ALLEN DULLES TESTIFIED CIA, FBI WOULD LIE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200760012-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: November 22, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

~rAS111TICT"011 FOSS' F - 13 fi- k -f`/ (U r.- i:~Jc . P.
Approved For Release 2( 0g/(' 2 I 4-PDP88-0135OR00026;;~6OO i 1) v) l e s,~ f I1
By Donald P. Baker
was3i;ilatan Post 54.aff Wrier
Newly declassified docu-
ments reveal that former
1 CIA director Amen Dulles
told the Warren Commission
on the assassination of Pres-
ident Kennedy that the di='
rectors of the CIA and FBI
! might lie to anyone except
the *President to protect the
identity of their operations
and undercover agents.
The formerly top-secret
documents, contained in a
book being published today
on the 11th anniversary of
isfaction that he had no
such connection ..." I
Other comments made !
during. the Jan. -27, 1064, dis-
cussion among Warren Com-
mission members were re-
Dulles, a member of the would get that direction;' (vealed in the book "Portrait
commission that investi- :-Dulles continued: "What I of the Assassin," written in
gated the assassination, as !was getting at, I think under `1965 by then Rep. Gerald~R?'I
saying: Ford.
a
any circumstances, I think president Ford, .who also I
"I would tell the Presi- 'Mr. Hoover 'would say .cer- was a member of the War- c
dent of the United States tainly lie didn't ,have any j ren Commission, did not re-
anything, yes, I am under thing to do with this fel- port Dulles' remarks con-
his control . - : I wouldn't low." cerning how he would an-
necessarily tell anybody Earlier in tliediscussion, swer the President about
I
else, urless the President commission member .Sen. :CIA operation, as posed by.
!authorized me to do it. We Richard B. Russell said to commission members. ~
had that come up a. couple 'Dulles, "If Oswald .never The question of whether !
of times" had assassinated the Presi- Oswald had ever worked for {
de
t
t
Dulles was no longer di.
rector of the CIA when he
served on the commission
headed by then-Chief Jus-
tice Earl Warren.
dent anything, commission ployee of the bureau in any
member John J. McCloy;;. capacity, either as an agent
asked Dulles: "You wouldn't',,"! or as a special employee, or
tell the Secretary of.' as an informant."
Defense?" CIA director McCone tes-
"Well, it depends a little tified the same day as Hoo-W 0111
Dulles replied. "If it was . kin whether Oswald "had - In his new book, Weis-
ivitltin the jurisdiction of any connection with the berg, a long-time critic of
the Secretary of. Defense, CIA, informer, or indirectly - the 'Warren Report, said
but otherwise I would go. to as an emplox'ee, or any that the commission failed
the President,. and.?I _,.do on other capacity? '. J to interview any of the
+?ome cases." ? McCone replied that 11 news reporters who had
~J. Lee Rankin, the comhave determined to my sat-j written that "sources" had
mission's general counsel,
:
id "if th
sa,at is all that is
necessary, I think we' could
get the President to direct
anybody -working for the
government to answer this
n
, or a
least been the FBI or the CIA had
charged with assassinating been raised in several news-
the President and had been ''!paper and magazine articles
in the employ of the FBI. , shortly after Oswald was fa-
and somebody had gone to tally shot in the Dallas po-
tlae FBI t
e
ld h
i
y wou
ave de l
ce station by Jack Rub o
-yn
h
The newly-declassified nied he was an agent." Nov. 24, 1963.
documents are' reproduced Dulles: "Olt Yes." Because of his experience
in a book called."117titewash - '
IV,' by Harold Weisberg, a " Russell: "They would be as director of the CIA from
Frederick, Md., writer and the first to deny it. Your 1953 to 1961, other commis-
i agents would have done ex- sion - members turned to
investigator who sued the actly the same thing." Dulles for advice on how to
government for release of "Exactly."- handle what'author Ford de-
i the documents. Weisberg Dulles:
James H. Lesar, a Wash scribed in his book as "this
lost the case, but shortly af. touchy matter."
chives declassified the infor- private investigations of the Jan. 27, 1964, transcript told
nr.mw..nn. n.. ... r.....l. n.... it-.?.4 ...
-1'.- - some instances CIA employ-
Weisberg. Kennedy and the Rev. Mar-! ees would not tell their su-
'Dulles' cornrnents were tin Luther King Jr.,. said the
documents show that "the periors about the under-
part of a discussion by War- Warren Commission had no cover agents they had em-
ren Commission members investigative staff, and had ! ployed, even if they were
on Jan. 27, 1964, about to rely on the FBI. and CIA,. under oath,
whether directors J. Edgar even while they recognized Rep. Hale Boggs (D-La.),
Hoover of the FBI and they may have had a 'fox in another commission morn-
h
Jo
n A MMicConf th
.e oe
CIA would truthfully an-
swer . questions about
whether Lee Harvey Os-
wald, Kennedy's accused as.
sassin, had ever worked for
the hen house' problem." - ber, responded: "What you
Lesar said other previ- 'do is to make out a problem
ously disclosed testimony if this be true (about
was 'proof that the commis- Oswald), make our problem
sign didn't have the courage utterly impossible. because
to investigate Hoover. you say this rumor can't be
? dissipated under any cir-
' had been rumored in some When Hoover was ques- I,
cumstances."
press reports. boned by the commission, Dulles: "I don't think it
After Dulles hsaid that on May 14, 1964, he testified can unless you believe Mr.
he, when he had d d the that "I can most. emphati- Hoover, and so forth and so
call sa at n time
CI.A,, would tell the PresiApp'f4'~ree5R'~8l'2ie1'C31ifC'kR$Fj'1?50R000200760012-8
cm~
been employed by _ the FBI
or CIA; a statement corr66-
orated by a check-. of wit:',
nesse$ 'called by the com-
mission.,-
'14 an?mA.nterview - at- his
-.house, in. rural Frederick
this w4ek, Weisberg said, "I
have no idea --who killed'
JFK.' That's a function -of
,government. I just know it-,
wasn't Oswald.
Weisberg, . who published
the book himself with money
borrowed by attorney Lesar,
has written' three other
books on the Kennedy as-
sassination, and one on
Kin;'s assassination.
SDC C/-b/---._ . (AA I- fec.s(IsI
C'tf-) (.o n~tcCo e~ off,