FOREIGN MEDIA REACTION TO SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT ON ALLEGED U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN ASSASSINATION PLOTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000200120002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 26
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2005
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 25, 1975
• Content Type: MEMO

25X1
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.)REIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION
SERVICE
FOREIGN VEDIA REACTION TO SENATE C 1ITTEE REPORI-
OJN ALLEGED U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN ASSASSINATION PLOTS
for official use only
25 "NOVEMBER 1975
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This propaganda analysis report is based
exclusively on material carried in foreign
broadcast and press media It is pub-
lished by FI3IS without coordination
with other U.S. Government components.
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FOR OFF]:CIAL USE ONLY FBIS SPECIAL. MEMORANDUM
25 NOVEMBER 1975
FOREIGN NEDIA REACTION TO SEfIATE rUT1ITTEE REPORT
Oil ALLEGED U, S, I NVOLVE01T IN ASSASSINATION PLOTS
CONTENTS
SUMMARY . . . . . i
I. NONCOMMUNIST COUNTRIES
West Europe a a 1
Latin America . 5
Asia, Australia . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Africa . . . . . . . . 7
Middle East 7
II. COMMUNIST COUNTRIES
The Soviet Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
East E,irope 9
Cuba 1Q:
Asian Communist: States 10
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25 NOVEMBER 1975
FOREIGN NElIA REACTION TO SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT
ON ALLEGED US, INVOLVENEI'f IN ASSASSINATION PLOTS
SUMMARY
The radios and press agencies of West Europe are not known to have
commented on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on U.S.
involvement in plots to assassinate foreign leaders. Sparse, available
comment is entirely from the West European press, but none of the
countries has commented extensively. There was little serious assessment
of the long-range impact of the Senate revelations, but the London TIMES,
notably, expressed the hope that the demonstration of the U.S. system
publicly rectifying its mistakes would outweigh the immediate damaging
effects.
Austria's semi-official WIENER ZEITUNG expressed concern over the potential
damage from all the publicity. The Danish Social Democratic paper AKTUELT
and the Austrian dailies WIENER ZEITUNG and ARBEITER-ZEITUNG all contrasted
the openness of American society in acknowledging its missteps in the
intelligence field to the silence and repression of the communist states.
Only one paper, the Spanish daily LA VANGUARDIA, referred to the Senate
report as a "caverur." because of Its failure to pinpoint responsibility
for the assassination plots. There was little discussion of direct
Fresidential responsibility for the plots, but the respected Italian
daily CORRIERE DELLA SERA said President Eisenhower "must have authorized"
the anti-Lumumua operations. There has been no monitored comment or
reportage from French or West German media.
Noncommunist Latin American reaction is extremely meager, confined almost
entirely to short, factual news agency reports buried well down in radio
broadcasts, dominated on 21 and 22 November by news on the death of
Spain's General Franco. A single Argentine press comment criticized the
Senate committee and saw political campaign overtones in the report's
release.
Asian noncommunist reaction includes fairly extensive reportage in only
a few selected countries, along with some critical comment in the
Japanese and Thai press. Japanese comment deplored U.S. "corruption"
while seeing U.S. world prestige possibly enhanced by such public airing
of past misdeeds.
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25 NOVEMBER 1975
Available African and Middle east media reaction was very sparse,
mostly factual, with only the Iraqi and Israeli radios offering assess-
ments, Baghdad's report saw it as confirmation of direct U.S.
Presidential involvement in assassination plots, while the Jerusalem
radio observed that there was no direct evidence of Presidential
instructions to kill.
Of the communist states, only East Germany, Hungary and Yugoslavia
have originated substantive comment on the implications of the Senate
Intelligence Committee Report. Consistent with past Soviet treatment
cf the Congressional investigations of intelligence activities, Soviet
media have confined themselves to generally factual TASS dispatches
summarizing highlights from the report and reaction to it in the
United States. Among Asian communist states, only North Vietnam is
known to have even acknowledged the issuance of the Senate committee
document. A single Hanoi report described it as proof of the involve-
ment of U.S. leaders and intelligence organizations.
East German reaction has been the most extensive and vituperative,
seeing the r.:port's revelations as confirmation that "brutal" U.S.
imperialism employed the kind of intelligence service that reflected
its real character. Hungarian comment was more restrained, seeing the
publication of the report as related to the coming U.S,. political
campaign and elections, a viewpoint also adopted by a Yugoslav
commentator, who additionally foresaw no serious harm to U.S. relations
with foreign countries from the allegations about past assassination
plot involvements.
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I, NONCOMMUN I qT COUNTRIES
WEST EUROPE
BRITAIN While the major British dailies on 21 and 22 November
carried the details of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence report, these items were confined to the inside pages,
and there has been very little editorial comment. News accounts
on the 21st all included the Senate findings on the Castro and
Lumumba assassination plans, and most mentioned CIA involvement in
Chile and in anti,-Trujillo activities. Reports the following day
featured President Ford's assurances that assassination plots would
not be repeated, and the GUARDIAN quoted Secretary Kissinger as
saying "I think there can be tighter control." Fred Emery's
Washington dispatch in the TIMES cited Kissinger as viewing "this
washinj of dirty linen as an unmitigated disaster" and added
that the President felt the same. Jonathan Stell in the GUARDIAN
raised the question of the security of CIA operations in the wake
of the investigation.
Among the Sunday papers, the SUNDAY TIMES carried a two-page inside
spread giving a detailed summary of the Senate report, along with
a Henry Brandon dispatch from Washington predicting that Congress
would outlaw political assassinations and that a Senate committee
with broad powers would be established to provide oversight of CIA
operations. The OBSERVER on the 23d carried a page eight article
on Edward Lansdale--"the Kennedy spy who tried to kill Castro."
