FORMER SPIES FORM LEGAL FEES FUND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500070009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 14, 2000
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: July 26, 1983
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release2 9p' ftO .
STATINTL
TAAb, 09i?bftb1 k b
Former Spies Form
Legal Fees Fund
Old spies don't fade away. They
form legal defense funds.
Challenge, a Maryland-based or-
gnization of former intelligence of-
ers, was formed a year ago to raise
funds to help U.S. intelligence
agency personnel pay legal expenses
if they believe they have been
defamed.
The group, incorporated-in 1981,
announced new officers and a fund-
raising drive last week, -
Richard H. Landsdale, a former
associate general counsel with the
CIA, is the group's new president. He
served with the Core than 20
years.
J.E. "Ned" Dolan, a. former intelli-
gence officer, retired Marine captain
and citizen activist from Garrett
Park, is the group's vice president.
The group has aided in a lawsuit
filed by former CIA agent David At-
lee Phillips of Bethesda. Phillips is
suing authors and publishers -who
have suggested he had some role in
the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy and former Chilean For-
eign Minister Orlando Letelier.
Challenge's current fund-raising
efforts are to assist former U.S. Am-
bassador to Chile Nathaniel Davis in
his lawsuit against the producers of
the movie "Missing," according to
the organization's announcement.
Davis' suit charges that the film,
which starred Jack Lemmon and
Sissy Spacek, wrongfully implicates
him in the death of an American
freelance journalist killed during the
1973 CIA-supported coup that top-
pled popularly elected. leftist Presi-
dent Salvadore Allende.,
The group also'has offered to help
defray the legal expenses of retired
Army Gen. William C. Westmore- ;
land in a suit against CBS. The
former commander, of U.S. forces in
Vietnam has charged that the broad
casting company, libeled him by air-
ing a .documentary that-said a con-
spiracy concealed military
intelligence about the Vietnam. War
from the.president-and Congress.
"It's awfully hard to take on a:n
author or a publisher-when you're
small and don't have any money,"
Landsdale said. -
Challenge's board -of directors and i
advisers include a number of former I
high-ranking military officers,
former CIA -.officials and conserva-
tive politicans, aamong them former
U.S. Sen. James Buckley and former
CIA Director William Colby.
"We don't:profess to be (of) any
political persuasion, but we do have
a common military background that
generally is rather conservativae,"
Landsdale said. .
Approved For Release 2001/03/06 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500070009-0
 Approved For Release 20 : MA-POP91 _ bT&
5 July 1983
probe illustrates how CIA
STATINTL
can benefit business
By Joe Rigert
Staff Writer
Critchfield and his company also
have done extensive business ' in
Oman. That involvement and his CIA
,.~~....,,,.... background led to widespread talk
Dresseed in a brown pinstripe suit that Tetra Tech served as a 'cover
brown tie and brown shoes, speaking
in a manner as subdued as his attire, for CIA activities there.
.James Critchfield seemed--to be- an ._..:
ordinary man is an. ordinary busi- Critchfield was -close enough =to the
mess .ruling.sultan_of-,Oman in .lantiary_
1975.tp.attend a`Teception?giveniby?
But for nearly three 'decades, Critch- the suites during a iWaslrington visit,
field lived in the -obscurity'-and -in- Now-a:former aide to.thesultan?.says:.
Crit tleld mby have received, as,:
t
f
lli
le
skimmed money off Omani govern-
ment, contracts. The memo also
notes widespread suspicions that he
worked for the CIA.
The Ashland. documents, show that
Omar and Critchfield .recommended
each other toAshland to help the
-company =obtW= e?l in Oman- They
also encouraged Ashland officials to
seek Omani-oll and were linked in
discussions of other business.
According to The Aocuments. Critch-
field helped land obtain the oil in
his role as adviser to the sultan- In
Newly, available documents show range the visit In interviews last that-role hehdped both sides, pre-
that in 1979 and 1980. Critchfield and month, Critchfield denied-having 'paring an Ashland communication to
Tetra Tech were deeply involved in any, business deals with Omar. He the "Omani 'petroleum -minister and
the efforts of Ashland Oil Inc. - an said.he baud no connection with Ash- assisting in.tbe ministerts reply.
independent, Kentucky-based com- land's payment to Omar and -knows. .. ..,_ . .: _ "
pang - to obtain oil .from the Middle nothing of the alleged money trans- Critchiieid later advised Ashland to
Eastern country of Oman. fer. back away from -Omar in the oil
deal. This occinTed nine months af-
Today Ashland is the subject of U.S. "There really ,isn't a story" in any of ter he suggested that the company
government investigations into the it, he sai& work with Omar- -"It also occurred
legality-of ?a $1.35 million "commis- after Omar's Jinntmductioa of Critcb.
sion" payment to wealthy Arab busi- Honeywell also said it concluded" field to' vhshiand -had:helped"Tetra
aessman Yehia Omar in theoll deal. from . two' investigations Of Its own Tech -obtain -Ashland -contracts . for
d E t
bi
l
S
ngue o
mternatronai inte
gence as much as 2250,000 in -a k anvas "bag; on
a CIA agent..
