'NATIONAL SECURITY' RULED OUT AS EXCUSE FOR BLOCKING ITT CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030066-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2011
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: March 12, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/05: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000030066-0
Wilmington Delai are Journal Afar. 12, 1978
6 o c ..
n
tand 'd Out. Cas
e 111L5_ 114: 21 /1 10 rD T lGe -
e
17-17- '
By JOE TRENTO
Stall Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The Justice
Department will not use the issue
of national security to avoid
prosecuting top ITT executives
for alleged perjury and fraud
charges in connection with their
testimony about the company's
role in Chile.
Benjamin R. Civiletti told the
Senate Judiciary Committee last
week that the Central Intelligence
Agency has not invoked national
security nor has it asked the Jus-
tice Department to refrain from
prosecuting board chairman Har-
old S. Geneen and other officials
of International Telephone and
Telegraph Corp.
Civiletti is scheduled to return
this week to face further question-
ing on his nomination to be deputy
attorney general. He has been act-
ing in that post.
According to Sen. James Abou-
rezk. D-S.D., Civiletti told the
committee that he "was aware of
the April 2 (5-year) statute of limi-
tations" on possible perjury
charges against ITT executives
and that "the CIA had made no
issue out of the national security
question" that the Justice Depart-
ment says kept CIA Director
Richard M. Helms from coming
to trial.
Helms pleaded guilty Nov. 1
to two misdemeanor counts of
withholding information from
Congress and was sentenced to
two years in jail and a $2,000 fine.
The jail time was suspended.
Helms is the highest intelligence
official ever convicted of a crime.
Civiletti confirmed that the ITT
executives had been. part of the
same investigation, which began
more than two years ago. The
investigation stemmed from alle-
gations of perjury before the 1973
Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee about joint ITT-CIA efforts
to destabilize the 1970 election
campaign and later the regime of
the late Chilean President Dr.
Salvador Allende Gossens. Al-
lende. a Marxist, was killed in a
1973 coup that installed a military
dictatorship in Chile.
Abourezk said Civiletti had
"committed the administration
under oath to the fact that the
national security argument
wouldn't be used as an excuse to
get these guys off the hook."
The ITT executives and some
lower-level CIA officials are fac-
ing multiple counts of fraud and
perjury for allegedly lying to the
foreign relations committee and
to the arbitration panel that
awarded ITT S92.1 million dollars
in nationalization insurance for
its losses in Chile.
Abourezk believes the urosecu-
tions of Gencen, ITT Vice Presi-
dent Edward J. "Ned" Garrity
and Robert Berellez. an ITT pub-
lic relations executive. will "be
announced by the secord'of April
if Civiletti is selling the truth."
The senator also said there are
"CIA officials who Justice is still
looking at, and they, according to
Civiletti, will not have national
security as a protection from
prosecution either."
Justice Department spokesman
Robert L. Stevenson confirmed
Civiletti's comments before - the
Judicary Committee.- Abourezk
says he "intends to pin down Civi-
letti on this investigation and to
make certain we know all about
it. I don't want a repeat of the
Richard Helms affair."
Approved For Release 2011/08/05: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000030066-0 `