4 AGENTS ON SOCIALIST CASE ARE ACKNOWLEDGED BY CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400450033-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: July 18, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

OW ,HINGTON POST
Approved For Release 20 3 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400450033-6
'ent oil Socialist Case -
re
By Stephen Green lion report on the CIA said
A CIA spokesman said
r2 yesterday it "can 'be as.
sumed" that agents desig-
nated R4, R-5, R-6 and R-7
were working for the intelli-
gence agency when they
gathered information about
th Young Socialists. Alli-
ance here in 1969 and 1970.
The spokesman also said
that some-information about
;.the. Alliance aytd its parent
Socialist Workers Party was
obtained casually by. CIA
employs in the course of
doing other business.
Other.material about the
party may have been sent to
the CIA by persons not con-
nected with the agency and
then was put into CIAfiles,
the spokesman added.
t Documents showing that
the intelligence agency ob-
tained information about
the Socialist Workers Party
as early as 1951 were
leased Wednesday by
party.
re-
the
The party obtained the
documents from the CIA as
the result of a court order
in a suit seeking to stop the
CIA, FBI and other govern-
ment a encies from spying
on it. The civil suit was
brought in New York City
by the Political Rights De-
fence Fund.
In addition to showing' the
CIA kept literature about
the party, the documents
.also show the agency;ot in-
formation about party meet-`
ings here in 1969 and 19-10
from four agents identified
only as R-4, R-5, R-6 and R-7.
The Young Socialists Alli-
ance is the youth organiza-
tion of the Socialist Workers
Party which espouses the
world revolution philosophy
of the late Leon Trotsky.
The Rockefeller Commis-
ter by spying on domestic
organizations. It specifically-
cited Operation CHAOS, a
CIA operation to spy on an-
tiwar and black activist
groups around the country
between 1967 and 1973.
It also said that in 1967
and 1968 the CIA's Office of
Security infiltrated and
spied on activist organiza-
tions in Washingtorf but in
Decemberyf 1968 that oper-
ation was turned. over to
D.C. Police.
President Ford created
the Rockefeller Commission
to. investigate the CIA after
press reports that the
agency engaged in massive,
illegal domestic spying.
The only mention by the
commission of CIA domestic
spying in Washington after
1968 was an occassion in
1971 when a CHAOS agent
was assigned to infiltrate
the May Day antiwar organi-
zation.
The CIA spokesman said
yesterday that the agents
identified only as R-4, R-5,
R-6 and R-7 may have
worked for the CHAOS pro-
ject. He said it also was pos-
sible that the four agents
spying on the Young Social-
ists Alliance here may have
been "overzealous."
On Wednesday, the CIA
spokesman said R-4, 11-5, R.6
and R-7 may or may not
have been CIA agents. Yes-'
terday, he said: "It can be
assumed" they were %vork-
ing for the CIA." Their re-
ports were filed with ti}e
CIA Office of Security, ac-
cording to the documents.
The documents -include
copies of memorandums
dated 1959 and 1961, respec-
tively, from New York and
Boston "field" offices. The
I.
1959 memo deals with YS-
literature obtained from Co
memo discusses literature
obtained at a YSA demon-
stration near Harvard Uni-
versity.
The CIA spokesman said
the 'memos were written
from the agency's New York
and Boston offices to CIA
headquarters.
According to the spokes-
man, the material was gath-
ered in a "passive way." He
said the CIA had not then
"targeted" the YSA for sur-
veillance. "It was overt, not
covert," thw spokesman
said.
Ile expalined that "some
of our fellows probably
here passing through Har-
vard Yard on other business
and picked it (the literature)
up and sent it to us"
According to the spokes-.
man, the CIA maintained a
file on the Socialists Work-
ers Party as early as 1951
because the organization
was listed as "subversive"
by the Justice Department,
and that in doing baek
ground -becks on potentia;
CIA employees, the a-renc
would want to check, the
possibility of any link bc,
tween potential empioyerj
and the party. r+ -
The -documents also shoe
the CIA kept in its files 4
copy of the 1805 New Yor, _
state elections ballot conA
taming the names of Social-
ist Workers Party candi-
dates.
The CIA spokesman said
that persons not employed
by the agency often sent it'.
unsolicited material. "There
is a nut fringe that sends us
stuff. What clo we do with
it? We pop it in the files,"
he said.
JUL 197-
Approved For Release 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400450033-6