Orders -of the sultan, for helping ar-
The investigations by the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC)
and two House subcommittees have
not implicated Critchiieid or Tetra
Tech in the payment But they have
provided access to documents de-
scribing CIA activity in Oman and
STATINTL
sought oil from Oman after losing Both Omar and Critchfield apparent-
Critchiieid has associated with Omar much of Its supply during the- hos- - iy benefited from their association in
since the early 1970s, first through tage crisis in Iran. The company -got those earlier years as well es later.
the CIA, for which Critchfield was into -trouble when it paid Omar for a
director of Middle East operations September. 1980 contract -for the -oIL John ToWasend, -#hen an. economic
and a senior energy analyst, and - The payment,- returned after some adviser to the suttan, -said an Omar then in numerous discussions of busi- Ashland board members intervened, associate, Ghassan ? Shaklr. "helped
ness deals in the Middle East and helped lead to the resignation of Tetra Tech get an Omani water-de-
Africa, Ashland's president and,the govern- velopment contract in late 1974.
meat investigations. Documents
Then he left the CIA and went into from an internal investigation for .(Crltchfield says Shakir may have
international business -as an execu- the company, turned over to the gov- mentioned Tetra Tech but didn't get
tive of Tetra Tech, a California- eminent describe the oil deal, the the contract for his company. He
based engineering company ac- roles of Omar, Critchfield and the says the contract resulted from oil
quired last year by Honeywell Inc CIA in Oman. development work Tetra. Tech was
Now his role in a Middle East oil But a .1975 US, State Department doing in Oman.)
deal has brought him out of obscuri- memorandum, not part of the Ash- Townsend also said he believes ty and provided a rare inside view of land file, provides the greatest detail Critchfield was involved be the trans-
that network of CIA agents, former about Omar. It refers to his "deep fer of a hag. which had contained
agents, intermediaries and business and corrupt" involvement in Oman
pen le. It shows bow they operate businessman and adviser to Sul-
torApp sl*OVnRe1 se 20Q1 1 r06Qa 4'rR[~J 91IrOO 0180005000 09-0
activities affect U.S. interests cam diplomats and other business-
abroad. men Clad documented how he
Critchfield's relationship with Omar control over vital oil shipping lanes to the sultan of Oman.
and Ashland - I from the Arabian Gulf. Ashland tr .
a
a%a as gyp
ate
that Crltrhfleld and Tetra Tech had. work IJa
not worked for the CIA in Oman. A
Honeywell official declined- com- Critchiieid says.helu st met Omar in
meat on whether the company will the early 1970s. in Rome, where
review Crltchfleld's Ashland involve- Omar geWed der fleeing Libya
maul in the coup that brought Moammar
Khadaty to power. The relationship
Oman is a tiny country, but its lots- continued after Crltchfield left the
 STATINTL
MMT1('! E &pp vad For Release 2001
0111 1-1 Y
FACT. a r----.+-
4 jfASR 11blo9
ne day in July 1944, as the Second
World War raged throughout Europe,
General William "Wild Bill" Donovan
was ushered into an ornate chamber in
Vatican City -for an audience with
Pope Pius XII. Donovan bowed his
head reverently as the pontiff intoned a ceremonial
prayer in Latin and decorated him with the Grand
Cross of the Order of Saint Sylvester, the oldest and
most prestigious of papal knighthoods. This award has
been given to only 100 other men in history, who "by
feat of arms, or writings, or outstanding deeds, have
spread the Faith, and have safeguarded and cham-
pioned the Church."
Although a papal citation of this sort rarely if ever,
states why a person is inducted into the "Golden Mili-
tia," there can be no doubt that Donovan earned his
knighthood by virtue of the services he rendered to the
Catholic hierarchy in World War II, during which he
served as chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS),
the wartime predecessor to the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). In 1941, the year before the OSS was
officially constituted, Donovan forged a close alliance
with Father Felix Morlion. founder of a European
Catholic intelligence service known as Pro Deo. When
the Germans overran western Europe. Donovan helped
Morlion move his base of operations from Lisbon to
New York. From then on, Pro Deo was financed by
Donovan. who believed that such an expenditure
would result in valuable insight into the secret affairs of
the Vatican, then a neutral enclave in the midst of fascist
Rome. When the Allies liberated Rome in 1944. Mor-
lion re-established his spy network in the Vatican; from
col NUED
Approved For Release 2001/03/06 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500070009-0