Operation CHAOS

--- PAGE 419 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 22 May 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD SUBJECT: General: The Family Jewels Exercise Specific: Meeting with Colby This Date Broa and [REDACTED] met with Mr. Colby at 1115 hours today. Colby asked that we provide him with fuller information on the following items: DO [REDACTED] An EA DIVISION project: What do these agents do in the States? What sort of reporting and to whom? PDL Get copies of OCI's reports on "Restless Youth" and Black Radicalism. D964 Get details on the cryogenic magnetometer that is used on unwitting subjects. (OI.S.) DDU Get from of Staff copies of the six reports sent to MHCHAOS/NKVD fielding for John Dean on IOS. DDI [REDACTED] For whom? For what purpose? DPR [REDACTED] Give Colby a rundown on [REDACTED] Give Colby a couple of paragraphs on the Lotto case. Give Colby a copy of PR Division's contribution. [REDACTED] 00415 [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 429 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 -4- The Agency outlined the above events to Mr. Patrick Gray, Acting Director of the FBI, in letters dated 5 and 7 July 1972, and a meeting on 28 July 1972. A series of questions were asked the Agency on 11 October 1972 by Mr. Earl Silbert, Principal Assistant, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. On 24 October 1972, Attorney General Kleindienst and Assistant Attorney General Petersen reviewed the 5 and 7 July transmittals together with additional, more detailed but undated materials, that had been provided to Acting FBI Director Gray on 18 October 1972. The Agency is aware that this material was reviewed on 27 November 1972 by Mr. Silbert, who asked additional questions on that date as well as on 29 November 1972. Written responses to the foregoing questions were provided on 13 December 1972. An additional submission was made to the Assistant Attorney General Petersen on 21 December 1972. This material was discussed at a meeting held with Assistant Attorney General Petersen and Mr. Silbert on 22 December 1972. All of the foregoing materials can be made available to the Committee if it so desires. As a separate matter, which was not known by those who prepared the material for the Department of Justice in the fall of last year, the Office of Medical Services of the Agency prepared and forwarded to the White House two indirect personality assessments of Mr. Daniel Ellsberg. The Agency has had a program of producing, on a selective basis, such assessments or studies on foreign leaders for many years. In July 1971 Mr. Helms, then Director, instructed Agency officers to work with Mr. David Young of the White House Staff relative to security leaks in the intelligence community. 00442la [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 435 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 Page 1 SDS and other student activist groups OCI produced in December 1967 at Walt Rostow's request a 30-page typescript study of the SDS and its foreign ties. In the summer of 1968 OCI produced--again at Rostow's request-- a paper on Restless Youth. The first, and most sensitive section, was a philosophical treatment of student unrest, its motivation, history, and tactics. It drew heavily on overt literature and FBI reporting on SDS and affiliated groups. The second section comprised 19 chapters on foreign student dissidence. Pages 11 & 12 Black radicalism OCI began following Caribbean black radicalism in earnest in 1968. Two papers were produced on the subject, one in August 1969 and the other in June 1970. OCI was asked in June 1970 to write a memo with special attention to links between black radicalism in the Caribbean and advocates of black power in the US. The memo was produced in typescript and given to the DCI. OCI in 1968 wrote periodic typescript memos on Stokely Carmichael's travels abroad during a period when he had dropped from public view. 00426 [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 554 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 15 May 1973 Dear Bill, Prior to my assignment to WHA freng I was assigned to the CI Staff for approximately 20 months. While I was with the Staff I was led to believe that one of their "Groups" on the ground floor, [REDACTED] was involved in domestic operations. I believe their target (s) were minority group (s). The Chief and Deputy Chief of the Group at that time were Dick Ober and [REDACTED] respectively. One of their Case Officers, [REDACTED] spent over 50% of his time TDY within the United States. It was my under- standing they reported only to the White House and to Dick Helms. Other members of the Staff, including myself, had limited access to the [REDACTED] area, only when necessary and escorted at all times. Perhaps you were or are now aware of what the operations are. However, I believe I would be remiss in not responding to the book cable (LO7390). And perhaps their operations might have been outside the legislative charter. Also, during my tour with the CI Staff I accidently learned they launched someone into Vietnam while you and [REDACTED] were there. I believe this was without the knowledge or approval of Chief, [REDACTED] (If I mention the latter only because of the following: When they learned that [REDACTED] was being reassigned from Saigon to Chief, Operations, ER, they also learned that it was a friend of [REDACTED] and from the same area [REDACTED]. As a result, they cautioned me not to discuss any of their operations with [REDACTED]. This I did not do. 00544 Sincerely, [REDACTED] [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 601 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 SENSITIVE Count 1 DO-44 8 May 73 SUBJECT: The MHCHAOS Program 1. The MHCHAOS program is a worldwide program for clandestine collection abroad of information on foreign efforts to support/encourage/exploit/manipulate domestic U.S. extremism, especially by Cuba, Communist China, North Vietnam, the Soviet Union, North Korea and the Arab fedayeen. 