THE CHILEAN CAPER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00380R000300100007-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 12, 2005
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: March 8, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

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eaii Caper
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 eves 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 Water-
gate defendants were reported to have been
'working 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 known each other for years."
Levinson was cautious, however, about
implicating ITT in the alleged Chilean ca-
per. "The 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 rnemorandrrm is circumstantial
and that there is no hard evidence of ITT in-
volvement."
Here, however, is the circumstantial
case, which the subcommittee staff has
pieced together from jigsaw pieces of intelli-
gence: "Government and non-government
sources alike have told us that the Cuban
exile community has a pool of talent which
was trained by the CIA and is availble for
'dirty tricks.' This talent has been used at
one time or another by a number of ted_eral
agencies for missions of questionable legali-
ty inside and outside of the United States.
"Federal sources report the Cubans to be
absolutely loyal, fanatically anti-Comrm.mist
and willing to take any risk. It is also likely
that when 'teams' were assembled fur ope:--
ations, only one or perhaps two iremtr?rs
knew who had requested and was financing
the operation.
"Washington business and p01iiical
sources report that alx,ut eight month . l i-
fore the Wale rgate arrest, L. }inward Lunt
let it be known around the city it) it I,e : ,r
'tram' available for 'Mission Ir,n)~s. ; ie'
assignments and that the team wr+t.l b"
willing to work for pre ale clients.
"1t is possible that F. }lm .,td Hutnlt. a.rt-
inl, as the contractor for the Lid
ing information about its negotiations over
the fate of its investment in the Chilean
Telephone Company. The members of the
team may have been recruited, thinking
they were doing a patriotic 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 $153 million in the
Chilean Telephone Company; it knew that
documents were leaking from its files: it
asked the Chilean government to move ne-
gotiations from Santiago to Washington."
We reported last week on other strange
links between the ITT and Watergate scan-
dals. We noted, for example, that acting
FBI chief L. Patrick Gray and convicted
Watergate felon E. Howard Hunt had been
involved in an abortive effort to discredit
the famous Dita Beard memo, which ti.'d a
$400.000 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 Mrs. Beard about
renouncing the memo. We reported that
Gray, meanwhile, turned the original m% mo
over to ITT for its experts to try to discred-
it.
Gray refused to comment when we called
the FBI for his response. Questioned'by sen-
ators under oath, however, he testified that
he had not turned the memo over to ITT di-
rectly but had delivered it to White House
aide John Dean. It was the White House, in
other words, that not only dispatched the be-
wigged hunt to Denver but also passed the
document to ITT.
This makes the story even more sordid.
It shows that the White House, while do riv-
ing any involvement with ITT, was wort:ng
closely with the giant conglomerate to dis-
credit the Dita Beard memo.
The Chilean Embassy burglary was in-
vestigated by the FBI, which dismissed it as
routine. But Senate investigators disagree.
"Careful investigation of the circumstances
leads us to the conclusion," Levinson wrote,
"that it was not routine.
"Valuable office equipment and cash
were left untouched. The Ambassador's of-
fice and the office of the First Secretary
were both searched and files were inspect-
ed. 'l he thieves walked first several in ire,
artr,,ctiv(? offices to get to the First Secre-
tary's office, suggesting they knew wh-'re
they were ,ruing." The burglarizing of the
New Ynrk apartments of Chilean diplom its
`.lore described in the memo as "similar
clean hie ;l: ins."
Footnnte: Jenny Levinson refused to cri:n-
taunt on his memo, which he said w{asn't in-
tended foi publication. An 1 1 1 spokesn-' in
e,rllod the' allcgatnns about Hunt '?;ih;o'u'r
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