RYAN AIDE DISCOUNTS 'JONESTOWN MYTHOLOGY'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302770002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 15, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302770002-2
y STAT
WASHINGTON, D. C. AFRO-AMERICAN
15 JULY 1980
-mytholl&
which the slain . California
congressman co-authored.
A preliminary inquiry was
recently begun by the intelligence
committee, and a report is ex-
pected soon, but it is doubtful
Lyon ciae
-aiscounts
a o
&
Ming
the
MK.'UTLTRA program,- Holsinget
said, ,the.?CIA- simply: shifted-its
programs from public institutions
(to - private - organizations. '.The
experimentation ? into-, - mind
controL.Was previously. -done -in
federal' and. state penitentiaries
and -in :'-some-- government;run
hospitals. f? : n : ? .,
ae
mirnstrative assistant, outlined at goyernment.was.toppled:
our government had constructed At -least two
information which he says, in,, and passed along a carefully persons the close to
dicates the existence of a covert fabricated version of Jonestown Jones, Richard Dwyer, tdeputy
Cent~ntelligence = Agency to the news inedia,'t he said, chief of mission in Guyana at the
opera rt onin. Guyaifa-Iiawt had not=' "That .version has come tq be Phisillip Blakey, of who massacre, rv d ,George
been..reported., to congressional -accepted - as 'fact' by the Phwho served as a
oversight committees. American people," mercenary recruiter in Angola for
Further, Holsinger said he now Holsinger, in speaking to _a UNITA, have been; identified as
believes- in the "horrifying ! group of black psychologists and CIA operatives.
possibility" that ,Jonestown---was :sociologists last May, said he ryas Holsinger said his belief that
'part. of a "mass mind control `troubled by tha_ general public Jxpertown t was a CIA backed
experiment" by the CIA as part of . impression :'left., over from experiment that was destroyed in
its MK' ULTRA= program, which Jonestown, which is that of a order to prevent its exposure is i
was supposedly terminated in the large group of disturbed and supported, he says, by the chief
p p turnQd medical examiner in Guyana, Dr.
early 1970s. fgglish black people yyho r.
MK ULTRA was the secret 66de Y Leslie ? an 700 who reported that
their backs on this county= and more than 700 of the bodies found
'-name for .,research- the,:-CIA then killed theyiiselves sq gogd at, Jonestown were not suicide
organized' in the;':.early 1950s: to rlddaneer" 'f victims, but were murdered.
search .for ways to. control the , 'he House Foreign Affairs.. "itiIy acquaintanceship with
human' mind. That research :in ?Uoml }ittee last year.cond.ucted a black families and my sense of the
cluded experiments.-using various six month f ryvestiga tign into the
love that flows from black arents
mind control- tec.",piques and foprtestoWn settlement.but said it. Q P
~?drugs,and in ;most ;;cases was und ,no ey;dente of CIA in to their children make it : im-
"conducted unknowingly velllei}t t Yol possible for me to believe that the
on here
'Jonestown: mass-suicides ='could
American citize;is $t!t the cgtxymittee later or
have happened as reportted,"
'Former. CIA Director Richard dered another investigation to he Holsinger said
Helms.told-a Senate committee in done by ;the : house intelligence Holsinger: also hinted at t
,'1974;-;.?however,'.that._ the mind .Committee:,after:._aIlegations: he
control -experiments had been pe silted that thg -agelicy had i possibility that Ryan, because of
discontinued by the-'agency and conducted the illegal operation ip { his interest in. Jonestown, "had
that all records ertainin . to it Yiolatign of t o ldu hes , been led into, or allowed tg fall
had been destroyed g^ g. - llYan Agt into, a. deattl trap " . z :_
-
-
But inste d 9'd
AMERICAN .last week ; conducted covert operations there
Joel ssa yea heo r the Jonestown after the previous Marxist
Holsinger,- Ryati?'s chiefa massacre)-I began to eali
fh
By Miles White wneiner its rinci-ngs will do more
,,:Holsinger, _ who has - neert than robber stamp the previous
A top aide to the late Pressuring,. fora~a congressional investigation-
Congressman Leo,J.=.Ryati? (D investigation -into , CIA in. Holsinger testified before a
Calif.)-, who was, killed in, 19D8 ??vQlvernent with the settlement, congressional committee last
when he went to Guyana- to in- . believes, that Ryan's. visit to the February that he believed the CIA
when ate the Rev..Jirn Jones and -ill-fated colony may have Pierced was in "effective control" of.the
his! People's Temple -religious -the. veil of secrecy. st:,rounding State Department embassy in
movements has discounted ? as alleged CIA activities i,ere, sod. Guyana, and that it conducted a.
"mythology" that more than 900,. w- plc have eyentgal.,, exposed covert operation there to protect.
followers of Jones- most of.whom'e>~i. U.S. commercial interests and to
were black- nvolun es most of
. tom- , That may ldve lei gover ri~ettt maintain the government of
authorities 0' CIA -1-officials to Prime Minister Forbes Burham.
mitted suicidei on order of the decide to ;wipe out the entire Burnham- is considered ' a
charismatic leader settlement i atlier than risking the favored U.S. ally and was helped
In .an interview with the confidentiah:,..nat,ure_ of the to power in Guyana' by CIA
WASHINGTON AFRO- glieratiort I-fglsingex feels
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302770002-2