DO WE STILL PLOT MURDERS? WHO WILL BELIEVE WE DON'T?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201190009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 14, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201190009-1
LOS ANGELES TIMES (CA)
.14 June 1983
Do We Still Plot Murders?
Who Will Believe We Don't?
By FRANK CHURCH
Did the CIA conspire to murder Miguel
d'Escoto, Nicaragua's foreign minister? Was
there a plot to kill him, slowly and untrace-
ably, with a bottle of poisoned brandy?
Yes, claims Lenin , Cerna, Nicaragua's
state security .chief,.; at an elaborately or-
chestrated press ` conference - in Managua,
where such paraphernalia as code books,
wooden-idol bookends with secret compart-
ments, and a bottle of lethally laced liquor
were exhibited in , evidence. ,The poison, -it
was alleged,'would have caused D'Escoto to
lose his hair and eyebrows, possibly become
sterileand then die.
"Clearly preposterous," retorts U.S Amy'
bassador ? Anthony C. " E. Quanton, who
refused td dignify'the-ugly accusationwith;a
protractedtdehial. Who would believe such a
bizarre s y anyway? f I .
Well, to, begin 'with, nearly everyone in
Nicaragua. And, In all likelihood, most of the
people south of our border. They are apt-to
believe any murder charge laid' on us,
however clumsy or contrived. 'Magically,
we have earned a reputation as a country
thai , will u$e such malignant :methods even
igs#wt emal,'-wes3 neighbors 11 the cross
that'we bear for the CIA's past involvement
in p)' tai tO *ssas irate Latin leaders.
i t$not Iorgotten that, from.. 1960 to 1965,
thentTA''ihsttgated at least. eight plots to
m er Fwel Castro, one of `which prog-
reseed to the point where we ' sent , poison
pillp,,to Cuba and dispatched underworld
figures. to commit the crime. The assassina-
tion `devices that we considered using ran
the.,gamut from high-powered rifles to
poisoned pill, pens and. cigars, -deadly
bacterial powders and even a contaminated
diving suit!
Nor is it forgotten that these CIA conspir-
acies-once described by President Lyndon
B. Johnson as "Murder lnc."-extended well
beyond Cuba. In April, 1961; the agency
placed carbines in the hands of dissidents in
the Dominican Republic, knowing that they
intended to kill Rafael Trujillo, the country's
right-wing dictator. At least one of the
weapons was in the possession of the
assassins when Trujillo was gunned down.
Nine years later the CIA went at it
again in Chile. This time the victim was Gen.
ttene Sckneider, commander of the Chilean
army, a constitutionalist,, who opposed an
American-fomented military overthrow of
the elected government-1n.this case.. the
agency delivered three submachine guns
,and ammunition to Chilean, officers who
were preparing to kidnap the general. It was
thus established that the: CIA intended to
facilitate his forcible removal even though
Schneider was actually :.killed by another
group. of:nbductors.as-he draw his handgun
in self-defense.
'Of ' .course 'these misdeeds, which so
plainly contradict our professed principles,
were perpetrated 'under deep.cover. But no
secret can be. kept fdr long,in a free society
such as ours. : It was only- a question of
time, aspur cloak-and.-dagger advocates
should' have realized, before a tenacious
press would uncover and reveal the sordid
facts.
The political price that' we then pay is
heavy indeed. Itis measured by the credibil -
ity that the latest self-serving Nicaraguan
charges will have throughout Latin Ameri-
ca, by the extent to which` Third World
countries ' have come to regard -the United
States as an imperialist power, .and by. the
skepticism' with which `so many American
citizens now.' view .the pronouncements of
their own government.
Since the Reagan Administration has
brought backthe old obsessions of the .Cold
War, and covert action is again being touted
as a tough, realistic necessity, we should
remind ourselves that this antiseptic term is
a semantic disguise for. .-unacknowledged
proxy wars, for murder, coercion, blackmail,
bribery, the spreading of,lies and any other
dirty trick.that is deemed useful in serving
U.S. interests abroad.
in the dark alleys of covert action, where
the CIA eagerly adopts the tactics of the
KGB, we seem determined to fulfill the
prophecy of GeorgeHunston Williams, the
eminent theologian, who once warned, "Be
cautious when you choose your enemy, for
you will grow more like him."
Frank Church, former chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, now
practices international law in Washington.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201190009-1