There have been only two British editorials concerning the Senate
report. The TIDIES on the 25th noted that the report presents an
"extremely disturbing picture of criminal, immoral and inefficient
behavior" by the U.S. Government, but it went on to observe approvingly
that it was another branch of the government which exposed this
behavior. The. TIMES expressed the hope that "the benefits deriving
from this demonstration of the system's ability to correct its own
abuses will outweigh the damage done by the revelation of the abuses
themselves." Moral issues aside, the TIMES questioned the wisdom
of plots against Castro and Allende, "even on the coolest calculation
of national interest," and asserted that "assassination is an impre-
cise weapon which is likely to have unpredictable results, such as
the. martyrdom of the victim or his replacement by somebody worse."
An editorial in the 22 November. SUN, as reviewed by BBC's World
Service, treated the CIA derisively for considering such "antics"
as the use of exploding seashells, poisonous cigars and fake shoe
polish to make Castro's beard fall out. The paper said "the American
Senate must take credit for exposing these dangerous men to the gale
force of world laughter and scorn."
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ITALY Milan's prestigious daily CORRIERE DELLA SERA on the 22(1
carried a page six report on the Church committee findings,
focusing on the anti-Lumumba plots and declaring that President
Eisenhower "must have authorized" the alleged attempt against
Lumumba. The communist party paper L'UNITA on the 21st carried
a brief back-page dispatch on the Senate report and followed this
the next day with a frontpage report which said that the CIA's
criminal, manifold and prolonged activities" involving assassination
of foreign leaders had "the direct support" of President Eisenhower
and "the objective sponsorship of others such as Kennedy and
Johnson."
SCANDINAVIA Reporting in the monitored Scandinavian press has
been largely confined to reportage from the papers'
own correspondents or news agencies, with little comment. A report
in the Norwegian Labor Party organ ARBEIDERBLADET by Borge.Visby
on the 22d said: "The CIA has never murdered a foreign head of state--
but there has been no lack of desire." The only editorial comment
appeared in the Copenhagen Social Democratic AKTUELT on the 23d.
Although the paper expressed shock at the revelations, it thought
that "it ought to be stressed that the reports come from the United
States itself" and that this reflected "how strong the democratic
forces are in the United States. American "frankness" was contrasted
with the repression of the East European regimes and the paper
concluded wishfully that "perhaps the day will come when an Eastern
citizen, critical of society, will not need to travel to the West
in order to speak freely."
GREECE While the Athens press gave fairly thorough coverage
to the Senate report, it was not prominently featured.
Comment was sparse, if pointed. A report on the 25th in the daily
RIZOSPASTIS, organs of the Moscow-line Communist Party of the
Exterior, was unique in noting the damaging domestic.consequen(:es
of the Senate investigation for the CIA, pointing out that university
students in Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego have persistently
demanded withdrawal of CIA recruiters from their campuses. A
columnist in the progovernment daily ETHNIKOS KIRIX referred to
Secretary Kissinger's assurances that the United States would not
undertake assassination plots but expressed concern that "no
American has asked that the respo:. ible people of the CIA be
committed for trial either for acts of torture or assassination."
The conservative I KATHIMERINI sardonically commented that President
Ford's announcement that he will present a bill to Congress
banning U.S. involvement in foreign assassination plots "means that
since there has been no specific relerant law so far, this method for
the propagation of democratic and humanistic ideas that are cultivated
in postwar America has been legal."
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25 NOVli 1BER 19715
TURKEY The only available Turkish reference was a 21 November
Ankara radio report which, after naming the alleged assassi-
nation targets as reported by the Senate committee, noted that "except
for Castro all the statemen were assassinated." Ankara failed to
cite the committee's finding that the United States was not
necessarily involved in implementing the plots.
CYPRUS Generally sparse reaction in the Cyprus press included
the vitriolic comment of the pro-Makarios 0 FILELEVTIIEROS,
which noted that "only Fidel Castro (and not Makarios?) escaped
the death with which he had been 'tagged' by the CIA" and concluded:
"Spit on them--they deserve it!" The Communist paper KHARAVYI, in its
"Our Views" column charged that the "imperialist conspiracy" and the
"sinister criminal syndicate of the American CIA" have spread
worldwide, including Cyprus, which "has also been the victim of
preci&ely these interests, where the notorious circles of EOKA B
were found to play the abominable and treacherous role of the venal
tool of imperialist plans."
SPAIN Of the Spanish papers monitored, only Barcelona's LA
VANGUARDIA on 22 November carried materials on the Senate
report. The paper devoted almost an entire foreign news page to the
subject. Angel Zuniga, the newspaper's New York correspondent, drew
attention to the fact that the report "was unable to draw concrete
conclusions about who authorized the conspiracies," commenting that
this was a skillful way of shaking off final responsibility, 'In what
one commentator has already called the Church coverup." The paper
also carried dispatches on CIA's involvement in Chile, but noted
Secretary Kissinger's denial that the United States was involved in
the coup which overthrew the Allende regime.
AUSTRIA Vienna radio on the 21st carried a five-minute repcrt
by one of its U.S. correspondents summarizing the Senate
report and highlighting details of the assassination plots, but the
radio offered no comment. Vienna press comment was confined to two
papers, the semi-official WIENER ZEITUNG and the Socialist ARBEITER-
ZEITUNG. WIENER ZEITUNG on the 22d argued that secret intelligence
work is "dirty work" but apparently indispensable to both East and
West, and necessary cleanups should be made without resorting to
"masochistic publicity" that is apt to do "tremendous damage" and
to "weaken the Wericans with whose strength or weakness the entire
West stands or falls." ARBEITER-ZEITUNG the next day hailed the
"relentless consistency" of the Senate investigation, pointing out
that the cleansing process now following the "monstrous CIA plots"
constituted "some guarantee that gangster methods will get less and
less room also in power politics." Both papers mentioned secret
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intelligence activities of the East bloc states, and ARBEITER-
ZEITUNG specifically reminded the communists that the world was
still waiting in vain for a public report on the activities of the
Soviet secret police.
