CONTROVERSY INVOLVING HELMS AND AN AIDE

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
6
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 20, 2010
Sequence Number: 
7
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
August 5, 1986
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3.pdf228.45 KB
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 RADIO TV REPORTS, INC. 4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 (301) 656-4068 All Things Considered August 5, 1986 7:30 PM STATION WAMU-FM NPR Network Controversy Involving Helms and An Aide Washington, DC NOAH ADAMS: Administration sources confirmed today that the FBI is investigating an aide to Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. The aide, Christopher Manion, is suspected of having leaked secret information to the Chilean government. Senator Helms has strongly denied that he or his staff had anything to do with the alleged leak. Helms has charged that the State Department is orchestrating a smear campaign against him. NPR's Richard Gonzalez reports. RICHARD GONZALEZ: The alleged leak involves the ability of U.S. intelligence to monitor internal communications of the Chilean armed forces. It is through intercepted messages like these that U.S. officials reportedly learned of undisclosed details of the July burning death of Washington resident Rodriguez Rojas. Government troops have been accused of Rojas' murder. Sources also said the intelligence technology also allows unspecified contact with a growing opposition to President Augusto Pinochet within the Chilean armed forces. Administration sources say that Manion, who is being investigated by the FBI, attended a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on Chile. Information on intelligence technology disclosed at that briefing eventually made its way to the Chilean government. However, a Helms staff member denie,i that Manion could have been privy to information from this source since the Intelligence Committee briefing was open only to its members and staffers. OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES Material supplied by Radio N Reports. Inc. may be used for file and reverence purposes only It may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 Christopher Manion, who is the brother of Daniel Manion, the recently confirmed federal judge, works for Senate Foreign Relations, not the Intelligence Committee and would, therefore, not be allowed to attend intelligence briefings. At a press conference yesterday, Senator Helms accused the State Department and the CIA of launching a smear campaign against him. SENATOR JESSE HELMS: It's quite obvious they want to silence me. They want to intimidate me, and they want to harass me, and it's not going to work. GONZALEZ: Helms singled out the State Department's top Latin America policymaker, Elliot Abrams, as the source of the accusation. It is Abrams who reported the alleged leak to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Helms has waged a bitter war of words with the State Department which, he says, is full of liberal career officers who frequently sabotage the Administration's foreign policy. Yesterday, Helms charged that Abrams and the State Department were trying to retaliate against him for blocking Senate confirmation of diplomatic appointments. Helms' reputation for using parliamentary procedures to delay diplomatic nominations has even drawn the criticism of fellow Republicans, like Senators Nancy Kassenbaum and Richard Lugar. At the State Department today, spokesman Charles Redman defended Abrams against Helms' charges. CHARLES REDMAN: The Department did not request investigation. That was done, as you know, by the Senate Intelligence Committee. I can't go into the specifics of what role may or may not have been played by any particular administration official but, again, in a general sense I can tell you that administration officials did nothing other than the professional discharge of their responsibilities. GONZALEZ: Helms also charged that Abrams leaked the accusations to the New York Times. Abrams has denied that charge. Meanwhile, the subject of the FBI investigation, Christopher Manion, flatly denied that he leaked any information to Chile. I'm Richard Gonzalez, in Washington. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 RADIO TV REPORTS, INC. 4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 (301) 656-4068 PROGRAM All Things Considered STATION WAMU FM NPR Network DATE August 5, 1986 7:40 PM CITY Washington DC SUBJECT Harvard's Fact-Finding Team NOAH ADAMS: Two faculty members of the Harvard University Medical School have just returned from Chile. They were there on a fact-finding mission sponsored by the Physicians for Human Rights of Summerville, Massachusetts. Dr. Carola Eisenberg says she and a colleague went to a prison in Santiago to check on two members of the Chilean Medical Society who were arrested and detained last month. DR. CAROLA EISENBERG: They sat in a prison for 25 days, and when we asked the judge why, he said they were disturbing the internal peace. And we asked him in what way, and he said they supported a strike which took place on July 2nd and 3rd, and they were sent to the jail for policital prisoners and other crimes. ADAMS: Have they been tried? EISENBERG: No, but they think they have enough -- the government thinks they have enough evidence. They are going to try. The first part was just an investigating procedure, and they're now in the second stage in which they will be tried. ADAMS: Are physicians in Chile -- have doctors there been especially political? EISENBERG: I think they have been. I think they have been, and I don't know what you mean by political, but they have been actively involved in trying to understand what's been happening in their country. OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES Material supplied by Radio N Reports, Inc. may be used for file and reference purposes only. it may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 I mean, some of them have not been political, but they have been taking care of patients following their own ethical code. If their patients who have come to them were of their own political persuasion, then they were considered themselves dangerous even if they were not. ADAMS: I'm sorry, I don't quite understand that? The physicians have been getting into trouble because of the political nature of their patients? ADAMS: What did you find out about the leaders of the medical association there? How are they being treated? EISENBERG: They are not being mistreated. They are not being mistreated, but they don't have any freedom, obviously, to come or go. They are also, and this I find somewhat amusing, they are also asked, like all of the other prisoners are asked - in order to be in this jail, which is more centrally located and better than other jails - they are being asked to pay for room and board. ADAMS: The government's charging for being in jail? ADAMS: You also went to Chile to ascertain the - the condition of Ms. Catana who was, along with Rodriguez Rojas who died, who was burned during a demonstration. What about her medical care? Were you - were you satisfied as to the quality of the care? EISENBERG: They do not have the types of medicines we have in ADAMS: The government of Chile said that these two were ready to throw Molotov cocktails and, in fact, set themselves on fire. According to the version I heard from other patients, they were apprehended as was Carmen's sister and fiancee. They were taken about a block way from where they were. It was the military police taking them away. His sister and her boyfriend were released or escaped, and the two young people were taken about a block away. They were ordered to stand up. They were doused with flammable material, first in the back, from the top of the head to the back to about their knees. Then, they were asked to turn around and then they threw a match. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3 They were then draped with blankets and taken to a truck. The soldiers sat on top of them. They were taken to [name unintelligible] which is about 20-25 minutes by taxi from the center part of the city, and they were dumped on the side of a road. I don't know how they did it, because one had been unconscious for a period of time. But they managed to get out of the blankets and they began to walk, charred. People were so fightened of what they saw, and the scene must have been absolutely gruesome and frightening to the people. A woman sent for an ambulance and they were transported to the hospital for emergencies. ADAMS: Dr. Carolla Eisenberg of the Physicians for Human Rights. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620007-3