<http://oascentral.sfgate.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.sfgate.com/utils/printable/301457014/Middle1/SFGate/john_ascuaga_ros_sq_111107/HSH_300X250.jpg/39323566386361323434393330626530?kw=COLLEGES+CONFERENCES+JOURNALISTS+SPYING+REA+REFSFGATE> <http://oascentral.sfgate.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.sfgate.com/utils/printable/11178809297@Middle1!Middle1?> SFGate <http://www.sfgate.com/> Back to Article <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/09/DDGCRPMU171.DTL> SFGate<http://www.sfgate.com/templates/types/article/graphics/sfgate_printable.gif> Cal's well-kept secret -- spies on campus Heidi Benson, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Wednesday, May 9, 2007 Retired CIA and FBI agents mingled with investigative reporters Saturday at an all-day symposium at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism called "The CIA: In Fact and Fiction" -- just decades after agency recruiters were banned from campus. The unusual pow-wow was not advertised. "You may have noticed that the event was not mentioned on the J-school's public Web site," said Lowell Bergman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who holds the Reva and David Logan chair in Investigative Reporting at the school. "We wanted a nice, orderly discussion today." Orderly it was, and respectful; not a protester was spied among the former agents and gumshoes. The atmosphere was congenial, a reunion for some who hadn't crossed paths since Khartoum or Moscow. "Reporting on the agency poses the challenge of untangling fact from fiction, myth from reality, all wrapped in the cloak of official secrecy," Bergman said. "Because no subject is more difficult to report on than our national security agencies and the CIA, we chose it as the focus of our inaugural Logan Lecture." Last year, Chicago philanthropist David Logan -- a former investment banker and lawyer who worked in the Roosevelt administration during World War II -- endowed the Investigative Reporting Program at Berkeley to "help shed light on the truth" and "to cause a little trouble." The first speaker was New York Times reporter Tim Weiner, who gave a smart, entertaining survey drawn largely from his forthcoming book, "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA." The title comes from a famous comment made by President Eisenhower to his CIA director, Allen Dulles, about the dangers of the nuclear age. Following Weiner was CIA chief historian David Robarge, on his first-ever trip to the Bay Area. "I am a very thoughtful and loving critic of CIA," he said before hitting a snag in his PowerPoint presentation. Someone called out, "Push Escape." It worked. "Our outside system wasn't talking to our inside system," Robarge explained. Asked about the changed configuration of the intelligence services, implemented in 2004 -- with a Director of National Intelligence presiding over the 16-member intelligence community that includes the State Department, Homeland Security, military intelligence, FBI and CIA -- Robarge, a former analyst specializing in Palestinian and Iraqi issues, called it "an additional layer of lack of authority." After cocktails on the Engineering School's Bechtel Terrace, the symposium went Hollywood, as the discussion turned to portrayals of the CIA in film and fiction, a reminder of the power of art in capturing history. Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth -- who wrote "The Good Shepard," considered by most present to be an accurate interpretation of CIA history -- took the stage. He was joined by Milt Bearden, the former CIA Soviet Division chief and Afghan war commander who was chief consultant on the Robert De Niro-directed film, from which clips were shown. (Bearden has most recently consulted on the forthcoming film, "Charlie Wilson's War.") Former CIA Director George Tenet's new book, "At the Center of the Storm," was much discussed. Most agreed with one agent, who said he was "disappointed that Tenet chose to write a book while the ink is still wet on the record." (The consensus: Tenet was a good guy who didn't have the experience or clout for the job.) Also on hand were Mike Rochford, former chief of the Espionage Section of the Counterintelligence Division of FBI, who handled the Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen cases and had never before spoken publicly; and Norbert Garrett, a 29-year veteran of the CIA who headed the East Asia Division of the Directorate of Operations and served as the CIA's director of congressional affairs and as CIA station chief in Kuwait, Tehran, Cairo and Manila. Michael Mann, producer of "The Insider" and "Collateral," was in the audience. Before dinner was served in the moonlit courtyard of North Gate Hall, Bergman paused to pay homage to David Halberstam -- the award-winning investigative reporter and author of "The Best and the Brightest," "The Powers That Be" and 20 other books -- who was killed in a traffic accident here last month. "In recognition of his spirit and career," Bergman said, "we announce a new program: The Post Graduate Fellowships in Investigative Reporting at the Graduate School of Journalism." The three one-year fellowships are the first in the nation devoted to investigative journalism. (Details, including application information, will be announced soon on the J School's Web site: journalism.berkeley.edu <http://journalism.berkeley.edu/> .) Halberstam understood the delicacy of relationships between journalists and their often-reticent sources, Bergman reminded the audience. "There is always someone out there who will tell the truth," Halberstam once said. "That's what makes democracy possible." E-mail Heidi Benson at [log in to unmask] http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/09/DDGCRPMU171.DTL This article appeared on page E - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle google ad<http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imp.gif?client=ca-sfgate_js&event=noscript> San Francisco Chronicle Sections DatebookCommentaryFoodSportsNewsBay AreaHome&GardenBusiness © 2007 Hearst Communications Inc. <http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/info/copyright/> | Privacy Policy <http://www.sfgate.com/pages/privacy/> | Feedback <http://www.sfgate.com/feedback/> | RSS Feeds <http://www.sfgate.com/rss/> | FAQ <http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/faq.shtml> | Site Index <http://www.sfgate.com/index/> | Contact <http://www.sfgate.com/staff/>