Final_Judgment

[96] Final Judgment 157
CIA was established in 1947. By 1954 Angleton assumed the highly
sensitive post of chief of CIA counterintelligence.
What's more, Angleton's influence within the CIA itself was of a
greater magnitude than what otherwise might be expected. Angleton was a
very powerful—and secretive—man.
POWERFUL PATRONS
According to Angleton's biographer, Tom Mangold, CIA Director
Allen Dulles and his deputy, Richard Helms, who later went on to become
CIA director under Lyndon Johnson, were Angleton's mentors. However,
Mangold says, Helms was Angleton's "chief patron." 260 Dulles, of course,
was later fired as CIA director by JFK and then, in a twist of fate—or by
someone's design—served on the Warren Commission which ostensibly
investigated JFK's murder. And it would be Helms, along with Angleton,
who would later be implicated in a strange series of events—examined in
Chapter 16 in detail—that would ultimately and apparently unwittingly
blow the lid off the CIA's involvement in the JFK assassination.
A POWER UNTO HIMSELF
According to the CIA spymaster's biographer, "Angleton's longstanding
friendships with Dulles and Helms were to become the most
important factor in giving him freedom of movement within the CIA.
[Angleton] was extended such trust by his superiors that there was often a
significant failure of executive control over his activities. The result was
that his subsequent actions were performed without bureaucratic interference.
The simple fact was that if Angleton wanted something done, it was done. He
had the experience, the patronage, and the clout.
"In the sixties the Counterintelligence Staff, for example, had its very
own secret slush fund, which Angleton tightly controlled. This fund gave
him easy access to a large amount of money that was never audited (as other
such funds were). Angleton argued that he would have to be trusted, without
outside accountability, because it would have been difficult to allow mere
clerks to go through his accounts—if only because sources would have to be
revealed. The [directors of central intelligence] (including Helms) agreed to
this unusual arrangement, which gave Angleton a unique authority to run
his own little operations without undue supervision." 261
In short, according to Peter Dale Scott, Angleton "managed a 'second
CIA' within the CIA" 262 and one, as we shall see, that was collaborating all
too comfortably close with Israel's Mossad.
INTERNATIONAL INTELLIGENCE BOSS
However, Angleton's influence went even further. Angleton, in fact,
was the CIA liaison for all Allied foreign intelligence
agencies" 263 —in particular, and most especially, the Mossad. Through these