Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 29, 1975, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press monday december 29, 1975 the Carlos Niter All. French police cop out backfires killing enters Cia debate the Washington Post Paris Carlos the venezuelan terrorist who shot and killed two French counter espionage agents last june has come Back to haunt the French police in an increasingly politically embarrassing Case for France. French police sought to suggest throughout last week that the latin american who led the terror assault on the Vienna Headquarters of the organization of Petroleum exporting countries open last sunday was not Ilyitch Ramirez san Chez the Carlos they have sought for six months. Planted news stories suggested that the original Carlos was dead. The Interior ministry formally denied Friday that the French police had fresh evidence indicating he not Only was alive but had led the Vienna operation. Friday night however the ministry reluctantly con firmed that such evidence does exist. It is a letter Given by the Leader of the Vienna terror squad to Venezuela minister of mines Valentin Hernandez Acosta one of the 11 open ministers taken hostage and then Hel cased in Algiers by the terrorists. The letter was addressed to Carlos s Mother in Caracas. Comparison of the writing on the envelope and also of autographs Given to other hostages by the terrorist Leader with documents seized in London during the extensive manhunt for Carlos strongly indicates that the two Are in fact the same Man French police sources now concede. These sources still maintain that the letter could be part of an elaborate disinformation program designed by the terrorists to throw police off the track. They wonder Why Carlos would disclose his identity in such a flamboyant Way. But the political implications of the Case cast doubt also on the authenticity of the original French position. Absolute confirmation that Carlos is the Leader of the six terrorists who gave up to algerian authorities after releasing the hostages would present France with two diplomatically embarrassing situations that would not arise if doubt still existed Over his whereabouts. The most important question is extradition. President Valery Giscard d Estwing s government embarrassed by its in ability to arrange the release of a French woman Arch eolo Gist held captive for nearly two years by Chad rebels could face a new Public opinion crisis if it failed to demand that Al Geria turn Over for trial a Man wanted for killing two top police agents in Paris. The algerian government gives every sign of not being willing to Honor such a request. It has not responded to an austrian request for extradition and algerian officials Are refusing to say if the pro palestinian terrorists Are being treated As criminals or honoured guests France would risk worsening its already tender relations with Algeria an important economic partner and a key country in France s bid for better relations with Arab Oil producers by taking a hard stand on extradition. Disclosure that the French had been Able to make a photocopy of the envelope containing the letter to Carlos s Mother while Hernandez Acosta was at orly Airport is also a Diplo Matic embarrassment the venezuelan minister reportedly refused to turn the letter Over to the French evidently be cause he had promised the terrorist Leader that it would re main confidential. West German police who have identified one of the six terrorist As Hans Joachin Klein a member of the Baader Meinhoff terror gang added another touch of Chagrin for the French by asserting Friday night that they had found evidence that the Vienna operation had been planned in Paris. French spy admits killings Paris Reuter a member of France s secret intelligence Agency said Day the Agency committed assassinations in times of crisis War and conflict. The Man was identified As a colonel in the surveillance de documentation Exter Eure Etc contre espionage s d e c e Agency by a French television station to which he gave an interview. Asked if the dece committed assassinations the agent replied assassination is a word i Don t like but it is True that in times of crisis War and conflict when human life does t count for much executions and physical eliminations by Laurence Stern the Washington Post Washington the shots fired in suburban Athens last tuesday killing . Intelligence officer Rich Ard Welch May figure import in the Public opinion Battle in which the Central intelligence Agency is now engaged in Congress. Cia director William Colby made it Clear last week that or. Welch s death might be employed in pressing the Agency s Side of the impending argument Over new guidelines for Cia conduct. Or. Colby took time out wednesday to do something not normally expected of the head of the . Intelligence establishment. He personally denounced a press release is sued by fifth estate a group of Radical Young pamphleteer who have been heckling the intelligence sys tem for three years from scruffy offices Here. Fifth estate had issued its statement i in response to what it charged were unattributed attacks by the Cia s press spokesman Angus Thuermer and overt claims by retired Clandestine operations officer David Phillips that fifth estate was responsible in part for the