POWERS TESTIFIES ON U-2 CASE TODAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400080182-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 182
• Publication Date: March 6, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

POWERM. M11
ON U-2 CASE TODAY
Senate Committee to Hear
Pilot's Story of Capture
By RUSSEL BAKER
Spcclal to The xew York Times.
WASHINGTON, March 5 -
Francis Gary Powers will tes-
tify publicly before a Senate
committee tomorrow about his
experience as a United States
U-2 pilot shot down over the
Soviet Union.
Mr. Powers' appearance was
arranged by the Senate Armed
Service Committee today in
agreement with John A. Mc-
Cone, director of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
During the morning Mr. Mc
Cone secretly briefed select
members of Congress on the
findings reported by a special
board of inquiry that has inter-
rogated the U-2 pilot since his
:return to the United States after
his release from a Soviet prison
a month ago.
Details of the briefing were
not divulged. Broadly, however,
the men who heard Mr. McCone
confirmed earlier reports that
the board of inquiry had found
that Mr. Powers did his best to
carry out instructions and to
fulfill his contracts as a $30,-
000-a-year aerial reconnaissance
agent for the C. I. A.
Pilot Returned Feb. 11
Mr. Powers has been incom-
municado since his return to
..the United States Feb. 11. He
was released by the Soviet
inion in an exchange for Col.
'0
Ipidolf I. Abel, who had been
1/erving thirty years in a Fed-
oral prison for espionage in the
Uo.ited States.
Mr. Powers was captured
May 1, 1960, when his high-
altitude jet, packed with photo-
graphic and radar monitoring
equipment, went down about 1,-
200 miles inside the Soviet Un-
Jion. Officials here report that
the C. I. A. inquiry failed, to
determine conclusively how the
U-2 went down.
The officials are convinced,
however, that the plane was not
directly hit by a new Iligll-al-
titude rocket, as asserted by the
Soviet Government.
The subcommittee with which
Mr. McCone discussed the case
are composed of the senior
members of the House and Sen-
ate committees on armed serv-
ices and appropriations. These
groups function as watchdogs
over the C. I. A. for Congress,
which has little other supervis-
ory authority over the secret
agency.
Before Mr. Powers testifies
at 2 P. M., the Armed Services
Committee will issue a state-
ment on the case In behalf of
the C. I. A. During the morning
Mr. McCone will meet, in secret
again, with members of the full
Armed Scrv es Committe o
will interroProve 0
Thus far, r. Powers is the
my principal in the U-2 case
DISCUS U-2 PILOT: John A. McCone, left, director of the Central Intelligence Agency,
is greeted by Senator John Stennis, Mississippi Democrat. In center is Senator Richard
B. Russell,. Georgia Democrat. Mr. McCone met with these and other members of
Congress yesterday to discuss Francis. Gary Powers, pilot, who will testify-today;
who has not. had a chance to offered to give his story to the
speak freely in his own behalf. inquiry board under a lie-delec?
Accounts have come from the tor device and the test verified
Soviet Government, from the his account.
United States Government and Administration officials say,
from high officials of the Ad- that Mr. Powers is a free agent,
ministration of former President who may do as ite pleases. His'
Dwight D. Eisenhower who whereabouts remained unknown
were questioned in 1960 by the however, and Mr. McCone'said
Senate Foreign Relations Com- that he did not, xnow. where,
mittee. the pilot could be found.
Trial Statements Doubtful FINIS
The 32-year-old pilot, while in
Soviet custody, testified at a
show trial in Moscow in the
summer of 1960. There is great
doubt about how freely he was
able to speak under the cir-
cumstances.
Within Congress there was
considerable criticism of Mr.
Powers from the outset, first for
being allowed himself to be,
taken alive with big pieces of
,his plane intact and then for,
his conduct at his trial.
Officials close to the case,'
however, say that Mr. Powers,
not only did his best to carry
out his orders, but also be-'
haved creditably and, perhaps,'
courageously under difficult cir-,
cumstances.
1One report is that the ex-]
plosion that felled Mr. Powers'!
hurtled the pilot into positions
were- he could not_reach- the
craf t?
Mr. Powers, it is understood,:
CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400080182-5