MEMO FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM STANSFIELD TURNER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01554R003300190041-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: December 5, 1979
• Content Type: MF

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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington. D.C. 20505
5 December 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
The Vice President
Secretary of State
Secretary of Defense
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
In view of the tension between Iraq and Iran
and the possibility of military conflict, we have
done a brief appraisal of Iraqi armed forces. A
copy is attached.
~ttachmp
Copy No. 7
STANSFIELD TURNER
DCI/dlg (5 Dec 79)
Distribution:
Copy 1 - President
2 - Vice President
3 - SecState (Copies 1-6 handcarried by DCI)
4 -- SecDef on 6 December
5 - C/JCS
6 - Asst. for Nat.Sec.Affrs.
7 - . E R_ ....__
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 ;Lir TICLE APPEA
ON
THE WASHINGTON POST
2 December 1979
The-Mysterious.
,.Connections of
John Ellsworth
By lfaxine Cheshire,.-.-.''.
T WAS,. AT a. White - House
r?. Christmas.Tparty in .1977 that
First Lady Rosalyn;', Carter,
' standing beside. the, holly-
decked mantle in. the State Din-
ing Room, was first introduced
to a 300-pound, self-proclaimed Santa
Claus named John Ellsworth. ,
Ellsworth-felon, forger and 'gov-
ernment informer on friendsanct foes
alike-bears little resemblance to St.
Nicholas.
But his con-man's eyes can be very!,
merry and his expansive girth., can
shake like a bowlful of jelly when he
tells you-as.he first told Mrs. Carter-
of his love for the little children of the
world and this idea he had-for circling
the globe, dispensing the good things
of life to deprived youngsters.
With that spiel, Ellsworth ensnared
Mrs. Carter and later her son Chip into
lending respectability to the. Interna-
tional Children's Appeal, a questions-.:
ble charity scheme that one partici-_
pant has since described as "the scam
of the century."
Who is John Ellsworth and how has
he managed to cause so, much trouble
for so many people-including the
Carters-and still ride around Manhat-
tan in a chauffeured baby-blue,,Lin
coin limousine, seeming to have nq tro-.
ubies of his own?
Ellsworth,- a high school drop-out,.
has told people he once drove a taxi
Using the name John James he toured
with the Rolling Stones and appeared
on camera in the film "Gimme Shel-
ter."
Ellsworth says he got close to "Can-
didate Carter" in 1976 by going down
to Plains with a camera crew to make
a documentary movie for a "black
union" he represented at the time.
Plans to show the film on television
never worked out, he says.
He got close to Rosalynn Carter with
a similar ploy, he says. He got permis-
sion from the White House to do a doc-
umentary movie on the annual Christ.
mas party for diplomats' children. -
It was at that party that he first told.
her about the ICA. He promised to use
it to raise money for her favorite char-
-ity, the "Cities in Schools" program
which operates out of the Executive
Office Building. ICA raised $7,500 for
"Cities in Schools" through one Isaac
Hayes concert at Constitution Hall and
in total, Ellsworth says, contributed
between $80,000 and $70,000 to the pro-
ject.
In exchange, Ellsworth got prestige
money. can't buy. He had business
cards printed for ICA with Chip Car-
ter's name on them, even though, the
president's son wasn't working for
ICA.. He was working for "Cities in
Schools."
Ellsworth and a. girlfriend attended
the Egypt-Isragli peace treaty signing
at the White House in March, an honor
that greatly impressed those of his
partners looking to continue expand-
ing their operations in the Middle East..
These. days, no ? one at the -White
House will answer any questions about
Ellsworth or ICA or even return phone
calls if they are told he is the subject
of inquiry:.
John Ellsworth and a group of other-
"independent businessmen" had
formed an organization called the in-
ternational Children's Appeal in New-
York, according to an ICA brochure, to
"provide the fund-raising 'mechan-
isms" for agencies all over the world
which wanted to support the United
Nations International Year of. the
Child:. .
What Ellsworth didn't tell Mrs. Car;
ter was that the.-"independent bu-
sinessmen" associated with. him in-
cluded a- number of organized. crime.
figures who had one plan to solicit
"donations" from top labor Ieaders.
and keep.a percentage for themselves;
.and another plan for ICA to sell toysl
manufactured by a New York factory}
that a law enforcement source says is al
front for loan-.sharking and narcotics
operations.
