Page 153 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 153 of 237

MR. MCCONE: I could make no comment on that.

SENATOR SMITH: Is it true?

MR. MCCONE: I couldn't comment on it.

Later, Senator Richard B. Russell, the Democratic chairman, and Senator Leverett Saltonstall, the Massachusetts
Republican, both powerful Congressional protectors of the CIA, attempted to smooth over the delicate and
unpleasant question asked by Mrs. Smith -- but only succeeded in getting into deeper water.

***

CHAIRMAN RUSSELL: As a matter of national policy, and speaking as a citizen and not as a nominee for this
position, Mr. McCone, do you see anything immoral or wrong about any agency of this government undertaking
to encourage ethnic groups in this country that have brethren behind the Iron Curtain ...?

MR. MCCONE: No sir; I do not ...

CHAIRMAN RUSSELL: Our enemies are certainly trying to seek to destroy us in every possible way, appealing
to all ethnic groups in any way they can get their hands on them. I do not see any reason why we should have our
hands tied.

SENATOR SALTONSTALL: Will the Senator yield? I would just like to supplement what the chairman has said.
Is it not true, Mr. McCone, in your understanding of the CIA, that any work on the ethnic groups in this country
would not be within the province of the CIA, in any event; am I correct in that?

MR. MCCONE: I cannot answer that, Senator.

SENATOR SALTONSTALL: Perhaps that should not be answered.

***

Actually, for a decade, a $100,000,000 fund was available for this type of activity. A 1951 amendment to the
Foreign Aid Act had provided the money for persons "residing in or escapees from" the Soviet Union, the
satellite nations or any other Communist area of the world, either to form them into military units "or for
other purposes." It drew wrathful attacks from the Soviet Union in the United Nations. In 1961 Congress
repealed the amendment at the request of the Agency for International Development. Asked whether the
$100,000,000 fund had ever been used for clandestine work, an AID official said: "It was never used for anything
other than refugee aid after they had escaped."

The CIA's domestic field offices are also useful in obtaining intelligence from business firms that have
extensive foreign operations. In addition, the offices serve as contact points with universities. The
relationship between the CIA and the universities is two-way -- the CIA secretly finances research
programs at some universities; in turn the universities help recruit personnel. Perhaps even more
important, the universities provide a pool of expert knowledge about foreign countries upon which the
intelligence agency can, and does, draw.