The Washington Merry-Go-Round
THE WASHINGTON POST
Wedneediy, Oct.
2. 1974
B15
ITT Sent Bugging Expert to Chile
by ITT's assistant security di- J. Gerrity to ITT President Footnote: Ragan spoke with
By Jack Anderson
rector, Russell Tagliareni.
Harold Geneen. In the memo, my associate Les Whitten at
The International Telephone The documents reveal' that Gerrity advises,
"We should length. The "tmitter" was used
and Telegraph Corp. dispatched Ragan stayed in Chile from withdraw
all technical help (to only at the seminar, he said, not
one of America's top bugging April 28, 1971, to May 5, 1971, Chile)
and should not promise for bugging. The Chilean misexperts into the homes and gov- and was paid $200 a day by ITT. any
technical assistance in the sion, he insisted, was "open and
ernment palace of Chilean Pres- While there, Ragan, at the inviabove board" and no hugs were
ident Salvador Allende in 1971. tation of the army and police, future."
planted while in Chile, nor were
The alleged purpose of this entered Allende's homes at Val- Yet, within months, ITT's depany found. The bugs he took
mysterious mission was to "de- paraiso and Santiago, and his uty security chief and its $200-aday electronics consultant were with him, be said, were left in
bug" Allende's rooms and to i presidential palace.
Chile only for training purtrain Chilean police and army According to Ragan, he and dispatched to give "technical
poses, not for "offensive" bugmen in electronic debugging Allende once sat down and had assistance" to the army, police
techniques. Interestingly, it was coffee. There, the Chilean and to at least one Chilean tele- ging. ITT also denies any effort
to bug Allende.
the military that later over- leader learned that Ragan phone company official.
Through a trusted intermedi- Jails of Montezuma—In an
threw Allende.
worked for ITT. Ragan de- ary, we have been
given a sum- earlier column, we revealed
The visit of master hugger scribes the conversation as
mary of Ragan's notes on the that Army recruiters have
Joi Ragart came as ITT, the "cordial."
TA—and the U.S. embassy in No one seems to know why visit. They do not shed much signed up convicts on probation
Santiago were busily seeking ITT, a relentless enemy of Al- light on the subject, but simply and men with police records---a
tell of meetings with the Chi- practice which could result in a
information to help them get the lende's, was allowed in
his
Socialist Allende out of office. dwellings, much less why the lean police and army officials. dangerously substandard
Allende was nationalizing Chilean President let an ITT Some of them appear to be in Army.
Now we have discovered that
American companies in Chile, agent conduct "electronic code.
After the Chilean excursion, the same recruitment abuses are
including ITT.
sweeps" of his rooms at a time Ragan continued to have high- widesprea
d in the Marine
Ragan, an ex-FBI electronic when planting of bugs was paying
dealings with ITT.• His Corps. Recruiters have gone to
specialist, is best known as the widely feared in Chile. Allende private logs show
such curious the crime rosters for their "few
man called in by the White cannot explain: he died from listings as "612/71—IT
T test hi- good men," and have arranged
House "plumbers" to bug the gunshot wounds in the coup.
power tmitter
6/7/71—ITT w/ with district attorneys, defense
home of cols mnist Joseph Kraft. But as we reported on March tmitter . . . 6/10/7I—C
all Jack attorneys and judges to drop or
But in the "business," Ragan is 21, 1972, I'll' had made ap- Caulfield ... " "Tmitter,"
in this reduce
criminal
charges
respected as an awesome pro: a proaches "to select members of case, is a tiny bugging
transmit- against those who enlist.
•
specialist called in to debug the the armed forces in an attempt ter. And Caulfield
was the A California source. familiar
quarters of such notables as to have them lead some sort of White House dirty trickster
of with the practice, described
Richard Nixon, Attorney Gen- uprising" in late 1970, only a few the Watergate era.
how prospective jailbirds are
eral John Mitchell, Charles months before rrr and the Chi- Ragan also ran an ITT
de-bug- told "that
(Bebe) Rebozo and others.
lean army helped arrange Ra- ging seminar and has done de- a term unless they enlist for
of two or three years,
On his trip to turbulent Chile, gan's visit.
bugging work for Geneen and hey will go to jail." Nut surprfs-.
Ragan took along a load of "of- The ITT electronics mission is lesser ITT
officials such as Dita ngiy, most of them prefer a
fensive" bugging equipment. even more puzzling in view of a Beard, John Ryan'
and William hitch in the Marines to a stretch
Secret Watergate 'documents secret ITT memo dated Sept. 29, Merriam. He collected
$175 to i n the stammer,
show he was accompanied down 1970. from ITT Vice President E. $200 a day
for such duties.
(C) 1574, United
Feature Syndicate, Inn.