BUSINESS OF HERE IS BUSINESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140122-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 122
• Publication Date: April 28, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
I C)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140122-8
THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR
28 April 1977
EDITOR'S NOTE: What is the
CIA doing in Minneapolis? Where
is its office? Who are the agents
who work in the Twin Cities for
the nation's most secret organiza-
tion? The Minneapolis Star as-
s, ned reporters Patrick Marx and
randy Furst to find out. One
agent, Bob Wallace, is running for
the Citizens League board and the
issues in his case are especially in-
triz uing. A;t article on Wallace ap-
pears on Page A.
By PATRICK MARX
and RANDY FURST
Minneapolis Star Staff Writers
There's no name on the door.
Inside, there's a small reception
room with a glass window at one
end with a yellow curtain cover-
ing it.
When you enter the room, a
woman behind the glass window
pulls aside the curtain just enough
to see who's there. On her desk is
a large
o l it.
traordinarily secretive about its
operations and has gone to con-
siderable length to hide its pres-
ence in the Twin Cities. Efforts
by The Star to obtain the most
rudimentary information about
the CIA here proved difficult.
The only bit of public informa-
tion given out by the CIA is its
telephone number, which is list-
ed-without an address- in the
Minneapolis and St. Paul tele-
phone directories.
The CIA will not say how many
agents it has on the payroll here
nor how large its office is. It re-
fused a request by The Star to
tour its offices.
THE STAR found the CIA office
only after a number of phone
calls, tailing a CIA agent and a
floor-by-floor search of the Fort
.Snelling federal office building.
It is the first time the present
office has been publicly disclosed.
The CIA has its subscription to
the Minneapolis Tribune sent to
the Fort Snelling office building,
addressed to the "P.R. Hendrick-
son Co." Paul R. Hendrickson IS
the regional director. There is no
P.R. Hendrickson Co.
Hendrickson refused to meet
with Star reporters until they
confronted him as he was coming
to work one morning. He spoke
briefly with the reporters in the
CIA's small lobby.
The identity of the CIA office is
not even known by some General
Services Administration. (GSA)
personnel who work in. the Fort
Snelling office building and are in
charge of government supplies
and equipment. Some GSA em-
f E onve as ee a civ
.c
ti avoid ~ -nu
"What do you want?" she asks.
Y du tell her. She looks suspi-
cious.
YOU'RE IN Federal Building
Room 507 at Fort Snelling and it's
supposed to be secret. Room 507
h:.uuses the local offices of the
CIA. It is just down the hall from
the offices of the Upper Mississip-
pi River Basin Commission.
Paul Hendrickson, CIA regional
director, Claims the CIA office
here is not involved in any covert
activities.' He says there are no
cloak-and-dagger operations and
no domestic surveillance of Twin
Cities individuals.
The agency maintains that its
orgy function is to interview per-
sons who live in the area who
may have information about for-
ploy ees refs
EOB"-th
Building of
Hendrick,
cation has
by the CIA
to demonst
fice and "n
"The Iasi
ceive in I
bring mes,
or those
sages impi.
said.
LOCAL CIA officers refuse to
discuss in any detail what they do
here. They refer all questions i
about local activity to a public in- I
formation officer at CIA head-
quarters in Langley, Va., who
isn't very helpful either.
Much of what local offices do is
shrouded in secrecy for fear that ti
agents and the offices might be
harmed, the CIA maintains.
However,_ - The---- Star _ learnaA,
some things about the CIA during
a two-week investigation.
In addition to Hendrickson,
there are at least three other local
CIA agents-Robert Wallace,;
John Webster and Thomas SIAM-!,
van.
Hendrickson, the CIA regional,
director, has been with the CIA;
since 1953, first as an economic
analyst, then as a collection spe-'
cialist. He is a thin man with
glasses and was wearing a nar-
row-lapel suit when Star report-
ers met him in the hall. He lives'
in Edina.
Webster, a black, was in his of-
fice smoking a cigar when The
Star visited the CIA offices a sec-
ond time. After some coaxing, he
came out to the lobby.
He said he was formerly with,
military intelligence and had been
with the agency since, August.
clan countries. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140122-8