ISD TAUGHT TRICKS AT ARMY SPY BASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-01042R000300010052-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2005
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: January 12, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/12/23 : CIA-RDP83-01042R000300010052-2
Sundae, Jan. 12, 1975 THE NEWS AMERICAN
11
By MICHAE). OLESKER
and JOE NAWROZKI
Staff Reporters
Members of the Baltimore
Police . Pept.'s super-secret
Inspectional Services Division
(ISD) have been ta4ht' the
most sophisticated', methods of
,breaking, into )ousel offices,
c,.ts and,safesi, Iiy litia in-
telligence personnel, mi and in
some cases, IA, instructors,'
according tQ authoritative
sources.
The trarnin occured"at- t t.
Holallird, the,-Army's former
went the training and said a
pre-graduation field exercise
was . "breaking into some-
body's house, to piant. a bug or
take, pictures and get, out with-
out being caught., It didn't
matter whpse house."
"the idea was you'd be able
to put all" this training into use
in ISD," he said.
As, reported ,by WBAL-TV,
t h e Baltimore grand. jury
probing ISD's activities has
heard" testimony concerning
alleged illegal breaking and
~enterings by agents of the po-
lice spy unit.
Intelligence center, during the Reliable sources have told
late 1960s and early 1970s, The News American that
sources- said. "hand-picked" members of
One of The, News Ameri- ISD would be sent to Holabird
c a n ' s sources is a former for the military or CIA train-
Army intelligence field agent ing, which always was "un-
who had. first-hand knowledge fofficial" because of the top
of ISD police trained in top se- secret nature of the classes
the military installation.
Another source is a former
operative of.-ISD who under.
heading for the Big, Brother
era; we were right there."
According to the ex-agent,
ISD policemen entered the Ar-
my's Defense Against Meth-
ods of Entry (DAME) course,
' ' T h e military explained
that in order to defend against
entries, you had to know how
to execute them. ISD police
were taught how to "bypass"
an entrance, usually a door,
get what you wanted, and get
and potential embarrassment
to the government.
The f or me r agent said,
"There is no doubt we went
beyond the limit. We weren't
out without leaving evidence
you were ever inside."
The source . explained that
"bypass" meant breaking and
entering.
he graduated from the DAME
course - was ordered by his
superiors. to undertake one
particularly ironic exercise -
? breaking into the inner ISD of-
fice.
"I got through the front door
at the old police headquart-
ers," the source said. "I by-
passed the locked office door
of Lt. William, Rawlings (then
seedhd in conitnand of the spy
group), opened the safe, pho-
tographed the contents and got
out. They didn't know what hit 1
them."
A former ISD member said,
of that episode "Well, we were
just amazed when they in-
formed us about what they
had done. The game was re-
versed and we were embar-
rassed as hell."
Rawlings, now a major in
the Internal Investigation Div-
ision, refused to comment.
Sources said the DAME
course - classes in electronic
surveillance, spy photography
and espionage technique -
were taught by acitve milit-
ary personnel, retired Army
intelligence experts and "civil-
ians" brought in by the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.
"CIA had a liaison office
r i g on post, a ormer
Army spy said. "They were
always ready to recruit, al-
ways ready to stuff their files.
They were just a I w a y s
ready."
As reported here earlier,
ISD workers closely with the
Turn to Page 2A, Column 1
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snoop Training for ISD
Continued from Page 1A
CIA, FBI, Armed Forces intel-
ligence units and other U. S.,
metropolitan and county spy
squads.
"The Baltimore police had
access to our (military intel-
ligence) files," the former
military agent said, "Often,
the military intelligence de-
tachment at the Custom House
downtown' would exchange in-
formation with the police. It
.was always on a `need to
know' basis and never any-
thing official."
T h e ex-Army agent, who
requested that his identity not
be published, said he was of-
ten used by his commanding
officers because of his special
skills in breaking and enter-
ing.
"I would sometimes put on
demonstrations for students,
generals and visiting VIPs
where I would break through
three door locks and a night
chain, I usually could do it un-
der two minutes and force
would never be a factor."
He said that government
spies had parabolic micra-
phones which could pick up
conversations blocks away
"and they were developing
laser beam equipment that
could go through windows and
record voices."
He said that military agents
often posed as newsmen to
gather information. He said
that during the 1968 political
demonstrations in Chicago, a
spy team went in as a news
crew with camera equipment,
a van' loaded with electronic
gear and microphones.
"A training film developed
from that episode," he said.
"There were army spies act-
ing as newsmen and inter-
viewing Dick Gregoiy, Rennie
Davis and others . They
were quite proud of that one
although none of the persons
interviewed revealed any in-
telligence the government
could use."
He also recalled a confiden-
tial request from the Army
chaplain command which
asked that a list of books and
authors be "checked" for
reading by army personnel.
