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32 RozliNO sroz414 APitmariv76 17 MONTHS A Backstage 0\ THE Journal By Daniel Schorr C IA VVATCH In October 1974, I started investigating the govern- October 2nd, 1974: My Washington bureau chief ment's intelligence agencies; by February 1976, they asks if I can work up a television story along the lines were back investigating me. of Seymour Hersh's revelations in the New York Times It all started with the idea of exposing scandals. about the $8 million the CIA has poured into Chile for Within 17 months, the American public was being told clandestine operations aimed at undermining Allende. that the only real scandal was the exposing. It will take a week or two to put a film story to- Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that the gether, starting with a day of absorbing Hersh' clip- reporter will be dragged into the story he's covering. pings. I have been at a loose end since my Watergate And I guess that's how I got caught in the secrecy assignment ended with the Nixon resignation in Au- backlash. gust. Yet, somehow, these unusual leaks from a secret It was never my purpose to be an advocate or an world once considered leakproof may, in a- sense, be adversary, but just to find . out what was going on. an extension of Watergate. Whatever others may think, I see myself as an aging, The Nixon pardon left history frustrated and incom- rather square reporter, who can't forget his old news- plete, "Atli the CIA part of what remains.billdea..You' paper days while rattling around televisionland, where peel off Watergate and you find the Plinabeii and the everybody seems to end up with some kind of Image. Ellsberg break-in. Peel off. the Plumbers and you find I have watched, bemused, the image-making pro- the 1970 Huston plan to use the CIA and FBI for cess, still not quite sure how it happens. I basically domestic survetilance, wiretapping and break-ins. But don't understand how I got to be-on the Top 20 list of what would you find if you peeled off another layer and Nixon enemies, compiled before Watergate, or how had a clime look at that secret world ftom whichhich thethe.se . later, not having Nixon to kick. me around-anymore, I things , had been launched? found Richard Helms of the CIA calling me names. My immediate problem, however, is how to tell the It is slowly dawning on me that, in the Media Age, CIA-Chile story for television when it mostly hap- people in trouble may need media enemies. If the pur- pened in secret, far from the eye of any camera. A pose is to clamp the lid back down on secrets, one producer starts researching Chile background film. I needs to point a finger at a Secret start looking for potential "talking heads," persons who were involved in or had firsthand knowledge of how That's how I got entangled in the story which I had the CIA worked to pull the rug from under Allende. months before agreed to write for ROLLING STONE.- I draw 100% blanks in telephone calls to CIA officers, The original suggestion was to keep some notes on the active and retired; who were involved with Chile. A developing congressional investigation, and then try to former diplomat' tips me to someone who watched it pull it all together as a kind of journal. I really didn't from the State Department end, and who might be want to write about myself until I came to realize that available. . I had been dragged into the story quite inextricably and October 4th: First film interview. Ray Cline, un- might as well face it. - available since he quit the State Department as intel- This foreword is written in late February, after the ligence chief in a fight with Kissinger, says he' knows roof has fallen in because of the publication of the something about Chile and has decided to talk. Maybe suppressed report of the House Select Committee on trying to position himself as head of CIA in- the next Intelligence. But the compiling of this investigative Democratic administration, Cline wants to blast Nixon journal started in a quieter time . . . • and Kissinger. On film, Cline says that he always op- posed getting mixed up in Chile, and so did the CIA. He has been called abrasive and difficult, but then But the CIA was ordered into it by Nixon and Kis- so has the truth which Daniel Schorr has fought to un- singer, who were operating "on an Olympian plane," cover during his 40-year career as a newspaper and enforcing some policy that only the two of them un- television journalist. Way before Watergate his relent- derstood. - less exposures of the Nixon administration earned him Afterward, lunch at the dowdy Cosmos Club on enemy use status and brought the FBI to his door. Massachusetts Avenue with Nathaniel Davis, who was Now, for the past 17 months, Schorr has worked on ambassador to Chile in 1973 when Allende fell. Davis, perhaps his most important and surely most con- an old pal of mine from Moscow days, who later be- troversial story, uncovering the CIA's murderous came a Peace Corps official, wears dark suits, narrow deeds, at home and abroad and the congressional ties and an air of seriousness and rectitude. He talki investigation of that activity. Day after day he filed strictly for background and says the CIA was only try- seamy tales that might never have been told but for ing to keep the democratic opposition in Chile alive, his efforts. When he allowed the 'Village Voice' to did not get involved in the truckers' strike, the "march print his copy of the government-banned Pike report, of the empty pots," or any of the events leading to the , Schorr was relieved of all reportorial duties by CBS. coup. At least, says Davis, as far as he knew, and, as Here he chronicles the events that led to this coverup. ambassador, he was sure he had the whole picture. October 5th: Having asked to see Secretary Kis- singer, I've been told by his secretary to wait at home on this Saturday morning for a phone call and he may be able to find a few minutes to talk to me. The call comes. Pacing his. White House office, Kissinger is upset about leaks. On top of the original Chile stories, Hersh has now disclosed that Kissinger reprimanded David Popper, current ambassador to Chile,. for talking to the junta about the torture of political prisoners. That, says Kissinger, is misleading and he's helpless to cor- rect it publicly. He says he's been dealing with the Chileans at the United Nations about easing up on the ,prisoners, and only gotmad, at Popper for crossing his negotiations. Di&Popper knoW about Kissinger's ne- gotiations? Well, no, ambassadors don't have to know everything. (Passing thought: so why assume Davis knew everything?) For background, Kissinger gives me a replay of the Davis background about trying to keep the democratic opposition alive,, but steering clear of anything con- nected with violent overthrow. Kissinger declines to say this in a filmed interview. Suppose I put a question on the subject' at the news conference Kissinger is hold- ing Monday? "Maybe I won't call on you." I tell Kissinger about the Ray Cline interview, which blames him and Nixon for Chile, and which Cline says he opposed. Kissinger, mildly, "Did Ray say that? That isn't my recollection of his role. I'll have to look it up." October 7th: News conference in the State. Depart-. ment auditorium, Kissinger playing the semicircle of reporters like a conductor facing an orchestra. He watches me at his far left from the corner of his eye, but keeps ignoring my raised hand until, finally, in the middle of someone's question, his soft aside, "All right, Dan, you will be next." Just so there's no doubt who's in charge. He answers my question aboUt the CIA and Chile smoothly, saying the CIA should be brought under better control and implying that he didn't play much of a part in whatever happened. Well, at least we have a little Kissinger on film to fit into the story we're assembling. Just back at my office, and there is a call from his number one aide, Larry Eagleburger: "Would you have time to drop in? Heinrich has instructed me to show you some captured documents." Three top-secret papers, written in 1970 and 1973, listing various recommendations for getting Allende: bribing Parliament members to vote against him, sub- sidizing opposition parties, working with the military. There are arguments for and against these courses of action from different parts of the State Department. But they alihave handwritten comments by Ray Cline, then head of intelligence and research, generally urg- ing action and scoffing at the doubters. To those con- cerned about the morality of bribing the Chilean Par- liament, for example, Cline writes, "In the world of

Realpolitik, sensidvities are not so tender and people —slighter of build, softer of voice, lower in key. His are more concerned with who wins power rather than background spiel is generally a canned-sounding recital morality." - of how covert activities sprang from the Cold War, tapered off with détente, but are still needed as a ca- If these documents are authentic, and they appear pability. I interrupt to say I can't see Colby doing him- . to be, Cline has made a mistake in trying to show clean . self any harm saying some of this on film, and I happen hands on Chile. And one of his gravest mistakes is to to have a camera crew waiting downstairs. He shrugs, ,E think he could attack Kissinger without. Kissinger's. "Okay." So we come down the elevator, past the throwing the book (and the secret files) at him. (Sy ; stunned CIA underlings for history's first filmed inter- Hersh somehow learns of Kissinger's leak and, over, - view with the director of Central Intelligence. my anguished protests, writes the story for the Times.) No great substance but It provides some sense of the October 11th: Appointment for background talk with agency absorbing the damage of the Chile reveladons. CIA Director William Colby. The last time I had rea- Question: "So, as a professional, you pick up the son to visit the CIA was in 1958, when the agency was pieces and go our at its old offices near the State Department. I was 'in- Colby: "It's part of the hazard of the profession.”. vited to lunch with Director Allen Dulles after my With Kissinger, Colby and Cline as "talking heads," return from Moscow, which; in those days, was con- with library film of turmoil in Chile, we expand our gidered a normal practice for a returning correspon- dent. Sincp fettling down in Washington in .1966, I've story into a two-part takeout, which runs on the Cron- worked od domestic stories-until Watergate came along. kite show October 17th and 18th. So, after all these years in Washington, I finally get to Cronkite is happy, the producers are happy. Good- see the CIA compound in the Virginia woods, between bye, CIA? the Washington Parkway and Route 123. ' December 22nd: Again Sy Hersh, the neighbor At the guard post there are blinking red warning whose kids play with my kids while he goes around lights, but once you pass through and go down the dropping bombshells on my life! A long three-column road a bit you find just another big federal building. lead story in the Sunday New York Times about how There are some touches, though—a statue of Nathan the CIA, which is only supposed to spy in foreign Hale, the founding spy, and in the lobby an honor roll countries, has maintained surveillance of U.S. dissen- with half the casualties marked only by a star, anony- ters and left-wingers during the Sixties. Sy, whom I mous even in death. • call to congratulate, says he's been working two years In the lobby, also, a sign, "CBS' filming." All around on the story. My office calls to say I should start work- the grounds are security men who keep personnel, ing on it right away. After all, didn't I do that other covert and otherwise, away from camera rangi. The CIA story in October? area.is sanitized, a frozen scene. December 23rd: From Vail, Colorado, where Pres- After filming the narration I have lunch with my ident Ford is skiing, it is announced that Colby has CIA escorts in the Overt cafeterii. (Covert employees told Ford there is no current domestic spying by the eat, of course, in the Covert cafeteria, and I ask if they . CIA, The president asks whit went on in the past and pay a covert charge.) With my camera crew on hand, wants a report sent to him. Senator Symington, who I say it would be nice if Colby would do a filmed in- , was supposed to be watching in the CIA oversight terview. Not a chance, they say. subcommittee, says he knew nothing about it, and Up to the seventh floor in an elevator that opens to wants a big congressional investigation.

a security man's key, almost directly into the director's • suite, cream walled, businesslike and unostentatious. i Everything about Colby is a .little . less than anticipated.._.

