AIRLIE HOUSE FOUNDER DENIES CIA LINK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400030021-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: September 15, 1957
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized - Approved For ReleFaQ bdI4-
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By ROBE 1' VALTlrllS !Suveral i ings>
: ?- luullucr 01 -u'e ous
Flatly denies a charge that the
sprawling Virginia conferenc
center has been secretly sU
ported by the Pentagon, Stat
Department and Central In
telligence Agency.
"Not a sin ;le dollar of suppor
from the CIA 'or any other sine
a arm, ra is
airport ant
In charging government in
volvement with Airlie, Higg
said it violated a White Hous
policy, approved earlier thi
year, which stated that:
"No federal agency-shall pro-
vide covert financial assistant
or support, direct or indirect, t
lar organization has been of any of the nation'
d
ti
s e
uca
onal
fered or accepted by this insti or private voluntary
organize- Head' ions."
director of the Airlie Founda-
ticn Biggs, 31, has long been asso-
, said yesterday, iated with the civil rights
The CIA declined to comment novement and is an active sup-
on the charges, but govern,-11
lee orter of a number of radical
sources said the charges leveled 1 by Washington attorney William auses, He did not say why he
Higgs at a press conference ade the charges, but indicated
earlier in the day were untrue, hat his political liberalism, was
i-Iiggs said that "an elaborate t least a major reason.
system of electronic bu ging' Iliggs graduated from the
equipment has been installed in University of ivIississirmi and
.Ai-lie's main conference build- Iarvard Law School. 1$e was
irg and is capable of secretly ne of the principal strategists
monitoring the conversations of ehind the civil rights challenge
conference participants. Head o the Mississippi delegation at
denied such use. he 1964 Democratic National
Iliggs said "the nation's in- onvention.
telligence system has been in- Higgs said he spent four
timately and secretly involved ionths doing research on Airlie
of aomcstic thought and poli-
cs" through its influence over
the operation of the 1,200-acre
conference center located just
east of Warrenton, Va., in Fau-
quier County.
Used by U.S. Agencies
Although frequently used by
the State Department and other
{ government agencies, Airlie
House also has been the site of
meetings organized by groups
such as the House Republican
leaders, the International As-
sociation of Chiefs of Police,
George Washington University
and the NAACP Legal and De-
fense Fund.
The Airlie complex includes
'oundation's tax: returns, land
cords and other documents.
Traces Founding
He said he traced the found-
'g of Airlie House to a 1957
emo written by Kenneth T.
'
oung, then director of the i
hate Department's Southeast.
fairs desk, urging the creation
a private conference center
the Washington area to culti-
te and train "the ruling elite"
Asian nations, and ".
here key officials could spend
few days of concentrated at-
ntion on this problem with,,
ecialists and officbrs in Wash-
gton.
Higgs said the Airlie land was
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purchase for a total of about
$300,000 between 10,56 and 1930.
Fifteen days after the last
purchase, I-lead's parents, Lil-
lian and Robert Gibson, trans-
ferred the land to him for "love
and affection" but no money.
But Higgs said an investiga-
tion of the Gibsons showed that
they apparently did not have
the assets necessary to make
such a large real . estate pur-
chase. He said a credit report
showed Gibson worked' as a
washing machine salesman and
his wife was employed r in a
beauty parlor.
Current president of the foun-
dation is Mortimer M. Caplin,
former director of the Internal
Revenue Service. The vice pres-
'dent is Joseph Sisco, Heads
brother-in-law and assistant
secretary of state for interna.
tional organization affairs, who
"entered government service
through the CIA in 1950," Higgs
said.
Other directors, according to
eggs, include Newton Minnow,
ormer head of the Federal
ommunica-tions Commission,
Sanitized Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400030021-5
and Edward L. Katzenbach Jr.
brother of Nicholas deB. Kat,
-
zenbach, under secretary of
state.
The foundation's ? public tax
return for 1965, the last year
for which records are. available,
shows $561,205 and total ex-
penses of $49,684. The property
value is in excess of $2 million,
according to Higgs?
Between 80 and 100. persons,
are employed at Airlie, Head
said.
He said Airlie "has been,
from its inception, supported in
the main by myself. and my
family. We have been extreme-
ly careful to avoid alliances
not only with groups of this
nature, but with any organiza-
tions which could have influ-
ence in the direction of the
center."
Head added, "I can cate-
gorically state that this alleged
support by the CIA can only be
attributed to an overly fertile
imagination or, for some rea-
son unknown to us, a deliberate
attempt to falsify the facts."
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