"Some other agents and I
spent a great deal of time
reading these books and look-
ing into the authors' private
lives. One of the writers had
an earlier dossier left over
from the McCarthy era. That
information, as outdated and
questionable as it was, had to
be forwarded to the chaplain
command." -
Although he never engaged
in illegal activities once he
was permanently assigned to
Army Intelligence, the former
agent said that arrest by local
police if caught in an embar-
rassing situation was never
feared.
"If anyone were arrested we
had a control number to call
and we wold be out of jail in
the morning ... no questions
asked."
By the late 1960s, the ex-
agent said, "everyone was
into domestic intelligence. The
military alone had approxi-
mately 5,000 card-carrying
agents. The whole concept
mushroomed, expanded. It got
to the point you just had to
produce. We called it job justi-
fication."
He cited two humorous inci-
d e n t s where the military
"overcovered" during the civil
rights and anti-war years.
During one protest in Wash-
ington, the intelligence com-
mand at Holabird was receiv-
ing ''spot reports" on a
teletype machine from agents
on the scene.
"To show you the mentali-
ty," the ex-agent said, "a re-
port came across the machine
that about 20 persons were
congregating beneath the
Washington Monument. About
two minutes later the same
agent reported back 'They are
now facing east.' "
On another occasion, a new
lieutenant colonel who normal-
ly worked in artillery was
watching the intelligence cov-
erage of Martin Luther King's
funeral come in over the tele-
type machine.
"Suddenly, a report came in
about a small detail and the
agent sending signed off with
1215 EST, a reference to mili-
tary time.
"The colonel got red in the
face and pounded his fist on
the machine and shoulted 'I
want every gooddamn agent to
get a watch . . . I want them
to have watches because I'm
tired of this estimated time.
The colonel throught EST
meant estimated time. As he
I later, learned, I hope, it means
'Eastern Standard Time."
It is not known if the city
grand jury investigating ISD
avtivitdes has heard testimonpr
relating to Ft. Holabird train-
ing.
The panel is looking into al-
legations first published in
The News American that ISD
conducted widespread surveil-
lance and dossier compilation
on political figures, clergy,
newsmen and non-subversive
organizations.
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TheNe
WS
BALTIMORE `' ` :
MARYLAND
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1975 VOL. -202,,-N0. 146 10 CENTS
Army Admits Teaching
City
I23 : 42R 03000100
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TraTning
Pentagon Disputes
Pomerleau'S Denial
? See story on police spying
on Page 1B.
. An Army spokesman at the
Pentagon confirmed that a
number of Baltimore police,
men attended technical cours-
es on spying at Fort Holabira
in the late 1960s, further sub-
stantiating a report in Sun-
day's News American.
Police Commissioner Don-
ald D. Pomerleau denied that
any men under his control at-
tended classes at the installa-
tion, once the Army's leading
instruction center for intellig-
ence work.
4he Pentagon source con-
med that members of the
police department's inspec-
tional Services Division (ISD)
w e 'r e taught sophisticated
methods of breaking into hous-
offices, cars and safes by
..,ilitary intelligence person-
nel
The confirmation came af-
terr questioning by The Asso-
ciated Press.
The spokesman told The AP
the Army doesn't have official
records of the men trained,
but that "based upon recollec-
personnel e-
tions from Army
s i g n e d to the intelligence
school, several members of
the Baltimore Police Depart-
?--ent were trained in Defense
ainst Methods of Entry
TME) at Fort Holabird."
A former ISD operative told
News American reporters
chael Olesker and Joe Na-
,)zki that a pre-graduation
old exercise was breaking
into a house to plant electronic
surveillance equipment or
take pictures without being
caught.
ISD members trained "un-
officially" because of the top
secret nature of the classes
and possibility of embarrass-
ing the government, a former
U.S. Army intelligence agent
told The News American.
The former "agent broke into
the inner ISD office at the old
police headquarters as his pre-
graduation exercise, he said.
He described how he by-
passed a locked door leading
to the office of Lit., William
Rawlings (then second in Com-
m a n d of the 1SoDo group),
opened the safe, p g aph,
the contents and "They didn't got
ow what hit
"TThey
them," he said.
The DAME course includes
instruction in breaking and en-
tering under the assumption
that a student who knows how
to enter an office without de-
tection should be able to pre-
vent others from doing the
same, according to
Army intelligence spokesman.
Student spies were given as-
signments sich as crossing the
Baltimore harbornin a abber
dinghy, slipping the the
guarded base, infiltrating ing
school building and
undetected, according tofor-
mer students.
Some instructors gave sock-
picking and surreptitious en-
try demonstrations to groups
of military wives and other
non-students.
Army Intelligence field units
were responsible for conduct-
ing military security clear-
ance investigations until the
fall of 1972.
Much of the investigatconsisted of checking police
'
records and asking local po-
lice and neighbors about GIs
needing clearances, accrding
to former Army intelligence
personnel.
"The Baltimore police had
access to our files," the for-,
mer field agent said.
"Often the military intellig-
ence detachmeritat the Cus-
tom House downtown would
exchange Information with the
police. It was always on a
'need to know' basis and never
anything official."
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