The "independent businessmen
also included: ? One partner who was
,a friend of PLO leader Yasser Arafat;
and had plans for taking over all
-hashish growing and trafficking out ofI
Lebanon.
s One partner who had a scheme to
kidnap the shah of Iran and use the'
ransom money to arm certain Third
World countries.. -
? One partner with alleged Ameri-i
can CIA connections who actually-,
dealt in arms, with a ca og that in
eluded a aser gun a can cu a eel
-
an Ulf:'
i 'Partners who were drilling for oil
in Ghana, building a hotel in Cairo and;
claiming Anwar Sadat's son-in-law as a
co-investor, negotiating contracts to'
split $2-million fees 50-50 with Muham-1
mad Ali' for a series of personal ap-!
pearances in various Middle Eastern,
countries.
? Partners who were planning to
use Carter administration contacts to'
produce a $10-million television series
about a presidential assistant who
drops out and becomes a hitch-hiker.
Millions, possibly even billions, could
have been made on the International
Children's Appeal. One former associ-
ate of Ellsworth's claims that one deaf
alone was expected to bring $ 400 mil-
lion and "four of us were going to each
take out $10 million apiece as our `
share."
Ellsworth admits to having person
ally "blown $2.8 million" on high-living:
since he started ICA. And he helped;
one of his partners wire-transfer an
other $1.2 million to banks in Beirut-_ ;
"But it was our own money, made out
legitimate business deals," he says. "It,,
wasn't taxpayers' money and it wasn't;
the public's money. So whose business'
is it?'
John; Ellsworth-whose alias in po-!
lice files-around the country include:
John Jaymes, Clifford J. Ellsworth and:
Thomas Fiorella-did not drop down:
the White House chimney three:
Christmases ago..
So how did he get there?
John Ellsworth and-his activities for
.the past 11 years are well known to atl
least a half dozen U.S. government
agencies, including the Secret Service.
By Ellsworth's own account, at least
one member of President Carter's per-,
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t DEC 1979
the
Have we yet arranged for A group of businessmen to meet with in
St. Louis. If not, I'll have to decide whether to go through my host at
the last Business Council, John Hanley, or Bill Webster to do that. It
seems to me we ought to get going on it. We've only 60 days.
Beyond that, we ought to look at the next one for March.
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Secret Service for "cooperating'. in a
counterfeiting investigation. -
The agent expressed "surprise!' at
.seeing Ellsworth socializing with the
Carters, Ellsworth says, but did noth
Ing more than caution him tcv"behave
like a good citizen."
John Ellsworth does not like the)
word "informant." He prefers to de-
scribe himself as someone who hasi
"cooperated" in the past with govern-
ment - investigators. He said he has+
"cooperated" at one time or another
with the Secret Service, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the- Internal
Revenue Service, the Drug Enforce-
ment Agency, the Central Intelligence
Agency and the Organized. Crime
Strike Force in the Eastern District of
New York. .
A DEA spokesman refuses to con-
firm or deny reports that Ellsworth
has a DEA informant's file number.
But. the spokesman, Ted Swift, 'says
there is "not a scintilla of truth" in a
claim made by Ellsworth to a reporter
recently that the ICA was actually a
worldwide- narcotics investigation
"front" that had taken him and the
government "five years to put to-
gether" and is still "ongoing."
The DEA did not alert the White
House that Ellsworth might become an
embarrassment to the Carters, Swift
says, "because we didn't know any-
thing about what he was doing-."
But somebody in _ the government
must have known and why they did
not warn the White House remains a
mystery.
.:. The government has. been making a
lot of cases against Ellsworth's former
friends and associates. Sixteen of them
were Indicted in New York in April on.
Scnspiracy., charges involving mari-
juana, cocaine and hashish.
Another four have been arrested o
extortion, charges.-.One. was. "Joey the
'Priest" Calder or Brooklyn who is. a
business associate of known organized
crimefigures..
-Ellsworth:-who-talked.:_-with-i, re,
porter for eight hours recently, confir-
med that he had. signed letters of
:agreement with "Joey the Priest" that
.Would,; - have, ;given-- him, - and "`his
people" a cut from two different deals
with ICA involving labor union dona-
tions and toys. . ' ..I 'i . "
L. o apart-of this toy. corn- :parry," Ellsworth says. "I meet with-
:.him in a- Chinese restaurant on 68tb
==Street and he brings his lawyer and he
.says he can give us a monopoly on se11-
-ing these stuffed toys to all the street
festivals the church runs in New York.
