Covert Action Information Bulletin
Covert Action Information Bulletin investigates and exposes CIA, FBI, NSA, military operations, and other forms of US imperialist intervention. Previously, the publishers, Phil Agee, Lou Wolf, Ellen Ray, Bill Schaap, Elsie Wilcott, and Jim Wilcott, published CounterSpy a similarly themed magazine the ended due to reasons related to personal, political and CIA harassment.
CAIB was co-founded and co-published by Ellen Ray, William Schaap, and Louis Wolf, along with former CIA agents such as James and Elsie Wilcott, and Philip Agee, author of Inside the Company: CIA Diary and On The Run. Following in the tradition of CounterSpy Magazine (1973-1984)—with whom the founders of CAIB had originally worked—highlights of CAIB included the notorious “Naming Names” column, which printed the names of CIA officers under diplomatic cover. These were tracked through exhaustive research in the State Department Biographic Register and various domestic and international diplomatic lists. This column, and others like it, came to an end in 1982 when the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was signed into law by Ronald Reagan. CAIB had to end the “Naming Names” column, but more significantly, the act required that magazines such as CAIB be more wary about the names they published within the articles of their contributors. This was particularly significant after December 1975 when Richard S. Welch, a CIA station chief, was assassinated in Athens, Greece. CounterSpy was criticized by both the CIA and the press for its exposure of the agent’s name.
While originally focused on the abuses and activities of the CIA, over time it gradually evolved into a more general, progressive investigative magazine.