NIEL SCHORR

Photograph by DIFCK HALSTEAD not known as a linear thinker, Mr. Schorr. You will have to let me approach your question my way.") Several times he returns to something that seems im- mediately on his mind. From a photo taken of Yasir On the way baCk from interviewing Symington, I Arafat at the Lenin tomb in Moscow he has identified stop for a sandwich at Barney's Delicatessen, near' the the escort of the PLO leader as an important KGB federal courthouse, where the Watergate coverup trial colonel. The PLO is apparently part of the Soviet is in progress. Run into defendant H.R. Haldeman, conspiracy. having lunch with his son at a back table. We have Interspersed in the recital are indications of how never met before, but no introduction is needed to the Angleton came to be sent out into the cold. (Colby Nixon chief of staff who once ordered the FBI to in- later confirms the main outlines to me.) For 22 years vestigate me. "I don't mean to interrupt your lunch,- Angleton has handled not only counterintelligence, but Mr. Haldeman. I know you can't talk about the trial. also the CIA's "Israeli account," which has been sep- . But Pm working on the CIA story, and maybe you arated from the Middle East division, a division Angle- could help me on one point. ton considers too pro-Arab. Recently he has been fight- "Remember the June 23rd, 1972, tape, when Pres- ing a pro-Arab drift in the agency, for which he blames ident Nixon laid, Well, we protected Helms from a -Kissinger. Colby, on a visit to Israel, canceled a visit helinva lot of things,' and you said, 'That's what Ehr- to East Jerusalem on the request of Kissinger, who lidunan says'? What was that about? What had Helms thinks it will offend the Arabs who claim the Old City. done?" Haldeman: "I don't really know, Dan. I was just trying to bold my own in the conversation with the I president, and I never did know what Ehrlichman knew about Helms." Friendly smile. "Nice to see you again, Dan. Lots of Angleton has privately rebuked Colby for yielding to luck!" Kissinger. (A year later Ehrlichnum would be circulating a Against this background, Colby called in Angleton novel, The Company, about a Nixon4ike president who five days ago, told him he was being removed from the- has evidence of complicity in an assassination by a Israeli desk, and that it was time to start planning the Helms-like CIA director, who blackmails the president future leadership of counterintelligence. He offered into destroying the documents by threatening to ex- Angleton the option of staying on to write a manual, pose a Watergate-like political wiretap conspiracy and or, retiring. In passing, Colby mentioned that the Times then goes off to be an ambassador.) may shortly publish an article linking. Angleton to the domestic surveillance program and blowing his cover. December 24th: Awakened by early call from the Colby knows about it because he has talked at length office. The AP is saying that James Angleton, the CIA's to Sy Hersh--trying, of course, to keep the story out chief of counterintelligence, has resigned. Hersh had reported that Angleton's office was responsible for the of the paper. (Angleton has agreed to retire—a fact which becomes known to the AP the day after Hersh's domestic surveillance program. The start of a purge article appears, thus appearing to be a direct conse- in the CIA? Okay, where does Angleton live? When I get to the house in North Arlington shortly quence.) Angleton had practically nothing to do with after eight, camera crews are already-staked out in the surveillance program, which was run by his deputy, front. Nobody knows if Angleton is home. I ring the Richard Ober, reporting directly to Helms, who was bell. A groggy-looking-man in pajamas opens the door, acting under pressure of the president. points out I'm standing on the Washington Post. Says Angleton: "Helms was deeply victimized. He was set up as a scapegoat for Nixon." "I certainly didn't expect you, Mr. Schorr, to trample And Angleton himself, set up as a scapegoat for on the press!" - whom? "Ha hal Can I come in, Mr. Angleton?" Angleton says he must dress now and go to the of- "Well, I've been up all night, and my family is away. fice. I say the cameras of three networks are still But I can offer you some apple juice or Sanka." camped outside and, even if he doesn't stop to talk, It looks like the home of a somewhat disorderly there's no way he can avoid being photographed. He professor, books in many languages, memorabilia of shrugs. A few minutes later, in diplomat's black coat Italy and Israel, a worn rug, pictures of wife and two and fedora, he walks down the driveway, stands in sons. But no preparations for Christmas. Some vague front of the cameras and answers' questiOns for ten words from Angleton about having sent the family mimites. He looks and sounds so unsteady that it will away for their protection. be said of him that he was drunk but what he is is No pictures, he says. To be recognized would mean shellshocked. mortal danger. But he doesn't mind chatting, and that It seems strange now, after these hours with him, he does for the next four hours—rambling discur- to watch him answering questions in public. sively with interruptions for phone conversations in "Why did you resign?" bad French, bad Italian and a "Shalom" for somebody "I think the time comes to all men when they no at the Israeli Embassy. • longer serve their countries." He talks to me mainly of a worldwide Communist "As determined by whom?" conspiracy, managed by the Soviet KGB, which has "By themselves and their superiors." successfully misled the West into accepting the fiction "Did you jump or were you pushed?" of divisions in the Communist camp. For example, I "I wasn't pushed out the window." the KGB has arranged a facade of Rumanian inde- . - pendence. "The Nixon-Kissinger détente bothers me deeply." (When I remind him that he. has strayed from my question for the past 15 minutes, he says, "I am And the nonimear tninite stumbles into his blue Mercedes. January 4th, 1975: In Vail, it-has been announced ploy to stop Congress, it hasn't worked. Demanas lin that President Ford saw Kissinger, who brought Colby's •Watergate-typi select committee stir CIA oversight 'subcommittees out of hibernation. Helms and Colby report on domestic surveillance. Returning to Wash. ington, and without public announcement, Ford has are called before a closed session of the Senate Ap- propriations subcommittee. Afterward, Chairman Mc-'' called in Colby for some additional briefing—some= thing apparently too sensitive to put in the written Clellan pronounces himself "satisfied." Tomorrow the same pair are to appear before Senator Stennis's Armed report Today, Ford announces a presidential com- Services subcorzunittee. mission to investigate any domestic improprieties by the CIA. It will be headed by Vice President Rockefel- January 15th: After the hearing, Stennis, opposing ler,. who acts as though he has just heard about it. any special investigation, releases Colby's prepared tes- timony—the first public statements from the CIA on (Later we learn That Rockefeller was drafted at the - admits most of what last minute when Federal Judge .Henry Friendly domestic surveillance. Colby changed his mind about serving.) It seems strange, Hersh reported: the CIA kept files on 10,000 Amer.. after the way the Chilean scandal was shrugged off, icans, opened mail to and from Russia and China, wire- that Ford is mounting this investigation pageant over tapped 21 Americans, broke into homes of its own the CIA's domestic snooping. people. It was wrong, says Colby, but it wasn't "con- A vague recollection sends me back into White tinuous or massive." House transcripts. Nixon and Ehrlichman in March While Chairman. Stennis talks before camera out- 1973, talking about how to bead off a Senate investi- side the hearing room; Helms slips out, down the ele- gation of Watergate. The thing to do, said Ehrlichman, ',Vator, through the garage and out the Senate Office is to name a special presidential commission and then - Building. Learning fiom pest 'mistakes, I leave Stennis ask Congress to hold their bearings "in abeyance." Is talking into a camera and take off with a mobile 'unit Ford starting his investigation, hoping to avert a con- in pursuit of Helms, catching up with him on the street. gressional one? I begin to feel that this story is devel- Never faltering from his brisk pace, acting surprised oping into an assignment—the son of Watergate! that anyone would be interested in him, he says into the camera (while a cameraman is trying to walk back- January 10th: If it's like Watergate, it must have ward as fast as Helms is walking forward) that he's stakeouts. The stakeout target- this time seems to be sure an investigation will show he did nothing illegal. Helms. I first saw him in 1973, tall, self-possessid, Later, Stennis releases Helms's prepared statement quick-witted, urbane, explaining to the Senate Water- Unlike Colby, Helms admits no wrongdoing. (It's gate committee that he had tried to keep Nixon from easier for Colby—he wasn't the one who did it.) Helms using the CIA in his coverup. He managed then to talks of "distortion" and "irresponsible attack." He convey the impression that Nixon had exiled him to says the CIA got involved in spying on Americans out Tehran for not playing ball. Now Helms is back from of concern about "extreme radicalism" and "in re- Tehran for congressidnal testimony. After a check sponse to the express concern of the president" of hotels and his friends, Helms is located staying with January 22nd: Still another group wants to hear his wife, Cynthia, in a rented house in northwest Helnis in closed session—the Senate Foreign Relations Washington, near the Maryland line. On the telephone, Committee, his fourth forum. The testimony he gave Cynthia Helms says she's sure Dick will call me back, at his ambassadorial confirmation hearings two years which. he doesn't do. - Eight ago now seems shaky'. He denied passing money to Al- This morning we'll try the stakeout routine. lende's opponents in Chile. He denied any domestic CIA spying. He denied any pre-Watergate involvement with Howard Hunt. Under his urbanity, Helms is start- o'clock in the morning, with camera crew, I'm outside ing to look worried. the house on Fessenden Street. A State Department After the closed session, sources say the questioning car, motor idling, is waiting for Helms. I ring and .the of Helms wasn't very sharp. His testimony, sanitized uniformed maid says Ambassador Helms hasn't come Department by the CIA, was that he "had no intention of lying" downstairs yet. A moment later the State about the $8 million given to anti-Allende won* in ' fellow goes in, comes out, drives around the corner. Chile, but that be had misunderstood the original Funny! I ring again. The maid says the ambassador has question. Senator Frank Church says he thinks Helms's left. The back door, of course. The car has picked him latest explanation is "unsatisfadory." Church, as it de- up in the alley. I have been outwitted. The master spy velops, will have a lot more cracks at Helms. The word has made a getaway, But why? Haldeman, Ehrlich- is that he will head the new Senate investigating com- man and Colson used to walk out the front door and mittee. , ' - smile into the camera. February 6th: An organizing session of the Church January 13th: Launching of the Rockefeller com- We are allowed to film the swearing-in cere- committee, followed by a Church news conference. He mission. promises it will be bipartisan, and anyone on the staff mony in the vice-president's office, then stake out, in who leaks will be fired. . the corridor for the next eight hours, witnessing the February 18th: The House is also getting ready to goings and comings of three CIA chiefs—the incum- set up its investigating committee. So, the administra- bent Colby, his predecessor, now defense secretary,him. tion's attempt at preemption has failed. There are now James Schlesinger, and Helms, who preceded two congressional committees with much broader man- Helms, starting to look more and more like a defend- ant conies out running, and heads down the stairs of the Executive Office Building without a word. January 14th: If the Rockefeller commission Was a story I cannot write for lack of a corpus delecti. Sud- dates. Everything called "intelligence" is going to be denly. it hits me that I'm missing the point, that I don't looked at, which has never happened before in this need to know who was killed. Isn't it really enough of country. a story that President Ford knows about assassination February 20th: Before the House Appropriations plots, that he is worried about them and trying to steer CIA subcommittee, Colby has gone even a step be- investigations away from them? yond the prepared public statement he gave to the My script now writes itself. "President Ford has Senate subcommittee. This time we have received his reportedly warned associates that if current inves- testimony in advance of delivery—another first. That tigations go too far they could uncover several assas- gives me the idea of asking Chairman George Mahon sinations of foreign officials involving the CIA. . . "- if we can film Colby delivering it, which produces still another first—Colby testifying publicly. Between Senate and House appearances, Colby has lhotographs by 01 RCK HALSTEAD, (ten and right): UPI. (left 21 changed his tactics. He had hoped to call off the inves- tigations by merely admitting that there had been wrongdoings. This did not work, so now he takes the It is one of those scripts that is studied by every- 1 offensive, warning that "sensational reporting" and body in the Cronkite shop and every news executive "hysterical excitement" have "placed American intel- available. But there seems to be no question in decid- ligence in danger." ing that we must go with it. So, for more than two February 27th: For more than a month I have been minutes on the Cronkite show, I tell about the CIA haunted by a potentially big story but I need more de- and assassination plots, wondering what the reaction • tails and corroborative sources. I have heard that, last will be. month, at a White House luncheon with the publisher On the way to a seminar at Duke University, it and top editors of the New York Times, President Ford, strikes me that President Ford has blown his own indicated that he had discovered CIA involvement in game plan. It is clear pow that the whole panoply of assassination conspiracies, and -was determined, in the the Rockefeller investigation was to keep attention national interest, to try to cover them up. . focused on the CIA's domestic surveillance, which As the story came to me, one Times editor had crit- had apparently leaked from the 1973 internal report icized the fact that the composition of the Rockefeller of the CIA, hoping to keep under wraps other more commission (Rockefeller, Reagan, etc.) lacked cred- dangerous parts of the same report. ibility. Ford said he had to choose the members very But, by candidly indicating to trusted editors what carefully because, from what be had just been told by he was trying to hide, Ford will end up getting the Colby, there was the danger that the commission would credit for the exposé. trip over matters a lot more sensitive than domestic At midnight, from Durham, North Carolina, I call surveillance. "Like what?" asked the editor, • "Off the record, like assassinations," said the pres- ident. , The stunned Times people, I'm told, tried, and failed, to'get it put on the record and finally agreed to accept Washington to ask what the White House is saying• the confidence. • The official reaction is not only no comment, but, Today, after a month, my request fora background "There will be no comment." talk with Colby at CIA headquarters finally *comes through.