If you're interested in sub- -

scribing, their address is:
Covert Action Information
Bulletin, P.O. Box ‘50272,
Washington, D.C. 20004.

CAIB appears five to seven ~

times a year, Canadian rate
Whigs

By the way, CAIB tells us
the new CIA Chief of Station at
the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa is
John Kenneth Knaus, a 30- |
year veteran of Agency service
in several world capitals. He’s
formally listed as Attache.

Jimmy Carter — the
president with his people

It was quite a spectacle.

There's Jimmy Carter,
leader of the Free World,
champion of human rights,
arms outstretched receiving
the Cuban boat people, host of
Begin and.Sadat, front-runner
of the Democratic Party for
1980, fleeing from his own con-
stituents in Miami.

Someone in the Democratic
brain-trust miscalculated. Car-
ter went to Liberty City (sic) in
Miami to inspect the rubble, .
the burnt-out streets and to lec-
ture Miami's Black people

about civility. ‘You don’t get ,

jobs by burning businesses”’, -
he tells them.

Arms high in saluation, teeth
glistening against the Florida
sun, the president paused to be
among “his*’ people.

A beer bottle whizzed ac-
ross the road and bounced off
the presidential limosine.
Jeers, booes and obscene ges-
tures sent ‘‘their’’ president
quickly into the car. The pro-
cession sped away, security
staff running, lights flashing.

At the airport Carter said he
was unaware of any incident.
That's not all he’s unaware of.

Barbados a base for CI

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 20, 1980—Page 10

Special to the Tribune

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados —
A journalist working with a U.S.
magazine which specializes in the
dissemination of information
about Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) personnel and op-
erations around the world has
said that the agency uses the West
Indian island of Barbados as a
base for its work.

Speaking at a public meeting in
the island in May, Lou Wolf re-
vealed that ‘‘reliable sources’
had told him that the Eastern
Caribbean nation ‘‘is a base of its
(the CIA’s) operations’.

‘*Barbados seems to be emerg-
ing as a major point of departure
for its operations,’ said Wolf,
who is on staff of the Washing-
ton-based monthly magazine
Covert Action Information
Bulletin.

Fears have been expressed in
recent months by opposition
groups and human rights organi-

zations here that Washington is
getting too close to the four-
year-old regime of Prime Minister
Tom: Adams and that peace in the
regioh may be endangered by this
increased U.S. presence.

Wolf added: ‘‘The CIA is not
simply an institution to gather in-
telligence. The primary function
of the CIA is to intervene in the
affairs of sovereign countries
throughout the world to manipu-
late the political, social and
economic:structure of these coun-
tries. (The Agency) also engages
in subversion and in destabiliza-
tion where subversion does not
work.”

Wolf, who worked for nine
years in Laos, said that there-are
many ways the Agency sets up its
cover in foreign countries.

‘The primary one is diplomatic
cover. That is, having people who
call themselves diplomats who
are infiltrated into the U.S.
foreign service with the full

TRIB INE PHOTO — NORMAN FARIA

a

Lou Wolf of the magazine Covert Action Information Bulletin aigelensih
in the West Indian SANG of Paeecos:

Christians and peace

By FILS DELISLE
Tribune Berlin Correspondent

BERLIN — The Third General
Synod of the United
Evangelical-Lutheran church in
the GDR has called on Christians
here to meet their responsibilities
under socialism and to work for
world peace.

The Synod emphasized the
good relations between Christians
and the socialist state. It declared
that Christians have the oppor-
tunity ‘‘to live openly and honest-
ly, in the socialist state, in the
freedom of the gospel, and to en-
gage themselves for peace, jus-
tice, and the implementing of
human values.”’

The Synod approved the
declaration of Bishop Heinrich

Rathke, that relations between
the church and the socialist state
in the GDR ‘‘are characterized by
openness and the striving for
mutual understanding.”’

A prominent layman, Dr.
Berndt Seite, told the Synod: ‘‘To
profess Christianity for me also
means professing an effective
Christianity in the political field. I
have never had the feeling that I,
as a Christian, belong to a minori-
ty, but that I am also a member of
society because I too carry this
state on my shoulders.”’

Bishop Werner Kruze said the
church condemns the whole con-
cept of ‘‘war with mass weapons
of destruction’’. He also stressed
“the political responsibility of
Christians in the basic questions
of peace and justice’.

knowledge of the State Depart
ment,”’ he said.
“In fact, there was an Agree:
ment, written in 1948 I believe,
where the State Departm
agreed to give diplomatic cover 0
CIA personnel around the wor
‘*So you will find people who
portraying themselves as poli
officers, economic and co
cial officers, and consular
ficers. These are the three
ary categories that they usé
though there are some others
well,’ he explained.
Speaking at a forum organi
by the Movement for Natio
Liberation (Monali), W!
pointed out that it was getting
creasingly difficult to protect ¥
type of diplomatic cover from
vestigative journalists. He
that the Agency is now using ™
tary officers, businessmen 4
journalists to carry out tit
nefarious work.
“It is said that the CIA has 4
full-time journalists on its
roll,”’ he said.
Turning to actual Agency active
ity in a foreign country, Wolf
mentioned the case of Ang
which he said ‘twas one of
largest CIA covert action op
tions in (the Agency’s) histo
‘‘Militarily ... the operation
Angola was a total failure. It is
no means the first and by |
means the last. It was a mass!
failure,’’ he said. ‘‘Of course
are grateful to the Angolan peo
for the valiant struggle
waged against the CIA i
against the South African fore
which were introduced,’’ he sal@:
The journalist, who along
an ex-CIA case officer F
Agee is the co-author of the 7
cently published book 2
Work, stopped off in Barb
while on a speaking tour of #
English-speaking Caribbean. —
“‘The problem is not so mt
that the CIA is an arm of the U:
armed forces — every gO
ment must have a secret sef
to protect its national secu!
What we here in the West I
should be concerned about is!
type of activities carried out
_the Agency both in the U.S. 4
overseas,”’ says Ricky Parris; *
Chairman of the Barbados F
Council.
‘**The CIA, for example,
fully involved in the 1973 milit®
coup which caused the down!
of the freely-elected gove
of Salvador Allende in Chile.
subversive activity of the /
resulted in the death of o
10,000 law-abiding and ht
working Chilean citizens, in¢
ing Allende himself,”’ he said
A number of books and arti¢
have appeared on the CIA Sl
the Agency’s involvement in
Watergate scandal was ¢
mented. The revelations !
the resignation of U.S. Presid
Nixon. One such book, The ##
ible Government, by David
and Thomas B. Ross, ¢
mented how the Agency
ganized and directed the
coup that overthrew Iraniatl
mier Mohammed Mossadegh ®
kept Shah Mohammed
Pahlei on his throne. ane
The book also carried achr
on the CIA's 1954 coup agaist
the freely-elected government
President Jacobo a
man in the Central America® ook |
public of Guatemala. The ™ Ay

19

‘said the overthrow had the fil

support of the then as \
Eisenhower. ‘