2 MORE SAY CIA TAUGHT ASSASINS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00499R000200060001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 9, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

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Tines-Dispatch State Staff
WILLIAMSBURG - Two
former. employes of the $ en.
tral Intelli fenc_e Agency told
Ti1te Times-Dispatch Thurs-
day night that the CIA has in
t '-,c past trained men in the
techniques of assassination at
nearby Camp Peary, a Pen-
taton installation with very
tiht security.
One of the ex-employes,
Victor L. Marchetti, also told
T'it e Times-Dispatch he
guessed" that some police-
men have been trained by the
CIA at Camp Peary. It was
recently . reported in New
forit and in Fairfax County
that some policemen had
i.~.en trained by the CIA in
xu i r e-tappL-tg and surveil-
I ace:
f?atcetti had told The Vir-
j_;i> is Cxa zette, a Williamsburg
v:,:ekly, -earlier in the week
t3'?.t a number of "contract
e.opioyes" of the CIA were
tr x nod at Cat to Peary for
;.:t, ticiratic;n it Operation
Pheanlx, a "-ounterterror"
grogram in Sour i Vietnam.
the ether ex ;employe, Pat-
fink J. McGarvey, told the
(laze'tte there was an in-
forrnant ,system "financed,
supported, tea,ned, advised
tmd directed" .,y CIA agents
in cuta Vietnam. He said
that that pro ;ram became
fi;r_ backbone c t the agency's
pr )O-rarn there.
Marchetti a :d McGarvey
t+;ld The Ti1ne:.-Distatch that
the assassination techniques
w _~e part of an 18-month
1':lrarni1itary ceur'ce at Camp
M.zrrjhpttt, a former execu=
t!"... :', istart to the CIA's.
c' ;lt ty director ttl: o told the
!-'T-s-l)isrttch that Arneri-
.'3 t a'ned in ?,3 s.
at Ca3:r.p Peary v ere part of
:t _ac:re of U.S. vents who
said are used to
;seta r.~tinr, ts"' fO
:)ct:_al c.:'rrmisa t n of the
1.. :.?c.,ar',ey said the CIA
V' _n d`'`nit~ tak n t kart in :ts-
t. it rn rltt)., r:cii..
reported last December that
Cartip Peary was a training
base for CIA agents. The
paper also said It was be-
lieved that assassination tech-
niques wore a part of the
training.
Angus A. Thuermer, who
identified himself as assistant
to the director of the CIA,
told a Times-Dispatch W'ash-
in;ton reporter in December
that "statements about assas-
Ination training and teams
are utterly without truth. The
agency has never partici-
Pated in or trained for as3as-
sInation."
T'huerrner said Thursday
night, "The agency has sever
trained for or carried out as-
itait3ination operations -
ever."
McGarvay said of the "as-
sassination team" mentioned
in the tlazett's original story:
"TTiese men are trained in-
dividually in diverse para-
military techniques and as-
saasination is just one aspect
of a CIA course, not a par-
ncular subject of study.,"
McCarvey left the CIA* In
11A6 after seven years of ser-
vice. fie recently published a
book, "CIA: The Myth and
the,Madness."
Marchetti resigned from
the CIA in I.W)9 after 14 years
with the agency. He has writ-
ten one book, "The (tope
Dancer," a ficitional account
of intelligence activities, He
is currently prohibited by a
court injuction from publish-
Ing a nonficitional book on the
CIA.
t;.!!?p~14vted For
Release HS/HC-
 THE NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
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CIA
.1H Pearl
All-en
WILLIAMSBURG (UPI) - the missions at Camp Peary
The Virginia Gazette quoted is to train contract employes
two top officials of the Central who are going out on specific
Intelligence Agency Thursday assignment because ot. their
as supporting allegations that own special skills."
some of the operatives in- "By . 1567, when the Viet
volved in a "counter terror" Cong infrustracture became
program against the Viet one of the principal structures
Cong were trained at Camp of the policy over there, it
Peary in York. County. was decided just to try to
T h e newspaper reported wrap the whole thing up, to
that Victor L. Marchetti, ex- eliminate it," the paper
ecutive assistant to the deputy quoted McGarvey as saying.
director of the CIA from 1666 "They call it neutralization of
to 1969, said that a number of the infrastructure."
the agents employed in "Op- Asked specifically if Camp
oration Phoenix" in South Peary trainees had partici-
Vietnam were trained at pated in the Phoenix Oper-
Camp Peary. ation, k eGarvey r e p l i e d
Marchetti c'+escribed the op- "Some of them did, It was
eration as a "counter-terror reasonable to assume that
program" that accounted for some career and contract per-
more than 40,000 deaths of sonnel were being trained for
Viet Cong during the period these programs.' .
1963-71.