,He was in the seminary, you know,
;that's how he got his name, and he'
brings me this real priest who guaran
;tees the deal." .
The charges against "Joey th
'; riest" last week involved topless bard
:and had nothing to do with Ellsworto
,or, the ICA that Ellsworth admits)
--knowing-anything about....
other. Brooklyn mobsters
c:=
.James Eppolito and his. son Jimmy,
;were shot to death. in early October.
Some law enforcement sources have
blamed the killings on the fact that the
younger Eppoiito's involvement with
Ellsworth and ICA were attracting too
much attention.
Young Eppolito, who had his picture
taken here with Rosalyn Carter in
April,. at a luncheon for "Cities in
Schools," was in charge of lining up
"contributions" from labor leaders in
the AFL-CIO and the teamsters and
elsewhere, Ellsworth says. '
Ellsworth claims to have had a tel-
ephone call after the killings, telling
him not to get "too curious" and in-
structing him to "take care of" Jimmy
Eppolito's widow financially.
Ellsworth laughs when told that
many of his former e ploves
are convinced that he himself
an3aer because it is widely believed in
certain criminal circles that he "works
for the
Iee saying that," he says. It's true
`
Three former employes of ICA claim
Ellsworth bragged he caused Studio 54.~
its troubles with the federal govern.
ment. Ellsworth had gotten into a fight
with one of the disco's owners, Steve
Rubel); when ICA took the place over
for a Halloween fund-raiser in 1978.
Ellsworth just smiles and says things j
about "the wheel coming around" and
"all of us getting what's coming to us."
But he still has connections.
Sitting in the Madison Avenue office
of one- of. his lawyers two weeks ago;
'Ellsworth dialed from memory a lot of
his contacts in government, the Secret
Service. and- the Justice Department;
talking to them ;while a-. reporter. Iis-
tened.
..Can you-still-dial' into that-govern-
ment computer bank. John?" the law-,
-yer asked,. explaining to the reporter.
"God!-How I-wish I had been in the col-i
lections business- when he had that
code-and-access I mean to tell you-this]
guy couldfind out anything about any-,
body- from that computer."
Ellsworth explains that he no longer
has. direct computer access. "There;
were too many abuses," he says. "The+
wrong kind of people` were- using its
.that
t
agency, he claims, an ey
owe
fi
e won't tell the whole story, us
dropping the facts that it involved
Russian spy ship a sa in -to al
ves oplis up mffLon woron worth o
meat which Ensworth was supposed t
be selling to the Greek governmen
an never did. Ellsworth also claims to have tipped
t fie to the fact t ha t sir station
chief was going to be assassinated in
t ens six months before tt appened.
He also claims to have assisted the
Secret Service in, preventing an assas
sination attempt against a former
prime minister of Turkey at a New
York hotel.. -_ .-. , .. _ ... __.
A lot of what. Ellsworth says about
himself is substantiated by reliable
government sources and the rest can
neither.. be proved nor disproved.
When he came before a federal judge
in Brooklyn in 1976 on a charge he
lates.beat, "one. or more government
agencies" wrote letters in his behalf,
saying', that* he had been of value to
them in the past. and would be again.
The, agencies - are. not identified
in
o rec
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5 December 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: General Counsel
FROM: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: Comparison of Executive Orders
I would appreciate it if you would have one of your people very
quickly do a rough comparison of President Ford's Executive Order and
Executive Order 12036 with respect to the restrictions on intelligence.
I'm not looking for a legal document, but simply a recounting of
whether the Carter Executive Order is more or less stringent than the
Ford Executive Order, and in which areas.
ATL D TURNER
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STAT
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Ex-Ervoy O'arrdo Letelier Manuel Contreras Sepulveda
After the 1976 car-bombing assassination of Letelier, Chilean
spy chief Contreras was charged with directing the conspiracy,
other Communist giant, China, has introduced a new di-
mension into American efforts to counter "hostile" intelli-
gence activities. Handicapped for more than 20 years by a
lack of official representation in the U.S., China since 1971
has opened a permanent U.N. mission in New York as well
as diplomatic establishments in Washington, Houston and
San Francisco. Intelligence officers- already have been de-
tected-within China's official contingent.
As with Moscow, the numbers are significant. After open-
ing its liaison office in Washington in 1973 with a mere 10
officials, Peking is now planning a full embassy staff of 400.
The FBI's Webster already is sounding the alarm about
strains this influx is placing on his bureau.
