Clandestine CIA Broadcasts from Greece to Albania: Voice of Free Albania (VOFA) ©

Following a week of spot announcements, the clandestine radio Voice of Free Albania began regular short-wave broadcasts from its clandestine transmitting site near Athens at 10 P.M on September 18, 1951. The programs were heard in various European cities. In addition, the station was given considerable publicity by Voice of America, BBC, Radio Free Europe, and in newspapers in the United States, including the New York Times. 

“Radio Free Albania“ is often used as the name of the clandestine station, but the official name was Voice of Free Albania. CIA’s cryptonym was HTNEIGH. CIA’s station in Italy monitored the first broadcasts. An internal CIA Information Report was distributed in November 1951 with the subject: Albanian Clandestine Radio Station and contained details of the initial broadcasts: 

·      A new Albanian clandestine radio station, which has been vigorously denouncing the Albanian Communist regime and is known as the “Voice of Free Albania,” has been heard recently on short wave.

·      The station has advised its listeners that it will broadcast instructions for sabotaging the regime.

·      Although the location of the station is unknown, it is believed that it is in Albania itself since it appears extremely well-informed on Albanian matters. 

A subsequent internal CIA Information Report included these comments:

·      It purported to be on Albanian soil and stated its sponsor to be the “Free Albania Committee.” The first bars of the old Albanian national anthem were used as a signature tune.

·      “This is the Voice of Free Albania- for Albania, for Freedom, for the Red and Black Flag.  Brothers and sisters, listen to the Voice of Free Albania; the Voice of Free Albania talks for all Albanians who love their country and want it strong and free…” This was followed by news items and commentary critical of the present Communist regime.

In September 1953, CIA’s monitoring station at Bari, Italy, reported continued jamming of VOFA. The monitoring station believed the jamming was due to the VOFA defection appeal to Albanians repeated daily. The defection appeal was, in part, “Albanians -- you are forcing the regime to the wall! Continue to demand what is due you. The despots are weakening and fearful of the next orders from Moscow. Enlightened and repentant Albanian Communists there is no security in a regime of traitors that uses scapegoats to explain its failures, but there is haven for you in the Free World.“  

One propaganda leaflet dropped into Albania contained information about the NCFA and Voice of Free Albania and included these excerpts:

         Radio Announcement

Albanians!

By means of a clandestine radio transmitter the NCFA fights to eradicate the Communist lies which fill and poison the Fatherland.  “The Voice of Free Albania” transmits each evening at 6:30 and 9 o’clock, as well as every afternoon between 1 and 2 o’clock. Through these transmissions, patriotic Albanians may hear:

The TRUTH on the filthy crimes of the Tirana Communist clique and of their Russian patrons which they serve.

The TRUTH on the strives and fight of your national Committee to bring honor and freedom to Albania.

The TRUTH of the immeasurable strength of our friends and Allies Nations in the free world. 

Albanians!

Those of you who have radios may assist in the Fight for Freedom by listening to the “Voice of Free Albania” and by passing the news secretly to a trusted friend.

It must be emphasized that everything should be done clandestinely and with the greatest protection.  You must be aware of every danger and especially the Sigurimi. (Secret police) 

In 1958 CIA decided to terminate VOFA broadcasts mainly due to the lack of a qualified psychological officer. As a result, three staff members in Athens were let go on February 28, 1958, and returned to the United States. However, CIA clandestine broadcasts continued to Albania as the “National Socialist Radio (NATCOM) that had started broadcasting in May 1957 separately from VOFA that was aimed at medium and lower level Communist Party and government officials. Its cryptonym was OBTEST 1.

For more information on VOFA and NATCOM, see Chapter 5 in

Book Review: Radio Free Europe's Crusade for Freedom: Rallying American's Behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950-1960

Radio Free Europe’s “Crusade for Freedom”: Rallying Americans Behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950–1960. Richard H. Cummings (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010), 257 pp., endnotes, appendices, bibliography, photos, index. 

The Crusade for Freedom (CFF) was an early Cold War domestic propaganda campaign aimed at arousing the “average American against the Communist threat.” (1) Intensely popular at the time, citizens contributed funds, attended rallies, marched in parades, participated in essay contests, and read the Crusade for Freedom Newsletter, which described the nature of the threat and advocated means to counter it. A principal component of the public program was Radio Free Europe (RFE), a broadcast service that sent the ‘truth about communism’ to countries behind the Iron Curtain. What was kept from the public at the time was that both CFF and RFE were covertly sponsored by the CIA. The CIA role was officially revealed in 1976, but Radio Free Europe’s “Crusade for Freedom” adds details not made public at the time. 

Author and former RFE officer Richard Cummings admits that some might consider CFF and its radio operations as a fraud on Americans. But his view is that if they were a fraud at all, they were benign and probably contributed to a Cold War anti-communist consensus. His book is devoted to documenting that position. 

Cummings focuses on CFF and RFE from their planning stages in 1949 until CFF was terminated in 1962. RFE continued to function under CIA sponsorship until 1967, when RFE came under independent management, an arrangement that exists to this day. Cummings first describes the program’s origin and goes on to review the bureaucratic and financial conflicts that persisted throughout its existence. Finally he looks at the program’s clandestine elements. 

The book treats the public side of CFF in some detail. This includes discussion of an extensive publicity campaign involving Hollywood celebrities, the news media, and political, industrial, and military figures. Here we read about the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, Bing Crosby, Ronald Reagan, General Eisenhower, President Truman, Walter Cronkite, President Kennedy, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. Defectors from the Soviet bloc were pressed into service. Col. Joseph Swiatlo of the Polish secret service is a case in point. In RFE broadcasts he informed those behind the Iron Curtain how the KGB dominated the security services of the bloc countries. The CIA role in CFF and RFE was exposed by journalist Drew Pearson in March 1953 (95). Fulton Lewis Jr. added critical remarks in 1957, noting “Dulles doesn’t want it known.” (171) Cummings explains how these events were dealt with and how they led to the demise of CFF in 1962.

Radio Free Europe’s “Crusade for Freedom” is well documented and contains a useful chronology of major events. Cummings does not comment on the overall value of CFF, but judging from this history, it is unlikely that anything like it could be attempted successfully today. 

Studies in Intelligence Vol. 55, No. 2 (Extracts, June 2011). P.88 

 https://www.cia.gov/static/73256583aaade1b84a8161f66ec20c72/Intel-Officers-Bookshelf-55.2.pdf