2. The MHCHAOS program has not and is not conducting efforts domestically for internal domestic collection purposes. Agency efforts are foreign. Foreign-oriented activity in the United States has been of two types: a. Selected FBI domestic sources who travel abroad in connection with their extremist activity and/or affiliations to make contact with hostile foreign powers or with foreign extremist groups have been briefed and debriefed by Headquarters officers. The briefing has included appropriate operational guidance, including defensive advice. b. Americans with existing extremist credentials have been assessed, recruited, tested and dispatched abroad for PCS assignments as contract agents, primarily sources offered for such use by the FBI. When abroad they collect information responsive to MHCHAOS program requirements, as well as other Agency requirements. They are thus used primarily for targeting against Cubans, Chinese Communists, the North Vietnamese, etc., as their background and their particular access permits. It should be noted that the [REDACTED] aspect of the project of the [REDACTED] Division) is similar to the MHCHAOS PROGRAM. 3. As indicated earlier, MHCHAOS is a foreign program, conducted overseas, except for the limited activity described above. The program is and has been managed so as to achieve the maximum feasible utilization of existing resources of the Operations Directorate. No assets FULL TEXT COPY - DO NOT RELEASE 00591 SENSITIVE SECRET [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 602 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 [SENSITIVE - appears to be crossed out/redacted at top] have been recruited and run exclusively for the MHCHAOS program. Instead, emphasis has been placed on the exploi- tation of new and old Agency assets who have a by-product capability or a concurrent capability for provision of information responsive to the program's requirements. This has involved the provision of custom-tailored collec- tion requirements and operational guidance. This collec- tion program is viewed as an integral part of the recruit- ment and collection programs of Vietnam Operations, Cuban Operations, Soviet Bloc Division operations and Korean Branch Operations. Agents who have an American "Movement" background or who have known connec- tions with the American "Movement" are useful as access agents to obtain biographic and personality data, to dis- cern possible vulnerabilities and susceptibilities, and to develop operationally exploitable relationships with recruitment targets of the above programs. These assets are of interest to our targets because of their connec- tions with and/or knowledge of the American "Movement." Over the course of the MHCHAOS program, there have been approximately 20 important areas of operational interest, which at the present time have been reduced to about ten: Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, Dar Es Salaam, Conakry, Algiers, Mexico City, Santiago, Ottawa and Hong Kong. 4. The MHCHAOS program also utilizes audio opera- tions, two of which have been implemented to cover tar- gets of special interest. a. [REDACTED] b. [REDACTED] SENSITIVE SECRET 00592 [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 603 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 SENSITIVE 5. MHCHAOS reporting from abroad relating to the program originates in two ways: Individuals who are noted in contact with Cubans, the Chinese Communists, etc. and who appear to have extremist connections, interests or background are reported upon. Other individuals are re- ported upon in response to specific Headquarters require- ments received from the FBI because such individuals are of active investigatory security interest to the FBI. 6. All cable and dispatch traffic related to the MHCHAOS program is sent via restricted channels. (It is knob processed by either the Cable Secretariat or the In- formation Services Division.) The control and retriev- ability of information obtained, information received from the FBI, is the responsibility of the Spe- cial Operations Group. 7. Information responsive to specific FBI require- ments is disseminated to the FBI via special controlled dissemination channels, i.e., by restricted handling cable traffic or via special pouch and specially numbered blind memoranda. 8. Information of particular significance, when col- lected, has been disseminated by special memoranda over the signature of the Director of Central Intelligence to the White House (Dr. Kissinger and John Dean), as well as to the Attorney General, the Secretary of State and the Director of the FBI. SENSITIVE SECRET 00593 [vision-ocr]