F.B.I. LEARNS CHILEAN PLOT TO KILL LETELIER IN '76 INVOLVED NERVE GAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680023-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: December 14, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680023-7
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14 December 1981
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Letelier in 76 involved MIT
Verve
Gash
By DAVID SHRIBMA, 4
Special WTbp NewYaicTime
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation has been
informed that the Chilean secret police
manufactured a supply of nerve gas and
shipped it to the United States for possi-
ble use in the 1976 assassination of Or-
lando Letelier, a former Chileanambas.
sador.
The nerve gas, which was bottled in a
Chanel No. 5 perfume atomizer and
transported to the United States on a
Chilean airliner, was not used in the as-
sassination and was returned to Chile,
according to an account contained in a
confidential memorandum from' Wil-
liam H. Webster, Director of the F.B.L
The information was obtained from
Michael Vernon Townley, the Chilean
agent who admitted killing Mr. Letelier,
a leading opponent of the military junta
headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The
for:: er ambassador died in an explosion
in his- car on Washington's Embassy
Row in September 1978.
The stence of the nerve gas, which
Chile is said to have produced for use if
hostilities arose with Argentina and
Peru, came to light In research by two
Amerians- writing a book- about the
Leteliercase. The two, Eugene M. Prop6
per, former chief United States prosecu.
tor in the Letelier case, and Taylor
Branch, a writer, shared details with
the F.B.L, which in turn confirmed sub-
stantial portions of the acct in an in.
terview with Mr. Tgwnley.,~
Centerpiece of'ProjectAndrea'
According to the accoun_t,. the nerve
gas was the centerpiece of "Project An-
drea," a secret undertaking of the Chil-
ean secret police, then (mown as the Na-
tional Intelligence- Directorate. The ac-
count said the gas-was manufacVa ed by
Mr. Townley and stored in a laboratoryin his home in Santiago.
?Jr. Townley, an American-born Chil-1
ean, was convicted in May I979 of con.
sping to murder a foreign official and;
is serving a sentence of 40 months to 1
years in a Federal penitentiary.
Lawrence Barcella Jr., an Assistant
United States Attorney who prosecuted
the case, said in an interview tonight
that the report of nerve gas was "indica-
tive of how far D.I.N.A: and the Chilean;
junta were willing to go to eliminate a
political opponent.
The Webster memorandum indicated
that the F.B.I. had made no recommen-
dations or had reached any conclusions;
in light of the disclosures, - . . I
According to the memo, Mr. Townley,
told the F.B.I. that GuihIerno Novol
Sampol and Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero,
leaders of the anti-Castro Cuban Nation-
alist 'Movement, had been aware that he
possessed the nerve gas. He added thati
they requested a supply of it but that he'
refused to provide it because he consid-!
ered them unstable.
Mr. Novo, in a reversal of a jury trial
two years ago, was acquitted last spring
of murder and conspiracy charges in the
Letelier case, but he was reconvicted of
two counts of lying to a grand jury and is
serving a sentence in a federal prison.
Mr. Paz is still at large. .
According to the report provided toj
the F.B.I., Mr. Townley used a micro-
wave oven and gas cylinders to produce'
a nerve gas known as "sarin." When ex-
posed to air, sarin produces droplets1
that enter the body through the skin or!
lungs, affecting the respiratory mus-
cles..
Anil-CastroLeaders Aware
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680023-7