r - - -_--- - - - ' ' _ - _ _- o _ _ o o- ' oo _ - Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 o - - - ' Copy Numbs - T5 'lQ ooa q - A S TAFF REPORT 1 concerning ACTIVITIES OF CERTAIN FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES submitted to The Subcommittee on International Operations Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate - -- _ January 18 1979 hotocopy Reagan Library Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 liP SEERB SENSifiVE ' PREFACE The following report is written in the present tense I I Because of the inherent ebb and flow of the activities dis0 cussed certaLn aspects of the report may now seem outdated j especially in light of recent events such as the turmoil I in Iran and rec gnition of the People's Republic of China o Regardless of these events however its integrity and relevance remain intact many of the highly questionable activities described herein continue and there now exists no effective institutional structure for controlling them For that reason the reduction or even the cessation of foreign - ' J agent activities by such forces as for example the Iranian secret police should not be viewed as a ha binger of the end of these activities rather it may simply have created a vacuum into which othe r foreign services will be drawn i8P I IJ hotocopy I I Reagan library SEEREPSE N Wfl l 1 5 ' q 0 St - - Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 SUMMARY o ' I I I I o i i l io i i I ' 1 it j lI 1 ' I I f l o I o or iJ Chi te Alt hough no inteZ ' tigenae offiaer of the Government of Chi'te apparently is aurrent'ty stationed in the United $tates such offiaers have visited the United States using fa'tse hotocopy Reagan Library 1 us arl rlll Pit_elfn l n anlrl Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 _ identific tion and their activities ere not known The Cht'Lean inte 1 'Ligence servic e is a member o f a consortium of South American 'intet 'Ligence sezovices Opezoation Condor 11 which has in the past plotted assassinations in foreign countries and maintained fi'Les on anti-regUme activists Thi s service maintains c'Lose ti ais o n With the GePman Naz i co'Lcny O f La 'Dig nidad in Southel'n Chilte tiJhi ch makes its substanti a'L l'esources avai'Lab'Le it P 7 Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 A ACTIVITIES OF CERTAIN FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES r- o' '''i -o o c' o o _ Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 o o o - r II Findings inte L L C A 1 I ii Chi Le A Lthough no inte'L Ligence officer of the Gotiernment of Chi Le apparent'Ly is curz-ent'Ly s tat oned in the Uni't ed States such officers have vis C ted the United s tates using fa'Lse identifiaation and their aativities uezte not known The Chilean inte'LZigence sepv ae is a membez- of a consortium of South Ameztican inte'L 'Ligence sez-vices Operation Con4ol' tt1hich has in the past p'Lotted assassinations in fpl'eign countl'ies and maintai ed fiLes on anti-zt gime aativists This sez-vice maintains c'Lose Liaison with the German Nazi coLony of La Di'gnidad in Southern ChiLe which makes its substantia'L l'esoul'ces ava tabLe to it The Directorate of National Intelligence DINA w as estab- I encies in the ' lished in early 1974 allowing the overthrow of the Allende I i r gime It was established as an arm of the presidency under the direct control of President Pinochet Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepulveda a close friend of Pr sident Pinochet was named as Director DINA's initial mission was to identify and eliminate subversives in Chile a problem which was a legacy of the Allende regime former police d reg ded DINA consisted largely of army officers numbering by 1977 t some 38 OQQ personnel arid supported by a budget of $27 million was organi ed It ' in a manner similar to that of other intelligence services Shortly after DINA was established came to the United otocopy as S ates Directo Contreras to seek American assistance - Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 -8- c By 1976 with subversion under control DINA turned ts attention abroad In an effort to monito of Chilean dissidents outside Chile DINA bega the activities to station agents in Europe and certain Sou th American countries Appar- ently no DINA agents were stationed in the United States lthough as described below pl s were at one time made to do so In August 1977 President Pinochet dissolved DINA and replaced it th the Central Nacional de Informaciones or CNI ' The publicly-announced reason was that DINA had completed its mission In fact however the action was likely the result St t s of pressure from within the United where sensitivity to Chilean repression was heightened by the assassination of Orlando Letelier and also of pressure from within Chile Church and a1 1Dy' leaders there d sliked the heavy-handedness of Contreras and'were concerned about Chile's international image The new Director is the former chief of army ntelligence and former ambassador to U guay Odlanier Mena-Salinas Upon taking over iil 1977 Mena apparently carri e d out a major shake- up of the intelligence o ganization A wholesale dismissal of personnel and a to tal reorganization To avoid confusion DINA is used tteltea i teti i'n e fetence hotocopy Reagan ti5raryr t 1 o 1'1 _ - - Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 c -9- iiP SEEIET SENSIIV seems to have taken place f j CNI 1 s arrest and detention powers were abolished and plac ed in th natids of the uniformed police CNI now has no internal police functions but does retain an intelligence -gathering mission I ot i I o directly Min l ter un r Moreover unlike DINA CNI is the President but is responsible to the of the Interior Quite improvement in the human right s record'' has occurred in Chile since the shake up number of illegal detentions and political prisoners and the amount of tor e have decreased Much of the iriformatiori in the hands of United States i t elligence and law enforcement agencies regarding DINA activities in the United States relates to the assassinati n of Orlando Letelier Much 'th gh not all of that information the Executive Branch declined to provide he Subcommi tee and no effort was made to acquire it in the belief that its acquisition i j i I Il I ght lio ever inadver t ently interfer e with the Justice Department's invest gation and prosecution of that case Notw i ths t anding this embargo it was learned that Chilean officials The i dictment handed down by the Grand Jury on February 7 1977 charged the then-Director of DI Manuel Contreras Sepulvada DINA's then-Director of Operations Pedro Espinoza - - and a DINA agent M1chael Townley w1th conspiring to murder Orlando Letelier Contreras the Grand Jury charged ordered Letelier' s assas s ination and Espinoza conveye d the order to Townley hot ocopy Reagan