Stansfield Turner

Stansfield Turner (born 1 December 1923) was a U.S. admiral and Director of Central Intelligence.

Turner attended both Amherst College and attained a commission in the United States Navy. During his naval career he served as commander of U.S forces of Japan and Korea, as well as Southern Command of NATO.

He served as president of Naval War College from 1972 to 1974 and was subsequently director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1977 to 1981 (Jimmy Carter's administration). He was a member of the Monsanto board of directors. He is now a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park's School of Public Policy.

Under Turner's direction, the CIA emphasized TECHINT and SIGINT more than HUMINT. This organizational direction is notable because William Casey was seen to have a completely opposite approach, focusing much of his attention on HUMINT. He gave notable testimony to Congress revealing much of the extent of the MKULTRA program, which the CIA ran from the early 1950s to late 1960s. Reform and simplification of the intelligence community's multilayered secrecy system was one of Turner's significant initiatives, but produced no results by the time he left office.

He has written several books, including 2005's Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Secret Intelligence, in which he advocates disbanding the CIA.

Notable ancestors include Jerrold Gaylord Turner (1743-1802).

External links

• Prepared Statement before Congress on MKULTRA
• Testimony before Congress on MKULTRA, Part 1
• Testimony before Congress on MKULTRA, Part 2