murder of or. Welch. In the statement fifth estate denied responsibility and said if anyone is to blame for or. Welch s death it is the Cia that sent him there to spy. The significance in what might otherwise pass for a routine Public relations Skir Mish is that fifth estate whose members include Viet Nam veterans and former government intelligence officers was the first left Wing institution after the Vietnam War to devote itself full time to muckraking the intelligence Community. It publishes reports from the foreign press and other sources on . Intelligence in a quarterly Magazine counterspy. Among the information published in recent issues was that or. Welch was Cia station chief in Peru. He sub in unusual move director hits muckraking journal s e q u e n 11 y was moved to Athens unknown to the Edi tors of counterspy. Fifth estate describes it self As an adversary organization seeking to expose abuses of Power by . National Security bureaucrats. Its political line reflecting the View of one of former Cia Covert operations officer Philip Agee is that the Cia has become a tool of repressive elites in Many countries. It is not surprising that the Cia should fix its sights on fifth estate in arguing that publicizing Agency operations and personnel has gone too far. From the Agency s standpoint it is also far More palatable to make the Case against an obscure left Wing group than a congressional select committee on Capitol Hill. Or. Colby denounced fifth estate for what he called its irresponsible and Paraf Loic attack on employees of his Agency. Or. Colby who is due to be replaced by former . Envoy to peking George Bush has asked Congress for legislation that would permit the Cia director to punish employees for passing out secrets and to seek injunctions to keep the press from pub Lishing them. At the same time the House and Senate commit tees on intelligence will pro pose new legislative directives intended to prevent future abuses by the Cia. If the conflicts that have surfaced Between executive and legislative branches Are any guide the new congressional round on Cia Legisla Tion will precipitate further notes of confrontation be tween the administration and congressional democrats As background music to the 1976 presidential Campaign. At one pole of the dispute is the age position which Calls for exposure of Ameri can agents abroad in order to neutralize the Cia s sup port to repression in coun tries where it can exercise influence through Covert funding electoral Manipula Tion or espionage. The trend toward exposure reached almost armchair Hobby proportions with the publication in the washing ton monthly mag Zirie in no vember 1974, of How to spot a spook by former state department intelligence officer John Marks. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of stale Henry Kissinger have with or. Colby called for minimal Dis closure of operations or identities. Security leaks have been a major obsession of presidents especially in the Admi instr asians of Lyndon Jolson and Richard Nixon. But it has yet to be demonstrated that there have been any major Security breaches. Furthermore a Good Deal of the obsession with secrecy the secret bombing of Cam Bodia is one notable exam ple seems to have been More concerned with pre venting disclosure of Contefl-1 Titus executive actions rather than leaking vital information to hostile foreign Powers. Yet there has been no find ing or c 1 a i m that the Agency s emergence from the closet has substantially weakened its intelligence gather ing capability. Greek group takes death credit the Washington Post Athens an unknown group in a. Two Page letter Sun Day claimed credit for the killing of Richard Welch station chief for the Central intelligence Agency in Greece and threatened further retaliations against american Imperial the group identified itself As the organization of no vember the Date in 1973 when militant students at the Athens polytechnic rebelled against the military regime of George Papadopoulos. The revolt suppressed with deaths and arrests set off a wave of unrest that brought Down or. Papadopoulos. The letter secretly delivered to several Western journalists was the second claim of authorship to or. Welch s assassination. Less than 24 hours after the killing another Unk Nown group which identified itself As the army officers re presenting the free greek spirit claimed credit for the assassination. Senior police officials in charge of the investigation of the Case have dismissed the claims As the works of Cranks. The Case is without a substantial a. Senior inspector said sunday night. We see no details nothing whatsoever in sunday s note that could convince us that they indeed carried out the the official commented sunday s note said the use of Greece by american imperialists has to be avenged has been avenged and will continue to be officials Here speculated that both the extreme left and the extreme right Are trying to Embarrass each other by sending fraudulent letters to the news Media. Or. Welch 46, who arrived Here last july was gunned Down by three men in front of his House. His body was to be flown Back to Washington today for burial at Arlington National cemetery. The Kimzy carnival has of the bizarre Bazaar freebies deals and Duck soup open nights open Days ;