HELMS CHARGES CIA, STATE TRYING TO DESTABILIZE CHILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320031-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: August 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320031-1
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WASHINGTON TIMES
6 August 1986
Helms charges CIA, State trying
to destabilize Chile
j By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Sen. Jesse Helms yesterday re-
newed his attacks on the State De-
partment and CIA, charging both
agencies with waging a "massive
campaign of disinformation" to de-
stabilize Chile.
"What disturbs me about the dis-
information campaign is the
readiness of the State Department,
the CIA and the media to side with
the Marxists and the totalitarians,"
the North Carolina Republican said
in a prepared speech for delivery in
the Senate. "There is no lie too im-
probable, no distortion too great, no
smear campaign too dirty for the
State Department and the media to
embrace."
Earlier this week, Mr. Helms
charged that Elliott Abrams, assis-
tant secretary of state for inter-
American affairs, was behind a re-
quest by the Senate Intelligence
Committee that the FBI probe the
leak of classified information about
U.S. intelligence-gathering to the
Chilean government.
A staffer on Mr. Helms' Senate
Foreign Relations subcommittee,
Chris Manion, and an unidentified
member of Mr. Helms' staff are sus-
pects in the investigation, congres-
sional sources said yesterday.
"I am deeply concerned about the
massive campaign of disinformation
which is being coordinated against
the people of Chile, who yearn for an
orderly transition to democracy,"
Mr. Helms said. "A coalition of the
media, the Marxists and the State
Department is seeking to destabilize
the transition to full-fledged democ-
racy in Chile."
State Department spokesman
Greg Lagana dismissed Mr. Helms'
charges as false.
"Our policy is to support a transi-
tion to democracy, but obviously the
Chileans have to find a way to work
that out," Mr. Lagana said in an inter-
view
He said the State Department op-
poses all groups, Marxist or other,
that advocate violent change.
"The charge that we are somehow
supporting communism is just not
true - there's nothing to support it;'
he said. "We have condemned those
groups that wouldn't renounce vio-
lence, specifically groups on the left
that wouldn't renounce violence. Far
from supporting the communists,
we believe strongly that forswearing
violence is a sine qua non for democ-
racy."
In the 20-page speech, Mr. Helms
said the Chilean people desire a
"fully functioning representative
democracy," one that will not "slide
back into a totalitarian regime such
as they experienced under Allende."
Mr. Helms said that a Chilean re-
search center found that only 2
percent,of the Chilean people felt
human rights "was a major prob-
lem."
He said that Harry Barnes, the
U.S. ambassador to Chile, and Mr.
Abrams "are trying to cater to that 2
percent with their support of the vio-
lent communist left - at the ex-
pense of the democratic opposition
and the parties that support Pres-
ident Pinochet."
Mr. Helms criticized Mr. Barnes
for attending a July funeral of Rod-
rigo Rojas, a 19-year-old Chilean-
born U.S. resident who died of burns
suffered during anti-government
protests.
"The policy of President Reagan
is to promote the democratic transi-
tion on an orderly schedule;' Mr.
Helms said. "The policy of Ambas-
sador Barnes is to disrupt the or-
derly transition, to promote the to-
talitarian left that Chileans once
threw off just in the nick of time, and
to defame the government that res-
cued Chile from the clutches of in-
ternational socialism"
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320031-1