USING GRAYMAIL PROSECUTIO[N]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060098-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 98
• Publication Date: March 18, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-0090'
Article appeared
on page lE-4E
MIAMI HERALD-FLORIDA
18 March 1979
*:. The mmt known only'as M rested his elbows on the table'
as James Bond opened,the bottle of Tattinger blanc de blancs'
1964, carefjuullj' leverin off the cosh. it popped without rob-.;
.hint; the champagne of any carbonation. &I furrowed his eye--1
brows ahd began: "James... }
James Bond .vas uneasy.`The chief of Britains 5ecrdt
Service usually addressed him as 007, using the code number'
that gave him a licerrse?to hill on behalf of Her Britastnlc Mal-]
city. ;I. .,? q ,ti r. *" ,.~ r, c.~ +
.'James," Ptf'rtpeatesi,'"we'ra going to 1glxe.uuay ybur
doubts-oh number.'
"Thztwhy,sir?i't s`- is t:~ '
"We're. giving you'a'better situation.-James. You'll b
? seconded to the American CIA. There you will have a top-se -
.cret securltJ clearances which lets you ? 1W allowed himself
,the tiniest of smilas.~'- }do all the things you do for us; plus
pre: if. you're caught, you'll never be prosecuted. Just threat-
rz,toreveal soms stata secrets; and they'll letyou,go't~
it y' 4,T +, icy. _4,+a ~ 30NN 1~~1LNIY %' ' 5,:
'Yhera vaon't much fiction In that fragment of a spy story i
stolen from Ian Fleming. The. United States hss?recently;
:found Itself. unable ?to prosecute anyone, from theriether
'World cif spying who breaks the law,,,
Thera is nA question about guilt or innocence; these sples;
usually admit the -crimes charged.., However. they have;
learned well the techniques of chantage r- extortion by;
threatening scandalous revelations -- which they used as'
dales. The defendant, threatens,a revelation; the lntelligencel
,community refuses to discus-s'lt;because,the information Is,
cla.Ifled,,and the.Justlce Department?is forced to drop the;
case. ..,: ' :. . , , ? r i
The -defendants are protected by the Constitution's re-
qulr*ment of a speedy and public trial. Unless the govern-.1
ruent is willing-to make relevant Information public, there;
an be no, trial. It's painfully legal. That's why chantage also
13 called graymall -a shaae,lighter than blackmail,
TWO RECENT publlcca:iei of chantage involved-two of-]
ficer5s of a private company, International Telephone and
Telegraph Corp. Robert Berreliez and Edward J. Gerrity
were charged in'separate cases with perjury and.the Justice
Department decided it was better-to let-.them go rather than
risk disclosure of "secrets.";.'
Neither Berrellez nor Gerrity was a professlonal?aapye
Both worked for ITT during 1970, the year Salvador, Allende
was elected president of Chile.
With Richard Nix ' 1 , the CIA and ITT allegedly
funneled hundre s of thousands of IT 'Allende's right
wing opponents. They-failed; Allende became the first popu-
larly elected Marxist. He was later deposed In. a coup, with
the-CIA and?I T lurking on the periphery.
Congress tried to find out how much the CIA was In-
volved, so Berrellez and Gerrity. were called .to testify In
1973. They denied knowledge of the shenanigans. Last year,
the Justice Department charged them with lying to Congress,
about the adtivities of the CIA, a government agency that;
Congress presumably supervises:
?
ry Gre ~to protect other FBI adventures such
t j ALL WE kaow' abo these m v
y -toe j je ~ri 01 : CIAaREz,I "E-fiNWIiR?-OQAouobootI II'iationj
A 6.
d
t
d
defense would be that the CIA conspired with the M execu-{
tives, participating in the perjury just as It had in the Chilean;
escapade. In fact, said Wall, Chilean Foreign Minister Hernan.
Cublllos provided information through the CIA. that eventu-
ally appeared in Berrellez' testimony.
Cublllos is widely known as a friend of tffe CIA, it not the1
active American spy that some of the court papers suggest..
prosecutor John Kotelly suggested to Judge Aubrey E. Rob
,insctn that this entire issue be discussed out of the presence of
.the jury, since Berrellez' defense might-divulge "sources-of'
information that,-the,; Q++,,, t,.,r TntPW- ennce Agency,was relying.
on In Chile: '
Robinson rejected the idea, ruling that
any Intelligence data that was six years 010
and already given to a 'private multination-
al corporation could be relevant to a perju=
ry charge and should be discussed openly.
Kotelly ended the argument last. month
declaring: "Because of national securf
reasons, we cannot proceed in the case o
Robert Berrellez." ..
Gerrity got off two weeks ago. "Th
reason," said Koteily, "is. to protect classi
Pied -national-security information from
public disclosure."
TIIESE ARE not unique, isolated events.E
Former CIA Director Richard Helms wasi
involved in the same escapade. He was
charged with perjury. too; but Helms was'
allowed to plead no-contest to the lesser;
charge of not testifying f,u1ly. before Con-!
gress. Sources in the intelligence communi-I
ty'say Helms threatened to use. as his de-
fense that the CIA lied to Congress regu-
larly. -- and spell out when and where. There is every indication that lawyers
for former FBI Director L..Patrick Gray
have negotiated the Justice Department to
a standoff in a civil-rights case Involvin'gi
the FBI's attack on, the terrorist':Weathert
Underground. Gray, ...assistant director
Mark Felt, and domestic intelligence direc-+
for Edward S. Miller are charged with con-
spiracy, with ordering illegal burglaries
into private homes of friends and relatives
of alleged Weatherman bombers.-
and Miller have won Judge William i
Felt
Bryant's permission to argue that their ac- j
tivities were sanctioned by higher-ups, a 1
ruling that a Justice Department spokes-I
man said "raises problems for the govern-,
meat regarding.... ultimate disclosure of 11
classified data."
The Justice Department hinted last week
urnen an
.
oc
a tra Center in Dallas. That break-in, an effort
caae'that was leaked to The Nation, a left-leaning magazine.
Iii that heartng,'lawyer. Patrick Wall said part of Berrellez' to protect American Jews from Al Fatah
terrorist agents, was reportedly authorized+