DEFENSE OF CIA BY ZELNICK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020102-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 102
• Publication Date: September 17, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS. INC.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM All Things Considered... STATION WETA Radio
NPR Network
DATE September 17, 1974 5:00 PM
Washington, D.C.
DEFENSE OF CIA BY ZELNICK
SUSAN STAMBERG: At his news conference last night,
President Ford supported secret use of the CIA to aid anti-
Allende forces in Chile, but the President said we had no
direct involvement in last year's bloody coup.
All Things Considered has been following the allegations
of CIA involvement in Chile. Bob Zelnick joins us now with
some notes on possibly contradictory testimony on the subject,
testimony from various government officials. Bob?
BOB ZELNICK: At least two important congressional
subcommittees were told by Director William Colby of covert
CIA activities directed against the Marxist Chilean regime
of Salvador Allende in the months immediately following the
September 1973 Chilean coup, according to informed Capitol
Hill sources.
Colby first briefed the House Subcommittee on
Inter-American Affairs on Oct 3. He appeared
before e n a t e Subcommi 1tee on W st rn Hemi s .e. a"ff.a. x-s
on (November , T9 3. On both occasions e told of CIA
effrots to ate political organizations in Chile, to
support anti-Allende demonstrations, to finance the opposition
press and political groups, and to sabotage Allende's efforts
to reach an accommodation with Washington in the wake of
the nationalization of American-owned corporations operating
in Chile.
STAT
Details of Colby's secret House testimony were
leaked to reporter Tad Szulc and publizhed in the Washington
Post on October 21st, 1973. Colby's appearance before the
Senate subcommittee chaired by Gale McGee of Wyoming, a Democrat,
was confirmed by my own sources today. In addition to McGee,
senators attending the November 26th session included Democrats
John Sparkman of Alabama, Stuart Symington of Missouri, and
Edmund Muski e of Maine, and Republicans Clifford Case of
Mew Jersey and James Pearson of Kansas. 00785,
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In addition, it was learned that CIA officials
admitted conducting covert operations in Chile in testimony
before the Senate Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations
before the coup occurred. It was further learned that former
CIA Director Richard Helms also admitted Agency participation
in such activities during confirmation hearings on his nomination
for the Ambassadorship to Iran before the full Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
While sources say that Helms and other Administration
officials may have been less than completely candid in portions
of their committee testimony, it would be inaccurate to assume
that key oversight committees were ignorant of the role of
the CIA and what it was attempting to do in discrediting
the Allende regime. At no time, the sources say, did anyone
from the CIA or other government agencies acknowledge efforts
designed to bring about the violent overthrow of the Allende
government, only to undermine its capacity to govern effectively.
Thus while the full story of U.S. involvement
is only beginning to emerge at this time, this much can be
said. First, reasonably prudent members of key congressional
committees knew or should have known of covert CIA operations
against Salvador Allende, even before the bloody coup of
September 1973.
Second, confirmation of such activities was provided
by CIA Director Colby in the months immediately following
the coup.
And third, it is only at this time, in the wake
of new mass publicity, that key committee members are indicating
shock and outrage.
This is Bob Zelnick.
STAMBERG: Bob, a few questions. First of all,
what is it, a gentlemen's agreement up there that would prevent
this story from having come out before?
ZELNICK: It's really tied in with the way Congress
governs itself, and that is the key point that Mr. Colby
made last week in his exchange with Michael Harrington.
Congress establishes the ground rules. It says which committees
oversee the CIA. It says how the testimony is to be handled.
It governs the information provided by these committees to
full committees, to other members of Congress. It governs
the appropriation for the CIA. It is not necessarily a gentlemen's
agreement, although it in effect works that way, due to Congress's
own rules.
STAMBERG: The rules haven't changed. Why is
the story suddenly being l eaked?
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ZELNICK: I guess good reporters are getting on
it. That's why it's being leaked.
STAMBERG: You don't think it's possibly selective
leaks or anything like that?
ZELNICK: Well, I think what happened was a story
that had been simmering for a good many months was published
on the front page of the Washington Post and the New York
Times on the same day. Members of Congress began reacting
to it. To some extent, they may have forgotten the details.
To some extent, they may not have been privy to the earlier
information. And now others are also reacting, trying to
get out their side of the story.
BOB EDWARDS: What is this, a face-saving effort
on the part of Congress?
ZELNICK: Well, it seems that way. It seems that
if Congress is generally interested in governing American
covert operations, restricting them, limiting them, it can
do so by appropriate internal regulations and procedures.
That it has not done so makes these things very embarrassing
to members of Congress, and when a major revelation occurs,
what they try to say is We were deceived," instead of "We
knew it all along and didn't do a darn thing-about it."
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