OTHER COUNTRIES Portuguese papers through 22 November carried
only one report on the Church committee's
findings: Lisbon's DIARIO DE NOTICIAS on 22 November car;-ied a
roundup of Western press agency reports on its back page, describing
without comment the alleged plots and their victims. The Brussels
paper LE SOIR on 22 November carried an AP account detailing the
Senate findings and highlighting the alleged plot to kill Patrice
Lumumba. There was no comment.
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25 NOVEMBER 1975
LATIN AMERICA
Monitored noncommunist Latin American media have treated the Senate
Intelligence Committee's report released on 20 November as a routine,
minor event. The only available comment, in a conservative Argentine
English-language newspaper, criticized Senator Church and Congress for
going too far in public revelations of CIA activities and suggested that
Congressional immaturity and early 1976 election campaigning were
motivating factors. Reportage on the Senate committee report by Latin
American radios generally was carried well down in newscasts, was based
upon press agency accounts, and included acknowledgments that Cuban
Premier Castro had been the target of alleged assassination attempts.
Argentina's Buenos Aires HERALD took a generally critical view of the
Senate committee's revelations, in a 23 November editorial questioning
Senator Church's judgment in revealing the names of agents allegedly
involved in assassination plots and doubting the "maturity" of Congress
as a whole. The paper observed that the issue was not whether it was
"ethical or even couvenient" to assassinate foreign heads of state,
but that Senator Church wanted to expose the names of people "who at
the tim4 were doing what they were told to do, and usually running
very grave danger i"i what they interpreted was the service of their
country." The HERALD added that Senator Church was "letting the
shadow of the Statue of Liberty blot out the fact that democracy has to
be fought for--and not always openly with a flourish and a swordsman's
stance."
The editorial concluded with retrospective praise for earlier U.S.
investigations of "Watergate" that led to the unseating of former
President Nixon, while declaring that disclosure of the CIA's worldwide
activities was of more international significance because of the U.S.
world leadership role, which in turn meant "not everything" could be
made public. It noted that Congress would be able to draw the line on
public revelations of secret U.S. activities only when "it has itself
achieved maturity, and this does not seem to be the case just yet--at
least not in pre-election years."
ASIA, AUSTRALIA
JAPAN Major Tokyo papers on 21 and 22 November gave extensive
frontpage coverage to reportage by Washington correspondents
and international news agencies on the Senate Intelligence Committee's
report. Most papers featured editorials or comment by their U.S.
correspondents.
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Almost uniformly, the press comment deplored U.S. Government
"corruption" and the CIA's "dirty activities" while at the same time
lauding thi U.S. Congress for having had the courage to make the
report public. An ASAIII editorial on the 22d was typical, expressing
shock at the CIA's "unbelievable degree of corruption," while arguing
that U.S. prestige had been "enhanced" by the Congress' "having had
the courage to expose this shameful conduct." In a similar vein,
TOKYO SHIMBUN on 24 November observed editorially that the revelations
have tarnished the U.S. "image," but concluded "nevertheless, the
conscience it bras shown in making the report public must have given
the whole world a favorable impression." Most of the comment did not
address the question of the report's impact on the future of CIA.
The JCP organ AKAIIATA reacted to the Senate report in a 24 November
editorial alleging that the assassination plots were "based on the
anticommunist theory that anything should be do ne to beat communism."
THAILAND Reports on the substance of the Senate committee,i report
were published in all three Thai English-language papers
and in several of Bangkok's Thai-language papers. Some of the comment
harshly criticized CIA, and a column in SIAM RAT observed that it was
obvious why President Ford tried so hard to keep the secrets of the
Agency, even to the extent of firing William Colby to "keep him quiet."
A report in PRACHACHAT warned that the Senate report demonstrated that
the United States would do anything, "no matter how depraved," to protect
its interests. The English-language Bangkok POST, while condemning the
"intolerable" exe.esses revealed in the report, noted that the White
House must share a "large portion" of the blame aILd praised the release
of the report as a "tribute to American democracy."
OTHER ASIAN, Few other Asian newspapers are yet available, but
AUSTRALIA the Senate report was mentioned in some monitored
broadcasts. The Delhi radi- carried a news report
on the release of the report and quoted Secretary of State Kissinger as
saying that CIA assassination activities would be discontinued but other
secret activities would not. The Colombo domestic service briefly
described for Sri Lanka listeners the content of the report and cited
recommendations for legislation outlawing assassination attempts.
The Singapore radio mentioned the report and noted President Ford's
statement that the disclosures would not affect the future of
Dr. Kissinger or the Administration. Kuala Lumpur's international
service carried a short report noting that no evidence of U.S.
Presidential involvement had been found.
The only available Australian comment was an editorial from the AGE
newspaper in Melbourne, broadcast by Melbourne radio, which asserted
that "there was nothing, no matter how weird or ghastly, to which this
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organization would not stoop in pursuit of its dubious and immoral
aims." The paper went on to express the hope that the lessons would
not be lost on Australian intelligence organizations.
AFRICA
Very sparse available African media treatment of the Senate Intelligence
Committee report suggests that it has received low-key, largely factual
publicity. Monitored African radio broadcasts have not mentioned the
committee's report. In North Africa, Maghreb newspapers through
22 November, with the exception of the Algerian EL MOUDJAIIID that clay,
had carried no comment on the Senate report. EL MOUDJAIIID was the
only one even to report the subject, in an 800-word dispatch outlining
the alleged plots and their intended victims and naming the CIA officials
implicated.
MIDDLE FAST
Apart from a distorted Baghdad domestic radio report on the Senate
committee document claiming direct Presidential culpability, and an
Israeli broadcast over Jerusalem radio stressing the lack of direct
evidence concerning Presidential-level orders for the alleged
assassination plots, Middle Eastern radios have given the Senate report
very little publicity.
Baghdad's broadcast on the 21st noted that "an official report" by the
committee had "affirmed" that CIA was involved in the assassination
plots, listed the foreign leaders targeted, and claimed that the
report "stressed that the Presidents of the United States were fully
responsible for these attempts" as leaders of the executive branch.
