THE HELMS FILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030096-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 96
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030096-7
CIA OPERATI -EfNTEii-
NEWS SERVICE
DISTRIBUTION II
The attached
INVESTIGATIOWS:
The Helms i`i1e
For the past eighteen months, the Jus-
tice Department has been pursuing the
investigation of Richard ~I. Helms, for-
mer director of the Central Intelligence
Agency, on charges of perjury and ob-
struction of justice. No one-not even
Helms-denies that he misled a Senate
committee about the extent of CIA oper-
ations against Chile's Marxist President
Salvador Allende. But last week, Presi-
deutCarter suggested at his news confer-
encethat hewould soon weigh the possi-
ble damage to national security if Helms
were put on trial. And NEwSwEEK
learned that J ustice Department prosecu-
tors are seeking White House permission
to declassify pertinent documents.
Friends of Helms, who ran the aoency'~.
from 1966 to 1973, indicate that he is
prepared to name names and reveal ~
secrets to defend his actions. "You've I
got [Henry] Kissinger involved, lots of
high officials," said one long time asso-
ciate of the former CIA director. "It
would be pretty messy." Helms's law-
yer, Edward Bennett Williams, has said
privately that if Helms is brought to
trial, he will seek to obtain CIA papers
to show that every previous CIA direc-
torhas lied to Congress, and that legisla-
tors frequently winked at the lies.
Coup: The basis for any indictment
would be Helms's testimony before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee in
February 1973. Asked whether he had
the CIA pass any money to Allende's
opponents, Helens answered, "No sir."
Date. 3 0 c t
Item No. 3
Ref. No.
is from the current issue of Netwsweek.
But a second Senate committee reported
that the agency funneled $8 million to
Allende's opponents in the three years
between Allende's election and the mili-
tary coup in which he was killed.
Helms's friends say he is angry at what
he considers the Justice Department's
"persecution." And he could hardly have
been cheered when Carter tripped twice
at his press conference, referring to "the
offense with which he will be charged" ~I
and later noting: "It's a very serious ~~
thing for anyone to commit perjury."
Aides quickly explained that Carter I
meant to say "may be charged" and "al- '
leged perjury." But there was specula-
tion that he may have inadvertently
tipped the Justice Department's hand- '
and that a Helms indictment may be
handed up soon. The elegant, Establish-
ment Helms was also said to be furious at
a television show, the fictional "Wash-
ington: Behind Closed Doors," which
cast Cliff Robertson as a Helmslike CIA
director in a Nixon-style Administration
as cold-blooded, given to blackmail
and-worse yet!-adultery.
Helms: A threat to name names
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030096-7