Library Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 -10- have entered the United States purchased bu ging ' equip- ment and Jlave brought it out of the United S_tates using bogus passports The 1'9 76 entry ' 1 7 1 o j - r o o i ' involved the assassination of Letelier in 1977 person accompanying President Pinochet to the signing ceremony of the Panama Canal Treaty used false passports In the case of one of those visits the false passports were obtained in Paraguay by DINA officers who might have been acting - - - - ' o 1 - l - 'j o t I umbrella of an organiza- tion known as Operation Condor r der he l I I -- - _ ' - -_ ' hot copy Reagan library Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 I __ I Established in 1976 Operation Condor is an international consortium of the intelligence services of Argenti a B olivia o Brazil Chile Paraguay and UrUguay Condor conducts joint operations against common targ e ts in member countries for the purpose of countering what it regards as terrorism and subversion Chile has been the center for Operation Condor and Ullder Condor Chilean intelligence has maintained officers in Chilean embassies in all member countries oroo Argentine and Chilean intelligence officers have agreed through Condor that if any Chi1ean ts known to be in olved in an Argentine terror- ist group Argentine autho rities may kill him upon capture DINl also maintains an officer in the Chilean embassy in Machoic who has responsibil ty for operations in Western Europe In addition DINA has tried to place representatives in France England and Wes Germany to monitor the activities of Chilean leftists in those countries DINA personnel in Condor use civilian rather than military cover A highly secret dtmension of Operation Condor the so-called phase three operation -- involves the formation of special teams from member countries assigned to travel anywher in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions including assassination -- against Condor enemi e s According to the plan once a given Condor enemy is determined by a firs - hotocopy Reagan Library Membersliip lias varied from year to year o Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 -12 b Condor team to be present in a certain country a second team from Condor is dispa t ched tO locate and surveil the target - member A third count y te composed of individuals from one or from several is then issued false docu- - mentation from member co tries of Condor a nd dispatched to carry out th actual sanction againse the target Such a phase three operation was planned in 1974 fol- lowing the assassinations of the Bolivian a Chilean off cial in the Middle East hereupon nd a in P aris o Uruguayan attache in Paris Condor bassador planned an operation atmed at as s assinating three well-known European leftists J one of whom was the notorious te orist Carlos The plot was foiledJ however When during the first team's search for the three warned the governments of the countries in which the assassinations were likely to occur -- France and Portugal -- which in possible targets warned aware of the identity only of Carlos and called in representativ s of Condor countries to warn them to call off the action that it had ever The bee They did -- after denying planned a ove-described plot is r elevant ins'ofar as it pro- _ - vides evidence of Condor's capabilities as well as its possibl i ntentions in planning to open a station in Miami shortly af t e - wards h copy - I turn ule to determine Condor's specific pur- pose in doing so but Reagan Library did discover the plan and inform1 Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 f w Kf the Department of State ' The Department considered issuing a f ormal demarche to the governments involved bu Secretary Kissinger objected Instead it was decided that would inform Condor States disapproved the Miami Condor station was never opened Condor may hav became less active recent months ' but a quired has not over thae period concerning i'ts activities Whatever its current posture r Condor clearly has the potential ' o any information drastic covert operations of p anning and executing Indeed it was barely two years ago that the FBI concluded that it is not beyond the realm - of possibility that the recent assassination of Orlando Leteli in Washington D C 'may have been carried out as a third phase of 'Operation Co dor ' joo 1 Another e ement with an uncertain relationship to DINA is i 1 t r the Colony o Located in Parral Linarest Province La Dignids was established by former Nazi Luftwaffe officers at 'the close i of World War Two 1 r otocopy Reagan Library The Colony is registered as a farm property Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 -l 4- must leave Chile through Argentina The Colony's leadership maintait ts good relatiOns o With chilean military offic i als parti c ularly officers of he Chilean Air Force who have close ties to the Colony's former Luftwaffe pilots o - ' The Colony maintain s complete autonomy over its t erritory Investigations into its activities have always come to an ' - i - t - II The Colony s priioary source of livelihood is a large dairy farm although it also produces other agricultural products and engages in some mining I t maintains good rela- tions with the local peasant population in part because an abrupt halt excellent medical facility maintained by the Colony families in the area 1u n i o and the e has maintained a detention center inside the Colony are allegations that torture l -' Allegations I described as lL I - I o J L - - open once a week for free medical treatment and medicine to farm i is lso taken place there have been made that German personnel who are ex Gestapo tion in torture h s or ex-SS officers have given techniq es instruc and have actually taken part in the - - #' The Colony has received large amounts of money over he years I _ probably from German Nazis P o ocopy Reagan library DINA which maintains two facilit Approved for Public Release 8 December 2016 nearby makes use of the Colony's national and international contacts Knowledgeable State D partment officials believe that they might v ery well inde e d be part of the so-called network of German exiles in Latin America Precisely wl lat actions have been carried out by DINA and Operation Condor and what role the Colony has played are unclear- Our knowledge of DINA operations is almost the CIA stated nil What is clear is that DINA and Condor pos sess both the motive and capability to harm Unit d States residents The former irect r of DINA Manuel Contreras has said uo has representatives in all Chilean emb ssies - o abroad except behind the Iron Curtain served under c vilian These agents he said cover and their mission Chilean enemies in those countries e 11 include go to Australia i f necessary to _get our enemies he said ' - ' --------------- _ - tr3 hittin CtiU AIUI jfcaJ