Helms Charges Elliott Abrams Lied About Him

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) charged today that it was State Department official Elliott Abrams who told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Helms had leaked secret information to the government of Chile.

Accusing the department of a conspiracy to silence him, Helms said he has been told by members of the committee that the accusations, which the senator maintains are false, were leveled by Abrams, assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs.

Helms made his charge after the New York Times reported on Sunday that the FBI had been asked to investigate allegations that he had leaked information about a covert U.S. intelligence operation in Chile to the Chilean government.

‘Trying to Silence Me’

“It was Elliott Abrams,” Helms told reporters. “He crept up here in the dead of night and made these charges. . . . I am saying Elliott Abrams committed a deliberate falsehood, knowing it to be false.”

“They’re trying to silence me,” said Helms, who has long contended that State Department professionals operate from their own private agenda, undermining the foreign policy of the Reagan Administration.

“They want to silence me, they want to intimidate me, they want to harass me, and it’s not going to work,” Helms said.

“Is it a smear campaign?” he asked. “Of course it is. If they can’t beat you into the ground, they smear you into the ground.”

Panel Asks Investigation

Helms talked to reporters as the Intelligence Committee, acting under its rules, asked the Justice Department to investigate the allegations that Helms or one of his aides gave the Chilean government details about the U.S. intelligence-gathering operations.

Sens. David Durenberger (R-Minn.), the committee chairman, and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the co-chairman, said in a joint statement that the panel has “received information that there had been a potential violation.”

They said the results of the Justice Department investigation will be given to the Senate Ethics Committee if that appears to be warranted.

The leak reportedly infuriated the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. (Story on Page 4.)