CIA Dirty Deeds Detailed in Documents

Illicit 'family jewels' of Watergate era declassified
By Colleen Barry,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2007 5:13 AM CDT
CIA Dirty Deeds Detailed in Documents
Central Intelligence Agency's secret documents of the agency's contacts with other U.S. government agencies, shows some deleted portions in blank boxes, at the National Security Archives, Tuesday, June 26, 2007, in Washington. The CIA released hundreds of pages of internal reports Tuesday on agency...   (Associated Press)

Assassination plots, illegal wiretapping and spying at political conventions were among the lowlights illuminated in hundreds of pages of CIA documents from the Watergate era declassified yesterday. Illicit acts known in the agency as the "family jewels" included a $150,000 CIA payment to a mobster to kill Fidel Castro and a plan to poison an African premier.

The documents are "reminders of some things the CIA should not have done," conceded current agency director Michael Hayden. Much of the information, in the form of memos and correspondence with politicians and bureaucrats, was turned over to Congress in the '70s, and resulted in stricter rules and increased oversight of the CIA. (More CIA stories.)

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