NEWSWEEK QUESTIONS FOR VICE PRESIDENT BUSH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G01353R001500220003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: August 10, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
FROM:
C/Media Relations
10 August 1988
SUBJECT: Newsweek Questions for Vice President Bush
1. The Vice President's press secretary, Steve Hart, just sent us the
attached letter from Robert Parry of Newsweek Magazine to the Vice President
in which he asks questions about the Letelier murder, Cuban exiles and Luis
Posada Carrilles. Steve Hart asks if we can help with any background,
although he assumes that the Vice President will maintain his silence on
intelligence matters. The deadline for Newsweek is cob Thursday, 11 August.
The Vice President's office needs an answer by noon, 11 August.
2. Also attached are two earlier queries, from the Nation and the New
York Times. Hart has not been briefed on the NY Times questions. I suggest
that we do that soonest.
C/Med14 Relations/PAO
Distribution:
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TO:
FROM:
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OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
WASHINGTON
COVER PAGE
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES: 4
(Including cover page)
DATE:
TIME:
8/10/V
MESSAGE:
Per our -.4:1-19-12-2245-t-"A"-"hexP?
are the Newsweek qmestignfi,_EIGAZA--
note the deadline.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS WITH THE TRANSMISSION PLEASE CALL.
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
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AUG 10 88 9:55 STAFF SEC A PAGE . 03
Newsweek
1750 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N.W. ? SUITE 1220 ? WASHINGTON, MC. 20000 ? [phone]
August 4, 1988
The Vice-President
United States Senate
Old Executive Office Building
Washington, D. C. 20501
Dear Mr. Vice-President:
Newsweek is preparing a story about your year as CIA
director and would appreciate answers to the following questions.
The article will be in the issue closing Friday. August 12 and
we will need the answers by Thursday, Aug. 11.
In July 1976, Chile's intelligence service DINA dispatched
an assassination team to kill former diplomat Orlando Letelier.
It sought U.S. visas through Paraguay and used false names for
its operatives. Worried about the unusual visa request, the U.S.
ambassador to Paraguay, George Landau, alerted CIA headquarters
in a top secret cable to your deputy, Vernon Walters. Landau
said he received a cable back from you saying Walters was out of
town and later from Walters denying any knowledge of a Chilean
intelligence operation. Considering DINA's violent history and
the peculiarity of the visa request, did you or anyone else at
CIA check with the Chileans to find out what the operation was
all about? Was the FBI notified as is routine in counter-
intelligence situations? If not, why not?
After Letelier was assassinated in September 1976, you
pledged CIA help to the FBI's investigation, but the CIA volunteered
no information about the July 1975 cable exchange. Why not?
In early October, CIA leaked a conclusion to Newsweek and other
publications, clearing the Chilean government of responsibility
in the assassination. Did you agree with the assessment at the
time? Were you aware that Chile had carried out assassination
attempts -- known as Phase 3/Operation Condor missions -- against
other dissidents in Argentina and Rome the previous two years?
After anti-Castro Cuban extremists blew up a Cuban& airline
plane in October 1976, investigators discovered the existence of
CORU, an alliance of Cuban extremist groups formed in the Dominican
Republic in June 1976. Did CIA know about the violent plans of this
group and if so what actions were taken? In November 1976, you
flew with a senior FBI official to Miami to hear field reports on
Cuban exile terrorism. You then toured Little Havana. Did you
speak with any Cuban exile leaders and, if so, what message did
YOU convey?
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Newsweek
Luis Posada Carrilles was accused of participation In
the Cubana airline bombing. He escaped from a Venezuelan jail
in 1985 and went to work with Felix Rodriguez on the contra
resupply operation at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador. Were
you aware of Posada's role in the contra operation -- and what
IS your view about that participation?
What were you told about Manuel Noriega during your
year as CIA chief?
Sincerely,
/le Robert Parry
Parry
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AUG 9 '89 12:34 STAFF SEC A
Note to
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
WASHINGTON
August 9, 1988
From Stephen Hart
PAGE .01
Attached are the questions from Nation Magazine, FYI. when the
Newsweek questions from Bob Perry come in I'll forward them, FYI.
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QUESTIONS FOR VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH
Submitted on August 5, 1988, by David Corn, The Nation
magazine.
