WASHINGTON STORM OVER ROLE IN CHILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 106
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR.
Washington storm
over role in Chile
CIA covert intervention charged
in secret testimony of Colby
By Dana Adams Schmidt
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
Secretary of State Henry A. Kis-
singer is in the middle of a storm
blowing in the capital over covert
intervention by the Central In-
telligence Agency in the political life
of Chile, apparently to prevent the
election of former President Salvador
Allende Gassens and to cause his
overthrow.
Members of Congress - notably
Sen. Frank Church, Democrat of
Idaho, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
Democrat of Massachusetts, and Rep.
Michael J. Harrington, Democrat of
Massachusetts - are angry because a
long succession of State Department
officials including Dr. Kissinger has
assured them that the United States
was not intervening in the internal,
affairs of Chile.
Secret testimony by CIA director
William E. Colby before the subcom-
mittee on intelligence of the House
Armed Service Committee indicating
quite the contrary has been leaked by
Mr. Harrington in the form of a letter
protesting the CIA activities to
Thomas E. Morgan, chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Testimony reported
Mr. Colby, according to Represen-
tative Harrington, testified that the
so-called "40 Committee" headed by
Secretary Kissinger authorized the
CIA between 1970 and September,
1973, when President Allende was
overthrown and killed, to spend more
than j6 million on covert activities in
Chile.
"As recently as Aug. 20 of last
year," Mr. Harrington said in-
dignantly in a telephone interview,
"the Committee of 40 approved an-
other million dollars to be spent
bribing political figures. And it was
only called off after Allende was
overthrown." In Mr. Harrington's
view the United States had "no busi-
ness" intervening in the political
affairs of this or any other duly
elected government.
Now comes a fresh report in the
? New 'c'ork Times, citing "well-in-
formc;i government sources" who
allege that Dr. Kissinger directed a
Nixon administration program to cut
back economic aid and credits at a
series of weekly meetings between
various agencies which he headed.
The report fuels the growing concern
on Capitol Hill. There was no imme-
diate comment from the Secretary.
In an appearance before a confer-
ence on CIA activities organized by
,he Center for National Security Stud-
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STAT
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020106-6
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
ies, a private organization, CIA direc-
tor Colby late last. week made the
central point in the CIA's defense of
its record in Chile: that the CIA had
not had any part in the actual over-
throw of President Allende. But he
declined to talk about other CIA
activities intended to influence Chi-
lean politics.
Imperturable in the face of shouts
demanding to know "how many
people have you killed" and other
provocations, Mr. Colby was stirred
to heat only by an allegation made by
Daniel Ellsberg that he did not under-
stand the 'Constitution and did not
support it. "I understand it," Mr. l
Colby replied, "as well as you do."
The 48-page testimony by Mr. Colby
indicated that funds were used to
influence individuals, political par-
ties, and the media, including $5
million for "destabilization activi-
ties" after Mr. Allende's election and
$1.5 million to help anti-Allende. candi-
dates in municipal elections last year.
Questions rised
The questions raised by these state-
ments are of great personal signifi-
cance to Dr. Kissinger, who has
recently emerged from a searing but
inconclusive investigation into his
role during the Nixon administration
in authorizing wiretapping of public
officials and members of the press.
Dr. Kissinger is chairman of the 40
Committee on which also sit the
director of central intelligence, the'
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
and the undersecretary of state for
political affairs. In the words of one t
high official the committee, which
acts in effect as a subcommittee of the
Naional Security Council, is "all Kis-
singer."
In addition to the Secretary, a
number of high-ranking State Depart-
ment officers who denied that the
United States was intervening in Chile
also are implicated.
Those who testified and denied U.S.
Government interference in Chile in-
cluded Charles A. Meyer, former
assistant secretary of state for Latin
American affairs, and Edward M.
Korry, a former ambassador to Chile.
Senator Church put the issue
bluntly on Wednesday: "Apart from
the question whether perjury was
committed in a legal sense," he
asserted, "there's no question but
what the committee was given to
believe that our policy was one of
nonintervention."
The Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee headed by Sen. J. William
Fulbright responded to the hubbub by
calling a full-committee hearing in
closed session on the subject for
Tuesday, Sept. 17.
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