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C.I.A. IS REPORTED TO HAVE HELPED IN TRUJILLO DEATH

C.I.A. IS REPORTED TO HAVE HELPED IN TRUJILLO DEATH
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June 13, 1975, Page 1Buy Reprints
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WASHINGTON, June 12—The Central Intelligence Agency contributed “material support” to a group of Dominicans who assassinated the Dominican Republic's dictator, Gen. Rafael Trujillo Molina, on May 30, 1961, authoritative Government sources have said.

According to the sources, this is one of the “successful assassination attempts” mentioned today by Representative James V. Stanton, Democrat of Ohio, who is the chairman of a House subcommittee investigating the C.I.A.

The details of the assassination have also been supplied to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Several Government sources said that the Trujillo case was the successful attempt mentioned recently by the committee's chairman, Senator Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho.

Information about the Dominicon assassination was given to President Fofd by William E. Colby, Director of Central Intelligence, in January, authoritantive sources said. A C.I.A. spokesman had no comment on the report.

Possible Gain in Doubt

It is unclear what foreign policy objective of the United States would have been served in 1961 by the killing of General Trujillo. Several sources, however, said it was part of a “series of events” connected with the Bay. of Pigs invasion of Cuba the month before.

It is also unclear from either public or private reports at how high a level General Trujillo's death was authorized. Nor is it clear whether authorization occurred during the administration of President Kennedy, who took office in January, 1961, or that of President Eisenhower, Mr. Kennedy's predecessor.

General Trujillo was killed in a hail of gunfire as he drove from his home. in San Cristobal to Ciudad Trujillo, capital of the Dominican Republic. His death ended 31 years of what had been called an oppressive dictatorship.

The general was killed by seven Dominicans allegedly led by Gen. Juan Tomas Diaz, who was later killed in a gunfight with Dominican policemen.

According to authoritative sources, C.I.A. files indicate that the agency supplied “material support” to what one source called an “indiginous” group of Dominicans who plotted and killed General Trujillo.

The assassination touched off a massive roundup of opponents of the Trujillo regime following the attack. At one point some 60 persons had been taken into custody, news accounts said.

According to autharitative sources, one of the men involved in the attack cracked under an interrogation, which included torture, and told his captors that at least one of the guns used had been supplied by operatives of the C.I.A. An account of this is included in documents discovered in the growing investigation of the agency, the sources said.

During the early stages of the investigations of the agency, several of its former officials said that, though, there may have been plots to assassinate foreign leaders, there had been no “successful attempts.” Other intelligence sources said that that should be amended to “no attempts where Americans actually became involved directly in the killing.”

“When this is all said and done,” one source said, “I think it will be clear that no member of the C.I.A. or Americans were hired to assassinate Trujillo or Castro. What we are talking about in these cases is aid and comfort to indigenous elements.”

“The degree to which the Dorninican group got aid,” this source said, “may have been more than we now wish.”

These sources said the matter of plots against General Trujillo and Cuban Premier Fidel Castro was covered in the summary prepared by the Rockefeller Commission but not made public in its report.

The material from the commission has been forwarded to the Department of Justice for possible prosecutions. The White House also made public a memorandum to Attorney General Edward H. Levi in which it noted, “In addition to the materials [on assassinations] accumulated by the commission there are relevant materials on these subjects in the files of the National Security Council and certain State Department and Defense Department files of similar relevance.”

The memorandum, signed by President Ford, said, “I hereby request that you review all of these materials as soon as possible and take such action as you deep warranted as a result of your investigation.”

Sources within the Justice Department have said that it is unclear whether the alleged plots against Mr. Castro constitute a violation of United States law that is within the statute of limitations.

But, one key source said, there is a clear Federal prohibi tion against such a plot aimed at General Trujillo. According to this source the Dominican Republic was a “friendly nation” in 1961, while Cuba was the subject of diplomatic strictures by the United States.

Under the United States Criminal Code it is an illegal act for anyone within the United States if he “knowingly begins or sets foot or provides or prepares a means for or furnishes the money for, or takes part in, any military or naval expedition or enterprise to be carried on from thence against the territory or dominion of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district or people with whom the United States is at peace.”

The charge is a felony punishable by a $3,000 fine or imprisonment for not more, than three years or both. Though the statute of limitations may have run out on this charge, a conspiracy to commit the act may have continued well after General Trujillo's actual death.

Representative Stanton made his remarks today in answer to questions from The Cleveland Plain Dealer and during an interview on the CBS morning news.

Later in the day, Vice President Rockefeller, chairman of the eight man commission that reported on the C.I.A. activities this week, declined to comment on Mr. Stanton's. assertions about complicity by the agency in successful assassination attempts.

“I'm not familiar with his statement,” Mr. Rockefeller told newsmen in New York. He said the reason his commission bad made no formal report on assassinations was that “we had not completed work sufficiently to allow ourselves to formalize a judgment.” He met with newsmen after a luncheon for the New York Republican State Committee.

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