◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2008/11/06: Clt;RDP04M01816R000502010009-4 Inspector. Concerned that other top level postal officials were unaware of the project, in 1970 Cotter informed the CIA that either the Postmaster·General would have to be apprised of the East Coast Project or it would have to be discontinued. Cotter pressed his request in January 1971. This caused a reevaluation of the merits of the East Coast Project. A CIA memorandum dated March 29, 1971, strongly urged continuation of the project, describing it as "an ,. irreplaceable tool for the exercise of the Agency's counterintelligence responsibility." The memorandum noted that the counterintelligence information developed by the project was also of assistance to "the White House, the Attorney General and the FBI." The CIA's senior officials decided to continue the project. In June 1971, to meet Cotter's concerns, Director of Central Intelligence Helms separately briefed both Attorney General John Mitchell and Postmaster General Winton Blount. There is dispute as to what the briefings encompassed. A contemporaneous CIA memorandum indicates that Mitchell and Blount were informed of the East Coast Project and agreed to its continuation; Helms testified before the Rockefeller Commission that he informed them fully A roved For Release 2008/11/06 : CIA-RDP04M01816R000502010009-4