NEWSPAPER USED IN SMEAR EFFORT BY CIA AGENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 5, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

?STAT- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP9
ARTICLE LPPEkR..=-
- `- . t4'-4-'- 5 May 1984
0-00552 R000504830003-0
T General John N. Mitchell threatened information to Binder. But an un-
ew~i;naner Il.ed h
T--------- - .
ave
_
An anonymous State Department doubts on thew agency's denial.
In Smear Effort memo, given to then-House speaker Throughout the article, Binder mis-
Carl Albert (D-Okla.), accused De- spelled the su
(~TAIA.ge is metracopoulos of having printed subject's name as Ilias
Dimitracopoulos-exactly the way
By E,
classified documents that , hurt
the CIA spelled it in files acquired .
I now have the pieces to complete Greek-American relations. by Demetracopoulos under the Free-'
the jigsaw puzzle the CIA's complete The State Department later re-. dom of Information Act.-
Act.-
the jigsaw
smear .- a distinguished tracted the memo and issued an"' In 1980; the Greek ainbassador in';
Gmek journalist whasednvesgu apology. But a-Justice Department Washington confirmed to:the House .{
p g memo quotes a State Department Intelligence Committee that Deme-
re ortin embarrassed the . Nixon official asking Justice -to do "everyadministration. thin tr:tcopoulos had in fact worked with
When a military junta seized pow- make . possible to see if we can the Greek underground, and had
.---. Then to prove l t
er in 1967, Elias Demetracopoulos - case .:: against the subject." - citations
fled Greece-only to run afoul of the In- 1977, Sen.'- Daniel -K. Inouve last fall the CLA belatedly
CIA in his American refuge. Here (D Hawaii), then chairman of -the admitted that the information in the
are the Byzantine details of Deme- Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep.'- story was w er Jr.. a l to
owler J (DtD G Ga.),
tracopoulas' long ordeal: - - looked into Demetracopoulos' charge' gyp' Wyse Fowler*
During the .1968 presidential race, that the CIA was continuing to-ha- : chairman of an intelligence subcom
Demetracopoulos was told that the _ rass him. There is 'evidence that.the mittee, the CIA said there was no
Greek junta's CIA-subsidized intel-- CIA, fearful that Inouye's investiga- evidence to suggest that Demetraco-
ligence senice-, the KYP, was -send tion would turn-up a money scandal, poulos had ever worked for or any any for-
ing money to the Nixon Agnew cans- arranged to blacken Demetracopou eign intelligence agency. -
paign through Thomas. Pappas, a los' reputation by leaking false in- The final vindication for Deme-
Greek-American businessman with formation to David Binder, a New tracopoulos came when The New
CIA ties. York Times reporter. York Times published a story clear-
In 1971, Demetracopoulos told his In a lengthy profile, Binder cited ing him of the charges in its 1977
CIA records to the effect that De- profile. As the ultimate accolade, the
story to a_House subcommittee that metracopoulos had been- associated Times spelled his name right this
was investigating U.S. policies to- with Yugoslav and Israeli intelli- time.
ward the Athens junta. That's when gence and had been -turn
ed down as Footnote: In its correction of the
his troubles began. a recruit by the CIA and Army in- Binder. story, The New York Times
The story was essentially con telligence in the 1950s. - charges blamed the mistake on'the CIA: "De-
fir.med years later by the U.S. am that Demetracopoulos -vehemently spite' what CL4 officials told the
bassador to Greece, Henry: Tasca. denied. Times in 1977, there is, nothing in
But at the time the Nixon admin- To this day, the CIA refuses to the agency's files to support the al-
istration both' denied it. Attorney admit that any of its people leaked legations."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504830003-0