Baghdad drew no distinctions on the evidence in each case, as the
Senate report actually had done. The Jerusalem radio, on the other
hand, highlighted its report with the statement that the Senate
committee "has cleared former U.S. Presidents of suspicion" and
pointed out there was "no direct evidence" linking CIA :activities
with Presidential instructions. The Israeli broadcast also noted
corrective legislation "demanded" by the report to forbid conspiratorial
connections abroad by U.S. citizens.
Cairo radio newscasts on 22 November and the influential Cai.-o paper
AL-AKHBAR on the 2]st and AL-AHRAM on the 22d acknowledged publication
of the Senate report without comment, as did the Kuwaiti AS-SIYASAH
on the 22d. Short, factual news agency dispatches datelined Washington
were published in the Jordanian AL-AKHBAR and the Damascus AL-BA'TH on
the 21st, and Beirut's English-language DAILY STAR on 22 November.
The newscasts of the Jordanian, Libyan and Voice of Palestine radios
have ignored the report in monitored broadcasts, while the Lebanese and
Syrian radios each acknowledged its publication in short, factual reports.
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II, COMMUNIST COUNTRIES
THE SOVIET UNION
Moscow has provided low-key coverage of the Senate committee's report
through several TASS dispatches summarizing the report and reaction to
it within the United States. Soviet media have not offered any direct
comment on the report's findings, though they have replayed critical
editorial comments by some U.S. newspapers. While several Moscow
papers have published the TASS dispatches on a selective basis, as of
24 November the party organ PRAVDA had not even mentioned the
committee report. TASS items have also been carried in Moscow radio's
domestic service, but the only available report in Moscow's inter-
national services is in an Arabic-language broadcast on Moscow's
purportedly ""mofficial" Radio Peace and Progress. The treatment of
the report in soviet media is consistent with Moscow's practice
during the course of the Senate and House investigations into U.S.
intelligence activities of providing regular, nominally factual,
coverage of developments and subsequent negative reaction from within
the country.
The TASS-attributed dispatch on the release of the Senate committee's
report published in the central press on 23 November (except for PRAVDA)
cited its revelation of "at least eight CIA plots" against Cuban
leader Fidel Castro, planning in 1950 for the assassination of former
Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, and plotting in 1970 against
Chilean General Rene Schneider. The description of Chilean events
implied that General Schneider's death in October 1970 was the
direct re..ult of U.S. action. The report noted the Senate committee's
observation that the attempt on Lumumba "ended in failure," though
adding that he was "villainously killed" in January 1961.
The 23 November central press report on revelations about the "monstrous,
criminal activities" of the CIA concluded by noting the comment by the
Senate document's authors that the harm caused by such actions to U.S.
foreign policy and prestige abroad was "incalculable." A dispatch on
the 24th reporting U.S. press reaction noted that voters, members of
Congress and the press had offered "loud and wrathful protest" over CIA
activities. It cited the New York TIMES as observing that the United
States had "gotten mixed up in" activities which contradict "inter-
national moral standards." And a further dispatch on the 24th
replayed a CBS report that "upper circles in Washington" were
attempting to conceal further details about U.S. involvement in Chile
leading up to the ouster of Salvador Allende's government.
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EAST EUROPE
Only East Germany, Hungary, and Yugoslavia have commented so far on the
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's report on assassination plots.
Factual accounts have appeared in the media of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
and Poland, but Romania and Albania have so far ignored the Senate
report. East German reaction is in line with the anti-U.s tone of
other recent comment, including that on the U.S. cabinet changes early
this month. The vituperative and relatively voluminous East Berlin
comment has stressed that the Administration tried unsuccessfully to
prevent publication of the report, that the whole truth has still not
been fully revealed, and that the report was re leaned only after over-
whelming public opinion demanded it. For example, an Arno Friedmann
commentary on the East Berlin domestic radio on the 21st cynically
dismissed the view that the release of the report represented a positive
democratic self-cleansing process, asserting that "everybody, really
everybody, kept quiet until the whole thing stank to high heaven."
Friedmann went on to point out that "brutal" U.S. imperialism used the
kind of intelligence service that "accords with its character."
Budapest and Belgrade took a more benign approach, viewing the release
of the Senate report in the context of the heatingup of the U.S.
Presidential election campaign. A commentary carried on Budapest
domestic television, also on the 21st, took a more restrained tone--
characteristic of Hungarian media treatment of the United States.
Following a routine condemnation of the alleged assassination plots, the
talk conjectured that the struggle for power positions among U.S.
economic, political, and military interests was growing more intense
on the eve of the Presidential campaign and that "the legislature would
like to curtail the Presidential jurisdiction, which according to some
members of Congress is excessive."
A Washington-da-:elined Budimir commentary carried by the Yugoslav TANJUG
on the 23d als' discussed the report in terms of domestic politics. It
assessed the x-~l.'ase of the report as a victory for the Democratic
majority in Congress at President Ford's expense. TANJUG observed that
"Ford has lost the battle, and his opposition to publication of the
report could have certain political consequences" in the Presidential
campaign. The Belgrade commentator was notably moderate toward the
United States in predicting that the release of the report would not
result in any serious deterioration in U.S. relations with foreign
countries. In this connection he surmised that Castro--allegedly the
target of numerous assassination plots--had already known about the
plots for a long time, and that his readiness to normalize relations
with the United States would not undergo any significant change.
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CUBA
The most striking aspect about the relatively low-keyed and selective
treatment by Havana media of the Senate Intelligence Committee report
on assassination plots is the complete omission thus far of any
acknowledgment that Cuban Premier Fidel Castro was one of the
purported targets. Instead Havana has focused entirely upon alleged
U.S. ,attempts against former Chilean Army chief General Rene
Schn(.idcr and U.S. efforts to prevent the late Salvador Allende from
taking office as president of Chile.
The obviously deliberate omission is consistent with domestic Cuban
media's past tendency to play down talk of assassination attempts.
