APPOINTMENT WITH CONTRERAS THE CHILEAN CONNECTION SAUL LANDAU AND JOHN DINGES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060069-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: November 28, 1981
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901R
A);TI.CLE APPEARED
x, PAGE 644.
THE NATION
28 November 1984
APPOINTMENT WITH CONTRERAS
f-11 - to ,
Coiiiiection
SAUL.LAiN.UAU AND J UHN DINGES.- ,
n the!early"summer 976P . Col, Manuel Contreras;
Letelier. It has nowt been,. learned that within a:
based in Santiago, Chile.'
operation to assassinate exiled Chilean. leader Orlando'-.... -': purchaser was identified as a -DINA front- organization
. incriminating inform:
crime. The evidence
Letelier case will be i
Colonel Contreras'
.us by Kevin Mulcah!
working for Wilson;
. Mulcahy's account o
~;- by documents drawn.
'- the Treasury. Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms:. We were shown -invoices and - bills of sale
head-of DINA, Chile's secret police, launched drawn up by one of Wilson and Terpil's companies. The
few days of setting that pW- irr motion,. Contreras' inac'e a
secret visit to:Washington,-D.C;;'where he met with officials
of the- Central Intelligence Agency and also negotiated the
purchaseof illegal weapons and electronic spying equipment
with"a-firm run by former C.I.A. officers Edwin Wilson and
Franlt3Terpil. Mulcahy and another American,= 'a 'former Navy intelligence
Wilsbrr and Terpil gained no after 'a-Federal grand officer'who'was in.charge of Latin-American. operations for i
jury accused them of exporting terrorist goods and- services Wilson, to a' nondescript two-story residence on the 1700
Murray'4~ as's article on page 568J. By 1978, the Federal
Bureau of lhvestigation had established that DINA agents
killed Lete}ler~ on. U.S. territory.. That evidence, 'combined'-
with the. newly ? revealed materials showing ,tha(former
C.I:A: officials cooperated with-other DINA covert opera- .Y_ treras, Mulcahy recalled. Although he was wearing civilian
tions-iii the-United States. would seem to compromise the clothes, the DINA chief nevertheless exuded a` "clearly
Administration's:-efforts toy`rehabilitate- Chile's military` :-::.military aura.",.The other Chilean, whose name-Mulcahy.
dictatorship as an anti-Communist has forgotten, served as. an interpreter. Mulcahy said that
The information about DINA's'dealings with the Wilson- ?;Terpil. was "deferential" toward Contreras:"I. had seen
Terpil firm is based on the accounts of one of those present..--, ?.:-Frank slap heads of state on the back, but with this guyhe-
at the -meeting with Contreras in early,July---1976, and on was downright respectful, and kept his'voice down."
sales documents obtained by Federal investigators: T his ;"? { ,.Contreras's reputation had 'obviously preceded him: To
report will examine DINA's.purchase of weapons and so'- both. his enemies and fellow ' intelligence officers Contreras
phisticated electronic equipment ~tthat meeting in. violation I`' was Jnown as the most efficient-and ruthless-secret-police
of a Congressional ban on=such sales to Chile chief in the Americas.. He had,',-within the space of two
wig
The new ; information can e be placed with-'startling results years, :virtually 'eliminated political opposition to Chile's
into the complex framework of evidence already: compiled r-`military dictator, Gen. AugustoPinochet
by the. F.B I n:the five-year-old Letelier case, and.it helps Mulcahy :recalled that after Terpil opened the meeting;
explain-,many, previously unresolved questions,;- especially -"we talked with' Contreras about the details of an iii,
those. regarding the ; C. I. A.\ '- behavior Ea_rlier''evidence of " tegrated security system." (Mulcahy described this to us as a
DINA's' operations, supplemented by this new information variety.of devices that might be'used to secure an embassy or
about tthe4'three -months preceding Lete1ier'9.- murder on like: facility.) The system included card readers;' pinhole
'.I
September 22, 1976, amount .to a compelling-dise that the cameras telephone tapping equipment, di 'tal scanners to
C.I.A. was involved in arranging Wilson and Terpil's arms monitor. --telex, traffic and other."-sophisticated. electronic
and equipment sales to DINA. Furthermore, involving the ."'gear. Contreras purchased some of this equipment. The pun-
agency in the violation of U.S. laws may have.made it possi- chase orders -shown to ' us by 'investigators list. "trans-
ble for DIN,- to " graymail" the CIA into withholding' ceivers," "wireless inductor.-ear
Phones" and "micro-mini
? .'-??Y ?-. e. ?. t h-microphones:" ,! :y i.. I
f 73.4 ?? '.. ? - V 1..:7?~
Saul Landau,. a Fellow at tyre Institute for Policy Studies, _-- The next itegi on the agenda was a large quantity of Colt
and John binges, a :Washington, D.C.,' writer Conducted a' -:~Cobras, which Contreras had expressed interest in buying:
lengthy investigation ofA r&# qr 1q r eJ 5 /0 } ` A 1Pr9 P. li$60bit00 iQ;OB9t d byman
y police
results?:of 'which appear rn :their boak,-Assassination on agencies because. it iis a standardized weapon with inter'
.{.......... '+7 r cfi`M1 'r te -..
Embassy Row (Pantheon} f aY"r+, , sa; . *,s eliangeable parts that has proven both durable grid efficient:
t.a Col..'Ivluanimar el-Qaddafi of Libya, wh~se regime is - bloek'of R Street in northwest Washington. "It looked like
high ontrhe?' Reagan Administration's- enemies list [see =. a typical C.I:A: safe house;Mulcahy said:
~.`-At the time'of the Contreras-Terpil meeting in- Washing
ton; Mulcahy` was president oFTnter-Technology Inc., an
arms trading firm established byWilson.and Terpil. "It was
Frank's meeting,"Mulcahy recalled, and it took place on
. a` rainy Friday afternoon -in early July. Terpil directed
? .; -There; -in L-.:a second-floor'-office; Terpil iritroductd
Mulcahy to-two Chileans. 'One?of- them was a-"'heavy set
man in his:- mid-40s. with drooping eyelids and a kind of
benevolent look on' his face'- known as `Manny" Con-