NEW CONFLICT IN ACCOUNT BY HELMS SEEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090107-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 107
• Publication Date: January 29, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

WASRrlvr1'n*r POST
`'; Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090107-4
17 7' 71 /Irll
e don't have any arm of the a_enc. to roves irate in
the U.S..' helms testified. ?'We i,a;e a Sec::ri'?- uffice
which cues around making personnel cu:cks ::-:d thia_s of
but they are not grub n: : _o r t c_:d check
this kind
.
up on newspapers or thin as of ta::..
of invest atinn. That is within t::e e;is u- auace or
tile FBI or ,oniebody of this kind."
Former Ilea. William G. Bray. t:::o %vas i'touOii-
can on the House Armed Se:'..ces Co ,;r.a:-__. -_11_ezted
to helms that legislation mi=lit oe needed t? t%ie'Il:I tie
CIA's domestic authority though Bra%-. '.vha was defeated
last fall, conceded that in the Water--ate atn;_sai;.re such
a proposal "would receive a great dell of susa
'-I agree," Helms replied. "Ins'de of the agency we can
interrogate people, speak with tile::? and do tcia_s of this
kind with our own employees. But once we ;et outside of
the agency, we may not do it."
Rep. Bob Wilson, another
Republican on the subcommit-
tee, asked Helms: "Are you
permitted to call the FBI?"
"We can ask the FBI,"
Helms replied, "but when it
comes to the investigation of
leaks, the FBI is very reluc-
tant to undertake those."
Contrary to Helms' descrip-
tion.of the limited role of the
CIA Office of Security, Colby
has declared that this office
was responsible for planting
10 agents inside dissident po-
litical organizations in the
Washington area back in 1967,
on the pretext of protecting
CIA installations In the city.
In the course. of his 1973
testimony, Helms made one
other oblique assertion which
appears to conflict with what
the public now knows about
CIA domestic activities. In
discussing the Ellsberg case,
Helms told the - House mem-
bers that his initial reaction
to the White House request
for. assistance, was that the
CIA had nothing to. offer.
.'We know -nothing about
the man," Helms said he re-
sponded. "There'is no material
in this agency'-on him, He
-never worked for us.-We don't
keep material on' American
citizens.:' ..
In his recent declaration,
.Colby acknowledged that the
CIA does keep information on
American citizens who are not
By '.Gilliam Greider anri George Lardner
Post staf: -Rrters
Some months after the Ventral Intelligence Agency
spied on Washington reporters in search of security leaks.
the CIA's former director. Richard Helms, told a con-
gressional subcommittee that the CIA has no authority to
conduct such investigations.
The episode suggests another incident where testimony
by Helms before various congressional hearings conflicts
with recent disclosures on the CIA's domestic activities.
Two weeks ago, the agency formally acknowledged that it
placed five Americans-three of them later identified as
reporters-under physical surveillance in' 1971 and 1972
because they were suspected of obtaining classified in-
formation.
Yet Helms, when he appeared in private before the
House Armed Services subcommittee on intelligence in
May of 1973, insisted at length that the CIA doesn't con-
duct such investigations because it lacks the legal author-
ity.
Helms, who is now U.S. ambassador to Iran, was CIA
director from 1966 to 1973. His testimony before the
House subcommittee, which remained secret until now,
was apparently not taken under oath, according to the
transcript made available to The Washington Post.
The subject of "leaks" came up in the hearing as Helms
was discussing the White House concern in 1971 over the
Pentagon Papers and its request for CIA help in construct-
ing a "psychological profile" on Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, the
anti-war activist who released the papers. Helms told the
subcommittee, whose chairman was Rep. Lucien Nedzi
(D-Mich.), that, while the CIA is charged with the protec-
tion of "intelligence sources and methods," it has no ca-
pacity to track down such leaks.
"As a citizen who is no longer involved in the agency,"
Helms testified. "I think it would be well to look at that
provision of the law as a charge against the Director of
Intelligence because he has no investigative power, he has
no facilities for looking into who might have leaked what.
"And when classified papers disappear or stories appear
in the The New York Times or whatever the case may be,
all he can do is wring his hands and check around with
other agencies of the government and so forth, but he has
no way really to follow up. So he has a charge against
him which he has an awful time trying to fulfill."
According to the recent declaration by Helms' successor,
William E. Colby. the CIA did place surveillance on five
americans not affiliated with the intelligence agency.
Among them, according to an independent source, were
columnist Jack Anderson and his colleague Les Whitten.
and Washington Post reporter Michael Getler. The sur-
veillance was reportedly "fruitless."
When Helms testified in May. 1973, he described the
agency's Office of Security as limited tapersonnel investi-
~ations, but restricted from in esti-ating citizens not
affiliated with the CIA.
affiliated with the agency-in-
cludiifa a' computer file on
some 10,000 political dissent-
ers.
Most of Helms' 1973 testi-
mony was devoted to the CIA's
entan_~ernent with the Water-
gate scandal and his explana-
tion of why the. agency pro-
vided surveillance equipment
to tile White House "plumb-
ers."
Helms explained that the
agency director normally
screens White House requests
for their propriety, but as-
sumes that the proposals are
legal.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090107-4