WIDOW OF RETIRED CIA AIDE MAY WIN A LOOK AT PAPERS HELD BY SENATE UNIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200840002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 7, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/08: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200840002-8
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WASHINGTON TIMES
7 May 1984
Widow of retired CIS m-de may
wma took at papers weld by
Senate unit
By Micnael D. Davis
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Six years ago, the body of John
Paisley, who had retired from the
CIA as deputy director of the Office
of Strategic Research, was discov-
ered floating in Chesapeake Bay
one week after his 31-foot sloop, the
Brillig, was found aground off Point
i Lookout in Calvert County, Md.
Maryann Paisley, who lives in
McLean, has tried unsuccessfully
for several years to see the confi-
dential reports on her husband's
death that have been held by the
Senate Intelligence Committee.
She would like the circum-
stances of his death made public,
hoping it will dispel any speculation
that he may have been a double
agent or compromised his position.
The former high-ranking CIA
official was found shot to death on
Oct. 1, 1978, his body strapped in
weights. Mrs. Paisley may soon be
allowed to review classified doc-
uments that could reveal if her hus-
band committed suicide or was
killed by covert agents of a foreign
government.
Extensive investigations by the
CIA, the FBI and the Maryland
State Police failed to determine how
Mr. Paisley was shot in the back of
the head by a bullet fired from a 9
mm automatic or why his body had
been wrapped with two lead-
weighted diving belts.
There was speculation at the
time that the 55-year-old intelli-
gence official's death may have
been related to consultant work he
did for the CIA after he retired in
1974.
At the time of his death, he was a
CIA consultant on assessing Soviet
military strength and had access to
highly sensitive intelligence infor-
mation.
There was also speculation that
Mr. Paisley may have been a double
agent and may have been killed by
agents of a foreign government.
The US. Circuit Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia last
The courts now hold that the doc-
uments are subject to FOIA
requests because they were gener-
ated not by the Senate committee,
but by the FBI, and the CIA and can
not be shielded as congressional
records.
The Senate committee had
requested the FBI to gather and
assess information about Mr. Pais-
ley's death and said in April 1979 it .
would issue a public report. No
report was ever issued.
The courts apparently have
cleared the way for the committee
"If Paisley was anyone but a former
high-ranking CIA official, his death would
have been classified as a suicide."
July sent the request for the doc-
uments filed by Mrs. Paisley back
to the U.S. District Court for further
proceedings on whether the CIA
and the FBI could legally withhold
documents she sought under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Most of the documents in dispute
were generated by the FBI and CIA
in response to the Senate commit-
tee's requests.
If the committee intended to con-
trol the documents, that would
make them congressional records
and exempt from disclosure under
the Freedom of Information Act,
which would allow the FBI and the
CIA to withhold them.
to release the information Mrs.
Paisley has requested, and many
unanswered questions about Mr.
Paisley's death may now be
resolved.
The government has never
explained why specialized radio
equipment was found on Mr. Pais-
ley's sloop or the nature of doc-
uments recovered from his boat
and from his Washington
apartment.
There has never been an official
explanation of why Mr. Paisley,
after separating from his wife, left
their McLean home and rented an
eighth-floor apartment in a
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/08: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200840002-8