-After a- half-hour-of-chitchat--about Water- March 3rd: Every Monday now thc routine with gate and the CIA's pre-Watergate involvement with the Rockefeller commission is about the same. We Howard Hunt, I tell Colby I have heard that President are allowed in while silent film is shot of the com- Ford is afraid that something concerned with assassi- missioners gathered around the vice-president's con- nations may leak. ference table. Then, through the day, witnesses slip I ask Colby directly, "Has tbe, CIA ever lulled any- in and out, some under such deep cover that we aren't body?' given their names. No longer under cover is Jim An- His reply is quick and even. "rtet in this cannily." gleton, who comes out blinking uphappily into the Who? lights and making courtly apologies for not saying "I can't talk ablest IL' anything. Then; at the end of the day, Rockefeller Hanunsobjhild? comes to the door of his office to speak pompous gen- "No, of tourer not" ■w,_usbe eralities, without apologizing. March 8th: Colby will go anywhere! He turns up "I can't ge dame a fiat will Yee. Sony." at a weekend conference in Hot Springs, Virginia, He does volunteer that assassination plots have been where jurists and journalists are discussing the . banned since 1973, when they figured in an internist CIA investigation prepared by their own inspector general. He does not deny that the information was kept from Presided Nixon asd, until recently, from President Ford. He is, impatient now to end the inter- view but is still cordial and smiling at the end. - February Vitte I have been up much of the night speculating about possible targets. At the office, I try brainstorming with. desk editors and anybody I can trust. We recall that ex-president Lyndon Johnson had talked, in an interview, about the. U.S. running a "damned Murder, Inc., in the Caribbean." That brings up names like Che Guevara, Trujillo, Duvalier. Polit- ical editor Martin Plissner, with a gleam in his eye, says, "How do we know it wasn't someone believed to have died from natural causes? De Gaulle? Churchill?' It's getting silly and we end the session.. Through the afternoon I stew about an assassination "MUER" SCHORR AT A BRIEFING (ABOVE) AND AT HOME (RIGHT); (LEFT) FORMER CIA DIRECTORS HELMS (TOP) AND COLBY (BOTTOM) tations of press freedom. One topic involves a hypo- it. thetical case of an investigative reporter who has March 31st: Rockefeller. announces' he has asked gotten some documents that would blow a CIA net- another two months—until June 7th—to file his re- work in Europe and endanger a spy in the Hungarian port. cabinet. Colby argues suppression for national secur- April 3rd: President Ford, who was a member of ity. I argue that what a reporter can get, hostile in- the Warren commission, says at a news conference telligence can get, and maybe journalists perform a he still sees no evidence of a conspiracy in the Ken- service by testing the CIA's security. Colby is not nedy assassination, but "it's my understanding the. persuaded. Rockefeller Commission may, if the facts seem to jus- It is the first time I have seen Colby since I broke tify it, take a look at that problem." the "accacsination" story. He says it has created "quite What problem? a stir." A very cool fellow, this Colby! April 7th: After his Monday hearing, Rockefeller March 16th: For the past week or so there have says, yes, he is looking at the problem, "in relation been indications that the assassination story has jolted to any possible relationship to domestic CIA activi- the Rockefeller commission off in some new direction. ties." But he doesn't mean that there were CIA "activi- For one thing, suggestions from members and staff that the original three-month term will have to be extended. For another, word that Helms is being called back again. Today, there are specific reports ties" in the Kennedy assassination. What is Rocke- that President Ford has asked the commission to ex- feller trying to say or not to say? plore the issue of CIA involvement in foreign assas- April 24th: A source in the Rockefeller commis- sination plots. If so, it will take some contortions sion says a whole task force is working on CIA plots since the commission's guidelines were narrowly writ- to kill Castro that went on for years—before the Bay ten precisely to keep it away from such matters. of Pigs and during the period when Kennedy was To make sure, I go out to National Airport on this assassinated. And now all the double talk begins to Sunday night to meet Rockefeller, flying in from his become clear. weekend. Standing in -the rain, he does confirm it, Richard Bissell, who managed the Bay of Pigs, has in his own muddy way. He has talked to President been before the Rockefeller commission, and he tells Ford, he says, and there could be matters connected me the Warren commission was never told about the with assassinations presenting "a possibility of devia- plots against Castro because no one thought they were tions from the domestic code, in which case we would relevant. have responsibility." But Joe Califano, who was President Johnson's So, I gather, the commission will turn its "domes- chief of staff, tells me LBJ was convinced the Kennedy tic" mandate on its head and investigate foreign assas- assassination was revenge—because Castro believed sination plots that were organized from the U.S..Out Kennedy was trying to get him. And now, it turns out, that gets the assassination monkey off Ford's Back, the CIA, at least, was—whether on Kennedy's orders, which seems to be the idea. I can just see Ford we don't know yet. saying, "Nelson, better you than me!" I didn't know what I was starting when I opened March 18th: For weeks there has been talk about up the question of "assassination" but now lights are -a mystery ship, the Glomar Explorer, crammed with going on. machinery and sophisticated electronic gear That can Rockefeller announces that Colby is being recalled do things on the sea bottom and heaven knows what and Helms is coming back from Tehran again. else. Papers stolen from a Howard Hughes warehouse April 28th: Helms before the Rockefeller commis- in Los Angeles indicate it's operated by Hughes for sion for four hours after two days of questioning by the CIA. the staff. It must be hot and heavy about plots against Barry Lando, CBS's Sixty Minutes producer, calls Castro. I am waiting in the corridor when he comes the CIA, quoting the stories and asking if any more out. I offer my hand but suddenly he starts cursing information is available about the ship. In the after- me, "You son-of-a-bitch! You killer! You cocksucker! noon, amazingly, Colby arrives at our office, prepared Killer Schorr? That's what they should call you!" to give a complete briefing, but with-a request that I am flabbergasted. Helms proceeds to the press the story be held up in the national interest. room to face the cameras. Standing next to him, try- He says the Explorer last year raised part of a ing to recover my own composure, I question him. Soviet nuclear missile submarine off Hawaii. The plan "Has the commission, in effect, opened a kind of is to go back next summer, when weather permits, and side investigation into matters peripheral to the assas- try to finish the job, which is why the news media sination of President Kennedy?" are being asked to cooperate in keeping the story Helms: "I don't know whether this was a side in- secret until then. The project is all CIA—Howard vestigation or a major investigation or what. I. must Hughes is just acting as a cover. Colby does not ask say, Mr. Schorr, I didn't like what you had to say any promise of secrecy as a condition for the briefing on some of your broadcasts on this subject. And. I —just expresses the hope it will be kept under wraps. don't think it-was fair and I don't- think it was right. He indicates he has given the same briefing to others. As far as I know, the CIA was never responsible for - There would barely be time to prepare the story assassinating any foreign leader." for the Cronkite show this evening, but I hesitate, "Were there discussions about possible assassina- suspicious, deciding it needs another day. tions?" asks another reporter. A few hours later Jack Anderson breaks the story, Helms: "I don't know whether I stopped beating and the embargo is off. I tell the story on radio at my wife, or when you stopped beating your wife or 11 p.m., still wondering whether Colby was really . . . talk about discussions In government, there are pushing the story while saying he was trying to squelch always discussions about practically everything under the sun." "Of assassinations'?" Helms: "Of everything under the sun." "But you never answered my question." Helms: "Wen, Pm not trying to answer your ques- tion." I pursue Helms down the hall, determined to try to find out what provoked his outburst. For a while yond "assassination" as. an abstraction and find out he keeps walking, saying, "Get away from me! Killer!" just who the targets' were: I know that former CIA But he pauses when I say, "There are things you don't officials have been questioned about the deaths of the know." And then I tell him that it was not I, but Presi- Congo leader, Patrice Lumumba, and the Dominican dent- Ford, who, in effect, opened up, the issues of dictator, Rafael Trujillo. But the major target seems assassination. Helms, calmer now, says that, actually, to have been Castro. Because somewhere this ties into he has admired most of my reporting, but one sentence the Kennedy assassination inquiry, Belin is fascinated. in one of my reports got under his skin. He can't "I am absolutely sure," says Belin, "that Lee Harvey remember just what it was. But it's been rankling him Oswald ,was the sole assassin of President Kennedy, for a long time. Maybe, he says, he shouldn't have though we 'are rechecking every allegation that this blown up that way, but anyway it was in private con- may not have been so. But I have never-been satisfied versation, before he got to the-press room. I tell him that we understood Oswald's motivation." The -flutter that the AP and UPI reporters heard it and that it may of the eyelid makes it seem very significant.. _ not remain private. We shake hands. Our conflict is May 5th: Henry Kissinger comes out of a closed over. . - hearing of the Rockefeller commission, saying, But as far as the public is concerned, it hasn't "Where's Schorr? I have a new name 'for him." (That's started yet. The AP and UPI stories start moving. The an allusion to my cussing out from 'Richard Helms.) film runs on the evening news on all the networks. A Before the cameras Kissinger says that no assassina- quarrel which has already been privately settled is tion missions have been assigned since he's been there. now publicly broadcast. (Plater go back and read all my scripts on. issassi- John McCone, who was-CIA director after the Bay nation. The original February 28th story ,cin assassi- of Pigs, comes out, saying he authorized no assassina- nation ended this war "Colby is on the recortas say- tions. I walk down the hall with him, asking for back- ing,'"I think that family skeletons are best left where ground whether he ht least knew the conspiracies were they are—in the closet.' He apparently had , some lit going on while he was in charge. "No," he replies. ; eral skeletons in mind." Maybe that was 'what set "When I came' into the CIA, I made it clear that assas- Helms off.) sination was against my principles, and I would not approve anything like that. So I was unwitting!" •' What a lovely word that, "unwitting." Like, "If you do it, I don't want to be told." May 7th: Frank Church, as the head of the Senate April 29th: Telephone call from retired Air Force investigating committee, meets with Vice President colonel Fletcher Prouty, saying he used to do Air Force-CIA liaison and is so angry about Helens's Rockefeller to ask for all the data his commission has collected. By now,- Church has read a lot of secret abuse of me that he's willing to disclose a story he has documents. Corning' out of Rockefeller's office' -he never told before. A check with the CIA confirms Prouty's credentials. So he comes in for an interview stands in front of Ihe cameras and says, "When Helms in which he says that in 1960 he provided a small said that the CIA never killed any foreign leader, that plane to fly two Cubans from Eglin Air Force Base statement was correct, but not necessarily. complete." to the outskirts of Havana to try to kill Castro. He That leadsto,a dozen questions, none of which Church . _ says the man in charge of the operation was assistant will answer. deputy director for plans:--Richard Helms. May 9th: I have heard that the Warren 'commission had the FBI report of a Soviet, KGB defector who May 1st: Assassination has become topic A for talked about_ Oswald's activities while in the Soviet the Rockefeller commission and apparently for Union. But it was not mentioned in the 1964 testimony Church's new Senate investigating committee. Pre.si- of McCone and Richard Helms, then McCone's,clep- ,stOkes pay dent Ford has made it official by confirming at a news , uty. A chance call to the National:ArchiveS dirt. They, conference that he got a full report from CIA direc- have just declassified: the FBI :report and I_ can have' it fOr the cost of .Xeroxing. tor William Colby "on the operations which have been And.here it is after 11 .years: the• FBI rei3ort.'on the alluded to in the news media:' What he didn't say is debriefing .of Lieutenant Colonel Noienko... He that the CIA never thought to tell him about assassina- had". handled. Oswald's'.file , for::.the :KGB:- in .Moscow, tion plots until he asked. Nor did the CIA ever tell I and defected to the United States in Geneva ten weeks Nixon, presumably fearing that he might use such in- formation to blackmail the agency. I go to see the Rockefeller commission's execu- tive director, David Belin, in his office on the top floor of a converted town house on Jackson Place, across from the White House. Belin, a Des Moines lawyer, was brought here by President Ford, with whom he served on the Warren commission. His bright Main Street bow tie contrasts strangely with a sinister leer, the result of a facial tic. The leer goes well with ellip- tical answers to my questions. I am trying to get be- AN "AGING, RATHER SQUARE REPORTER," IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE after the Kennedy assassination. Nosenko said the KGB considered Oswald mentally abnormal, possibly an American agent, and decided not to_try to recruit him. Also, that