BELL TO DISCLOSE DECISION IN ITT PROBE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090031-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: March 20, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090031-7
PAGE /;'--/
Bell to Disclose Decision
in ITT Probe
By Charles R. Babcock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Attorney General Griffin B. Bell is
to announce today whether the Jus-
tice Department will prosecute three
officials of the International Tele-
phone & Telegraph Corp. on charges
of lying to the Senate nearly five
years ago about working with the
Central Intelligence Agency in Chile.
The decision on whether to file
criminal charges is complicated, how-
ever-as it was last fall in the case
against former CIA director Richard
M. Helms-by intelligence community
claims that national security secrets
might be disclosed if a trial were
held.
CIA Director Stansfield Turner met
with Bell last Thursday to express his
concerns about the possible prosecu-
tions, sources'said.
Helms was allowed to plead "no
contest" last October to misdemeanor
charges of failing to testify fully to
the Senate about CIA operations in
Chile.
Bell said then that protecting top-se-
cret information from possible disclo-
sure at a perjury trial was a factor in.
the decision to accept a lesser plea
from Helms.
The five-year statute of limitations
for prosecuting Edward S. Gerrity,
ITT senior vice president, and Robert
Berrellez, an ITT Latin American offi.
cial in the early 1970s, runs out today:
The time after which prosecution of
ITT Chairman Harold S. Geneen
would be barred. is less than two
weeks away.
"I know Monday's the last day on
two of them," Bell said in a telephone
interview Saturday evening. "I'll have
something to say about all three one
way or the other Monday ... The
question is indictment or no indict-
ment."
The term of the grand jury hearing
evidence in the case expired last
month without indictments being re-
turned. But Bell said, "That doesn't
make any difference. We can have
agree1nert to proceed by information,
a counterpart to an indictment."
Prosecutors can file charges by
what is called an "information" with.
out going to a grand jury.
It was learned that in this case the
potential defendants have waived
their rights to have a grand jury con-
sider and vote on whether to issue an
indictment alleging a felony. Thus, it
is possible that Bell is considering a
perjury charge through an informa-
tion, rather than a lesser accusation
of a misdemeanor, in at least one of
the cases.
The testimony in question was de-
livered almost five years ago to the
Senate subcommittee on multina-
tional corporations, which was investi-
gating ITT's alleged collaboration
with the CIA to prevent the 1970 elec-
tion of socialist Salvador Allende in
Chile. Geneen, Gerrity and Berrellez
testified under oath at the hearings.
Possible perjury charges were refer-
red from the Senate to the Justice De-
partment in late 1975 after revelations
that both the CIA and ITT had
funded Allende's election opponents.
Allende won the election but was
killed in a September 1973 coup.
The perjury investigations have
dragged on because Justice Depart-
See ITT, A6, Col. 1
Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090031-7
 Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090031-7
WASHINGTON POST
PAGE
DATE
A 6
Monday, March 20, 19,3 THE :WASHINGTON POST
Attorney General to Tell
Of Decision in ITT Probe
ITT, From Al
ment prosecutors tried to prepare
cases against Helms and the ITT offi-
cials that would withstand defense
motions for access to secret CIA docu-
ments, Justice Department officials
said.
In November 1976, Harold V. Hen-
drix, former ITT public relations di-
rector in Latin America, pleaded
guilty to the misdemeanor charge of
withholding information from the
Senate subcommittee during his testi-
mony.
Court papers filed at the time of his
plea show that he had told the CIA he
would be giving false testimony to the
Senate. The papers also show he has
been cooperating with prosecutors in
the further investigations.
It could not be learned precisely
what criminal charges might have
been recommended in the remaining
+..ases, or whether there has been plea
bargdining, as there was in the Helms
case.
Attorneys for the ITT officials
could not be reached for comment.
Bell declined to comment on what
his decision would be except to say
the dispositions "might not all be the
same."
Others familiar with deliberations
in the investigation, however, said the
potential case against Gerrity ap-
pears stronger than that against Gen-
een.
In his March 22, 1973, testimony,
Gerrity told the subcommittee that a
proposed $1 million ITT offer to the
CIA in 1970 was to promote agricul-
ture and housing in Chile, not to
block Allende's election. Members of
the subcommittee were openly skepti-
cal of that explanation at the time.
Geneen testified on April 2, 1973,
that he had twice offered funds to the
U.S. government to be used against
Allende that he said the CIA declined.
It was disclosed in 1975 that ITT
STANSFIELD TURNER
told Bell of security concerns
had given at least $350,001) to support
Allende's opponents.
In his testimony, Geneen said, "Nor
did ITT contribute money to any per-
son or to any agency of any govern.
ment to block the election of Al-
lende."
He also testified that "ITT did not
take any steps to block the election of
Salvador Allende as president of
Chile ...."
Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090031-7