AMNESTY GROUP WATCHED BY CIA, RED AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000101190002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2014
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: October 12, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part- Sanitize-d Copy Approved for Release @ 50--Yr 2014/01/06 : CIA--RoP73.-054 -75R6601b1190002-4
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TOPEKA, KAN-dAS
? CAPITAV. ?
1 ?
11-68,123. -
&-70, 822 .. ? ?
OCT 1 2 1967
?
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Allownesty Group. Watched
/WASHINGTON ? They, su-
spectA. Times-Washington Post Service
the CIA is trying to in-
filtrate their . organization, and
are certain the y 're being
' watched by .agents of Comfnu-
nist governments.
They've been politely expelled
from some of the best embas-
sies, and impolitely tossed out
of the most exotic nooks and
crannies of the world.
Which .of ten lead members of
Amnesty International to ask?
what's a nice group like us doing
in a job like this?
IIousewives, businessmen, stu-
dents, clerygmen, law y e r s,
tradesmen and retired ' people,
they form a most .unlikely
corn-
lQIA citizens to be embroiled
IP, Lyle imbroglios. . , ?
Seeking Release ?
But by its very nature?an
organization dedicated to seek-
ing the release of prisoners of
conscience on both sides-of the
Iron curtain and in uncommit- ?
ted countries ? amnesty is
bound to attract the cariosity
and attention of intelligence
agents of sundry political shades
and colors.. ' ?
As proof, organization officals
cite the occasion , When their
London office was broken into,
and their central file of cases
professionally rifled.
The file of prisoners, called
POC'S (prisoners of conscience)
contains detailed information
about some 7,000 people who
? .
have beeri.imprisone-d for their versity-educated, Mrs. Okello-
political or religious beliefs. Odongo was private secretary
Much of the information would to ousted Kenyan Vice President
be considered classified in their Oginga Odinga, She was impri-
countries of origin, . or, at the soned in 1966 under an emer-
least, delicate.
gency security law, and hap not
For example, the case of been heard from since. ? .
Mihaljo Mihajlov, imprisoned in The . case of Vyachaslivil
Yugoslavia because he tried to Chornovil, still under investiga-
set up an independent Commu-. tion at London Headquarters, is
nist journal, is a source of con- likely to shape up those who be-
tinued embarrassment to the lieve the prevailing wind for
Yugoslays who claim that theirs writers in the Soviet Union has
is the "freest" of all the Corn- grown fairer. Chornovil, a So-
munist countries. ? I. viet-Ukrainian journalist, was
Staff members at the Kenyan arrested in west Ukraine when
Embassy jump nervously - at he ,questioned the legal prem-
mention of the, case of Caroline ises for a trial of fellow writers
Okello-Odongo.' in and intellectuals.
American-born, What impels ordinary
Declassified
Howard Un-
Amer-
CHAR
./
leans, Britons, Swiss, Austral-
ians and so on, to concern them-
selves with the fate of thousands
of prisoners in foreign jails?
One clue' can be found in the
preface to Amnesty's handbook
for its American members.
Richard N. Goodwin, former
presidential assistant and now
an Amnesty member, is quoted:
"For anyone who dissents in Ms
heart, not to dissent with what-
ever weapons he has?words or
speeches, petitions or demon-
stration?is to find in the secret
depths ? of his own mind' the
silent accomplice to horror."
Amnesty members are essen-
tially dissenters, but dissenters
who care enouah to be moved
d Agents:
to action. Their organization -
has become a network of con-
cern for those who have been "4 -
imprisoned for political or re-
ligious beliefs, providing they :
do not advocate vfolenee. -
They take their mandate from
Articles 18 and 19 of the United
Nations Declaration of Human
rights: "Everyone has the right
to freedom of thought, icon-,,,1
science and religion?everyone
has the' right to freedom of
opinion and expression."
Amnesty employs every con- ;
ceivable means, short of vio-
lence and organized law-break-
ing, to pry open the doors 'of
the world's political prisons.
in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/06: CIA-RDP73-00475R000101190002-4