CHILEANS INJECT CIA INTO LETELIER SLAYING PROBE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000400120006-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2004
• Sequence Number: 6
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/06/14: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000400120006-9
CIA OPERATIONS CENTER Date. 18 Octobe
DISTRIBUTION II
L
The attached is from today's Star.
0, lleans Vnject
Leteli
By Jeremiah O'Leary
Washington Star Staff Writer
Officials of the government of
Chile and defense attorneys in the
Letelier murder case have raised the
issue of CIA involvement in the
assassination. But the Justice De-
partment calls the suggestions
"ridiculous and untrue."
Chilean government officials twice
have mentioned the former CIA
deputy director, Gen. Vernon A. Wal-
~ters? f_n connection with a case,
though not specifically charging any
connection between him and the
bomb-murder in Washington of
Orlando Letelier, an exiled Chilean
leftist.
And, in response to charges by
. attorneys for three of the five Cuban
exiles indicted in the case, the United
States admitted in court papers filed
yesterday that Michael V. Townley
made "two unrelated contacts" with
the CIA in Florida "a number of
years.-Ago." Townley has been con-
Item No.
NEWS SERVICE Ref. No.
r playa
victed of conspiracy in the case and
is cooperating with the prosecutors.
The first mention of Walters was
made in March in Santiago, Chile,
when Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene
M. Propper and two FBI agents, Car-
ter Cornick and Robert Scherrer.
were questioning two Chilean army
officers about their role in the Le-
telier case.
THE SECOND mention was last
week when Chilean Ambassador Jose
Miguel Barros hinted that it might be
interesting to find out why Walters
went to Paraguay early in July 1976.
Walter's departure from the CIA
was announced in April 1976.
The two Chilean army captains,
whose real names were not disclosed
by sources here, were the ones
presented to Propper and his investi-
gative team by the Chilean govern-
ment as "Juan Williams Rose" and
"Alejandro Romeral."
These were the names used. the
U.government said, by the Ameri-
can, Townley, then a member of the
Chilean secret police, and a Chilean
army captain, Armando Fernandez
Larios, in Asuncion,. Paraguay,
where they used Paraguayan pass.
ports to obtain U.S. visas.
Since Propper and Cornick had
passport photos of Townley and Fer-
nandez, they are sure the use of the
two Chilean captains was an attempt
to hide the identities of those accused
of plotting and carrying out the Sept.
21. 1976, murder of Letelier and a col-
league, Ronni Moffitt.
PROPPER AND Cornick refused
to comment on the new twist in the
case, but it was learned that one of
the two captains with false names
said under questioning March 24 that
their mission in August 1976 to the
United States was to see Walters.
The other said they had come to
deliver documents to the Chilean
Embassy here.
Walters is traveling and could not
beached for comment.
Approved For Release 2004/06/14: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000400120006-9
 However, in
about the Letelier
he knew nothing
case and had h
s.
Chilean officer
In his state
the request of the Chi-
by the FBI at
Walters denied any
lean government,
offi-
contact with the
knowledge or
cers. And he said that suggestions of f
purpose to his trip to
some suspicious
the Paraguayan capital were ridic-
ulous."
TRIP to Paraguay
WALTERS'
visit, government
was a private
They said the timing of
had no contact with the obtained the U.S. visas with Paraguayan passports the timing was an
sources said.
there - just a few
Walters' arrival
Townley and
weeks before Fer-
nandez obtain
falsified Par
was unrelated to the he
July 27. 1976
But one official ac-
Leteliei case.
knowledged t
unfortunate coincidence.
The Walters statement, it was learned, is part of
a massive documentation. sent to the Chilean Su-
preme Court last month by Propper as part of a
request for extradition of the three Army officers
accused in the Letelier murder: Gen. Manuel Con-
treras Sepulveda, retired chief of the DINA secret
police; Col. Pedro Espinoza, operations chief of
DINA; and Fernandez, who came to the United
States, the U.S. government alleges, to shadow Le-
telier in order to chart his movements a few days
before a bomb killed him in his car.