1. According to a Washington Post story (January 2,
1977), in July 1976, Richard Helms, then U.S. ambassador to
Iran, sent you a handwritten note complaining that rampant
corruption was plaguing a C.I.A. project in Iran called
IBEX, a massive electronic and photographic surveillance
project.
A. As Director of Central Intelligence, what steps did
you take to investigate Helm's charge?
B. What did you do to rectify the situation?
2. According to a recent Donald Gregg deposition, while
you were Director of Central Intelligence, you had one
meeting in Washington with several Panamanian officials,
including Manuel Noriega. According to press reports, the
U.S. government, as far back as the Nixon Administration,
had hard evidence linking Noriega to drug dealing and
criminal activity. U.S. intelligence also had knowledge of
,Noriega's direct involvement in the brutal 1971 slaying of
the Rev. Hector Gallegos, a priest who had organized a
peasant cooperative. (See "Why Democrats Can't Make an
Issue of Noriega," by Seymour Hersh, New York Times, May 4,
1988.)
A. Were you aware of Noriega's criminal activity prior
to your meeting with him?
B. Had you seen any intelligence reports noting his
involvement with drug dealing, corruption or the murder of
Gallegos?
C. If so, what was your justification for meeting with
him?
3. According to interviews with U.S. intelligence
officials conducted by reporters Ernest Volkman and John
Cummings, the C.I.A. intervened in Jamaican domestic
activity in 1976. Volkman and Cummings report that C.I.A.
officials and assets assisted the smuggling of weapons and
communications equipment to the island and ran a covert
campaign against Michael Manley.
A. While you were D.C.I., were you aware of any C.I.A.
employee or asset working to undermine the Manley
(continued)
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government?
B. Was this an officially sanctioned operation?
4. Following the September 1976 assassination of Orlando
Letelier, U.S. intelligence officials said the C.I.A. had
ruled out the idea that Letelier was killed by agents of
the Chilean military junta (New York Times, October 12,
1976). On November 1, the Washington Post reported that you
shared that view.
A. Are these reports accurate?
B. What was your basis for reaching that conclusion?
vv.
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QUESTIONS FOR VICE PRESIDENT BUSH
il) According to top secret U.S. government documents
prepared in 1975 and 1976, the Central Intelligence Agency
secretly ,4 secured ?lenient judicial treatment for at least
four major suspected narcotics traffickers between 1972 and
1975. Their names were Gustavo Guerra Montenegro, Frank
Matthews, Rafael Alarcon, and Puttaporn Khramkhruan.
--Did you, as Director of Central Intelligence in
1976, ever see such documents? Were you informed about any
of these four cases or any other case in which drug
suspects received secret pre-trial leniency from the CIA?
--If so, did you take action to change the Agency's
policy of securing leniency in order to protect CIA sources
and methods?
--If you did not know of such cases, what do you think
of the Agency's policy of taking such action?
--Is it still CIA policy to secure leniency for
suspected drug traffickers whose trial might disclose CIA
sources and methods?
--Would this be CIA policy in your administration?
(2) According to the New York Times, Oliver North, NSC
staff member, and Oliver "Buck" Revell, FBI official,
secretly sought judicial leniency in 1985 for Jose Bueso
Rosa, a Honduran military officer convicted of
participating in a scheme to pay for a political
assassination with drug profits from the importation of 760
pounds of cocaine.
--When did you learn of North's and Revell's actions
on behalf of Bueso Rosa?
--Did you object? When and how?
--If you did not know of North and Revell's actions,
do you believe such actions consistent with your drug
policies?
--Do North's actions in the Bueso Rosa case in any way
modify your view that North is a "national hero?"
3) In June 1983, at the press conference launching the
National Narcotics Border Interdiction Service (NNBIS), you
stated, "With the help and support of CIA Director Bill
Casey, and the entire intelligence community, we expect to
be better informed and more knowledgeable regarding the
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actions and activities of smugglers.
--Did you ever ask CIA director Casey, either
personally or in writing, to provide drug intelligence to
NNBIS? Is so, when?
--Did you ever request the Narcotics Working Group of
the U.S. Intelligence Board to provide narcotics
intelligence to NNBIS? If so, when?
--In retrospect, do you think that the. U.S.
intelligence system performed adequately in providing
timely and accurate intelligence to NNBIS about drug
activities in Panama? If not, what do you think the problem
was? How would you as President attempt to improve the drug
intelligence system?
Thank you for your cooperation.
Jeff Morley
Washington Editor
The Nation magazine
546-2239
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