RADICAL GROUPS SAID TO BE TARGET OF 'BUGS'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100150191-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 191
• Publication Date: October 12, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

? STAT._.:-
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100150191-6
12 Q'. tO3- 1 1:-,,75
ca o Said to Be Target of _Bugs
By Timothy S. Robinson
Some of the information gathered in this `. These undercover officers w?e' etold:hat
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Service and the Central Intelligence legally if One party actually taking part in
federal prosecutors are conducting an Agency, the sources said, and the. CIA the conversation was aware of the bug, one
extensive investigation of detailed - allegedly provided at least one of the source said. However. some officers may
allegations that undercover Washington electronic bugs and. other technical have, left recording devices in rooms or
police officers and FBI informants used assistance for the surveillance. telephones while they were not present,
apparently illegal electronic surveillance The month-old investigation by the U.S. which would be illegal, the sources said.
methc-ds to spy on radical groups here attorney's office here is still focused on The statute of limitations would bar
between 1968 and 1972... gathering details of specific instances of prosecution now for illegal wiretapping
Tilt! prosecutors have been told . by allegedly illegal activity and determining that occurred before 1970. However,
former law enforcement officers and whether high-level D.C. police or FBI illegally obtained information 'may have
police informants- thatelectronic "bugs" officials were aware of any of it, the' been used in criminal prosecutions and
were hidden in rooms and placed on sources said.U.S. Attorney Earl J.-Silbert disclosure of that now could result in
telephones and that police officers com- said yesterday he could not comment on reversals of convictions or civil suits
mitted at least one burglary to spv'on the theinvestigation. charging government misconduct.
radicals, according, to sources familiar However, Silbert has met with D.C. During the period involved in the federal
with the investigation: Police Chief Maurice J. Cullinane to dicuss prosecutors' investigation, 1968 to. 1972,
the. investigation and assure it highi Washington teemed with antiwar groups.
priority. The FBI, CIA and SecretServ'ice ranging from the Quakers_to the ad-. ! L.
also tivere-informed of 'the investigation, n'tttedly violent Weather Undergrotuid.,
v:hen? their possible inr?olvement .;was ' each protesting the war in Vietnam in its i
:,. :. ;.. ,_..:
discovered. own way-*-.:
The Justice Department and the Senate It was the responsibiltity of, the D.C.
select committee chaired bySen. Frank; police department, under then Chief Jerry
Church (D-Idaho), both of which are V. Wilson, to compile information on the
conducting broader investigations of CIA activities of these groups, monitor major
violations of its charter,.are also being. demonstrations and try to determine in ?;
kept informed of the-probe's progress, advance when violence might tx cur. ;.::.?
Sources familiar with the pprosecutors'; T} .Rockefetler Commission report on
investigation said they have been told that, domestic aclivities of the CIA revealed
surveillance occurred with '=="some that the CIA also was monitoring antiwar
frequency". at the height oil antiwar and other dissident groups during that
organizing here and increased at the time period, collecting information on them as
- part of its nationwide Operation Chaos.
or of major protest demonstrations. y - ;7 -1
The CIA and D.C. police.also placed
The sources said that one alleged, informants' within various dissident r
burglary. involved a police office& who
groups in the Washington area, accorriing
broke ? ,tea i one or nceand n'-mNed.a
"specific and significant" of to the Rockefeller Commission, :buy there property. There were other occasio $, the have been no previous allegations of
sources said when informants and un-electronicsurveillance.
dercover. agents allegedly rifled files or The D.C. City Council held hearings last
photographed documents without search I July on the Rockefeller Commission's.;
warrants, although they did not break into . information about the activities of theD.C. 1
any buildings. police: department's' intelligence . unit,
Some of the (undercover) agents were including the fact that it kept raw in-
i told to telligenee files -on local activists and ,
get information," said one-law.; politicians.
enforcement officer involved. in.. the in-I Chief Cullinane had vestigation. They got it the best way they previously
could." acknowledged that the CIA had provided
technical assistance for the local police's.
There is no evidenceat this point that top! intelligence activitiers, including . 'the;
police
FBI or CIA officials instructed an
,
y
their agents or. informants to commit outfitting of "two lamp, capable of ' in-;
of oral communications.";
illegal acts or plant electronic recording Cullinane did not explain the need or rise c`
devices, the sources said.
'
Two officials of law enforcement such equipment in his report to the City
a encies being investigated by the federal The Rockefeller Commission gave: this
Prosecutors blamed any allegedly illegal version of that incident:
electronic surveillance on untrained police is ?
officers who were college graduates newly ?1 !:.: In late 1968 or early 1969. CIA asked to
hired for undercover work. provide the (D.C. police) department with
i transmitters which could be planted in-!
several lampsbe placed-in the apar.
tment of a police informer who frequently
met' with members of dissident group8.
The lamps were provided to the CIA and -
the transmitter devices were installed in.','
the ramps...The lamps were then' placeda
1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100150191-6