Apart from the increase in China's official representa-
tives, American counterintelligence officials are concerned
about the rising number of Chinese students. Some 700 to
1,000 are expected in American universities this year, most
in departments specializing in science and technology.
Because of its backward economic condition, Peking is
thought to place heavy emphasis on industrial espionage.
Suspected Chinese agents, for example, are known to be ac-
tive in heavily ethnic areas of West Coast cities. A- prime
target area: The so-called Silicone Valley in California, a
concentration of think tanks and defense contractors in the
San Francisco vicinity. "Out there, the Chinese are talent
spotters, looking for that guy they can use in the future," a
knowledgeable expert explains.
American officials say the Chinese expend a great deal of
energy probing what the U.S. knows about the Soviet
Union. No scrap of information is considered too trivial by
the Chinese when it comes to their archadversary. Long
before the U.S. gave its approval for Moscow to engage in
massive wheat purchases this year, the Chinese were busily
collecting information about the deaf One persistent que-
ry: What price were the Russians willing to pay?
Refugee Flood Poses New Threat
Another component in the "hostile" espionage campaign
is the flood of exiles and refugees reaching American soil.
One recent spy prosecution resulted in the conviction of a
Vietnamese expatriate, David Truong, together with Ron-
ald Humphrey, a U.S. Information Agency official recruited
to steal classified docuuienta~[2~A1143
mist Vietnam at the U.N., Dinh Ba Thi, who con.
.trolled this espionage operation, was expelled.
American officials believe that Vietnamese
agents are planted among the flood of boat people
arriving in the U.S. from Southeast Asia. There are
also reports of espionage activities among other
refugee groups.
Miami police say that Cuba's intelligence agen-
cy-DGI-is active in the South Florida exile com-
munity of nearly 750,000 Latins. The FBI report-
edly has discovered Soviet agents among Jewish
emigres leaving Russia. Several have been "doubled," or
persuaded to work as counterspies.
Although American counterespionage agencies concen-
trate on the Communist-bloc threats, they also are con-
cerned about the wide-ranging operations of intelligence
agencies of friendly nations.
A Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee chaired by
Senator George McGovern (D-S.D.) reports evidence of
brutality and even political murder by agents of authoritar-
ian regimes such as Chile, and Iran under the Shah.
One active espionage agency that McGovern's panel and
other U.S. officials have been reluctant to discuss, at least
publicly: Israel's Mossad. A former U.S. official recalls that
Israel's spies once obtained secret American reports on
Arab military strengths. During the 1970s, FBI agents re-
ceived much of their information on possible Arab terror-
ists from Israel's officials based in New York. Some U.S. in-
telligence agencies suspect Mossad was behind the
disappearance of bomb-grade uranium from an Apollo, Pa.,
nuclear facility during the 1960s. Israel denies any role in
that incident, which remains unsolved.
American agents speak of Mossad with awe, and its net-
work of contacts within the official circles of Washington is
unsurpassed. Mused one counterintelligence expert: "They
have no need for blackmail or bribery to get what they
want. Over a cup of coffee or a steak dinner, Cod knows
what is passed to them."
If caution has characterized Israel's operations here, offi-
cials who have seen the McGovern panel's report say it out-
lines a far different pattern of behavior on the part of other
allies or neutralist powers such as Yugoslavia.
Dragista Kashikovich, a Serbian emigre editor known for
his denunciations of the Tito regime in Belgrade, was shot
to death in Chicago two years ago. Senate probers found
that the CIA may have had indications he was a target of
Yugoslavia's secret service, the UID. But no conclusive link
could be uncovered, and the case remains unsolved. .
The McGovern study claims that Savak, the Shah's secret
police, once plotted the assassination of Nasser Afsher, an
American of Iranian origin who infuriated the monarch
with his vocal criticisms. Partly because the potential assas-
sin got cold feet, the plot was aborted. . .
In 1976, former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier
was killed in a Washington car bombing, leading to the in-
dictment early this year of Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, a
former head of Chile's DINA agency. ' - According to the McGovern study, the main goal of allies
seems to be to control their own nationals living in this
country. Often foreign agents simply monitor students or
dissidents living in the U.S., taking photographs and keep-
ing track of their movements. McGovern's report claims
Taiwan enlisted four prominent Sine-American professors
to observe Nationalist Chinese students. The study said that
Iran's Savak also maintained an extensive network of in-
formers on American campuses. _
At times, the U.S. stumbles across Western European in-
telligence services. One case invol? N TO country that
~8? 0 aQA1, J S hoot a diplomat-