While both Fidel and Raul Castro have publicly acknowledged awareness
of such alleged U.S. attempts in the past, their statements have
generally been reserved for the foreign press or were publicized only
in Cuba's PRENSA LATINA for foreign audiences. Most recently, for
example, Raul Castro in a 19 September interview with the Mexican
EL DIA noted that, "The CIA attempts against Fidel that we denounced
14 years ago when no one believed us are cited in the press daily now."
Dwelling almost entirely on Chilean events related in the report, the
closest Havana came to acknowledging that there were other'efforts
affecting Cuba came in a Havana domestic radio report on the 20th--
before the Senate report was released. It noted "former" CIA Director
Colby's request that Congress keep secret the names of CIA officials
who "participated in assassination plans" in the report to be issued
later that day. Havana described the Senate study as covering
"assassination plans, CIA operations to overthrow Chilean President
Salvador Allende and other governments in this hemisphere and in the
world," and U.S. "domestic espionage." Havana domestic and international
radio reports, as well as Cuba's PRENSA LATINA agency, after release
of the Senate report on the 20th concentrated on "CIA assassination plans,"
the allegations that former President Nixon had ordered the kidnaping of
Chilean army commander General Schneider, and gave extensive details
on alleged CIA activities in Chile. There were no subsequent Havana
references to alleged CIA attempts to overthrow "other governments in
this hemisphere."
ASIAN COMMUNIST STATES
As of this writing, there has been no monitored reference to the Senate
committee's report on foreign ass::ssinations by communist media in
China, North Korea, Laos, or Cambodia. North Vietnam took note of the
report in a brief news item, broadcast by Hanoi radio on 22 November,
which maintained that the report "provided concrete evidence that CIA
had carried out assassination plots" against foreign leaders and that
President Ford had engaged in a "heated struggle" with Congress to
prevent its release.
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
V
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WORLDWIDE MEDIA ATTENTION TO INVESTIGATIONS, OF CIA
This memorandum provides a representative sampling of comment in
worldwide media on the investigations of CIA, from last December
to date. The survey of material over a 10-month period revealed
that the CIA story has not been a big "media event" in any foreign
media. In the communist world, Peking has totally ignored the
investigations; Moscow and East Europe have reported the more
sensational revelations, but have offered little comment. Available
material from Middle East sources provided no significant comment.
None of the comment deals directly with the question of continued
cooperation between foreign intelligence services and the CIA;
however, there are some indications of British concern that the
continuing investigations might produce embarrassment for its own
intelligence service regarding past cooperation. Canadian media
also duly reported the official investigation ordered there last May
of CIA operations within their borders. There has baen very little
consideration in general of the long-range impact of the investigations
for CIA, but some West European comment suggests the results might be
beneficial.
Given the paucity of comment from most areas, broad generalizations are
difficult to make and this memorandum is perforce descriptive
rather than analytical. It is divided geographically and, with the
noncommunist countries, the material described represents virtually
all of the available relevant comment rather than selected highlights.
WESTERN EUROPE S CANADA
Great Britain: While available British media say little about the
CIA investigations, one newspaper did noLe concern that they may have
an impact on British intelligence. Chapman Pincher, in the 13 June
DAILY EXPRESS, reported growing fears in Whitehall that the British
Secret Service might be implicated in the investigation of improper
CIA activities, including assassinations. He wrote:
There has been close collaboration between the Secret
Service--MI6--and the CIA over many years and the CIA
secret records may reveal instances where they have
worked together on "dirty tricks." While the Secret
Service is now forbidden to take part in political
assassinations or other forms of violence, this was
not true several years ago and the CIA inquiries are
believed to cover the last 20 years at least.
Shortly after the Rockefeller Commission was formed, early British
press comment was quoted in the 11 January BBC World Service press
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review. The TELEGRAPH saw the CIA investigation as a reflection of
the American post-Watergnte mood, in which even the idea that a
secret service should conceal things "is apparently regarded as
outrageous." It added that the KGB "must be really enjiying this."
The SCOTSMAN commented humorously on charges that the CIA had been
spying on London's subway, but went on to say that "the problems
raised by the charge are not perhaps quite so silly. :.t is not in
the interest of America or 'its allies that the CIA should go off its
head."
On 12 January, a SUNDAY TELEGRAPH article said Whitehall security
experts were noting the increasing number of CIA operatives in Britain,
France, Italy and Spain, and reported that some of the CIA people were
entering Britain in the guise of tourists or lecturers. This was said
to reflect American uncertainty about the stability of existing
regimes, particularly in Italy and Spain. The paper said: "Even Britain
is no exception: Strikes and galloping inflation have led some CIA
chiefs to the belief that there could be some kind of coup."
Comment on the Rockefeller Commission report appeared on the 11 June
BBC World Service press review. A TIMES editorial said that CIA had
been drawn into domestic activities during the protest wave of the
1960's and "was also contaminated by the way in which a corrupt and
increasingly paranoiac White House confused political enemies with
threats to the security of the state." The TIMES also said that the
CIA deserves protection from indiscriminate criticism but that it
also requires close and regular scrutiny. Vice President Rockefeller's
recommendations were regarded as "a sensible compromise." The
GUARDIAN was cited as saying that Congress was inevitably going to have
to be more involved in supervising intelligence operations. The DAILY
EXPRESS said it would be "disastrous for America if a Watergate-type
scandal were to erupt over Ford's refusal to make public some evidence
about CIA activities." The paper added: "When Moscow discloses the
working of the KGB President Ford may review his policy of silence on
the CIA, and not before."
Canada: A Montreal broadcast to Europe on 29 May reported that the
Canadian Government had ordered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to
investigate charges that CIA had operat.;i illegally in Canada.
Solicitor General Warren Allmand, at a meeting of the House of Commons
Justice Committee in Ottawa, was reported to have said in effect that
espionage was espionage no matter which country is involved. He said
that if the CIA was found to be operating illegally in Canada "the matter
would be turned over to the Department of External Affairs."
