LETTER TO MR. JOHN V. RAINBOLT, II FROM E. H. KNOCHE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M00165A002000060005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 17, 1977
• Content Type: LETTER

CEN' 'AL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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17 FEB 1977
Mr. John V. Rainbolt, II
Vice Chairman of the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20581
Dear Mr. Rainbolt:
This is in response to your letter of 24 January 1977.
The Agency would like to cooperate, but our present collection
effort and analytical resources are not geared to provide the
kind of information you need to monitor foreign state trading
organizations operating in the U.S. Our charter prohibits
targeting against foreign companies or persons in the US.
We have a small staff in our Office of Economic Research
(OER) analyzing global. economic developments pertaining to
selected agricultural commodities and raw materials. Our
foreign collection effort in support of this work is solely
for the purpose of gathering information on size of commodity
purchases, destination or origins, and terms of trade. Infor-
mation pertaining to foreign buyer activities in the commodity
futures market -- foreign or US -- is not collected by CIA.
Over the past year, OER has supplied CFTC with economic
intelligence reports on world supply/demand prospects for
specific agriculture commodities (coffee, cocoa, grain).
These studies include, to the extent known, any efforts by
foreign governments to influence international prices by
withholding commodities for export and/or by excessive buying
to corner the market. Possibly such information might be
useful to CFTC in flagging potential commodities as candidates
for manipulation by foreign governments on the US futures
markets. OER analysts have also responded to specific ques-
tions about foreign commodity developments from Commissioner
Gary Seevers and Staff Member Norm Ross.
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We would be glad to discuss in more detail our analytical
work on commodities with you and/or members of your staff. If
you wish to follow through, please contact the Director of
Economic Research, to set up
Sincerely,
./s/ E. 'H. Knoche
E. H. Knoche
Acting Director
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STAT
Letter to Mr. John V. Rainbolt, II, Vice Chairman
of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from
Acting Director, Central Intelligence.
CONCUR
Deputy Director for Intelligence
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
1 - Acting Director
1 - General Counsel
1 - DDI
,,If - Executive Registry
1 - OER
1 - I /AM
OD/OER 1(9 Feb '77)
j(tFEB1977
Date
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