DID CIA BACK LOCKHEED BRIBES TO JAPANESE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300450024-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 24
• Content Type: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING

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Approved For Release 006/11/07 CllA- 88-O1315R
LONDON SUNDAY T S
4 APRIL 1976
Fl S
vid'C.1A,.
Lockhee.4 brioes
to Jabane.s4e?.-.,:,.,..
Jaianese?-
.JiyShawcross
THE CIA was aware or and may. The story Is now emerging un
have actually helped arrange the classic Washington fashion,
massive bribes that the Lockheed through information given to
Aircraft Corporation has paid to reporters by government investi-
'eading Japanese officla?15 ;ind`4 gators and CIA and -other
Might-tViJa politicians. This ; officials. Inevitably, the sources
startling allegation is made this are unnamed and the stories are
weekend by two separate Amen- full of such "intelligence source bheraes`es
can papers.
The stories. in The New York that." But the New York Times
Times and The New Republic, account is carefully documented.
suggest that Lockheed may not And Tad Szulc, who wrote the
New Republic article, is a Highly
have been c'al interestcalone when it paid, skilled reporter on foreign affairs
in Japan, bribes worth $12.6 mil- who has almost unrivalled Con-
tacts in the world of US intelli-
lion over a period of 20 years. . gence.
It may also have been -helping .lbe key figure in both stories
sections of the US intelligence
community .to back. Right-1Ving
politicians.
The allegations will intensify
the political crisis that ? has
gripped Japan since the Lock-
heed bribes were first revealed
In January. And they will in-
crease demands for complete dis-
closure of just what Lockheed's
intentions were in all the other
countries, like Holland, and Italy,
where it has paid bribes.
On Friday the New York
Times reported that details of the
bribes paid by Lockheed in the
1950s to secure the sale of its
F104 fighter plane to Japan were
reported then to the CIA. The
Agency did nothing about them.
In tomorrow's issue of New Re-
public, a liberal Washington
weekly, Tad Szulc describes in
detail how most of Lockheed's
bribes over 1969-75) were trans.
mitted through a New York firm
of currency dealers which the
CIA has reportedly often used.
Mr Szulc cites sources close
to the Investigation of the'bribes
scandal as saying that "the CIA
may even have orchestrated
much of Lockheed's financial
operations in Japan pursuant
to covert US foreign policy ob-
jectives. This, then, may be
what investigators have called
the 'missing link' in. the wider
mystery of secret overseas pay-
ments by US corporations.". I
is Yoshio Kodama, who . was
Lockheed's agent. betwen '19f;9-
75 and is known to, have handled
at least $7 million of the bribes
that the company paid in Japan
during that period. Kodama is
an extreme right-wing Nationalist
who was jailed in 1945 for three
years as a war criminal. After
his release in 1948 he became
an influential powerbrokcr in
the Liberal Democratic Party
which the US built up as Japan's
ruling party during the period
of occupation,
Now both the New York Times
and' New Republic claim that,
before he came to Lockheed,
Kodama worked for years for
the US Government.
Szulc argues that "the CIA's
Interest in Kodama was two-
fold; as a strong pillar in the
Liberal-Democratic party and the
quiet leader of the extreme
rightist elements in Japan. The
Agency's, policy was thus to
Influence the entire ridlitof-
centre of Japanese politics. But
secrecy was essential to protect
Japanese conservatives front the
leftist opposition."
The New York Times says that
the CIA knew' in the Fifties of
the bribes then paid by Lock-
heed to secure sales of its F 104
.In Japan. "One former official
who was in a position to see the
reports said that the CIA station
in Tokyo was " checking with
headquarters every step of the
way- when the Lockheed thing
came up."
In the New Republic, Szulc
takes the story further on the
basis of documents in the hands
of the Senate Multinational CCir?
porations sub-committee. These
showy that, since Lockheed
employed Kodama in 1969, it has
transferred $8.4 million to Japan.
mostly to Kodama, through a
New York currency firm called
Deak and Co.
STAT
Deak and Co was founded just
after the end of the second world
war by Nicholas Deak, a wartime
officer in the Office of Strategic
Services, the forerunner of the
CIA. " According to intelligence
sources lie had continued to have
close personal ties with senior
Agency personnel," after the tsar.
says Smile. The firm has 20 over-
seas offices and Szulc quotes CIA
sources as saying that they were
frequently used by the Agency
for transmitting money, though
he points out "as in -ail secret
CIA dealings no documentation
is available to piove the re,
ported link;."
Szulc points out that, so far as
the Senate investigators knew.
Lockheed did not use Deak for
any of the bribes it paid fn.,
countries other than Japan. 'hie.'
was unable to extract any com-
ment from 'either Lockheed or
the CIA- Ile quotes one intclli,
:ence official as saying "Lock-
heed Would have been a perfect
channel for the CIA, to move
funds secretly to people like
i:odania." But he also says it is
not known whether Lockheed
executives knew of a possible
CIA interest in its Japanese
operations or -whether the bribed
Japanese officials knew.
The New ork Times points
out that the apparent CIA link
contradicts the Senate Subcom-
mittee's view that Lockheed had
been conducting its own foreign
policy, independent of the US
Government. Now it seems that
at least one branch of tha
,government-the CIA may also
have been supporting Kodama.
If so, what has US involvement
in Japanese politics been all
these years? And who 'has con:
trolled it? i
Approved For Release 2006/11/07: CIA-RDP88-01315ROO0300450024-7