WASHINGTON STORM OVER ROLE IN CHILE

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6
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RIPPUB
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U
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2
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
August 9, 2011
Sequence Number: 
106
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OPEN SOURCE
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR. Washington storm over role in Chile CIA covert intervention charged in secret testimony of Colby By Dana Adams Schmidt Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Washington Secretary of State Henry A. Kis- singer is in the middle of a storm blowing in the capital over covert intervention by the Central In- telligence Agency in the political life of Chile, apparently to prevent the election of former President Salvador Allende Gassens and to cause his overthrow. Members of Congress - notably Sen. Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Rep. Michael J. Harrington, Democrat of Massachusetts - are angry because a long succession of State Department officials including Dr. Kissinger has assured them that the United States was not intervening in the internal, affairs of Chile. Secret testimony by CIA director William E. Colby before the subcom- mittee on intelligence of the House Armed Service Committee indicating quite the contrary has been leaked by Mr. Harrington in the form of a letter protesting the CIA activities to Thomas E. Morgan, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Testimony reported Mr. Colby, according to Represen- tative Harrington, testified that the so-called "40 Committee" headed by Secretary Kissinger authorized the CIA between 1970 and September, 1973, when President Allende was overthrown and killed, to spend more than j6 million on covert activities in Chile. "As recently as Aug. 20 of last year," Mr. Harrington said in- dignantly in a telephone interview, "the Committee of 40 approved an- other million dollars to be spent bribing political figures. And it was only called off after Allende was overthrown." In Mr. Harrington's view the United States had "no busi- ness" intervening in the political affairs of this or any other duly elected government. Now comes a fresh report in the ? New 'c'ork Times, citing "well-in- formc;i government sources" who allege that Dr. Kissinger directed a Nixon administration program to cut back economic aid and credits at a series of weekly meetings between various agencies which he headed. The report fuels the growing concern on Capitol Hill. There was no imme- diate comment from the Secretary. In an appearance before a confer- ence on CIA activities organized by ,he Center for National Security Stud- 00793 STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020106-6 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR ies, a private organization, CIA direc- tor Colby late last. week made the central point in the CIA's defense of its record in Chile: that the CIA had not had any part in the actual over- throw of President Allende. But he declined to talk about other CIA activities intended to influence Chi- lean politics. Imperturable in the face of shouts demanding to know "how many people have you killed" and other provocations, Mr. Colby was stirred to heat only by an allegation made by Daniel Ellsberg that he did not under- stand the 'Constitution and did not support it. "I understand it," Mr. l Colby replied, "as well as you do." The 48-page testimony by Mr. Colby indicated that funds were used to influence individuals, political par- ties, and the media, including $5 million for "destabilization activi- ties" after Mr. Allende's election and $1.5 million to help anti-Allende. candi- dates in municipal elections last year. Questions rised The questions raised by these state- ments are of great personal signifi- cance to Dr. Kissinger, who has recently emerged from a searing but inconclusive investigation into his role during the Nixon administration in authorizing wiretapping of public officials and members of the press. Dr. Kissinger is chairman of the 40 Committee on which also sit the director of central intelligence, the' chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the undersecretary of state for political affairs. In the words of one t high official the committee, which acts in effect as a subcommittee of the Naional Security Council, is "all Kis- singer." In addition to the Secretary, a number of high-ranking State Depart- ment officers who denied that the United States was intervening in Chile also are implicated. Those who testified and denied U.S. Government interference in Chile in- cluded Charles A. Meyer, former assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs, and Edward M. Korry, a former ambassador to Chile. Senator Church put the issue bluntly on Wednesday: "Apart from the question whether perjury was committed in a legal sense," he asserted, "there's no question but what the committee was given to believe that our policy was one of nonintervention." The Senate Foreign Relations Com- mittee headed by Sen. J. William Fulbright responded to the hubbub by calling a full-committee hearing in closed session on the subject for Tuesday, Sept. 17. 00794 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6