THE CHILEAN CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201270033-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: November 28, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201270033-5
STAT
A,,.T CLE APF&AR UJ
PAGE THE NATION
28 November 1982
06 APPOINTMENT WITH CONTAERAS . incriminating inform
Connection
Letelier case will be t
Colonel Contreras'
.us by Kevin Mulcah,
working for Wilson,
. -Mulcahy's account o
by documents drawn
SAUL.LANDAU AND JOHN DINGES;....
n the - early' summer of 1976;-Col,NIanuel Contreras, and Firearms., -We were shown invoices and bills of sale
head_of DINA, Chile's secret police; -launched -art'., drawn up by one of Wilson and Terpil's companies. The
operation to assassinate exiled Chilean leader Orlando'-.. purchaser was identified as a DINA front organization
tew days of setting that plovin motion, Contreras made a .?At the time of the Contreras-Terpil meeting in'Washing-
seciervisit to-Washington, D.C.,'where he met with officials `ton, Mulcahy was president of Inter-Technology Inc:, an
of the- Central Intelligent Agency and also negotiated the arms trading firm established by Wilson-and Terpil "It was
purchase-o# illegal weapons and electronic spying equipment 'Frank's meeting," Mulcahy recalled, and it took place on
with'a-firm run by former C.I.A. officers Edwin Wilson and a rainy Friday, afternoon in early July. Terpil directed
FrankiTerpil. Mulcahy and another American,"a former Navy intelligence
'Wilsorr and Terpil gained notoriety after a Federal grand ' ?? officer who was in' charge of Latin- American operations for
jury accused them of exporting terrorist goods: and services Wilson, to a?nondescri pt.two-story. residence on the 1700
to Col-.,Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, -whose `regime is block` of R Street in northwest Washington. "It looked like
high on' :1rhe-`Reagan Administration's, enemies. list [see ',-,a typical C.LA. safe houseMulcahy said:
Murray Viias's article on page 568). By 1978, the Federal- -There, - in .-a second-floor' office; Terpil .. introduced
Bureau of'Investigation had. established that DINA agents Mulcahy to two Chileans. One. of them was a "heavy-set
killed Letelteron U.S. territory. That evidence;. combined man in his: mid-40s with drooping eyelids and a kind of
with the- newly - revealed materials showing that former benevolent. look on' his face" known as -"Manny" Con-
C. I: A: officials cooperated with-other DINA covert opera-treras, Mulcahy recalled. Although he was'weari_ng civilian
tions in the United States; would seem to compromise the .`clothes, the DINA chief nevertheless exuded a` "clearly
Administration's -efforts to''rehabilitate Chile's military.''..military aura.". The other Chilean; whose name Mulcahy.
dictatorship as an anti-Communist ally has forgotten, served as an interpreter. Mulcahy said that
The information about DINA's dealings with the Wilson- _Terpil was "deferential" toward Contreras: "I. had seen
Terpil firm is based on the accounts of one of those present::.;' Frank slap heads of state on the back, but with this guy he-
at the meeting with Contreras in early,July-1976, and on was downright respectful, and kept his voice down."
sales documents obtained by Federal investigators. This ,;, Contreras's'.reputation had obviously preceded him: To
ieport will examine DINA's purchase of weapons and so , both his enemies.and fellow intelligence officers Contreras
phisticated electronic equipment t that meeting in violation was
known as-the most efficient and ruthless-secret
olice
.
p
of a Congressional -ban on=such sales to Chile . '' ` chief: in the - Americas. He had,vwithin. the space of two
The new information can be placed with startling results ~;_ years, ,:virtually eliminated political opposition ?to Chile's
into the complex framework: of evidence already : compiled "' military dictator, Gen. AugustoFinochet
by the. F . B. I.:inthe five-year-old Letelier case,`and_it helps Mulcahy. recalled that after Terpil opened the meeting
explain many... previously unresolved questions,; especially "we talked with Contreras- about the details of an in-
-those regarding the C.I.A.'s behavior: Earlier- evidence of tegrated security system." (Mulcahy described this to us as a
DINA's operations, supplemented by this new information %.. variety of devices that might be used to secure an embassy or
about the three months pr6ceding_Letelier's murder on a like: facility:) The system included card readers;- pinhole
September 21, 1976, amounts to a compelling case that the .',cameras, telephone, tapping: equipment, digital scanners to C.I.A. was involved in arranging Wilson and Terpil's arms monitor.'telex. traffic and-. other'-sophisticated. electronic
and equipment sales to DINA. Furthermore, involving the `_ ::. gear. Contreras purchased some of this equipment. The pur- 1
agency in the violation of U.S. laws may have made it possi- chase orders -shown to us by investigators list - "trans-
ble for DINA. to '?`graymail"the C.I.A. into withholdingh ceivers," `-wireless inductor 'earphones" and "micro-mini
icrophones.> ; . ~ .
Saul Landau,. a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, The next itegi on the agenda was a large quantity of Colt
and John Dinges, a Washington, D.C., writer; conducted a;,' Cobras, which Contreras had expressed interest in buying:
lengthy investigation-of the.-Letelier-Moffitt, murders, the The Cobra, a .38-caliber handgun; is used by many police
results of which appear in -their book;; Assassination on :agencies because. it is a standardized weapon "with inter-
ErnbassvR Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201270033-5 efficient.
crime. The evident