Germany: The available West German comment all focused on the Rockefeller
Commission report and some of it noted the harmful effects of publicity.
An 11 June FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE editorial, for example, said: "Nothing
is more harmful to an intelligence service than publicity, and at the
moment the CIA is better known tk.;in any star." The paper concluded that
the CIA was involved in political violence and mentioned the assassinations
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the a11c rt:Lorrs in r l.ri to pert
L~ perspective by referring to the greater ruthless-
ness of communist intelligence service;;. It was because of this, the
paper said, that Ford "did not chide his own intelligence service.
He has condemned excesses. This, too, will be harmful to the CIA,
but the President's presentation to the public was necessary. On the
one hand, he has an implacable Senate on his back. On the other hand,
this purging process may he wholesome for the CIA, After the political
thunderstorm the intelligence service can at long last disappear from
the headlines."
A broadcast to Africa by Cologne's Deutsche Welle service similarly
remarked on the dangers of publicity: "In the case in point, the
Rockefeller report on the CIA, there is a danger that the call for
publicity and greater controls could be carried to such a point as to
make impossible the normal running of an intelligence-gathering agency.
President Ford is aware of this danger and has attempted to counter it
by declaring that the CIA is absolutely vital for the survival of the
nation and that, in the future, it will have to work within the law."
A commentator on Cologne's Domestic Service, however, saw the greater
danger emanating from the CIA itself. Ile portrayed an internal power
struggle "between military-oriented and sober analytical forces,
between officials who defend power with all means and those defending
it solely by legal means. This commentator concluded that if the
CIA is vitally essential to the United States, "then the President
will have to reform it. Otherwise, it might become more harmful to
the country than what it is combating."
France: A 12 June LE MONDE editorial on the Rockefeller report found
it noteworthy that a presidential commission was set up to investigate
the charges against the intelligence service and that it p,iblished a
report. This "could not be imagined in any other Western democracy."
The paper blamed the problems of the past on White House pressure and the
careless supervision by Congress. It said that the CIA had s; own by
its willingness to cooperate wit:. the Rockefeller Commission and the
congressional investigations that it wanted to shed the marginal
activities for which it had been criticized in order "to devote its
time unmolested to what will always remain its sancrosanct and, in
any case, unquestioned sphere: spying by a superpower on the rest of
the world."
Norway: The Oslo AFTENPOSTEN editorial on the Rockefeller report said
that political assassination in peacetime must be regarded as
unacceptable for democracies, but it regretted that "excesses committed
by the CIA led some circles to want the entire intelligence service
abolished." It underlined the importance of intelligence services as
an instrument of state, and especially for the United States, which
must counter the efforts of the KGB. AFTENPOSTEN contrasted the
secrecy in which the KGB operates to the publicity surrounding CIA,
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but regarded the Investigations as a v: n cation or meri can
democracy. "The disclosure of weak points will in reality be
the strength of Ainericaa society," the paper concluded.
Austria: Vienna's Socialist Mayor Gratz, at a Socialist rally in
Vienna reported by Vienna's WIENER ZEITUNG on 14 February, criti-
cized the CIA role in Chile and the mentality that believes
democratic America can be defended with the aid of dictatorial
regimes. But the mayor went on to praise the resilience of American
democracy, as demonstrated by the various investigations. Gratz
said: "Our-belief in democracy is strengthened by the fact that
in the United States a, process of self-purification from political
corruption and the power of the CIA is now underway. Ideas have
always triumphed over cannons."
Chile: Two Chilean magazines, in commenting on the Rockefeller
Commission's findings, mentioned possible harmful effects, although
they were not terribly explicit. 'A 23 July article in Santiago
ERCILLA said: "As was to be expected, several sectors became
concerned that the investigation would harm the CIA's security in
some nations, as well as its respectablility in others--and in all--
its possibilities of operating in the future." The 19 June Santiago
QUE PASA said: "Furthermore, other well-informed columnists have
said that obviously there are persons who are interested in under-
mining the CIA's operations and whose revelations have endangered
the lives of many of its agents or disrupted vital counterespionage
operations."
Dominican Republic: In an 8 March Santo Domingo EL CARIBE interview,
Gen Antonia Imbert Barreras, one of two remaining suvivors of the
anti-Trujillo plot, flatly denied allegations in Washington POST articles
about CIA involvement in the Trujillo assassination. Imbert said:
"I firmly reject--not as a participant in this historic event, but as
a common citizen--this allegation that the CIA intervened in the
execution of Trujillo."
Panama: A commentary on Panama City's Radio Libertad on 9 January
declared that Vice President Rockefeller, through his investigation,
might be al-,le to reestablish Executive Department control over CIA and
thus erase "the low esteem in which the CIA is now held--with good
reason. A first step could be to change its name."
The nominally pro-government Panama City newspaper CRITICA carried
a 27 August editorial on an article in the Caracas magazine ELITE
entitled "Omer Torrijos Is in the CIA's Sights." The article claimed
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American country. CRITICA ridiculed the idea, saying that if
the United States tried to make another Vietnam out of Panama
all of Central America would join Panama to oppose this. The
article also claimed that Torrijos had rejected a $2 million
CIA bribe not to return to Panama while he was in Mexico in
1969.
Bolivia: A 12 June article by La Paz PRESENCIA's director
iuascar Cajias K. deplored the activities revealed by the Senate
and the Rockefeller Commission, but contrasted the behavior of
democracies, which can correct their own abuses, to dictatorships
which commit worse abuses unimpeded.
Mexico: A 28 January editorial in..1texico City's r.L DIA attributed
terrorist attacks in Mexico City and elsewhere in Mexico to CIA
instigation. In a rather labored effort the paper sought to demon-
strate that, despite appearances, the incidents could nut be the
work of leftists because they would have no reason to oppose the
progressive policies of President Echevarria. The editorial said its
thesis was bolstered by the testimony of CIA Director Colby and
former CIA directors to investigating agencies.
