A PLOT ON ONASSIS CHARGED IN ARTICLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002100100036-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 36
• Content Type: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING

Approved For Relewas dK/TgIS: CIA-RDP81 M00980R002100100036-9
ARTICLE APPEARED 3 AUGUST 1978
ON PAGE
A PLOT ON ONASSIS
CHARGED IN ARTICLE'
Nixorr, Burger and a Hughes Aide
Linked to 1954 `Dirty Tricks'
CHICAGO, Aug, 2 (AP);.- Richard M.
Nixon, who was then Vice President,,
Warren E. Burger, then a Justice Depart-
ment employee, and Robert A. Maheu, a
one-time aide to Howard R. Hughes; were
part of a 1954 plot directed against the
late Aristotle Onassis because of his ship-
ping power, according to an article in the
September issue of Playboy magazine.
The article, excerpted from "Spooks,"
a forthcoming book by Jim Hougan, said
that the plot had developed after the
Greek shipping magnate received per.
mission from the late King Ibn Saud to
carry Saudi Arabian oil in his ships.
Today's Washington Post quotes Mr._
Maheu as confirming the basic elements
of the article in a phone interview from
Las Vegas, Nev. But he. denied Mr. Hou-
gan's allegation that his actions had been
part of an international conspiracy.
Mr. Burger, who is?now Chief Justice of
the. United: States, denied through a
spokesman that he had received intelli-
gence reports on the campaign against
Mr. Onassis.
Nixon Not Available
Mr. Nixon could not be reached for
comment, and the intelligence agency re-
fused comment.
"I wouldn't take the assignment" from
Stavros Niarchos, Mr. Onassis' in-law
and rival, "until I cleared it with the out-
fit," Mr. Maheu was quoted as saying.
The "outfit," he said, was the Central In=
telligence Agency, which at the time paid
him a $500 monthly retainer.
He said that he reported his anti-Onas-
sis activities regularly to the C.I.A. The
agency also helped his operatives in
Rome, where derogatory stories about
Mr. Onassis were given to a newspaper,
' he said.
Mr. Mahea also acknowledged briefing
Mr. Nixon.
Mr. Hougan.contends that the Jidda
Agreement between King Saud and Mr.
Onassis broke the monopoly control of
Saudi oil shipments by the Arabian-
American Oil Company,. angering many
Campaign Is Described
Quoting extensively from the financial
journalist John Gerrity, who said that he
had been in on the plot, Mr. Hougan said
that Mr. Niarchos, the C.I.A., the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and various Gov-
ernment officials began a calculated
"dirty tricks". campaign against Mr.
Onassis,
He said that the campaign involved
wiretapping Mr. Onassis' New York
headquarters, shadowing his top employ-
ees and spreading smears against Mr.
Onassis in the world press by means of
Government- leaks and bribed journal
ists.
The author said that the campaign had
even involved the bombing and strafing
of one of Mr. Onassis' whaling ships by a
Peruvian fighterplane:-
In the article, Mr.. Hougan quotes Mr.
Gerrity as saying that he and Mr. Maheu,,'
whom Mr. Gerrity-believed was an agent
of the?Centrai Intelligence Agency, were
recruited for the campaign at a meeting
in Mr. Nixon's office in early 1954, when
Mr. Nixon was Vice President-
. He also said that Mr. Gerrity had met
with Mr. Burger, then an Assistant Attor-
ney General,.who said that he would take
"judicial oversight" of any activities that
Mr. Gerrity and Mr. Maheu might take
against Mr. Onassis.
RUCIDIF,
Approved For Release 2006/08/08: CIA-RDP81 M00980R002100100036-9