HAS CIA INFILTRATED OFFICE OF WOMEN VOTERS' LEAGUE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300430002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2004
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 31, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DAILY (SEATTLE
1 JAN
Approved For 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315
F~elease
Has CIA infiltrated office
of women voters' league?
A former secretary for the
Overseas Education Fund
(OEF) of the League of Women
Voters in Washington, D.C.
claims the C.I.A. has infiltrated
the OEF for the purpose of
"neutralizing" the women's
movement.
Another critic of the CIA, ex-
agent Victor Marchetti, will
speak today (admission free) in
the HUB Ballroom at 2 p.m. on
further CIA activities in his only
Seattle speaking engagement.
"I believed the function of the
OEF to be to sponsor programs
for self-help to assist women in
Latin America and in Asia,"
said Ann Roberts, a Seattle
woman who began working for
the OEF last July.
"During the course of my
employment at OEF and from
what I have learned subsequent-
ly," she said, "it became clear
to me -that the CIA provided
funds which, under the auspices
of the OEF, went to people to
conduct investigations of femi-
nist organizations in Latin Amer-
ica and Asia.
"A scheme was set up
whereby an individual, traveling
abroad for the OEF, was asked
to collect information about the
size, strength, politics and fu-
ture. directions of women's or-
ganizations and groups abroad.
"That person would then turn
the information over to a CIA
operative abroad."
It is now clear, Roberts said,
that the CIA considers the fem-
inist movement to be a force to
be investigated, infiltrated and
controlled.
"The CIA desires to kee a
P
,movement and neutralize it as it
'approaches its goal of achieving
social change," she said.
"I have made these CIA prac-
tices known because I resent
having the women's movement
used in this way and because the
policies and actions of the CIA
are abhorrent not only to me,
but to concerned people in this
country and throughout the
world.
"It is perhaps a sign of the
strength of the women's move-
ment, that the CIA considers it a
force to be infiltrated and spied
upon.
"But it is now incumbent upon
those in positions of responsi-
bility within domestic feminist
groups to scrutinize closely their
government funding, to analyze
possible ways the CIA may have
infiltrated their organizations
and to come forward immedi-
ately to expose any and all CIA
involvement in their organiza-
tion."
r~ close watch on the women's
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300430002-3