DID CIA AND NIXON KNOW OF PLOT TO RUIN ONASSIS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600060038-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: August 2, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

ti11ASHINGApp roved For Release 2
Did CIA and Nixon Know
Of Plot to Ruin Onassis?
From News Services calculated "dirty tricks" campaign
CHICAGO - Then-Vice President against Onassis.
President Richard M. Nixon, now- Houghan said the campaign in-
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger,and volved wiretapping Onassis' New
one-time Howard Hughes aide Rob- York headquarters, shadowing his
ert A. Maheu aided a 1954 plot to ruin top employees and spreading anti-
the late Aristotle Onassis, according Onassis smears throughout the world
to the September issue of Playboy press by means of government leaks
magazine. and bribed journalists.
The magazine said the plot was Houghan said the campaign even
initiated by Onassis' rival and in-law involved the bombing and strafing of
Stavros Niarchos and was known to one of Onassis' whaling ships by a
the CIA, the FBI and other govern- Peruvian fighter plane.
ment agencies. In the article, Houghan quotes
The effort against Onassis was Gerrity as saying he and Maheu,
initiated after the Greek shipping ty- whom Gerrity believed was a CIA
coon received permission from the agent, were recruited for the cam-
late King Ibn Saud to carry Saudi paign at a meeting in Nixon's office
Arabian oil in his ships. early in 1954, when Nixon was vice
The article by Jim Houghan ex- president.
cerpted from a forthcoming book, He also said Gerrity met with Bur-
"Spooks," contends that the Jidda ger, then an assistant attorney
Agreement between King Saud and general in the Justice Department,
Onassis broke the monopoly control who said he would take "judicial
of Saudi oil shipment by the Arabian- oversight" of any activities Gerrity
American Oil Co., angering many and Maheu might indulge in against
American oil company executives as Onassis.
well as Niarchos. Burger denied through a spokes-
Quoting extensively from financial man that he received intelligence re-
journalist John Gerrity, who said he ports on the anti-Onassis campaign.
was in on the plot, Houghan says Nixon could not be. reached for
Niarchos, the CIA, the FBI and vari- comment and the CIA refused com-
ous government officials began a ment.
Approved For Release 2004/06/14: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600060038-9