THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, US. CHARGES 2 ITT AIDES LIED TO SENATE ON FIRM'S BID TO STOP '70 ALLENDE VICTORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400160027-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: March 21, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12: CIA-RDP88-01315R0004a01'6I027 ,,l _.j--.~e_ --T T
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE 2
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
21 March 1978
G` t;4 /. aY /ft) e, w; l ft i
U .S. Charges 2 I T T Aides Lied to Senate
'On Figs Bid to Stop'7OAllende Ywwry..
By JERRY LANDAUER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
.WASHINGTON-After months of indeci-
sion, the government filed criminal charges
against two executives of International Tele-
phone & Telegraph Corp. for giving false
testimony to the Senate about the company's
clandestine efforts to stop Marxist Salvador
Allende from becoming president of Chile in
1970.
But the Justice Department dropped pos-
sible prosecution of ITT Chairman Harold
Geneen. This decision brought cover-up ac-
cusations from Edward Korry, the Ameri-
can ambassador in Chile at the time of Mr.
Allende's rise to power. In a telephone inter-
view, Mr. Korry alleged that Mr. Geneen
isn't being prosecuted because "he knows
too much" about the Central Intelligence
Agency's relationships with U.S.-based
multinational corporations around the globe.
ITT hadn't any immediate comment on
l the former ambassador's allegations regard-
ing Mr. Geneen.
In another development, the Overseas
Private Investment Corp., or OPIC, made
available documents showing that the CIA
lied about its own-and ITT's-secret fi-
nancing of Mr. Allende's chief opponent in
the 1970 election.
Possibly in part because the CIA refused
to acknowledge that ITT cooperated with the
agency's efforts in Chile, OPIC, the gover-
ment agency that insures U.S. companies'
investments" abroad, eventually honored
I'TT's $92.5 million claim arising from the
Allende government's expropriation of ITT
properties.
The Justice Department's charges
against Mr. Geneen's subordinates, Senior
Vice President Edward Gerrity and Robert
Berreilez, a regional public relations man-
ager, were filed just as the five-year statute
of limitations was running out on some of the
alleged-criminal acts. The two men waived
their rights to indictment by a grand jury,
opting instead to let the government file
"criminal informations," each charging six
felony counts of perjury, making false state-
ments and obstruction of the OPIC proceed-
ings.
ITT promptly issued a statement ex-
pressing confidence In the two men and pre-
- dicting a verdict of innocence after trial.
"Our executives have cooperated (with
the
Justice Department) and have had the full
support. and backing of the corporation," the
company's statement emphasized. ITT
doesn't know of any "reason why their testi-
mony would have been other than truthful
and ITT continues to have confidence in Mr.
Gerrity's and Mr. Berrelles's integrity. They
both continue to serve as valuable execu-
tives of ITT. We are fully confident they will
be found innocent."
Despite the company's strong affirmation
of the men's innocence, Messrs. Gerrity and
Berrellez actually have been plea bargain-
ing with Justice Department attorneys for
several weeks. In all likelihood, sources
said, the government ultimately will accept
pleas of guilty to relatively minor misde-
meanor counts, as it 'did in the case of for-
mer CIA. Director Richard Helms. Mr.
Helms pleaded guilty to giving less than
candid testimony to congressional commit-
tees investigating the CIA's involvement in
the 1970 Chilean elections.
Yet even if the accused executives don't
choose to stand trial, the details of U.S.'gov-
ernment and corporate intervention in the
1970 Chilean elections are generally known
J
starting with hearings by the Senate Sub-
committee on Multinational Corporations
that began in March 1973.
The Senate Intelligence Committee sup-
plied further details in 1975, including an as-
sertion, based on examination of CIA files,
that the CIA rendered "advice on how to
pass" l350,000 to Mr. Allende's opponents .
by ITT. "A roughly equal amount was passed
by other U.S. companies," the Intelligence
Committee related; these companies
haven't all been Identified yet.
Besides, according to the two Senate
committees and to the hearing record of an
OPIC arbitration panel, ITT offered to give
the U.S. government 31 million as part of
any plan to thwart Mr. Ailerxie's election;i
discussed plans with the CIA to create eco-
nomic chaos in Chile after he became 'presi=
dent (Mr. Allende was ultimately over;
thrown by a military coup); solicited other
,companies to join ITT's anti-Allende initiate
eves, and urged the White House "to see
that Allende doesn't get through the cruciak
next six months."
Mr. Geneen testified about the ' dma
rented events under oath to the Sena
multinational subcommittee on April 2,1973
"ITT didn't take any steps to block the elect
Lion of Salvador Allende as president of
Chile." the executive swore. "Nor did IT.
contribute money to any person or to any
agency of any government to block the elec-
tion of Dr. Allende," -Mr. Geneen also as-
serted. .
The CIA fed the same story to OPIC be-
ginning in 1972, when that agency Was con-
sidering ITT's risk insurance claim for ex-
propriated properties of the corporation's
Chile Telephone Co.
As OPIC explained to the CIA in a letter,
the U.S. government isn't liable if ITT
provoked the expropriation "unless the ac-
lions by the company were taken at the spe-
cific request of the U.S. govertunent:'
In a reply letter that turned out to be less
than truthful, the CIA's general counsel re-
sponded that ITT didn't carry out any "ac-
tivities at the request of this agency and we
don't know what activities, if any, the corn
pany in fact engaged in."
OPIC nevertheless rejected ITT's insur-
ance claim, whereupon the company exer-
cised Its legal right to convene a panel of ar-
bitrators. Again OPIC asked the CIA for in-
formation about- ITT's intervention in the
Chilean election and. again' the intelligence
agency chose to protect its relationship with
ITT rather than tell the truth.
"We haven't any documented informa-
tion which would clarify for OPIC the basic
question of whether ITT did engage in ac
lions which `provoked' the government of
Chile into nationalization proceedings
against ITT's subsidiary, the Chile Tele- -
phone- Co.," the CIA said, declining to per-
mit testimony by William Broe, in chzrge
of clandestine operations for Latin America. s
In November 1974, the arbitrators ruled
in the company's favor. Among other find-
ings, the arbitrators. held that ITT's activi-
ties in Chile were "very limited" and that
the company's 5350,000 political contribution
-"if in fact one had been made"--didn't
constitute a violation of Chilean law. -.
OPIC decided some time ago that It
wouldn't reopen its proceedings in the IiT
expropriation case., Mr. Gerrity, among othei`ihhings, told the
Senate subcommittee that the company's $1
million stop-Allende offer to the U.S. govern-
ment was intended "to confirm our confi-
dence in and to help the Chilean economy"
and that Mr. Geneen's apparent motive was
to help launch low-cost housing or farming
projects for the poor. Mr' Berrellez. among
other alleged crimes, was accused of partic-
ipating In a conspiracy to prevent the Senate
panel from learning about exchanges of in-
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R0064VD"N en ITT executives and CIA
- officials,