CIA SAID TO HOLD INFORMATION ON HELMS, PINOCHET BUGGING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870017-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: September 27, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870017-3
cl PAG WASHINGTON POST
27 September 1986
CIA Said to Hold Information
On Helms, Pinochet Bugging
Alleged Leaks on Chile Trip Being Probed
By Joanne Omang
Washingtai Post Stai( Writer
The Central Intelligence Agency
has obtained electronic surveillance
information on conversations be-
tween Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.)
and Chilean President Augusto Pi-
nochet last July, Helms' staff and
intelligence sources said yesterday.
The Justice Department is prob-
ing charges that Helms or a mem-
ber of his staff leaked classified in-
formation to the Chilean govern-
ment that enabled the Chileans to
shut down a productive information-
gathering channel. Helms has called
the charges "a concoction" of State
Department officials in retaliation
for his criticisms of their conduct of
foreign policy.
A Helms staff member said let-
ters have been sent to Attorney
General Edwin Meese III and Jus-
tice Department officials asking
whether Helms or his staff mem-
bers have been the target of "elec-
tronic surveillance" during his July
9-13 visit to Chile or here at their
homes or offices.
While surveillance of Pinochet
and any of his conversations would
he legal under U.S. law, surveil-
lance here would be illegal without
an advance judicial finding that na-
tional security was at stake or that
a criminal probe was warranted.
Other letters went from Helms to _
CIA Director William J. Casey and
Secretary of State George P. Shultz
asking for CODies of all intelligence
re its t e received o elms'
tip i to h e, t e start member said.
"Certain t kings we have been o
lead us to believe that a number of
our meetings [in Chile] were bugged
the Pinochet meeting among
others," the staff member said. An-
other staff member said Helms is
certain there had been "eavesdrop-
ping," but that it might have been
conducted by the Chilean intelligence
services and then passed to the CIA.
A knowledgeable senator con-
firmed that intelligence data on the
conversation exists, but said it is in-
conclusive on whether Helms passed
confidential information to Pinochet.
"Jesse should have known enough to
take Pinochet for a walk in the woods
instead of talking inside," the senator
said.
Helms has also written to Senate
Intelligence Committee Chairman
David F. Durenberger (R-Minn.),
asking if he and committee vice
chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)
followed correct procedures in ask-
ing for the justice Department probe
on the strength of a State Depart-
ment allegation, without convening
the full committee.
"We haven't gotten satisfactory
responses from anybody," the first
Helms aide said.
Helms and other conservatives
have long been at loggerheads with
the CIA and the State Department
for what they regard as overly com-
placent evaluations of Soviet military
strength and for minimizing the dan-
ger of communist takeovers in many
nations, including Chile.
Helms said in an interview that
the State Department and the CIA
have launched a joint "smear cam-
paign" against him because he is
"working to expose what they're up
to.'
"I don't like their agenda of kick-
ing our friends in the teeth around
the world and cozying up to the em-
issaries of the Soviet Union," he said.
"They would like nothing better than
to silence or discredit this senator."
He said his North Carolina constit-
uents have reacted "overwhelmingly
in my favor .... They said, 'Hang in
there, Jesse, and to hell with the
State Department.' "
According to several sources, a
report in The New York Times yes-
terday that Helms had succeeded in
pushing secret legislation through
the Senate to curb CIA authority is
incorrect. The sources said Helms
last week told Durenberger he had
30 amendments he wanted to offer
from the Senate floor to Durenber-'
ger's bill authorizing funds for the
CIA and the rest of the intelligence
community. Several would have se-
verely curbed CIA authority in re-
lation to the Defense Intelligence
Agency, which has traditionally seen
the Soviet threat as more severe
than has the CIA, in line with con-
servative thinking.
One would have barred the DIA
from coordinating its yearly "Soviet
Military Power" report with the CIA
and another would have set up an
independent 15-member panel,
known as a "B-team," to review CIA
findings on Soviet capacities, treaty
adherence, disinformation efforts
and other areas in which conserva.
tives find CIA reports lacking.
In order to speed the bill's pas-
sage, Durenberger had his commit=
tee staff negotiate with Helms' staff
on the amendments Monday and
Tuesday. Sources involved in the
talks said the staffs reduced the
amendments to two: one asking the
CIA to probe charges of drug and
gun trafficking and human-rights vi-
olations by the Panamanian govern-
ment, which later passed the Senate,
53 to 46, cnd a classified annex to
the bill requesting "competitive anal-
ysis" reports on 32 subjects.
Neither the "B-team" nor the pro-
hibition on DIA-CIA collaboration
survived the staff talks, the sources
agreed. However, CIA Director Wil-
liam J. Casey "was still upset" by the
classified annex provision, they said.
Helms' staff members and com-
mittee officials disagreed on the im-
pact of that provision, but would not
disclose its content. In his speech
before the Senate voted Wednesday,
Helms said he had been assured that
the 32 reports would be prepared
with "appropriate competitive anal-
ysis," and one of his staff members
said that meant the DIA could put
out its Soviet assessment without
CIA clearance.
"The idea was to give the DIA
more authority in military intelli-
gence, and we think that purpose
was served," the aide said.
A committee official disagreed.
"The CIA still gets to define 'appro-
priate competitive analysis' . . . any
GS2 with a crayon can produce those
reports by pushing a computer but-
ton. Nothing has changed."
lJ
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870017-3 -