CIA HELPED CHILE RECRUIT CUBAN KILLERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100890006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: February 24, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100890006-9
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01 PAGP,_4
,: .: ByJOE TRENTO
? WASHINGTON A shit team of Cuban terrorists,
involved. in. at least a .dozen : murders since- 1974,
was recruited with Central Intelligence Agency help
for the secret police of . South-:Africa and. Chile_ a
Sunday News Journal investigation has discovered...:;
The victims include Chilean exile leader Orlando
Letelier and a high.-ranking South African official who
uncovered a major government
scondal::.:
South Africa's Bureau for State Security (BOSS) and.
its Chilean counterpart, called DINA, began hiring
CIA-trained anti-Castro fanatics in 1973, to carry out
.contract killings.
Sunday News Journal reporters followed a chain of
-evidence that included weapons, gold coins. and pass
ports and other documents that linked the contract hit'
team with South Africa's and Chile's secret'police.-
The News Journal investigation included interviews
with secret government witnesses now in hiding under
false identities, with current and former South African
and Chilean intelligence agents and with present and
former officials of the' CIA, the Justice and State
De artments .::.:...:.::.:
These sources say the CIA helped form the hit team
by arranging introductions for operatives of BOSS and
DINA to leaders of the Cuban nationalist movement in
Miami and Union City, N.J. In return; DINA killed at
least 17 agents of the Cuban Intelligence Service and
BOSS provided information about Communist activi-
ties in Africa.
FBI and Justice Department officials say. the CIA did
not inform them that Cuban Nationalists-were receiv-
ing arms, money or false passports even after the hit
team killed Chilean exile Letelier and an American in a.
'1976 Washington; D.C.,.car bombing {;: `:
The FBI has been hunting two CubanNationalists for ?
the Washington'assassinations and is looking into how
their: flight was financed and how-.they are linked to
Omega?7-and ZERO, two Cuban Nationalist Movement
groups claiming credit for a number of terrorist acts,
-including one of the assassination attempts: ` '.
:%Justice Department and FBI officials.say=privately
,they are incensed by the-lack of:cooperation from. the
,CIA in the continuing probe of -.terrorism and. in, the
search for the missing Letelier murder suspects:
were shot to death in
Africa home in Novembt
Another couple, Chi
leader Bernardo Leight
wife Ana, were seriousli
an unsuccessful asst
attempt in Rome in Octo
The South Afr;ca44
that controlled BOSS is n
power, and the new gov
trying to solve the Smit
The new government's
in New York, -Michael Spt
"It is politically imperat
country to solve this case
Louis Le Gerange, Sou
minister of police, said.
investigation has expan
seas because'it "may'i
international plot." Le Ge
last week that he has two
tors in London exploring
national connection."
Spencer. told the 'Sung
Journal that BOSS "had a ..."Y, _a,
relationship with DINA and would
exchange favors."- Spencer said
BOSS was disbanded last year and
reorganized as a -less powerful
National Intelligence Service.
"I can only tell you that many of
the former BOSS officials have gone
underground. The murder of the.
Smits has not been solved. Our gov-
ernment has no idea of who did it,"..
Spencer said. .
CIA spokesman Dale Peterson
said that he could not discuss details 1
and other governments. "Sources
and methods are something we just
can't talk about, and that's what you
are getting into." '
Juan Prado, press attache at the
Chilean embassy in Washington,
said he had no information about
any links and would not discuss the
Testifying under the name of -(
Carlos: Casado,* Canete gave that.'.]
information in secret to a grand
jury in March 1978, but did not-
repeat it at the public trial.
The convicted Cubans defended
themselves by claiming that the,
Letelier-Moffit killings were a CIA-
matter further on the telephone. I -,operation from the beginning. The
Informed by the Sunday News I Justice Department has insisted the
Journal of the hit team's operations,. murders were plotted by agents of
a member of the Senate Select Com- I 'the Chilean government..:
mittee on Intelligence, charged
with CIA oversight, said last week.'.