when Oswald turned up in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City in September 1963, trying to -get a Russian visa, the KGB vetoed it. Also, that after the Kennedy assassination, party chief Nikita Khrush- vestigative scene will shift to Congress, where the Sen- chev ordered a crash KGB investigation to find out ate committee is already at work, the House corn- if Oswald had been sent back to the U.S. with any mittee trying to settle its internal squabbles so it can Soviet instructions, and was relieved to find that he go to work. hadn't been. It seems a good day for a summing up on the Cron- McCone happens to be in Washington. I interview kite show. No longer admitted into the CIA compounA him and ask why he didn't mention the Nosenko re- to film a stand-up, I stand in front' of the gate. An port in his Warren commission, testimony. McCone ostentatiously disinterested CIA security officer listens says because the coincidental defection looked so sus- while I tell into the camera how "three waves of sen- picious that the CIA didn't trust him at first. sation" have rolled over the agency in the past half "It took some time," says McCone, "to prove the- year—"how it tried to upset foreign governments, like Chile's . . . how it spied on dissident Americans . . . how it targeted foreign leaders, sometimes in alliance with organized crime. bona fides of the man. . . . Today, I believe it's the "From all of this," I say, "will come proposals; to position of the agency that the information given by ensure that what the CIA has officially stopped doing Nosenko was correct." —spying on Americans, plotting against foreign gov- I have a chance to check this further at a previ- ernments and the lives of their leaders—it will never ously arranged lunch today with Jim Angleton, who, do again." despite his noisy firing last December as chief of June Sth: Fitful stirring in the House Intelligence counterintelligence, is still quietly on the CIA payroll committee. An open session is called, goes into closed as a consultant. At his insistence, I have arranged a session, then spends an hour debating whether to fire table in the back corner of a French restaurant so no Chairman Lucien Nedzi. A majority opposes him be- one can pass behind him. cause he headed the oversight subcommittee on CIA Angleton expresses surprise that the CIA has cer- that overlooked more than it oversaw. He did nothing tified Nosenko as authentic. Angleton still thinks he in 1973, when briefed about the CIA's internal report may have been a KGB plant to spread a story clear- on assassination plots and all the rest. He thought the ing the Russians of any complicity in the Kennedy information too secret to pass on to anyone, and be- assassination. sides, he'd been told the situation had been corrected. "We spent a lot of time with the colonel and got to After an hour Nedzi comes out of the meeting, looking know him a lot better than the FBI," says Angleton. flushed, saying, "I'm still the chairman!" But not, I would bet, for very long. Surprise, meanwhile, from the Rockefeller commis- sion. It turns out to be that the report, going to Presi- "We only turned him over to the FBI to be debriefed dent Ford tomorrow, won't be out this weekend, as for the Warren commission." scheduled, but will be "subject to the president's deci- But Angleton will not say what he knows, or where sion." Also it will not contain a chapter on assassina- Nosenko is. tion plots. What does all that mean? It looks like Ford, (Later, I learn that. the CIA indeed spent a lot of back from Europe, has slapped down Rockefeller for , for time with Nosenko. He was held incommunicado some reason. three years, from 1964 to 1967, at Camp Perry, Vir- June 6th: Stake out Rockefeller on Capitol Hi& He ginia, cited, without name, in the Rockefeller com- says the assassination section is being omitted only mission report as a gross example of mistreatment of because there wasn't time to finish that investigation a defector. He is still a subject of controversy in the right, but President Ford will presumably turn over CIA. Colby has officially accepted Nosenko's Oswald the material to the Senate committee. story but others in the agency say Colby has to do that "So," I ask, "is it reasonable to conclude that in- to avoid stirring new doubts about the Kennedy assas- stead of stealing the Senate's thunder, you're passing sination.) the thunder to the Senate?" , May 23rd: Colby has been before the Church com- Rockefeller thinks that's funny. "A very reason- mittee for three days, talking about covert operations able conclusion!" and assassination plots. After each day's session, June 7th: I have finally cut through the curtain of Church has a line-of-the-day for the cameras. Yester- confusion and deception about the Rockefeller report. day it was that Colby's testimony was "candid, but Two problems got mixed up with each other. First, chilling." Today: "It is simply intolerable [deep breath] President Ford decided two weeks ago that the assas- that an agency of the United States government may sination chapter, involving unsettled links to former engage in [pause] murder!" Colby has brightly pointed out to the committee that assassination plots have been banned by CIA direc- tive since 1973. Church says he wants the ban written into law. May 28th: After six months of CIA stories, we seem to be at some milestone. The Rockefeller commission is finished, its report due in a few days. Then the in- feels forced by the hypocrisy of [Cont. from 38] and even had a what's going on to reveal some- clearance and performed CIA CBS vice-president on its pay- thing he has concealed all this missions. Two, that in the White roll. (I report this on the Cron- time. It is that another retired House he was the CIA's con- kite show, as it's generally Air Force colonel, Alexander . tact. How did Prouty know agreed within CBS News that I Butterfield, was known to him that? Well, in 1971, Prouty, must. But long internal investi- as the CIA contact at the White needing help on a problem con- cerning prisoners in Vietnam-, gation fails to turn up any such House. some of whom were CIA of- vice-president, nor is one men- ficers, had gone to see Howard tioned in the committee's final Hunt and Robert Bennett in report.) the Mullen publicity firm, Another leak from the com- which was a CIA front. And mittee staff has it that for years Butterfield? The man who Hunt had referred him to But- disclosed the White House tap- the CIA penetrated the White terfield as "our contact in the House and government agen- ing system and started Nixon on the road to ruin? Unbeliev- White House." cies until 1973, when Colby Before we are off the air, issued orders that the "CIA able! And my mind leaps back \to all the hints and rumors that Mrs. Butterfield has called in will not develop operations to to say that it's "ridiculous." penetrate another government the CIA pulled the plug on Butterfield, she says, is on his agency, even with the approval Nixon. It is the most mind- of its leadership." The penetra- blowing notion I've ever heard. • way to the West Coast and can- tion is supposed to be described I ask. Prouty to remain avail- not be reached for comment all in the 1973 report of the CIA able while I finish the Nedzi day by us or by anybody. The • inspector general, which said story and look for a film crew. CIA says Butterfield had spe- CIA officers had been placed But I really need time to try cial CIA clearance, but never in "intimate components of the to check this out with Butter- worked for the agency in any office of the president." CIA field—even if l'ni not sure I'll capacity. "spoolcsman" Thuermer phones believe his denial. I ask a re- in a somewhat agitated reaction: searcher at my office to spend "Any agency personnel on duty the afternoon trying to find him. The Cronkite show has at the White House were de- July 12th: Mike Wallace tailed there With the knowl- passed us by and no sign of Butterfield. His home number tracks me down at Roger edge of the White House." Mudd's home, where my wife With the knowledge of whom in Virginia has not answered Sixty for hours. At 9 p.m. I finally and I are having dinner. in the White House? Spooks- Minutes has made arrange man sayeth not. call Prouty. He says he's right then being interviewed by Ford ments to fly Butterfield to New July 10th: A resolution to Today York from the West Coast and abolish the House committee Rowan for the NBC show. I tell this to a producer he'll be interviewed tomorrow. is going to the floor, but Chair- Wallace wants my help with man Nedzi, who wants to kill across the desk. He says, "Ask him to come in at seven o'clock the background of the story. his committee, now seems on July 13th: I get a transcript the defensive. tomorrow morning and do an of the Butterfield interview be- The inspector general's re- interview live on our morning fore it goes on the air. His de- port is being 'interpreted back news." Prouty agrees to do that, which will enable us to catch nials of any CIA connection— and forth, but no part of it has other than routine clearance to yet surfaced. I argue to Nedzi up with NBC. July 11th: Prouty, always read its documents----are cat- that if the portion about CIA egoric. Prouty, on the tele- employees in the White House prompt; has been waiting a phone, holds his ground. "I did quarter-hour in the CBS recep- has been exaggerated, the only not claim that. Butterfield was tion room when I arrive at 6:45 way to prove it is to produce a spy, agent or infiltrator. I only the original. After presumably a.m. As makeup is put on us, said I was told by those who microphones pinned to our ties, checking with the CIA, Nedzi should know that, in the Air lights adjusted, I tell him that agrees to read to me, on cam- Force, he fulfilled missions for we haven't been able to reach era, a page of the IG report. the CIA, as I did and that, in 1 Butterfield, that I hope that the White House, he was known It appears that what was in- Prouty understands the serious- volved was a practice of "de- as the CIA's contact. Certainly, ness of what he's going to say. Howard Hunt seemed to con- tailing" CIA employees to the It's going to lead the show. White House—a practice, says sider him that way." There's nothing wild in Big farewell party for Sy Nedzi, that was perhaps ques- Prouty's manner. He has a big, tionable, but not the same as Hersh, who is moving to New open, face, an even tone York because his wife is enter- infiltrating an unwitting White that seems to conceal noth- House. ing medical school. I tell Sy ing. He is what TV producers, While I am in the House that he got me into all this CIA watching him on monitors, in- stuff, and what a time for him Radio-TV gallery working on stantly call "credible." And he this story, a message is relayed to get out of town! proceeds to unreel these incred- that Colonel Prouty, the old July 15th: Howard Hunt, in- ible allegations, which fall into Air Force/CIA liaison who terviewed by Ed Rabel of CBS two main parts. One, that be- blew the whistle on Helms last in prison at Eglin Air Force fore coming to the White Base, Florida, says, "At no time April, has called. Once again, House, Butterfield had CIA he says when I call back, he general counsel did. I ever mention Alex But- was the CIA's terfield who, in fact, .I didn't from its birth in 1947 until his retirement in 1973. In a filmed know." [Cont. from 81) that since many Prouty says that maybe it interview with me, Houston says that in 1962 he went to brief of the plots were hatched after wasn't Hunt but Bennett who President Kennedy's post-Bay mentioned the name of Butter- Robert Kennedy, then attorney general, about the CIA-Mafia of Pigs promise to avoid vio- field in that 1971 conversation. plots • to kill Castro, and that lence against Cuba, either the Bennett; now a vice-president CIA acted on its own, or of Howard Hughes's Summa Kennedy didn't react at all to ' the assassination plans as such, President Kennedy broke his Corporation on the West Coast, promise. says he couldn't have men- only said that "if we were go- ing to get involved with the Ma- Today's other character is tioned Butterfield because, at Robert Maheu, who has finally that time, he had never heard fia again, please come to him first because our involvement told his story, under an immu- of him. nity grant„to the Senate com- So, there we are. Prouty's with the Mafia might impede his drive against the Mafia in mittee, and is ready to tell it at story is denied by everyone who a crowded news conference in might be in a position to con- general crime busting." July 29th: The Senate com- the photographers' lounge in . firm it. Which might also hap- the Senate Office Building. Ma- pen if it were. true. But how is mittee, which seemed almost finished gathering evidence in heu, the one-time Howard one ever going to know? Hughes aide, one-time FBI (This will trouble me for a its assassination inquiry, is, hay- - ing a spurt of renewed activity. agent, acts like W. C. Fields long time. Butterfield will later playing con;man. But his story tell me that he never heard of It has received from Kissinger _ and Helms material indicating boils down to about this: Hunt before Watergate, which On the CIA ' payroll since strikes me as strange. I will dig that, in 1970, Nixon ordered the CIA to do anything neces- 1954; Maheu was asked in out at least three times when 1960, as part of the planning Butterfield could, or even sary to stop Allende from corn- ing to power in Chile. The CIA should have heard of Hunt. But for die Bay of Pigs invasion, to Butterfield remains firm: "I'm saw standing in its way Chile's contact John Roselli of the Ma- 99% sure I never saw Hunt's army commander, General fia to help remove Castro. With name before Watergate." Rene Schneider, who had promised to support Allende, if Roselli and Sam Giancana, July 18th: Senator Church's holed up in the Fontainebleau legally elected. The CIA had word for the week: "The agency Hotel in Miami Beach, a plan [the CIA] may have been be- links to a Chilean military group planning to kidnap was laid—later aborted—to try having like a rogue elephant on to get a poison pellet to Havana Schneider. The plot miscarried a rampage." This, in one of his to be administered to Castro by and Schneider was killed. What briefings after the closed-door someone close to him. But it hearings on assassination plots, is the line of responsibility from Nixon's tantrum to Schneider's didn't work. It all sounds so is supposed to mean that maybe silly that one wonders what death? Kissinger will be called presidents shouldn't be blamed, kind of nitwits there were at as a witness and indicates his just the CIA itself. How com- the CIA. For his services, Ma- irritation about that summons. fortable it would be for Church, heu got. $500 a month from the The committee also talks of now pretty obviously thinking CIA for six years, though he calling Nixon. Senator Tower of a presidential flyer, if he . adds that his real motive was could pin it all on Helms and says he talked to Nixon on the patriotism his cloak-and-dagger band. phone and that maybe he could be interviewed at San Clem- But, under questioning, somethini