LA CIA: DOES IT WEAR A WHITE OR BLACK HAT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140067-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: March 28, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140067-0
LEWISTON TRIBUNE (ID)
28 March 1984 OU oml
La CIA: Does it wear a white or !black hat?'
Y a y arnard
of the Tribune
0 he U.S. Central Intelligence'
Agency is not perfect.
That is the one thing that
members of a seven-man panel at the
University of Idaho Borah Symposium
agreed upon Tuesday night after more
than two hours of discussion and de-
bate.
The second night of the annual sym-
posium was dedicated to CIA activ-
ities in Latin America. A somewhat
smaller crowd than Monday's gath-
ered at the UI Student Union Building
to listen to the speakers chastize and
defend-the use of covert intervention
in other countries in that region.
Mendo Cordera, a member of Nica-
ragua's Sandinista government who,
works at the Nicaraguan Embassy
here, and Jaime Barrios, head of Chile
Democatico, described whaf frn$cr
"La CIA" has had on their countries in
recent history.
"Coy ert operations by the CIA are'
part of a greater policy design that is
leading Central America to war," Cor-
dera said. He said the counter revolu-
tionary force being supported by the
American intelligence agency has
wreaked havoc in his country politi-
cally, socially and economically.
Approximately 1,500 Nicaraguans
have died in the conflict, half of those
being women, children and elderly, he
said, and approximately $150 million
damage has been done to property in
the small country. Barrios also chas-
tized the agency for its involvement in
the downfall of President Salvador Al-
lende in the mid-1970s.
According to the Chilean, Al-
lende was elected by his country
men in a "clean" election,' but
because the Nixon administra-
tion did not agree with his plan
to shift to a more socialistic eco-
nomic system, he sent the CIA in
to sabotage Allende's adminis
traion.
There is evidence, according;
to Barrios, that the CIA at=;
tempted to-bribe Chilean Con-. i
gressman not to confirm Al-
lende's election and-. spent:: at,
!.least $8 million on propaganda
and other covert operations in:
the country against Allende and'
for his successor Augusto Pi-
noche.
"My question is how were U.S.
interests served by the rise of
this dictatorship (Pinoche's)?"
Barrios asked.`
Michael Harrington, a former
U.S. senator, and Ralph McGe:
hee, a CIA agent for the past 25
years, joined in the criticism of
the agency.
Harrington, who served on the,
House Intelligence Committee ini
the late 1960s and early 1970s
said, his main complaint with the,
use of covert action is what it
does to the image of the United
States as "a society that holds
itself up as different than other
countries ... and then becomes
the-driving force in the destruc-
tion of another country's govern-
ment."
"The CIA has used the red her-
ring of 'the Soviets are coming,
the Soviets are coming, the Sovi-
ets are coming!' so we can move
in and implement our own poli-
cies," McGehee agreed. "And if
the agency cannot find proof of
Soviet intervention in a country,
it manufactures it."
Only William Colby and David
Atlee Phillips attempted to de-
fend the agency's action, and
they, too, had to concede the CIA
has been less than perfect in the
past.
Of the Chilean situation, Col-
by, a former director of the CIA,
said, "I don't want to justify that
action because I think the whole
operation was misguided, mis
taken and totally wrong.".
But, he added, it was not a
"white hat and back hat" conflict
either. He said the agency was
concerned about Allende's close
relationship with Fidel Castro.
Phillips, former director of the
agency's Latin American oper
tions. agreed :..
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140067-0