21. ARE THE DEATH SQUADS COMING HOME?

The Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) charter specifically limits the organization to operations outside the borders of the United States. Congress wanted to avert the possibility of an "American Gestapo" or a "domestic KGB" arising in our society.

However, that did not stop the CIA from organizing "Operation CHAOS" during the 1960's to infiltrate, spy on, and discredit the liberal/radical movements of that era. In the early 1970's, thanks to the vigilance of the press and Congress and use of the Freedom of Information Act, much of the CIA's illegal, domestic operations were uncovered and ordered halted. Now, because of a 1981 executive order by President Ronald Reagan, the CIA is back in business within the borders of the United States:

-- Jim Rewald, the son of a CIA operative, began spying for the "company" in 1982 at the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University. (1)

-- CIA media disinformation, used among other things to promote the myth of Soviet military superiority, is being disseminated through our "free press" including THE NEW YORK TIMES. (2)

However, the most chilling charge of all went totally unreported in our mass media. It supports serious allegations concerning the CIA involvement in the mysterious assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier, in Washington, D.C., in 1976. On November 23, 1984, in a libel trial involving former CIA operative David Atlee Phillips, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the jury to take the following facts to be established:

(1) that plaintiff (Phillips) had relationships with journalists during his career with the CIA, and during his CIA service he specialized in propaganda and the planting of false information in the media;

(2) that, during plaintiff's CIA career, there were regular contacts between the CIA and DINA, the Chilean secret police agency;

(3) that plaintiff knew and worked with DINA personnel during his CIA service;

(4) that, during plaintiff's CIA career, the CIA had a working relationship with DINA personnel; and

(5) that plaintiff had both a motive for assisting, and the means to do so, in the concealment of any complicity of DINA personnel in the murder of Chilean diplomat, Orlando Letelier, in September, 1976. (3)

SOURCES:

(1) JACK ANDERSON, SANTA ROSA PRESS DEMOCRAT, 10/12/84, "Family Spy on Campus," by Jack Anderson, p 2D; (2) COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN, Number 21, Spring 1984, "Media Manipulation: Covert Propaganda in Time and Newsweek," by Howard Friel, pp 14-23; (3) Partial Transcript of "David Atlee Phillips, Plaintiff, v. Donald Freed, et al., Defendants, and Lawrence Hill & Co. Publishers, Inc., et al., Defendants;" United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Filed November 26, 1984.