The first issue of the Covert Action Information Bulletin was launched at a press conference in Havana, Cuba, coinciding with the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students.
[4][5][a][8] It was created in order to carry on the work of the preceding publication CounterSpy magazine, which the editors claimed had been shut down as a result of CIA harassment.
[9] Contributors included critics of US foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti[5] and Christopher Hitchens.
Mitrokhin claimed that the Soviet group RUPOR was responsible for the Bulletin, although cautioned that of the publication's members, only Agee would have been aware of the foreign government connection.
[5][3] In 1998, the magazine won an award from Project Censored for a story by Lawrence Soley in the Spring 1997 issue Archived 2018-10-17 at the Wayback Machine titled "Phi Beta Capitalism", about corporate influence on universities.