The Good Shepherd and the Imperial President

Via bringiton:

...James J. Angleton was a brilliant paranoid who channeled his attributes into the espionage business. Early successes merited his appointment by CIA founder Allen Dulles in 1954 as the first Chief of the newly formed Department of Counterintelligence. His charter was to protect the CIA from penetration by foreign intelligence agencies. Over time he formed suspicions about the presence of Soviet moles in both the CIA and the FBI that eventually turned out to be correct, but not until after he had left the Agency. The exposure of his close friend Harold “Kim” Philby as a Soviet agent shattered Angleton’s self-confidence and drove him ever deeper into paranoia. Everyone was now suspect; no one could be trusted.

In a wilderness of mirrors.
What will the spider do?
T.S. Eliot, Gerontion 1919-1920

By the time of Nixon’s election Angleton had broadened his intelligence net around the world and across the nation, tapping phones, opening mail, intercepting telegrams, planting bugs; almost nowhere, and almost no one, was beyond his reach. But the frustration of not finding the traitor combined with a growing paranoia to increase his thirst for information. He desperately wanted much more, to reach beyond what his already immense network could provide. Then fortune struck.

When Nixon entered the White House he directed his Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to install the now-famous audio taping system. Haldeman assigned the task to his friend Alexander Butterfield, White House administrator in charge of the Secret Service. The Service’s Technical Installation branch in turn solicited advice from other intelligence resources within the Treasury Department, which is when the plan came to Angleton’s attention. Quietly, he offered the talents of his Department and provided enough support to allow him to learn everything there was to know about the taping setup, including where the recorded tapes were stored in the basement of the Executive Office Building. Once the system was up and running in 1971, Angleton’s espionage reach extended into the offices and most private discussions of the President of the United States, who was unaware of the penetration.

Angleton’s delusional suspicions deepened to encompass a broad range of suspects, eventually including then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger based solely on one defector’s hints that the mole had a connection with Germany and his name started with the letter K. (Angleton also went after career CIA officer Peter Karlow, whose career was ruined even though he was completely innocent.) These increasingly outlandish accusations caused then Director Richard Helms great concern, but his personal affection and respect led him to both reign in Angleton and protect him by keeping the accusations contained. That would soon change.

Nixon rapidly became displeased with Helms, largely because he would not unquestioningly do the President’s bidding; Helms retired in 1973 and was replaced by James Schlesinger, who would. Soon enough, Schlesinger became alarmed at Angleton’s accusations and, with Nixon’s approval, began to wind up Angleton’s network and curtail his power. The accusations against Kissinger surely played a role, as likely did influence from Kissinger himself. By mid-1973 Angleton knew he was in trouble, that his days at CIA were nearly over and so was any chance to track down the elusive mole.

But if Kissinger was a Soviet agent, and Nixon was protecting him by driving out Angleton, then Nixon had to go. With the Watergate hearings beginning to stall for lack of evidence, he made his move. Word was passed to a very junior investigator, attorney Donald Sanders, that it would be a good idea to ask former White House aide Alexander Butterfield, now FAA Director, if conversations in the President’s office were ever recorded. The question was penciled in at the end of a standard list of interview queries and presented as an afterthought, when the session was concluding. Butterfield answered truthfully, and Nixon was doomed...

On Angleton’s failures: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n6_v23/ai_10843603
On Angleton’s prescience: http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/question_angleton.htm
On CIA “Dirty Tricks”: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/197908/cia-dirty-tricks
Latest on CIA dysfunctionality: http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/legacyofashes/