The Gazette said March-
etti's statements were backed
up by Patrick J. McGarvey,
an intelligence analyst from
1963 to 1966. i4IcGarvey was
quoted as saying ti,at "One of
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allef;-ltii;us liuhli~-h(rt ill !;I!' Go:rttr Di','. 22,
"Mr. hit the ('IA trains
for or li?:11'1ic!I'iI s in asnassi11 il( ic)11
t)1)criIIi,;ris is c?Iitiroly notii;' " tnn(actcd
Stil)sC'(~lll'nt to the intervi wws with iiMCCiirvey
nod ?Marchetti, tile seine spokesman
rel)C IIC'(l the (IcIIials coil ccrning
tssassinatioil operations, and refused
coinnlent on any of the CIA's operations in
Vietnam.
After being told the CIA denial, Mar-
chetti was asked if it were indeed true that
the CIA ran the Phoenix assassination
program. "Of course it is," he said. "They
have so testified before Congress.. William L.
Colby, who is now the No. 3 man in the CIA -
t)#l~ a one time ti'.' s under cover as an am-
bassador to Vietnam in charge of these
matters - testified before Congress that the
(Phoenix) program had been very suc-
cessful."
BOTH MARCI?IE T TI and McGarvey,
however disputed `,la;gio's allegation that
"kill teams" have been garrisoned at Camp
Peary, Marchetti said he had never head of
assassination squads being stationed at
Camp Peary. He added, '.As far as I know,
they were all out in Vietnam."
Marchetti and' McGarvey both also
denied ever hearing about the CIA's
possession or maintenance of nuclear
weapons at Camp Pear\', a charge nlacle by
t
Maggio. "\Vhat you're seeing (at Camp
Peary) is no different than if you go to Ft.
Bragg - j,imp training, ni'-,ht air ops, am-
bush training,'' lilarchetti said. ,
"Their danger to this country is more
subtle. If you accept the proposition that the
United States government s;ion'd he covertly
involved in the internal affairs of another
country in order to achieve its goals, that it
should do things that are .n:'rmally Con-
sidered unethical and immoral in order to
further U.S. influence overseas, then all this
is acceptable. If you don't, then that is v-,-hat is
bad about it."
Both Marchetti and McGarvev said they
had participated in sever l Ilea fining courses
at Camp Pcarti' duri tl_;,i: care rs, and
Marchetti noted that Ile ;,'uet _rl one course
there. McG: rvcy left I'll'-, U. S. intelli nee
cormunnity in 1'J09 after seven 3-t_"-H- es-
perience, ar.d is solf-el-m"loyed as a writer.
Marchetti resigned from the CIA after 1.1
ycar$ the.r'e, '111 "I V`. rote coo he n, ''Tile
a of tin' in-
tell
li;ld l' a Li) ti', !:Ij'!'i1Ci1 ?ii i'. Cl1it)itiil4 ti'i!;1 from
vVritiny; about that
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NEWP p. rqyA7
PRESS DEC291972t
M -- 48,828
S - 74,643
CIA Denies r-Fraining]?e
A spokesman for the Central. Intelligence
Ageinhis week denied a report that York
Cnty's Camp Peary is used to train CIA
agents in the use of "mini-nuclear" weapons
and the tactics of assassination.
The spokesman did not, however, specific-
ally deny that Camp Peary is used as a CIA
training base as charged in the current
issue of a-Williamsburg newspaper, the Vir-
ginia Gazette.
ort
The Virginia Gazette story, based on
lengthy interviews by two of the news-
papers staff 'members with former CIA
agent JOE Maggio, who has written a semi-
fictional book about the agency, quoted
Maggio as saying Camp Peary is used for
training and experimentation in subversive
and espionage activities - including such
sueJects as assassination, demolition, para-
chuting, wiretapping and intelligence gath-
ering.
In reaction to the story, Angus A. T'huer-
rner, who identified himself as assistant to
the director of the CIA, called the Richmond
Times-Dispatch's Washington Bureau to ' re-
fute portions of these charges.
Maggio's statements "about assassination
training and teams is utterly without truth,"
Thuermer is reported as saying.
"The agency has never participaled in, or
trained for, assassination," he added.
"The comment about nuclear mini-wea-
pons is also equally untrue."
According to the Times-Dispatch, 'I'huer-
mer never actually denied. Camp Peary's
role as a CIA training base, though he
apparently did_ not confirm the report ei-
ther.
Another former CIA agent, however, told
'11mes-Dispatch staffers Camp Peary was
the CIA's principal training base in the
United States when he underwent training in
the 1950s.
The unidentified former agent reportedly
said further he believes the base is still
used for this purpose from information he
has gathered from contacts and personal
friendships with present CIA employes.
NCverthele,ss, the paper said, he joined
Thuernier in dismissing the reports of as-
sassination teams and nuclear mini-wea-
pons, saying he did not know of any such
things at Camp Peary while he was there. :
Maggio, however, insisted he would
"stand by his sources of information,"
'though he conceded his contentions of assas-
sination trailing and use of nuclear devices
were based on second-hand accounts.
T