FORD TO BRIEF FIVE ON C.I.A. ACTIVITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020071-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 71
• Publication Date: September 19, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020071-5
I YORK TIMES
19 SEP 1974
FORD TO BRIEF FIVE
ON CILk -ACTIVITIE '
He and Kissinger Schedule
Session With Leaders
of Congress Today
By SEYMOUR M. HERSH
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18-
Secretary of State Kissinger an-
nounced today that he and
President -Ford would person-
ally brief five House and Sen
ate leaders tomorrow on the
scope of the Central Intelligence
Agency's covert operations.
"We will put it before them
in detail and ask them, 'What
do you want"' Mr. Kissinger
said aboard Air Force One aa~
it returned here from Nevi F
York, where President Ford ad-
dressed the United Nations.
Administration officials said
that the President had decided
to brief the Congressional lead-
ers after his strong defense of
all C.I.A. covert activities in
this news conference Monday
night. The President public)
confirmed then that the agency)
had been involved in clandestine
efforts in Chile, but he de-i
picted them as having been
aimed only at aiding newspaper
and politicians opposing Presi-
dent Salvador Allende Gossens,
who, Mr. Ford said, was ab,
,tempting to suppress criticism.1
Senate Study Planned '
The White House's anounce-
ment followed the Senate For-
eign Relations Committee's an-
nouncement yesterday that it
had authorized a full-scale
study into what has been called
misleading testimony in the)
Senate about the C.I.A's role inl
Chile. Targets of that inquiry
are known to include, Richard!
Helms, former Director of Cen-
tral Intelligence; John M. Hen-,
nessey, a former Treasury De-I
partment official, two former
high-level State Department of-
ficials, and Mr. Kissinger him-
self,, who testified about United
States involvement in Chile
during his Senate confirmation
hearings last fall.
Those invited to the briefing
tomorrow, Mr. Kissinger said
were the Senate Democratic
leader, Mike Mansfield of Mon-
tana; the Senate Republican
leader, Hugh Scott of Pennsyl-
vania; vania; Speaker of the House
Carl Albert of Oklahoma; the'
House Democratic leader,
Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. of Massa-
chusetts, and the House Re-
publican leader John J. Rhodes,
of Arizona.
Administration officials said,
that Mr. Kissinger and 'Presi
dent Ford were confident that
covert operations - such as
those in Chile - could be de-~
fended on national security,
grounds. If these operations,
were dropped, these officials in-
sisted, an "overwhelming case" i
could be made that peril to the)
security of the United States
would be increased.
A Philosophical Question
One high-level official, asked
whether such beliefs on the part
of Mr. Kissinger and President
Ford amounted to an endorse-
ment of United States interven-
tion is foreign countries, replied
that the question was a philo-
sophical one worth debating.
Concern over lack of effec-
tive Congressional oversight
has been repeatedly expressed
by ranking Senate and House
members since newspaper dis-
closures last week that the
C.I.A.. despite prior disclaimers,
had been authorized by Mr.~
Kissinger and President Nixon'
to spend more than $8-million
between 1970 and 1973 in an
effort to make it more difficult
for Mr. Allende, a Marxist, to
govern.
The Chilean President was
overthrown last year in a mili-
tary coup d'dtat in which he
died.
Representative Dante B. Fas-
cell, Democrat of Florida, re-'
newed his call today for more
effective control over the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency after a
series of hearings that ended to-
day before his inter-American
affairs subcommittee of the
House Foreign Affairs Commit-
tee. Mr. Fascell said he was
"deepl'%distressed" that he and
his colleagues had not been
fully informed of the agency's
activities in testimony given
earlier this gear by William E.
Colby. the Director of Central
Intelligence.
OO7
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020071-5