maybe more inter- ente. more unlikely esting begins to emerge. In July 30th: A 1966, .when he went to work duo to figure in the same story on the same day I couldn't im- for Howard Hughes in Las Ve- July 20th: On Face the Na- agine. But early this morning gas, his new employer told him tion, with Senator Schweiker, I Senator McGovern, back from to set up a big covert operation ask about the "rogue elephant" Cuba, holds a news conference for the CIA. Hughes "felt that theory and he disputes Church. to release a Castro book re- he wanted this kind of protec- "... I think it's only fair to say counting 24 plots against him, tion from the government in that there was no direct ev- all allegedly CIA-inspired, the case he ever became involved idence that exonerated presi- in any serious problem with any last in 1971, when Castro vis- agency of government." dents from assassination at- ited Chile. Confessions of ' tempts. ... They [the CIA] ba- would-be killers are quoted, Hughes did run cover for the Glomar sically either believed they had mostly Cdbans. The weapons CIA—including the the authority or did, in fact, range from dynamite to a gun Explorer. He also had a lot of have the authority to attempt hidden in a television camera. problems with the government, on which he got a lot of help assassination plots and plans. McGovern says [Cont. on 831 . It's hard for me to conceive —from Attorney General John that someone higher up didn't Mitchell when he wanted to know." buy another Las Vegas hotel July 22nd: Bella Abzug's without running afoul of the House privacy subcommittee antitrust laws, on ending nu- - (which is also investigating CIA clear testing in Nevada, on the activities) produces, as a wit- purchase of Air West. We had ness, Lawrence Houston, who thought that subsidies like the issue as wnetner a presiaent can Hughes-Rebozo "contribution" get his instructions obeyed by represented the quid pro quo. the CIA. The idea that Hughes would September llth: The House words are very important, and contrive to be able to black- committee has some of the se- that the issue is whether a con- mail the government by threat- cret CIA intelligence estimates gressional committee can "uni- ening to blow sensitive covert before the 1973 Yom Kippur laterally decide" what should operations under his control— war. Nobody from the admin- be released. In fact, as I think that was an interesting new istration will come to testify, of it, it has never been clear wrinkle in the "intelligence-in- and with good reason: the anal- whether a congressional com- dustrial complex." yses of 'the intelligence com- mittee can decide, on its own, (Six months later, in his fare- .munity were abysmal. A day that what an executive agency well interview as CIA director, before the outbreak of war: calls "secret" won't be kept se- William Colby will tell me that "... they do not appear to be cret.' The decision has never all Howard Hughes did was of- heading for 'a military offen- been faced mainly because, in fer patriotic cooperation to the sive against Israel." And, even the past, congressional commit- CIA.) after the assault had started: tees have been so cooperative. "... no hard evidence of major So, those four little words coordinated Egyptian-Syrian of- represent, symbolically, a ,big confrontatiOn over who has the July 31st: The House Intel- September 12th: Big explo- ultimate control over that "se- ligence Committee has been sion in the House committee: cret" stamp. I soon learn, inci- through death and resurrection seems that yesterday the com- dentally, what the four words —abolished and reconstituted mittee, voting to release those are, and then have a hard time with a new chairman, Otis Pike. faulty intelligence estimates convincing my superiors that And today, about five months over CIA objections, included it won't be treason to reveal late, it finally holds its first pub- four words (we don't immedi- them on the air, especially be- lic hearing. Pike vows that, in ately know what words) which cause a half-dozen other re- the face of all the budget se- were very dangerous to dis- porters now know. crecy, his committee "shall find close. So, Assistant Attorney? The four words appear in an out" where the intelligence dol- General Rex Lee appears in lar goes. The first witness, intelligence summary of the open session to read a state- Defense Intelligence Agency Comptroller-General' Elmer ` meat saying President Ford for October 6th, 1973. They Staats, Congress's financial wants all his secret papers back, are not readily apparent. Here watchdog, testifies that the and won't provide any until the General Accounting Office tried is the text of the paragraph: committee swears not to release "Egypt—The (deleted) large- for 20 years, and just gave up any secrets in the [Cont. on 85] in 1962. scale mobilization exercise may be an effort to soothe internal August 4th: The House com- problems as much as to im- mittee has spent two more days prove military capabilities. Mo- hassling with Budget Director [Cont. from 83] future with- bilization of some personnel, James Lynn and CIA Director out permission from the exec- increased readiness of isolated Colby about how much money , utive branch. units, and greater communica- and where it goes. Colby says Without secret papers, obvi- tion security are all assessed as he can't even tell publicly the ously, a congressional commit- part of the exercise routine total amount spent. Represen- tee can't do business, so this is there are still no military or tative Ron Dellums explodes: a first-class showdown. Chair- political indicators of Egyptian "What makes you the person man Pike thunders, "The exec- intentions or preparations to who believes that you can play utive branch.is telling this com- resume hostilities with Israel." God?" Colby, very quietly: mittee of the Rouse that it may The four words are "and "Mr. Dellums, I am not play- not continue to operate!" He greater communication secur- ing God. I am only enforcing pounds the gavel and recesses ity." the laws ... to protect the very the hearing, and I walk up with Presumably, if the Egyptians free society that you and I want a microphone, asking, ."Mr. know, even two years later, that to protect." Chairman, where does this we knew of their greater com- September 9th: In 1970; vio- leave your investigation?" munications security, then they lating orders from President Pike: "Well, at the moment, may get to know something Nixon, who was trying to ful- it obviously has come to a about how we knew. fill a treaty commitment, it screeching halt!" Pike has, for the first time, seems that the CIA scientists clearly enunciated the- doctrine squirreled away 11 grams of In the afternoon Colby holds that Congress has as much right shellfish toxin and 8 milligrams an unprecedented news confer- of cobra venomHthese tiny ence in the CIA's auditorium, amounts apparently enough to which is separate from the main kill thousands of people. building and under less strin- Church says hearings will be gent security. He says the four held next week, describing the Senator Edward Kennedy tes- no satisfactory answer to your to control secrets as the presi- tifies before the committee to- question." Angleton has no re- dent has. day as a kind of character wit- grets and won't pretend any. September 16th: The day of ness for his dead brothers. He When asked whether mail pri- the dart gun. Eight months is a says he's "morally certain" nei- vacy isn't sacred, he answers long time for a Senate commit- ther of them had any role in that, in fact, the impression of tee to stay behind closed doors. mail privacy was useful since We are in the Senate Caucus the plots against Castro. . - it could induce Communists to Room; where the Watergate September 23rd: Having send their secrets through the hearings were held, as though to " heard for three years of the U. S. mails. underline that this investigation "'Huston Plan," we see Huston During this hearing a new is, in so many ways, the son of ' in the flesh for the first time. note is heard. Senator Howard Watergate. Tom Charles Huston of Ip- Baker, warning of possible rev- - Toxins make a strange open- dianapolis is the witness in the olutionary activity in 1976, says ing subject, and what comes Senate Caucus Room. And, if that strong intelligence agencies will be needed. And Senator through, among other things, is i he has the slight- [Cont. on 86] the pitiful cost ineffectiveness of Tower suggests a law to legalize the exotic poisons. Colby testi- the kind of FBI surveillance that has been conducted ille- fies that it took ten years and gally until now. $3 million-to develop them and (Cont. from 85] N est reserva- the only time the shellfish toxin tion about his'scary 1970 plan "There are signs," I say in for surveillance, eavesdropping my broadcast, "that the pen- was ever used was concealed dulum may have started swing- in a silver dollar that Francis and break-ins, he doesn't show it today. Thin, earnest, intense, ing again. Two recent attempts Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot, on President Ford's life have carried with him on his 1960 Huston makes the argument his, helped return the minds of flight over Russia and never that the plan wasn't really but a plan that intelligence Americans to the idea of se- thought of using. agencies sold to the White curity." But then there was the nifty House. And what surprised September 26tb: A summit oison dart gun that each sen- him, he said, was to discover conference is called this morn- ator posed with (Colby's law- that what they were proposing yer, Mitchell. Rogovin, later to do, they were mostly doing gleefully noting that he had already—and continued doing made sure no one would ever after Nixon withdrew the plan. ing on what may be the over- get a picture of. Colby holding ' In fact, he said,- if he had arching issue of all these in- it). Didn't the dart gun indicate known of th CIA's Operation vestigations: who controls the that there were other uses for Chaos and the FBI's Cointel secrets. When the Pike commit- the shellfish poison, than sui- (counterintelligence) program, tee, on its own, declassified four cide? Colby readily agreed that and how ineffective they were, little words, President Ford re- the poisons represented "a it could conceivably have acted as though the CIA's weapons system,' meant basi- changed the minds of people vaults had been emptied. in the White House. ' prin- cally to kill. Clearly it was a matter of "I didn't know," said Hus- ciple. Until now, Pike has been Sitting in the audience all day ton without blinking an eye- asserting that Congress has as listening is Helms, who is testi- lash, "that we were starting much right as the president to fying tomorrow. I happen to be down the road that would lead say what should be kept secret present when Helms meets to the Plumbers and Water- and what can be disclosed. Colby walking down the stairs. gate." There the White House has Colby has been testifying about September 24th: Today drawn the line. how Helms had records de- Chairman Church has staged So Ford sits down in the stroyed. But spy chiefs don't a series of revelations from Oval Office with Pike, Robert quarrel in public. Colby says, CIA files about the 20-year McClory, the committee's top "Good luck, Dick!" Helms mail opening program, with Republican, Kissinger, Colby and others. In the afternoon I says, "Thanks!" And they, walk eye-popping details of names off in different directions., like Martin Luther King, Ar- interview Pike and McClory. thur Burns and Senator Ed- They talk of "compromise" September 22nd: The Ken- ward Kennedy whose mail was but I read the compromise as nedy assassination again. The opened. To cap that, Church a confrontation in which Pike Senate committee has evidence reveals that they opened a let- —meaning Congress—blinked. that the FBI destroyed a letter ter he sent- to his mother-in- McClory tells me about the from Oswald threatening the law on his 1971 trip to Mos- new system: when the commit- FBI if it didn't leave his wife cow. With so many willing to tee and the CIA are in dispute alone. New things keep coming alibi and apologize, it is al- about declassifying something, up, none essentially affecting most refreshing to see' one of the committee will be able to the conclusion about the assas- the old crowd stick to his guns. declassify unless the president sination, but all pointing to the Such a one is Jim Angleton. certifies that it would be against prodigious capacity of the CIA Under medication for an ac- the national interest, after and FBI for coverup- So, tive ulcer, Angleton's speech which the committee can still and reactions are slowed, but go to court. It seems to me Church says a subcommittee that, since a court test would will investigate what the CIA when asked by Senator Church why the mail-opening program take too long to have any ef- and FBI told—and didn't tell— was concealed from President .fect, the committee has sur- the Warren commission. --Niiton, he says firmly, "I have rendered on the issue of the By an ironic coincidence, . . president's ultimate authority. illegal and-not producing very much, it went on until 1973. And, when I put this to Pike, he's not inclined to dispute it. are those who wish that we Howard Osborn, the tough- didn't have to say anything at It's, he says, the best he could do. looking former CIA chief of all. . . ." And, when I press On the issue of who controls security,' testifies that it was him on whether he really hasn't that "secret" stamp, Pike has only stopped because of Water- been declared expendible and gate. And then this colloquy - marched farther up the hill is on the way out, Colby says, than anyone in Congress be- with the committee counsel, "At any time that either the F.A.O. Schwarz III: fore, but he has marched down preaident_or I thought that the Schwarz: "How did the Wa- again. intelligence business would be September 29th: The Pike better off with someone else, tergate climate persuade the committee wants to go after why I would clearly withdraw, CIA finally, after 19 years, to other intelligence failures. Now or I would be asked to." knock off the program, which it's asking for the intelligence In a broadcast commentary you knew to be illegal?" estimates before the 1968 Tet tonight I say that Colby "came Osborn: "I think it's because offensive in Vietnam, and some . as close as he ever has to indi- we realized it would be a tre- are being refused. So the com- cating his belief that he is on mendous embarrassment to the mittee votes, ten to three, to the way out." agency, particularly in light of declare them "necessary" to its October 9th: Senator Church work, which is the formal pre- the Watergate climate." liminary to a' citation for con- has suffered his first defeat on Schwarz: "So we can say, tempt against Kissinger and a vote in his committee. By six 'Thank God for Watergate' on Colby. After yielding to the to four, the committee decides ' this occasion, can we?" to put off scheduled public administration over the issue Osborn: "I'm not gonna say of what the committee can hearings on the National Secur- and electronic sur- that. You said it." make