Intelligence agencies of several foreign countries operate regularly in the United States without interference from the CIA or FBI. These operations include threatening, blackmailing, bribing, and physically abusing both alien residents of the U. S. and naturalized American citizens. Iran’s SAVAK, Korea’s KCIA and Chile’s DINA have been the major ones involved in this, but other Latin American countries and Taiwan also have agents behaving similarly here.
The CIA isn’t concerned about this because these are the agents of “friendly” countries; they harass private citizens instead of trying to uncover military secrets. Also the CIA helped to set up and train many of these agencies. The CIA trades relative freedom of operation in the U. S. for the return right to relatively free operations in those countries.
Some of their operations in the U.S.:
SAVAK — Surveillance of Iranian students in the U: S., infiltration and agitation of their groups. Forcing people to become informers for them through blackmail, intimidation, and economic lack of choice.
KCIA — Paying editors of Korean language papers and Korean language radio broadcasters in the U. S: not to criticize President Park of Korea; threatening those who do criticize Park. Hearings conducted by the House International Relations Committee’s subcommittee on international organizations turned up many complaints of KCIA intimidation of Koreans here, both those who are still Korean citizens and many who are now American citizens.
DINA — Chileans have complained of calls threatening retaliation against relatives still in Chile, because of their actions here.
Taiwan — The use of “political goon squads” to enforce the loyalty of U. S. citizens and noncitizens to the Taiwanese government.
The failure of the mass media to let the American public know that foreign agents are freely roaming our streets with the knowledge and support of our own intelligence agencies qualifies this story for nomination as one of the “best censored” stories of 1978.
SOURCES:
New York, September 18, 1978, p. 45, “The Shah’s Secret Police Are Here,” by Gregory F. Rose.
Progressive, November, 1977, p. 31, “Foreign Agents in Our Midst,” by John D. Hanrahan.