CIA Activities in the U.S.

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.

are terminated. It is

appropriate under certain circumstances to record the mail addresses of senders and receivers, but no such lists should be developed as a watch list on American citizens, such as, for example, the list of doctors who studied abroad.

Approved for Release

Date 27 MAR 1995