NASSER PLOT: CIA'S CULT OF ASSASSINATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090036-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: February 12, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

V
III) lnhn- Marks
He recalls vividly the c> gV' directed toward Nasser
within the agency-and throughout the U.S. government-as'
the Egyptian president seemed to be movingrout of the
' .
S
viet ram
he CIA
-_--I th
e
o
p
and
spooks.
'The-place was ready for its grand opening;' says the.
E
s
a
e
security pass;
ldrt t
Committee investigating the intelligence agencies did_, .:.. ,
et That's when Nasser was playing both sides of
co
g
President Gamel Abdul Nasser during the mi 1 o s>-; ,
furious period at Na high "
Not that the Church committee did not ask. It-specifically `. W
~oper ti e states hthatdurmg was~ th is
h
e ex
T
requested the CIA for information on the subject and level Eisenhower administration policy meeting, then
received this reply: "This Agency has no records that any Secretary of State John Foster Dulles complained about the'
teams or individuals have ever been sent to Egypt for the problems caused by Nasser. According to the source; CIA.
purpose of attemptin3 to assassinate Nasser. There ended Dir ctor alto? Duties asked if there were anything th-a agency
earn
ttee
year
the
time'
``eliminate that problem.
u ras an instr m nit arted.-.-.
s probing the use of assassination
The source recalls, Well; eliminate between two brothe s
American foreign Not`.: y, the CIA may well have been.tellmg'had a different connotation. So the word went out and the
the truth. After alt, the cgency has admitted that numerous?'agency fielded three different Arab assassination teams.'
comm recen sensitive ttefil
e's es have bee on ntreport,i sued intNears. T remade One of them never got off the ground; another was picked:
up going-across the border; and the third got lost. Mean
it clear that CIA operatives had not been diligent in leaving
while, months had gone by since the first meeting, and
behind a paper trai = - < another.national security session was going on. Foster was ,t-l
deed been involved in planning Nasser's again complaining about Nasser, and Alien said 'Don't worry.
But the CIA had in
.
dead}.-Last srrin;Ga Cr fcr-r.agency Deputy Director told a W
going to get that problem eliminated for you. W'a've still;
sass under c~o:~s c=ry y aa) the C A after rthe e, to unsuccessful not one team floating.' The whole room went into a turmoil,
and the word went out to stop the team::lt was a 1 gitimate
British and Frenc;; ^v a:on of Suez in 1956 to kill the former tnsinterpretation." : "`'
Egyptian president. G e same show, the CI As former top The Church committee came up against similar semantic
Middle East opera::-e; rt_nmit-Roosevelt, confirmed that at
British instigation, agency wasconsidering replacing "r Misinterpretations' in its efforts to unravel lines of autho'rity`.
Nasser "by a palace revc!ution' Roosevelt, however, said = in other CIA murder plots, and in fact it warned in its asses
nothing-- about mL:cer, and he was unavai]able for_ further uphon report of the dangers caused by llocutionor
;
.'comment e euphemism to' describe serious matters-such uch a as assassin-
A now-retired CIA coerative with direct knowledge ation-whey precise meanings ought to be made char." But
in the matter of Nasser, the committee, never had a chance to
'acquired during his 2 1 ,ear career in the agency's examine who had-as the bureaucrats say-"signed off'- on i
'
f
;
ormation
the plot because the CIA would not provide any in
on'the subject.
This failure of the CIA to be straightforward points up a
12-18 FED UARY 1-976
STAT
gyptians
source, `and we?had a little secretary take the
close-to a million dollars in black bag funds for their
he
boil
d
b
...a,
new
--- -- -
an
the
eup their security system, but he still,
d
h
W
toh~inlae'd
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090036-3