Mexico City's EXCELSIOR, as quoted by Havana's PRF.NSA LATINA on .
14 January, warned against the tendency to take CIA lightly after
charging CIA agents with committing, instigating, and recommending
political assassinations. The paper urged its readers to consider
seriously the possibility that the CIA may have been, is, and will
continue operating in Mexico.
Peru: A. 25 June Lima EXPRESO article by Mario V. Guzman Galarza
complained that, despite the Rockefeller report, influential
segments of the U.S. public feel that what was denounced as illegal
and a violation of U.S. citizens' rights is perfectly legal abroad
on the grounds of "national security." After reciting the usual
litany of charges concerning the U.S. role in Latin America, the
writer expressed skepticism about the "new dialog" the United
States favors with Latin America, and concluded with an entreaty
to the U.S. Congress "to prohibit the CIA's illegal activities
in Latin America and the rest of the Third World" if it truly
desires improved relations.
Venezuela: The Rockefeller Commission investigation was lauded by
the 19 June Caracas ULTIMAS NOTICIAS as a vindication of U.S.
democracy and a reproach to the habitual anti-U.S. elements who
"parrot the 'horrors' of the CIA while they shamelessly play the
ostrich with regard to the KGB."
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 %gr
@%j$~qpa198teQPBl6kOUr~_?as questioned
about alleged plots to assassinate him, and in each case Castro replied
that he had long been aware of such CIA plots. Interestingly enough,
in the 8 May press conference at Havana's Palace of the Revolution
during Senator McGovern's visit, tlic assassination question came after
Castro had spent much of the meeting expressing his wish for improved
relations with the United States. As reported by Havana's PRENSA
LATINA, there was no indication that Castro regarded the alleged
assassination attempts as an impediment to such improved relations.
In a 10 July interview in Santiago de Cuba, while accompanying Jamaican
Prime Minister Manley, Castro explicitly exonerated all three Kennedy
brothers of any responsibility for the plots, according to Mexico City's
INFORMEX agency.
While Havana radio has reported developments in the investigations,
these reports have been relatively straightforwcrd and have taken no
identifiable line, A Havana Domestic Service broadcast of 22 March,
though, did say that CIA was trying to refurbish its image in ft-! United
States, and toward this end "has retired the head of its Latin American
department, D. Phillips, so that he--as a simple citizen--can head an
active propa'anda campaign in defense of CIA activities."
Nigeria: Both CIA, and FBIS in particular, were subjected to a brief
flurry of criticism in July when the Nigerian Government was pushing
for return of the U.S. Embassy annex in Lagos and some journalists also
attempted to exploit the presence of the FBIS bureau in Kaduna. Citing
the Marchetti-Marks "Cult of Intelligence" for its revelation of the
CIA-FBIS relationship, columnist Haroun Adamu in the 6 July Lagos
SUNDAY TIMES insisted that the Nigerian Government make public the
agreement between Nigeria and the United States and disclose the real
purpose of the FBIS bureau. He said that Ministry of Communications
experts should inspect the bureau and that "Americans should either s,.?L
the outfit to us or crate their equipment and send them home."
An 8 July editorial in the Jos NIGERIAN STANDARD entitled "Flush Out
the CIA" detailed the CIA assassination plots allegations, mentioning
Castro, Trujillo, Lumumba, Diem and Allende, and went on to say: "With
this evil record it is a pity that the CIA should be allowed to run a
commilnication center in this country." The paper pursued this theme
the following day, asking: "When'shall we sum up enough courage to
send the CIA and the British intelligence outfit packing?"
Uganda: A Uganda "military spokesman" was quoted by Kampala radio on
20 January as charging CIA with the deaths of President and Robert
Kennedy, 'Patrice Lumumba and Che Guevara. With a confidence worthy of
President Amin, the military spokesman warned would-be plotters that
CIA could not possibly penetrate into Uganda because all CIA plans are
well known.
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Noncommunist Comment: The intelligence investigations have been
reported infrequently and briefly in dispatches attributed to Western
news agencies throughout the year, but there has been little or no
comment except in isolated instances.
Ja an: A JAPAN TIMES editorial in June, following release of the
Rockefeller report, observed that it had yielded no surprises, confirming
"what most people suspected: that a clandestine organization with this
much power almost certainly will exceed its authority and violate the
law unless held firmly in check." It noted that Americans were
"shocked" mainly because "CIA dirty tricks were played against themselves."
Taking a balanced view, JAPAN TIMES added that one could not expect the
Soviet Union to subject its own KGB to public investigation, concluding
that "no doubt the CIA will be needed as long as the communist states
continue to make espionage one of their major activities abroad." It
predicted that the congressional investigations would mean "CIA's
effectiveness no doubt will suffer in the process," a price that "must
be paid to preserve freedoms in tote world's largest democracy and to
prevent criminal acts abroad."
Thailand: The conservative Bangkok POST adopted a "hands off" viewpoint,
noting in June that while the CIA is "indeed a criminal organization,"
except for tb times when Thailand "has been a victim of CIA plots, this
is an inter:ial affair of the United States--and they are welcome to it."
A Thai vernacular newspaper, RUAM PRACIIACHAT, in August provided a
detailed accouunt?--said to be based on congressional testimony by a CIA
political affairs expert--of alleged CIA support amounting to some
$12.5 million to the "Rawaphon" political movement in Thailand, and of
alleged espionage directed by U.S. charge d'affaires in Thailand Edward
Masters.
Communist Comment: Rare references to the CIA investigations in Asian
communist media, primarily from North Vietnam and North Korea, dealt
primarily with revelations and ties to their own regional experiences
involving the Agency or employed doctrinaire propaganda stereotypes to
attack the United States, its leaders, and Agency officials. Reportage
on the investigations was infrequent and brief. There was no known
speculation on the potential harm to CIA cooperative relations with other
Western intelligence organizations.
North Vietnam: NHAN DAN, commenting in January after the first New Yorl.
