THE CIA: Dangerous Wrecking Operation

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Another spur behind the stories has apparently been the Washington magazine Counter-Spy, published quarterly by the Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate, a group of antiwar activists, some of whom are ex-agents. Since its inception in 1973, Counter-Spy has named more than 300 CIA agents. One of its co-editors, Tim Butz, 28, a bearded Viet Nam veteran who was a student at Kent State during the antiwar killings in 1970, helped the Liberation reporters with their expose. His reason: to "demystify" the CIA and nail down "personal culpability for war crimes."

Butz says he would give out the names of KGB operatives but "we lack the vehicles for exposing the KGB." Liberation adds another rationale. The daily is not printing the names of KGB operatives, said one of its editors, "because with the Soviet embassy, we assume everybody is a secret agent."