In his statement Walters told the FBI that the
purpose of his journey to Paraguay was "totally
unrelated to the Letelier case and completely
apart from either Chile or Letelier."
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT officials said yester-
day, in response to questions, "The Department of
Justice has become aware that certain elements in
Chile are attempting to raise smokescreens that
Townley is CIA and therefore that there has to be
CIA involvement."
Chilean officials have had Walters' statement
since July 1978, well before the arrival there of the
extradition documents, and know there is no truth
to allegations about him, Justice Department offi-
cials said.
Two Townley-CIA connections, hitherto unre-
ported, came to light yesterday in court docu-
ments filed by Propper and Assistant U.S.
Attorney E. Lawrence Barcella.
In their reply to motions filed by attorneys for
the three Cuban exiles awaiting trial in the Le-
telier case, the prosecutors acknowledged that
Townley had two contacts with the CIA in Florida
that they said were unrelated to the Letelier affair.
A footnote to the prosecutors' reply said:
"The defendants state in their motion that 'the
prosecutor has admitted that Townley had contact
with the CIA at Langley.' This is simply not true.
In response to a question by counsel for the defend-
ants regarding Michael Townley's contacts with
the CIA, the prosecutors informed counsel that a
number of years ago, Townley had two unrelated
contacts with the CIA in Florida.
"ON ONE OCCASION in 1970 or 1971, Mr. Town-
le- contacted the CIA to ask if they were inter-
June he ve FBI
tease 2004/06/14: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000400120006-9
in the near future. While a (CIA) representative
took some general background information from
Mr. Townley, no further action or contact oc-
curred.
I "Subsequently, in 1973, Mr. Townley contacted a
I representative of the CIA in Florida to state that
he had just returned from Chile and asked if any-
one would be interested in talking to him. Neither
party got back in touch with the other. These two
incidents represent the sum total of contacts be-
tween the CIA and Mr. Townley."
The CIA declined to comment on any aspect of
I the Townley-CIA contacts or the Walters trip to
Paraguay.
The documents filed with U.S. District Judge
Barrington D. Parker by the prosecutors were in
response to motions by New York attorneys Paul
A. Goldberger, Jerry Feldman and Lawrence A.
Dubin who represent Guillermo Novo Sampol,
Ignacio Novo Sampol and Alvin Ross Diaz.
TWO TWO OTHER anti-Castro Cuban exiles, Jose
Dioniso Suarez and Virgilio Paz, are charged with
the Letelier murder and are fugitives from the
FBI.
The attorneys, preparing for the trial scheduled
to begin Jan. 8, made motions for discovery of the
government's evidence, for a change of venue of
the trial, for a bill of particulars claiming that the
indictments are vague and for severance of the
Ignacio Novo trial from the trial of the others.
i Parker will hear arguments on these motions Oct.
30.
The prosecutors said the government will pro-
vide extensive discovery, but, "We fimly reject the
notion promoted by the defense that discovery is to
ualed W'
be In r
esponsehtotdefense sat attorneys' request 'for to government CIA documents and files, the prosecutors said,
"There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that
the Central Intelligence Agency had either ad-
vance knowledge of or participated in the Letelier
assassination.- While it might be a popular pastime
and interesting cocktail party conversation to level
unfounded charges at the CIA, there is not the
tslightest scintilla of evidence to indicate CIA in-
volvement or knowledge of this matter."
THE PROSECUTORS also said that the law pro-
vides no- support for the defense attorneys' de-
mand that the government reveal the identity of
all informers in the Letelier case.
The Chilean Supreme Court has the evidence for
extradition of Contreras, Espinoza and Fernandez
under study but has refused to make the evidence
public. Described by some sources as "explosive,"
the evidence may not by law be disclosed by U.S.
officials until the trial begins. Chile is expected to
keep a lid on the evidence at least until the trial
begins of the three defendants in U.S. custody.
The three Chilean officers accused of complicity
jn the murder are in technical custody in Chile.
ested in the faj0M)l a of ~l1vaesj~g2V b%/14 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R000400120006-9