public, the Pike com- ity Agency, veillance. And, though efforts October 22nd: The files show mittee must now face the issue are made to keep the vote se- when the CIA, in 1961, for the of what it can get at all, even cret, I learn that two Democrats first time told a postmaster gen- in secret. have voted against Church, one eral what it _was doing in the October 1st: The Tet "crisis" of them freshman Gary Hart post office, J. Edward Day, a is resolved. Colby sends over of Colorado, who ran the 1972 Kennedy appointee, was quoted most of the papers the Pike ' McGovern campaign. as saying that it was okay but committee has subpoenaed. October 17th: During the rel- he didn't want to know details. October 2nd: The Senate ative calm of a congressional Now, side by side sit three committee is back with a recess, lunch in the Senate din- former postmasters general: public hearing to spotlight aid ing room with Dick Schweiker, Day, who served under Ken- to intelligence agencies by the who's been quietly working on nedy; John Gronouski, in the Internal Revenue Service—that that subcommittee investigat- Johnson administration; and Senator. Church calls "a lend- ing Warren commission angles. Winton Blount, who served un- ing library of tax information." It begins to look as though the On the stand is IRS commis- der Nixon. And none of them FBI had a lot more connections will admit ever knowing the sioner Donald Alexander. It with Oswald than it owned up turns out that the IRS had a mail was being opened. Any- to. J. Edgar Hoover's affidavit way, says Blount, he thought "Special Services Staff" that in- said a search of FBI records that whatever was happening disclosed Oswald was never an informant. But Schweiker notes was approved by the attorney the FBI had a policy of destroy- general, John Mitchell. ing records in order to be'in a -Helms says that, in 1971, he vestigated political activists- position to make such technical brieftd Mitchell on the open- 8000 individuals and 3000 or- disclaimers. Also, Hoover's tes- ing of Moscow mail and got ganizations. They -included or- timony made it look as though his approval. Mitchell, the old ganizations from the American the FBI first contacted Oswald stonewaller, returns to the Cau- Library Association to the in August 1963; after he was cus Room; scene of some of his NAACP, and individuals from arrested in New Orleans. Ac- best stonewalling, and denies it. Mayor John Lindsay to rock tually, the FBI had first inter- "I'm telling you today that was singer James Brown. (Alexan- viewed him a year before that, not so." der, from the witness stand.- and its interview report said The postmasters didn't know. comments dryly, "Some of our Oswald promised to cooperate The CIA said it had authority people didn't like rock music.") And the IRS also sent informa- from above. "Above" evap- tion, for nontax investigations, orates into thin air. to the FBI, the CIA and just - October 23rd: Bella Abzug is about any government agency with the FBI. Which maybe ex- ready to rush in where Church's that wanted it. Vice Chairman plained why Oswald, when ar- committee fears to tread. She John Tower, seldom exercised rested in New Orleans, said he calls a session of, her privacy about surveillance, .explodes didn't want to see a lawyer but subcommittee to bust open one about "invasion of the taxpay- an FBI agent. of the secrets of electronic sur- er-citizen's rights." October 21st: The Senate in- veillance. Attorney. General October Sth: Colby's debut telligence committee opens three Levi turns up, and takes Abzug on Face'tlie Nation. I question days of public hearings on into a room to plead with her him to see how far he'll go in mail opening. About 3 million not to do it. She 'won't listen. acknowledging the trouble he's envelopes were scanned and She walks into the hearing in. When I ask him what the 216,000 opened over a period room, big hat flapping furi- pressures are against him in the of 20 years. And, though CIA ously, bangs the gavel and administration, he says, "There officials say they knew it was starts reading a statement fast, committee. off balance for bargaining pur- as though she's afraid someone October 29th: I don't know poses of his own. The CIA and State Department were against is going to gag her: why it is that Big Brother al- getting into it. But Nixon, .. The Federal Bureau of ways comes on looking like working only with, Kissinger, Investigation and the National Little Brother! The witness is General Lew Allen Jr., who ordered the CIA to conduct Security Agency have regularly the operation, and sent former intercepted and copied personal looks and sounds like a meek professor in uniform. He is the treasury secretary John Con- telegrams and cables for the nally to Tehran to bring the head of the National Security last 30 years without court or- good news to the shah. So that der and probably in violation of Agency. And, revealing for the they couldn't be traced, the the Fourth Amendment, the first time in public any of the arms were Soviet and some • criminal law, the Communica- supersecret activities of the even Chinese. But when the tions Act, and the privacy of NSA, General Allen testifies shah got the agreement he American citizens. . . . that, from 1967 to 1973, the wanted with - Iraq, he pulled Details are withheld while the agency monitored [Cont. on 88] the rug (Persian and American) subcommittee votes subpoenas from under the Kurds, allow- for those involved. But a sum- ing their insurgency to be crushed. mary of staff interviews, which November 2nd: While at a I obtain, indicates that this is [Cont. from 87] the foreign cocktail, party at the neighbors', the story: phone calls and other commu- James and Sally Reston, the - Western Union was visited nications of some 1700 Ameri- word comes that Newsweek is daily by Joe Craig, FBI agent, cans on a "watch lit" provided reporting a cabinet shakeup, who borrowed cables and-later by the CIA. The investigations, with Colby fired. So, off to the vith returned them. The NSA main- he said; were in connection, • office ancirthe telephone. Colby, tained its own copying machine the protection of the president,' on the phone, sounds as shaken ' drug smuggling and antiwar' at Western Union Interna- as I've ever, heard him, so it tional, photographing all for- dissidents. must have been sudden. De- eign embassy cables. The FBI October 31st: Kissinger is be- obtained the teletype channel fore the Pike committee today and refuses to discuss 'covert numbers used by foreign mis- operations in Public. The corn-. sions, so that the NSA could mittee goes into, • closed ses- fense Scretairy- "is ' ;'> plug into them directly. RCA sion, but before doing so, it also out, and Kissinger has lost Global Communications was adopts a resolution to release his White House hat, but stays visited at 3 a.m. daily by an reports on unidentified,. Covert as secretary of -state. White NSA or FBI agent, who would operation& The resolution is House sources try to make it read through all international made by Jim Johrison,. a young look like Ford visiting plagues cables, photographing some of Republican maverick from Col- evenhandedly on both Kissin- them. Agent Craig visited ITT orado, that few reporters in' the, ger and Schlesinger houses. But World Communications about room are listening to. But I am it's Ki&singer who has survived 11 a.m. daily, picking up all puzzled by these words: "The and Colby who's gone. cables to a selected list of about American people have a right (Coming out of the' Oval 50 countries,' communist and to know when their govern- Office this Sunday morning, I noncommunist. Israel and Mex- ment commits their resources later learn, Colby meets Schle- ico were the most recent addi- and name in an armed conflict singer on his way in, Schlesin- or a paramilitary operation in tions to the list. ger asks, what's up. Colby, another nation." - thinking 'he shouldn't be the So, this was the big secret that Afterward, Johnson tells me one to tell Schlesinger he's get- the White House has been mov he can't talk about what "armed ting,fired, replies that President ing heaven and earth to keep conflict" or "paramilitary op- Ford is upset about a Dan ' under wraps. Now Senator eration" because getting au- Schorr report last night on the Church's committee changes its thority to disclose is precisely arming of the Kurds. And, at mind and decides it will, after the problem_ Some buttonhol-" the Schlesinger home in the all, hold public hearings on this ing of other 'committee mem- afternoon, Colby drops in for subject. bers and staffers produces little a sort of wake. Schlesinger October 28th: There is now, more help, except the hint that says, "Well; Bill, it looks as says Church, wide-ranging ad- a famous friend of Nixon's is though Dick Helms outlasted ministration pressure. to stop involved. . all of us.") any more exposure of wrongdo- A helluva unsatisfactory note November 3rd: Senator ing by intelligence agencies. In on which to end the weekt,- Church announces that Presi- executive session this morning, November 1st: It's Saturday, dent Ford has sent a, letter to Colby has opposed the holding I should be spending time with the committee saying the as- of public hearings on the covert the kids, but I can't get my sassination report should not be issued. There is no doubt, operation in Chile. The White mind 'off "arbitrary power7 and "armed conflict." After a says Church, that "concealment House is still fighting open is the order of the day" and hearings on electronic surveil- great deal of work, I think I have at least one of those op- that Colby has been fired for , lance. And, says Church, the ' erations pieced 'together. being too candid. Church says White House is now opposing his committee has unanimously the release of the completed re- Nixon, visiting-. Tehran in 1972, promised the shah to pro- voted to release the report af- port on assassination plots—the vide arms for Barzani's Kurd- ter giving it to the Senate in subject that. President Ford last ish rebels in Iraq, a country secret session. June tossed from the Rockefel- that the shah was trying to keep Colby stops off at our camera ler commission to the Senate stakeout on his way to testify.

' because he has gone to court He says he thinks he may go to tell me a singular thing: and Church feels that could into law practice. I ask him Colby, fired last Sunday and delay the whole report. Today if he thinks he shouldn't have ready to move out of his office Colby calls one of his rare given so much information to tomorrow, has been asked to news conferences to demand congressional committees. "No, come and see President Ford the deletion of 11 more names. I don't think so," he says. "I think the best was to get rid tomorrow. It seems that Ford, He says, "Exposure of our peo- of the past and start a transi- in his impulsive display of "I'm • ple to hostile and irrational re- tion to a future. structure of in charge," forgot that Bush taliation is not within the tradi- intelligence under the Consti- is still busy in Peking trying to tion of our country." Church tution." put together a Ford trip, that refuses. But Colby is obviously November 4th: Church is Colby has appointments to setting the . stage for some building up a head of steam, testify until December 18th, kind of maneuver in that secret maybe even seeing a campaign and that if Colby leaves now, session tomorrow. issue. For the . Colby tiring, he the testimony will have to be November 20th: While I blames Kissinger, saying he's given by his deputy, Lieutenant wait for the secret session of "the, prime minister, the presi- General Vernon Walters, who the Senate to end, I learn some dent taking care of ceremonial used to be Nixon's foreign lan- of the names that- Colby has functions." Church . says he'll guage interpreter. been fighting to delete—names oppose the confirmation of Ford will ask Colby to stay like Maheu- and Roselli. But, George Bush to succeed Colby. Senator Goldwater makes a on until Bush is confirmed, when you work with the Mafia speech on the floor saying that which may take another cou- and promise to try to protect all investigations of the CIA ple of months. And Colby, al- them, I guess you have to go should be halted. ways the pro, will agree to down the line with them. The The House committee meets, stay on. maneuver in the Senate to all upset about the report on November 6th: The Pike block the report fails. the Kurds. Pike, motioning to- committee votes seven- new Most of the committee ward me, says ironically, "Mr: subpoenas for documents, most (Tower, Goldwater, Baker stay Dan Schorr, who shares mem- of them aimed at Kissinger, the away) assembles for a big news bership on this committee from most important one attempt- conference. I'm interested time to time, had a very in- ing to smoke out whether the when Senator Mondale says teresting story on television last U.S. has been condoning Soviet that "we're not good at as- Saturday night. . . . It is pos- cheating on arms control. sible that we do have a leak sassinations, and thank God!" Colby is before the commit- And we really weren't very on this committee. It is also tee in the afternoon, testifying possible that somebody else good. Where we tried to kill who wants to make it appear on CIA and the media. In open people—Castro and Lumumba that we have a leak on this session he says only things that —we failed. Where- people got committee did, in fact, provide tantalize. Like this exchange killed, it was because things ' the source or was, [Cont. on 90] with Pike: got out of control—Trujillo, "Do you have any people Diem, General Schneider. I paid by the CIA who are work- stand up in front of the camera ing for television networks?" as the news conference ends to "This, I think, gets into the ad lib what will be the close of [Cont. from 88] in fact, the kind of getting into details, Mr. my piece for the Cronkite show source. . . . I can only say that Chairman, that I'd like to get this evening. And all I can it bothers me greatly and I am into in executive session." think to say is, "It turned out. sure that it bothers most, if Colby also says the CIA no as Helms said, that no foreign not all, the members of the longer has full-time American leader was directly killed by committee." correspondents on its payroll, the CIA. But it wasn't for want After some more discussion, just stringers and other part- of trying." Pike asks, "Mr. Schorr, I don't time people. November 21st: suppose you would want to re- Kissinger is November 9th: On Face the back before the Senate commit- veal your source or method at Nation, Senator Church says tee, now working in closed ses- this particular time?" I reply, that Colby has been made "the sion on a Chile report. And "No, thank you." fall guy," and that Bush is too when he comes out to face our David Treen, Louisiana Re- political to be his successor, but cameras, he gives his usual line publican, then moves to have doesn't seem ready to commit that the U. S. had nothing to me called before the commit- do with the military coup in tee in executive session. Pike 1973 that unseated Allende. says, "My guess is that Mr. But, because the assassination