Documents / FOIA release
This CIA release, dated 2025-06-12, is a file of newspaper and magazine clippings from April and May 1975. They cover former CIA Director Richard Helms testifying before the Rockefeller Commission on alleged CIA assassination plots and denouncing CBS reporter Daniel Schorr. Other items include commentary defending or questioning the Warren Commission, calls to reopen the Kennedy assassination case, a book review, and L. Fletcher Prouty's account of a CIA team sent to kill Fidel Castro. None of the clippings concern UFOs.
“King”2 pages
‘-~lASHING’i"0N STAR - 30 APRIL 1975 7”""f\ 1.4%, Associated Press The CIA airlifted a two- man assassination team "into Cuba in an unsuccess- ful attempt to-kill Premier Fidel Castro, a retired Air Force colonel says. _ L. Fletcher-Prouty said yesterday that in “late 1959 or early 1960,"_while serv- ing in the Defense Depart- ment's Office of Special Operations, he handled a CIA request for a small, specially equipped Air Force plane that was used to land two Cuban exiles-on a road near Havana. The two exiles were "equipped with a high- powered rifle and telescopic sights" and “knew how to get to a building in Havana which overlookeda building where Castro passed daily," Prouty, now an offi- cial with Amtrak, said in a telephone interview. _ THE PLANE, an ' L28 "heliocourier,V" rammed safely to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, Prouty said, but the "Cuban exiles as far as I knowwere pick- ed up between where they‘ were left off and town." He said that one of the would-be assassins was named Oscar Spijo and that the plane had been flown by "mercenaries_"_ on the CIA payroll. Prouty added that he -knew of “one or two" other assassination attempts to against Castro following the Bay of Pigs but said he did not know the details of those missions because he had not worked on them di- rectly. _- Prouty retired from the Air Force in 1963' and has since written a- book -called-" "The" Secret Team," detail’- ing his experiences as Air -Force liaison with the CIA. Asked why he had waited until nowto come forward» with his story, Prouty said he had become incensed at the verbal abuse directed at CBS ' newsman Daniel Schorr on Monday by for- mer CIA Director Richard M. Helms. I HAVING-JUST emerged from 3% hours of question- ing by the Rockefeller Commission, Helms de- nounced Schorr with pro-; fanities and referred to him as “Killer Schorr” for re-; porting that the "CIA goes around killing people." ‘ < Schorr has reported on a . number of occasions that’ President Ford is concern- ed that an_unlimite_d i.nvesti- = gation of CIA activities 5 could uncover agency in- 1 volvernent in foreign a’ssas- § sinations. I “lt got me a little upset)’; Prouty said of Helms’ at-E tack on Schorr, adding that 1 he was “positive’.’ Helms - rnent there are always dis- cussions of everything under the sun." When a reporter respond- ed that Helms hadn't an- swered the specific ques- tion, Helms snapped back: “I'm not trying to answer your question." _ Colonel Claims P./oz‘ Against Castro _ i in China? Bissell, who left the agen- cy following the Bay of Pigs fiasco, said in a recent interview that there had been high-level discussions about killing Castro but that plans had been vetoed by then-CIA Director Allen Dulles. __ g ,, " I knew about the mission. ’j ‘ WASHINGTON POSTAt the time, Helms was; , 30 APRIL 19-(5an assistant to CIA Deputy ' Director of Plans Richard _ Bissel. But Prouty said "Bis- sel was preoccupied with di- recting U2 flights over the Soviet -Ilnion,.._~leaving Helms in almost total con-. trol of clandestine opera- tions against Cuba. Helrns," who succeeded i Bissell as head of the agen- cy’s so-called “dirty tricks" department and headed the~ CIA from 1966 to 1973, told re orters Monda that “asP Y - far as I-know the CIA was‘ never responsible for the: assassinationof any foreign‘ leader." a statement which technically does not nile out’ the possibility of an unsuc- cessful attempt on Castro's- life. _ HELMS ALSO was asked if there had been any dis- cussions of assassinations. He replied that govern-.. ' . . 5 Held as Spy 1 , = "w1.=:s'r BERLIN -- A 29-5 year-old West "German who L‘ worked as a chauffeur for g the United States military ' authorities here has been ar- rested on suspicion of spy- ing for an East European country,‘a_ Justice Ministry_ spokesman said. The man, Werner Schalitz, . was carrying plans of U.S. ; installations, information “ about ' military‘ personnel and a _£orged'Swiss pasport. when police arrested him last Thursday, the spokes- 7 man ‘said. Schalitz has re- pprtedly denied the accusa- 0; "L ___, K
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 24 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.