THE CHILEAN CAPER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030019-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2011
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: March 8, 1973
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/05: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030019-2
B11- LTIi S A!,Er,Tp
8 MAR 1973
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Senate investigators suspect that the
same "Mission: Impossible" team arrested
at the Watergate may also have broken into
,the Chilean embassy several weeks earlier.
And three Chilean diplomats in New York
City, the investigators discovered, have
been victims of similar, mysterious break-
ins.
In a memo intended for the eyes only of
senators investigating ITT's operations in
Chile, staff director Jerry Levinson report-
ed: "A source with excellent contacts in the
Cuban community told the subcommittee
staff that Frank Sturgis had told other peo-
ple that he and Martinez and Gonzales. two
other Watergate defendants, had broken into
the Embassy to photograph documents."
Of the New York City break-ins, the
memo stated: "We .. , learned from highly
reliable government sources that the V,'ater-
gate defendants were reported to have been
'tyorking out of the Taft Hotel' in New York
City, that the Cuban community knew they
had worked together, on CIA jobs over a
number of years, and that Sturgis and Hal
Hendrix of ITT's Public Relations Depart-
ment had knov,ri each other for years."
Levinson was cautious, however, about
implicating ITT in the alleged Chilean ca-
per. "Tile staff Of the subcommittee," he re-
ported, "has, developed a number of leads
suggesting a relationship between ITT and
the team which was arrested at the Water-
gate." But he stressed "that the case out-
lined in this memorandum is circumstantial
and that there is no hard evidence of ITT in-
volvenient."
Here, however, is the circumstantial
case, which the subcommittee staff has
pieced together from jigsaw pieces of intelli-
gence: "Government and non?go?:entment
sources alike have told us that the Cutian
exile community has a pool of talent which
was trained by the Cl:A and is availble for
'dirty tricks.' This talent has been used at
one time or another by a number of fe(eral
agencies for missions of 4uestionable legali-
ty inside and outside of the United Stag-s.
"Federal sources report the Cubans to be
absolutely loyal, fan at:caliv anti?Conim,-:nist
and willing to take nny risk. It is also likely
that when 'teaons' were assembled fu:? oper-
ations, only one or perhaps two rnrtttk rs
kne .- who had requested and Was finaccii:g
the operation.
'` aihtn,'tott business and po!tt:ial
sources report that al ':it right ,1ioarl.s foie the W+?ateIpate ,:rre'st, F. }in-.card thin:
let it be kno'. It ,:stint the city "i it i:: a
'toam' avail tfor '>Iissirn i:ap ?-.`sic
assigrimr'r.ts and that the I. ;1;-,i wilha~, to work for p: van' c!u ans.
"It
ing as 11w (orltra,',-,i):- fol. If!- Lid
more than one o'nion', ;'ed I;:- .f (It-
em wits iTT ttih:ch t%,ts intcrt itd ui et gain
ing information about its negotiations over
the fate of its investment in the Chilean
Telephone Company. Re members of the
team may have f-een recruited, thinking
they were do:n, a patnotic thing to block a
'Communist' government.
"ITT is the only likely contractor for op-
erations against the Chileans. It claims to
have an investment worth Si;;3 million in the
Chilean Telephone Compare; it knew that
documents were leaking from its files; it
asked the Chilean government to move ne-
gotiations from Santiago to Washintbn."
We reported last week on other strange
links betv:een the ITT and Watergate scan-
dals. We noted, for examr e', that acting
FBI chief L. Patrick Gray and convicted
Waterga:e felon E. Howard Hunt had been
involved in an abortive effort to discredit
the famous Dita Beard merr.o, which tied a
$,00.0 )0 political pledge from ITT with a set-
tlement of its antitrust troubles.
The Washington Post reported that Hunt,
apparently disguised in an askew red wig,
went to Denver to talk to '.trs. Beard about
renouncing the met; o. We reported that
Gray, rrea:rxhile, turned the orin;tnri memo
over to ITT for its experts to try to discred-
it.
Gray refused to comment aher, we called
the FBI for his response. Q: sttu-.ed' sen-
ators under oath, however. he te=,L':ec that
he had not turned ti,, memo over :o ITT di-
rectly but had delivered it to t~, rote House
aide john Dean. It was the White ...use, in
other ds. that not only dsp tci:_t .he be-
wigcd Hunt to Deriver but also passed the
document to ITT.
This makes the story even more sordid.
It shows that the White House, while deny-
ing any intolvc'mer,t with Ill T..v,s working
closely v.:th the giant conglomerate to dis-
credit the Diva Beard rnen?:o.
The Ct:i:ean Embassy burelar-y ..as in-
\estigaied by the FLI. which dism:ssed it as
icut Oe. ;it:t Senate invest't ttors da,aree.
"Careful im' st.gatier of i!': circumstances
leads us t.a the cc: cittaon,' Levin a wrote,
'that tt was not rout in.?.
office equipre;'nt t_a(1 cash
were l_ ft c.nto x.ln( d. 'Y he Ar1basca{1r's of-
fice arid the office of tt:A First S(?cre;arv
were Loth searched and files '+ r
Ed. 'It:'i"ves walked past sever1I ,:tore
t: ices to ;:e: to Inc First S::rv-
ta: 'S efr'ce, s' 'e-fit:ng ..:t },C a tyt. r(
..:!' V.e're h;ir arq rI the
sr'.y err.; ttir:rt:llEnts of C,.;!(-.in
(:':' :ats
wr:'(' do ; i:ten 111 the m,-ma as s :
Clean br eak-uts.'
Jerry Levin ., rcfu>r;l i^
m eat co.:.- ntcnio. -.'.tier hf? s:t:d tca~::'t in-
Unfit :him 'nit as iiT
i_...,:(l r ? : dl', uri:, ,. . lie s,,ri 1 i 1" l a:d
cr ki;t: -,.,... ic. . rev I)irp
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/05: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030019-2