Schorr is one of those reporters report indicates that the U. S. who would rather go to jail himself to a fight against con- firmation. role went back to 1970, when than reveal his source, and I Nixon ordered a coup to stop think that would be a relatively November 19th: The Church committee's assassination re- Allende, I ask Kissinger, "What meaningless operation, unless, about 1970? That was the is- of course, you want to put Mr. port is at the printer, due to be sent to the Senate and released sue in the report—not 1973." Schorr in jail." Kissinger says, "That report The committee votes to table tomorrow. The committee at the last minute deleted one is another matter," and abrupt- the Treen motion. I find ly turns and walks off. my- name—Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, " self sweating. - November 24th: I who was involved with the prep- learn from the White House that President This evening a source calls aration of the poison meant , Ford has banned any testimony for Lumumba of the Congo- "walking the thin line between —that question seems to be by his officials—Kissinger, monitoring indigenous coup plotting and actually stimulat- like, 'Why did you, why have Colby or whoever—when the you stopped beating your Senate committee holds open ing it." 3. In the weeks before the wife?' " hearings on Chile next week. It doesn't help Church's con- Colby has written to retired coup, the CIA received reports from planners of the coup that sistency that he announces at CIA officers that this applies to the same time that he's going them. "went beyond the mere collec- tion of information." to oppose the confirmation of November 25th: I learn that George Bush unless Bush takes Nixon has offered to testify, on You have to read the fine print to put all this together. himself out of the running as Chile and other matters, under a 1976 potential candidate. certain conditions—at San The senators have watered down the conclusions. But, my December 16th: Before the Clemente, not under oath, be- closing line on the Cronkite fore Senators Church and Senate Armed Services Com- show is, "So it all comes down mittee, Bush has said. he'll not Tower only, for four hours to the question [Cont. on 92] seek the vice-presidential nomi- only, unless he agrees to con- nation, but can't absolutely tinue. I call Tower in Texas, promise to turn it down if of- who seems flabbergasted that I fered. Senator Jackson, influen- have the story. ("Where the tial member of the committee, hell did you get that?") Then [Cont. from 90] of whether the coup that President Nixon or. says it's up to Ford to rule he says he thinks the Nixon Bush off the ticket. After -the offer is "reasonable." I reach dered in 1970 happened all by itself in 1973." session Bush tells me he Senator Church • in Portland, wouldn't mind if Ford did that. Oregon. He says Nixon's con- December 12th: The steam ditions aren't acceptable to is starting to go out of both • December 17th: At a pre- him. Senate and House investiga- Christmas party of the Armed tions. The Pike committee has Services Committee, Senator December 4th: The subject Goldwater passes the word that that got me started on this marched up the hill again with a contempt citation against President Ford will write a let- assignment—the CIA and Chile ter tomorrow giving firm assur- —is up today. The Senate com- Kissinger—actually getting as far as reporting it to the House, ances that Bush will not be his- mittee is putting out its Chile , '76 running mate. This must be report and will then have a floor—then marched down again with a compromise that a bitter pill for both Ford and hearing, to be attended by the Bush, but Senator Jackson tells only people it can get to testify gives it some of the documents it wanted. me that otherwise Bush would —former ambassadors. Though have lost. Colby refuses to testify on Cap- More amazing is what hap itol Hill, he does choose this pens with Senator Church. In moment to appear at a public the morning, papers are filed forum, in an uptown. hotel. with the Federal Election Com- There he denies any connection mission creating an "explora- December 18th: Colby, in a with the anti-Allende coup. tory" Church for President closed session of the Pike com- Committee, In the afternoon mittee, opposes the issuance of "We made a conscious deci- Church, who has pledged not sion," he says, "that we did not three draft reports on covert to get into politics while in- operations. One is the arming want to bring about a military vestigating the CIA, comes out coup, and we separated our- of the Kurds. Another is the of a session of the committee operation in Angola, which has selves from the leaders of the announcing that the investiga- military who did lead the coup. already started surfacing in the tion is over, - . Senate. The third has to do But they were driven to the What about the public hear- with CIA intervention in some wall in the summer of 1973 ings tentatively scheduled for and they did—on their own— undisclosed 'West European January? Canceled. election. carry out the coup that over- What about the Nixon tes- December 19th: A tie vote in threw Mr. Allende." timony? His terms are not ac- the Pike committee kills the re- Like Kissinger, Colby focuses ceptable. port on the Kurds. The other on 1973, not 1970. And it is What about Kissinger, who two reports go to President meaningful that he talks of hav- has agreed to testify in Janu- Ford, under the September ar- ing "separated ourselves" from ary?_ Not really needed. rangement, to be reviewed. the coup leaders, meaning that I know what all this is about, I learn • some more about they had been connected. 'having already broadcast that what's in that report on the The Senate report concedes Church must "get off the in- election. It seems that in 1972, there is no evidence of direct vestigation train before it the. CIA, with President involvement in the coup, but passes his station." But I can't Nixon's approval, funneled it describes this chain of cir- resist putting it to him. about $10 million into Italy, cumstances: "Why, with such unseemly trying to get "our" candidates L In September 1970, Nixon haste," I ask, "are you dump- elected. ordered the CIA to organize a ing the most important wit- December 24th: Richard coup that failed after the shoot- nesses you've yet had?' Welch, CIA station chief in ing of General Schneider. 2. For the next two years, Church: "I don't, think that the CIA aided the military, Athens, has been killed in an ambush outside his home. I remember that a list of CIA agents has been published in a magazine called CounterSpy, published by a group of dis- affected former intelligence of- ficers. So, I arrange to interview them in their little office near Dupont Circle. Their leader,. positions overseas where they and the wno:e wit seemeu un- Tim Butz, says they didn't want could be in danger." able to accomplish." CIA agents killed, only "neu- A CIA spokesman says, "The January 3rd: The. Pike Com- tralized," but "if it happens, American public will judge the mittee is told it will get a letter it's not our fault." motives of persons who do this from President Ford next week For the "other side" I call sort of thing." vetoing the release of its re- David Phillips, who was (I get a lot of angry mail and ports on Angola and the Italian Welch's friend and his superior phone calls about the broad- election. After Welch, the ad- when he worked in Latin cast.) ministration should be able• to America. Phillips now heads December 30th: 1 go out to _get away with that. the organization of CIA re- Andrews Air Force Base before January Sth: President Ford tirees. At his home in suburban dawn for the arrival of Welch's will attend Welch's funeral to- Bethesda, with his many chil- body. The public relations peo- morrow and he has waived a dren looking on, Phillips, a ple explain that the big cargo lot of red tape to permit burial former actor, expresses great plane, already overhead, will of a civilian in Arlington Na- indignation, " . . . sordid busi- stay in a holding pattern and tional Cemetery. The CIA says ness . . . unnecessarily expos- land at 7 a.m. so that it will the Welch family won't let the ing intelligence operators." be "available" for live televis- press into the chapel, holding ing on network morning news it at least partly to blame for And Colby, coming closer his death. than he ever has to acknow- programs. We do, in fact, carry it live on the CBS Morning January 6th: Shivering out- ledging one of his agents, even side the chapel, we hear the when dead, issues a statement News. The ramp is one where presidents and foreign heads of funeral ceremony on a loud- about the "paranoiac attack on speaker. Symbolic retribution . . . Americans serving their state are welcomed. Never be- fore has a dead secret agent re- against the press for what the country . . . " press is supposed to have done. I halie a sense that Welch, turned such a public hero. The coffin is accompanied by his A notable absence of represen- dead,. still has one more service tatives of Congress, and espe- to render the CIA. He will be Marine officer son. There is an Air Force honor guard.. Colby cially the investigating commit- turned into a symbol in the tees. And after the chapel cere- gathering 'counteroffensive is there, and President Ford's counsel, Philip Buchen. mony we watch—and film— against disclosure. one of those funerals with full December 29th: I tape an in- There are no speeches but David Phillips is on hand for military honors—the same cais- terview with a former CIA em- son that carried the body of ployee, unidentified on request, interviews, live or taped. Phil- lips says that American intelli- President Kennedy, the folded who has been working for nine flag given to the widow by years on a "Who's Who in the gence agents today are in less danger from the KGB than Colby. It is the 6IA's first pub- CIA." He says he plans to go lic national hero.. ahead with the project, contain- from "moral primitives" who "condemn by label." January 7th: There is an in- ing 7500 to 8000 names.. Why tensifying feeling against leaks is he doing it? "I think it is In a commentary I say, "Welch, in death, may have and yet there is another big probably the most efficient way leak. It seems [Cont. on 95] we can get the agency to stay started the rollback that Presi- out of interfering in foreign r-s”.1-evizisewtry politics." And if someone on his list gets killed? "It is the agency's responsibility to with- draw these people from the scene and remove them from gola is in it, and Italy (not by line. [Cont. from 92] 1972 was not name) and even the Kurdish I wonder if there is any news the end of the CIA's involve- story (not by name). left in it after all the leaks. ment in Italian elections. Colby It estimates annual intelli- Maybe, now that it's been ap- has told a House international gence costs at $10 billion and proved and so many copies are relations subcommittee of plans says the country isn't getting in circulation in so many places, ' for $6 million to aid anticom- its money's worth, citing intel- I can get to see the report. munist parties in preparation ligence failures in Czechoslova- January 24th: Sam Jaffe, for the next election. Ambassa- kia, Vietnam, the Middle East, whom I knew years ago on the - dor John Volpe urged the pro- Portugal, Cyprus and India. CBS news desk and later tat- gram, Kissinger supported it, Hush-hush though this draft is tling mysteriously around East Ford certified it as necessary— supposed to be, I can even learn Europe for ABC, has caused a which he must do under a law details like a bizarre footnote great stir by suggesting a lot of passed a year ago. about a pornographic film made news people worked for the "There is," I say, while re- by Robert Maheu (name de: CIA. He has been questioned porting the story, "expected to leted) for the. CIA. It was sup- about all this at length by the be an explosion from the Ford Pike committee staff, and Staff administration over this leak." 'Director Searle Field has told Representative Leo Ryan of. me that among-those Jaffe California, one of those who posed to show Indonesian pres- named as CIA informants were denounced the project in the ident Sukarno in bed with a Walter Cronkite, Marvin Kalb closed committee session,, dis- woman in the Kremlin and get and myself. Field says the com- claims responsibility for the Sukarno to believe the film was mittee checked with CIA and leak, but says he's glad to see made by the KGB. The film elsewhere and concluded, "Jaffe ' it aborted. "It's better," he says, was titled Happy Days. is not a credible witness." But "than becoming the political Why does nobody seem up- however cockeyed he is about pimp of the world." set that so much of this report names, there is one element in January 13th: I learn that is leaking? his story that ties into other in- President Ford's aides have told dications: Jaffe was told, when January 21st: The commit- members of the Senate Intelli- he went to work for CBS, that tee tentatively approves its re- gence committee, working on port, eight to four, and Pike arrangements would be made oversight legislation for the fu- comes out of the meeting: "To with CBS to have him sent to ture, that if Congress hopes to say that this committee of Con- Moscow. Wayne Phillips, when get secret information, it will recruited by the CIA, was told gress can't write a report and have to set penalties, up to *to go to work for the file a report.without clearing it New York expulsion from Congress, for and arrangements would with the executive branch is Times leaks on covert operations. just preposterous." But the top Colby, getting ready to retire, Republican, Robert McClory, gives me a swan song interview warns that "it would be a vio- in his office. He hits hard at the lation of our agreement with point of secrecy. "I just don't be made to send him to Mos the White House and with the believe that it's possible for us cow. intelligence agencies if we were to conduct secret operations by Fascinated with allegations to use the materials which were sharing them with large num- of who, in the media, may have submitted to us under an agree- bers in Congress . . . Congress worked for the CIA, we are ment of confidentiality." hai a very poor system of keep- perhaps missing the bigger story ing secrets .. . Congress has to The committee agrees to give of the institutional arrange- take the position that it repre- the administration one last ments that made such things sents the American public and chance to argue for. changes. possible. I call James Angleton, isn't just a conduit of every The CIA sends the committee— who says that wasn't part of his secret.... " and leaks to me—a letter call- territory, but in the Fifties it January 16th: The Pike com- ing the report "biased, pejora was known around the agency mittee gets that letter from tive and factually erroneous ... that Frank Wisner specialized President Ford saying it can't all the flavor-of the National in media manipulation. Wisner publish the reports on Angola Enquirer." That is a cover let- was deputy director for covert and Italy. And, just to make the ter for 80 pages of specific ob- operations and is now dead. point, the letter itself is stamped jections to items in the report. "You check on the publish- "secret." A frustrated Pike tells Pike says he's not impressed by ers and broadcasting executives me he'll try to get some of the most of the objections. who graced Wisner's salon," material into the committee's January 23rd: The Pike com- says Angleton, "and you will be final report. I don't quite un- mittee votes, nine to four, final on the track." Must get time to derstand how he expects to get approval of its report after mak- get back to this story. away with that, having lost the ( ing some of the changes de- But the immediate problem battle of declassification in Sep- manded by the CIA, Pentagon is access to the Pike report. tember. and State Department, but re- That should be easier, now that January 20th: The Pike com- jecting about 150 others. It goes it's been finally approved. mittee meets in secret to look at to the government printing of,- January 25th: I have the Pike a draft of its final report. It's fice, to be released before the report! I look for a new story about 340 pages, and full of committee's January '31st dead- that can be aired immediately. long footnotes. I learn that An- That story, I decide, is a long

