James Jesus Angleton headed the CIA Counterintelligence Center in the early 1970s, where he prohibited a new officer from accessing a wall of files on American citizens, highlighting the agency’s illegal surveillance practices. [1]
Under James Jesus Angleton’s leadership, the CIA Counterintelligence Center maintained a wall of files on American citizens, which was patently illegal. A new officer was prohibited from accessing these files, but later discovered their contents. [2]
Files on Americans, and the Philby wound (Austin and Matt)
John Kiriakou says old-timers were “genuinely afraid” of counterintelligence chief James Angleton. His first boss, who once worked in Angleton’s office as a young grad fellow, was warned never to look in the wall of file folders — and when he did, found that “every single one” was on an American citizen.[3][4][5] Angleton, obsessed with hunting Soviet moles, was undone by the discovery that the mole was his own best man and koumbaros, Kim Philby; Kiriakou says he “kind of lost his mind and never got it back.”[5][6]