Documents / FOIA release
This is a letter dated 24 December 1974 from CIA Director W. E. Colby to the President, with annexes attached. It responds to a New York Times article about CIA domestic intelligence activity. The letter denies that the Agency ran a "massive" domestic effort. It traces a counterintelligence program on foreign links with American dissidents, which ran from 1967 until it was ended in March 1974, and admits improper actions such as mail opening, break-ins and the surveillance of reporters. The attached memoranda restrict such activities.
“Cooper”8 pages
## RESTRICTED HANDLING
8786
OPERATIONS. IN THE CASE OF LIAISON SERVICES, WHENEVER FEASIBLE IT SHOULD BE PLAINLY DEMONSTRATED IN THE TRANSMISSION OF THE REQUEST TO SUCH LIAISON SERVICES THAT CIA IS ACTING AS A CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE FBI AND THE APPROPRIATE FOREIGN SERVICE. ANY UNILATERAL OPERATIONAL ACTIVITY WILL REQUIRE SPECIFIC PRIOR APPROVAL and the DCI will be advised thereot. OF THE DDO. A PERTINENT INFORMATION OBTAINED WILL BE PROVIDED BY CIA TO THE FBI.
3. THE ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED IN PARAGRAPH 2 ABOVE WILL BEAR THE CRYPTONYN TRAFFIC WILL BE IN STAFF CHANNELS SLUGGED DISPATCH TRAFFIC SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO CHIEF, OPS/ITG {2 COPIES} WITH ONE INFO COPY FOR THE CHIEF OF THE AREA DIVISION {EYES ONLY}. Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 76 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.