all this. footnote, a CIA memo that says on the Pike report won't come January 27th: Helms, testify- Evening News. that in February 1973, Senator ing on future CIA oversight, in time for the I have promised to take my wife Jackson gave the agency "ex- says he might be in less trouble tremely helpful" advice on how been bet- to the Israeli reception for Pres- than he is if there had ident Ford on. the occasion of to handle a threatened investi- ter oversight in the past. "I have gation by Senator Church's sub- Prime Minister Rabin's visit. had a feeling a bit that not only Toward the end of the 'recep- committee on multinational were these senators very busy corporations, which would have:` tion, I run into "Tip" O'Neill, men, but that on occasion they the House majority leader, who laid bare the cooperation of the really did not want to know CIA and ITT in opposing Al, tells me that the House has just that much about it because it voted, two to one, to block the lende in Chile. could be an embarrassment to report. I locate Church addressing them politically." Helms says, I ask him, "Why, do you "There were times when I felt an Israeli bond rally, show him think?" the memo and film his indig- quite lonely." He has a point O'Neill says, "I wondered nant reaction to his colleague's there. about the same thing, and I backstabbing. Jackson comes to After the Helms session, I friends. And take the subway from the Sen- asked some of my the studio to tape an interview, they said that this is an election explaining he was just giving ate Office Building to the Cap- itol, and walk from the Senate year, and they're getting a lot the CIA procedural advice. The of flak about leaks, and they're to the House side. Pike is mak- story leads the brand-new CBS going to vote with their Amer- Sunday News, ing some routine move on the and we show the ican Legion posts." memo, leaving no doubt that floor, and I want to keep up. At noon, the floor almost deserted, February 3rd: The Pike com- we have the report. There are,„ mittee, working now on legisla- other stories, but I'd like to try Pike asks unanimous consent to publish his report on Friday, tive recommendations, acts as to space them out through the though it is shell-shOcked. Pike, week before the report is pub June 30th, the consent needed fished. because the House will not be disgusted, had to be talked into even going 'ahead with these January 26th: I guess I wasn't in session that day. Robert Bau- man, a chronic Republican ob- sessions. He seems utterly flab- alone in getting access to the bergasted by the bottling up of report. The New York Times jector, objects. That means Pike must go to the Rules Comthit- his report, and even the trium- is out with a three-column lead phant minority seems dismayed. summarizing the whole report, tee and get a resolution to be adopted by majority vote. Milford, who did it with his lit- a separate Jackson story and tle maneuver, seems embar- various sidebars. The Morning January 28th: From the of- rassed. He =yes that the re- News staff calls me at 5 a.m. fice of Dale Milford of Texas, port be sent to the White House and asks me to come in and do a Democrat who usually votes so that it can be sanitized and a live report for the 7 a.m. with the Republicans on the released. Pike rules the motion show, cramming in as much of Pike committee and is'trying to out of order. the report as I can, and show- block the report, comes a tip: February 5th: Kissinger, tes- ing the title page on television. watch the Rules Committee to- tifying on future oversight, says _ There isn't time on television day! And, indeed, it turns out that foreign policy won't work to do it justice, but radio is in- to be worth watching. Milford's unless congressional leaks are satiable. I record seven spots of Texas friend, JOhn Young, plugged. Of the Pike commit- two minutes each or more on proposes an amendment that tee: "I think they have used various episodes in the report. would hold up release of the classified information in a reck- In the afternoon, Colby calls report until President Ford can less way, and the version of cov- his third—and last—news con- decide about the secrets in it. ert operations they have leaked ference (Bush is due to be con- And, to the consternation of to the press has the cumulative firmed tomorrow) at CIA head- Pike and on his commit- effect of being totally untrue quarters for a bitter protest - tee, that amendmentmendment is carried, the nation." after 6 p.m. and damaging to against the substance and the nine to seven. It is On the secrecy business, Kis- leaking of the report. Because and there is barely time to get singer, long on the defensive, it's crowding deadline, I don't the story,on the Cronlcite show. seems clearly now on the offen- go out to Langley but listen on I say on the air, again show- sive. a line to our stu- [Cont. on 97] idg the report, "If the House February 10th: The Pike backs up its committee, it means committee adopts its recom- that this :tport, already ob- mendations and goes out of ex- tained by CB i News and others, I istence, its report still bottled will be filed with the clerk of [Cont. from 95] dio. I have up. It may be that I have the never heard Colby sound so the House as a confidential doc- only copy of the report out of aroused. He denounces the ument.... It's, the first good government control. There are "bursting of the dam protecting news the administration has had no headlines left in it—CBS and in a long time on the subject of many of our secret operations the New York Times have sold and activities." Though its con- leaks and secrecy." its main stories. But, it begins tents are substantially out, For tomorrow morning I re- to grow on me that I cannot ac- Cplby says, "This report should cord an analysis saying, "This cept the responsibility for with- not be issued." may be the first sign of a back- holding the whole document There must be some move lash against the disclosure of in- from anyone who may still be afoot to still try to block, or telligence secrets." interested in reading the text. 29th: .I sit all after- Colby wouldn't be going through January I don't think that, as a report, noon in the House gallery un- til it becomes clear that a vote White House briefing on the mittee. The intermediary, I say, it has about it administration's new program. it's all that great. reported little prospect for book There I ask what are the insti- a sense of advocacy, a way of publication, then relayed an of- tutional protections in the new taking the goriest details out of fer from Clay Felker, publisher plan against a president who context to make a case against of the Village Voice, which I will have his CIA chief eaves- the CIA. But good report or agreed to. drop on the opposition party or bad report, it is the result of a CBS announces that "another undertake a covert operation to long congressional investiga- correspondent will be assigned please a friendly foreign head tion, and I feel that it will die- to coverage of the House In- of state: I get long answers d I let it die. So, I reach the de- telligence committee .and the from Bush and other officials cision that I must try to arrange controversy surrounding the re- present.. • to have it published as a book port," under existing policy that No sooner back at the office, and, if that is not possible, by "no correspondent may report I am assigned to rush out to on a story in which he is per- Dulles Airport and meet Sen- anyone who will promise to sonally involved." ator Church, returning from [Cont. on 98] publish the full February 15th: There* have Europe, to get his reaction to been a couple of times in my the new Ford program. . career—especially when I was When I return, about 4 p.m., covering Watergate—when I rushing to get all this assembled [Cont. from 971 unexpurgated had to cope with the unexpected for the Cronkite show, .I am text. problem of finding myself part told that I am off the intelli- But then' a story drops into of my own story. This is the gence assignment altogether— my lap! Sig Mickelson, former •first time, though, that' I have effective immediately. Which president of CBS News (now been 'ordered off part of my means I won't handle today's head of Radio Free Europe), story. 1 am anxious to show, story I go home. identifies two newsmen as hav- and as soon as possible, that I ing been CIA agents while serv- can still go on working. So, on EPILOGUE ing as stringers for CBS News. this Sunday, I spend a lot of Mickelson says he learned time on the phone—glad to find The journal stops, at 4 p.m. about Frank Kearns, who on February 18th, when I was worked for CBS in Cairo, from taken off the assignment. On CIA Director Allen Dulles. And the Cronkite show that evening Mickelson says that he learned my White House sources still saw a shot of me interviewing about Austin Goodrich, who willing to talk to me as though Senator Church. My name was had been a CBS stringer in nothing has happened. And I go not mentioned. I have not been Stockholm, from two CIA offi- into the office to do a preview on the air as a reporter since cials who told him about it in of the new Ford program on in- then. . the presence of William S. Pa- telligence organization for the On February 19th, the House ley, CBS board chairman, in Sunday News and the Morning' of Representatives voted, 269 Paley's office in October 1954. News of Monday. to 115, to have its Committee Paley denies it. February 17th: Senators Hud- on Official Conduct, known as I am known to our stu- dleston and Mathias, of the dio technicians as "one-take Church committee, go out to Schorr" because I can usually the CIA to talk to Bush about record my stories smoothly on how they can finish their in-. the ethics committee, make an the first try. This time it takes vestigation of the CIA and the investigation and say whether four takes as I stammer each media without having names of I should be held in contempt of time I reach the name of Paley. journalists. I wait at the CIA the House. But we complete the taping mo- gate to interview them. They President Ford offered all ments before the Cronkite show explain they'll get descriptions starts. of activities, without names. . "services and resources of the executive branch" to track February 11th: The CIA an- This evening I attend Presi- down the leak-. Speaker Carl nounces it won't hire news peo- dent Ford's news conference. ple anymore, but will never dis- Coming in, I meet Bob Mead, Albert declined the offer. But the ethics committee said it was close the names of those who of the White House press office, worked for it in the past. who, says, jokingly, "Sorry, you considering asking that FBI agents be detailed to assist in February 13th: The Village aren't allowed." I listen from a Voice has appeared with the back row while Ford denounces the inquiry. Pike committee report. I release the leak Of the report and its Attorney General Edward a statement saying that, rather publication in the -Village Voice. Levi said the Justice Depart- than "cooperate in what might February 18th: Wait outside ment, with FBI assistance, was be the total suppression" of the Senate Foreign Relations making a preliminary inquiry the report, I decided to arrange hearing room to chat a moment of its own to determine if it had for its textual publication. I en- with Bush, arriving for a get- any cause to act. listed the cooperation of the acquainted briefing in closed On February 23rd, CBS an- Reporters' Committee for the session. The difficulty now is to nounced that, "in view of the adversary situation" in which I Freedom of the Press in provid- keep the spotlight off me. A had been placed, I was being ing an intermediary who could picture of Bush and me runs on "relieved of all reporting duties arrange publication. Also, con- the front page of the Washing- for an indefinite period." sidering it unthinkable that I ton Star, billed as a "confron- There are things I shall want would profit personally, I au- tation," which later prompts Bush to call me and say he to say about all this. But my thorized the intermediary to ar- A. Califano Jr., range a contribution from who- hopes he didn't cause me any lawyer, Joseph who is being paid by CBS, ad- ever would publish it to go embarrassment. directly to the Reporters' Com- At 11 a.m. there's a detailed

vises me that -I shouldn't say them as long as any investiga- tion may be pending. I should like to be able to say my commitment to Rola: nvo STONE to cover the investi- gation ended on February 18th when I stopped covering the in- vestigation. But that would be a sophistry, because the story continues. Not only because, at this writing, the other shoe— the Senate's report—hasn't dropped yet. More specifically, because what happened to me isn't irrelevant to the story. • The underlying issue has al- ways been secrecy, the secrecy - that made Watergate possible, the secrecy that made the CIA think that, having found a lot of wrongdoing that looked aw- ful in the post-Watergate cli- mate of 1973, it could conduct a secret reform and cover the ' whole thing up. When Colby boasted to me that the CIA had cleaned its • own house, I asked him if he had thought it could be done without public accounting and public retribution. That, he said, had been the intention. When waves of disclosure rolled over the CIA, it acted meek and laid low. But, when it found the time ripe, the intel- ligence community, which I like to call the secrecy establish- ment, started rolling back. It had the enthusiastic help of a president who saw a security- minded executive versus a leaky Congress as a campaign issue. Standing there doing my thing —the same thing I had been doing for a long time—I guess I got in the way of the rollback, and was knocked over. But, what is different from the old days of clandestine op- erations, a lot of people noticed and seemed to care. Not for me, but for what this all seemed to mean.