TIMES revelations about CIA, noted U.S. public indignation over the
exposes, blamed many of the illegal actions on the Nixon Administration,
and launched a vituperative attack on DCI Colby for his role in the
"savage crimes perpetrated by the CIA" during the "U.S. war of aggression
in Vietnam and Indochina." NHAN DAN charged that Colby "personally
directed" the Phoenix pacification campaign, which it claimed "massacred"
"hundreds of thousands" of Vietnamese compatriots. Noting alleged CIA
involvement in plots in Cuba, Chile, and Africa, the paper concluded
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that the New Yorefc T M,:.. Isc osure
nature of the CIA as a dangerous tool. of repression" and had
confirmed that CIA is "indeed a kind of state within a state."
North Korea: North Korean press comment in June, after release
of the Rockefeller report, denounced in standard vituperative
Pyongyang form the "despicable and heinous" plots by "U.S.
imperialists and their stooges" against Zaire, adding that the
revelations had exposed the "dirty nature of the U.S. imperialists,
human butchers and barbarians."
While Moscow has duly reported or commented on all the disclosures
ensuing from the Rockefeller and congressional investigations of
CIA, the subject has never approached being a major topic for Soviet
media, either in terms of coverage volume or authoriative comment.
The revelations have largely been ignored by Moscow's domestic radio
and not hea?'ily featured in the Soviet central press. In fact, the
lengthiest Soviet expos'.tion of the CIA story was not even a Soviet-
originated piece but rather a 5,200-word, slightly abbrevinte3
reprint of articles on CIA in the 23 June issue of NEWSWEEK. The
reprint appeared in a July issue of the Soviet foreign affairs
journal ZA RUBEZIIOM and was prefaced by an introduction critical of
the Rockefeller Commission report.
In comment for overseas audiences, the most frequent theme was the
threadbare nature of American bourgeois democracy, as exemplified
by the revelations of domestic surveillance, infiltration of
dissident groups, and mail intercepts. Other prominent subjects
were political assassinations and the failure to destroy toxic
substances. Regarding assassinations, the more lurid charges were
largely restricted to Moscow's purportedly "unofficial" Radio Peace
and Progress. A 15 August Peace and Progress broadcast in Spanish to
Latin America went so i'ar as to accuse CIA of having assassinated
President Kennedy to forestall expected punishment for the Bay of
Pigs failure. In reporting and commenting on the toxins, Moscow
stressed that failure to destroy the poisonous materials was in
violation of presidental orders, but did not play up the fact that
this also violated an international agreement signed by the Soviet
Union as well.
While several Soviet commentators attributed questionable CIA activities
to the cold war, one commentator professed resentment at efforts
to shift the blame to the Soviet Union. Vladimir Pozner, in an
English-language broadcast to Latin America, after noting that Operation
Chaos, drug experiments on humans, and mail covers were all being tied
to concern about the USSR, said: "But I certainly do want to say in
no uncertain terms that I, as a Soviet citizen, cannot protest strongly
enough against what I would call insidious attempts to morally justify
the CIA by shifting the responsibility for its activities to the Soviet
Union."
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There has been no Soviet in-depth speculation on the long-range
impact of the investigations on the Agency, but Boris Strelnikov,
in commenting on the Rockefeller report in the 15 June PRAVDA,
said that though the report confirmed violations of Americans'
rights, it also defended the CIA's activities overall and rejected
any radical changes in the laws und'_r which it operates. This
indicated, Strelnikov wrote, that although CIA "may have been
slightly scared off, [it) will be atle to continue its secret
activity further.".
EASTERN EUROPE
The communist media of Eastern Europe have regularly exploited the
recurring revelations of worldwide CIA activities during 1975 along
doctrinaire propaganda lines, for the most part pointing to the new
"scandalous revelations" as confirmation of beliefs long held in the
socialist states about the evils inherent in the U.S. intelligence
apparatus. Available comment has completely avoided the question of
whether the disclosures might harm U.S. intelligence relations with
other Western powers. Judgments about the effects upon CIA have
mainly concluded that despite the public attacks, the CIA, "a state
within a state, a kind of parallel government," will change little
and lose no significant part of its power. East German and
Czechoslovak commentators appear to have been the most prolific in
ane_yzing the CIA crisis, and have dealt the hardest blows.
Yugoslavia and Poland rarely discussed the su'-.ject, and then in
relatively restrained, reportorial terms.
Hungary: Hungarian coirment expressed doubt that the current congressional
investigations would be carried through to conclusion because of the
potentially "very grave consequences" that would ensue not only in the
United States but "foremost in the NATO countries." An atypical
Hungarian commentary, noting that CIA spokeq:aen were "unduly self-assured"
in maintaining that CIA did nothing on its own initiative, without
approval higher in tLie government, concluded that "there are a number
of indications suggesting that they are right."
East Germany: East German comment in June, reacting to the Rockefeller
report, described CIA as a "creation of the cold war" whose continuing
inter1rerence in other countries' affairs "does not fit into today's
altered world in which thL tendencies of detente have the upper hand."
Another East Berlin radio commentator, who characterized the United
States as a "police state" in the wake of CIA and other agency domestic
activities, went on to offer a rare defense of "socialist secret
services" and "socialist spies." He declared that "because there is
such a thing as imperialism in the world, the socialist states have to
protect their lives, even with the secret services." However, he stressed,
citing German spy Richard Sorge's work to defend "peace" in Japan
during World War II, "socialist spies" have never committed murder and
"did not so much as spit in the faces" of the enemies of socialism,
"although they would have loved to do so."
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Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia's radio broadcasts for Africa have
repeatedly exploited Western reports on CIA activities to point out
the "hypocrisy of Western propaganda" seeking to demonstrate alleged
perfection of what Prague said should be categorized as "bourgeois
democracy." Prague emphasized for African listeners that reported
CIA assassinations or attempts against African and Latin American
leaders proved the "impotency" of the United States, particularly when
such attempts were directed against leaders of "small, weak nations."
- 3.0 -
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