wes ° 5 v3 ae 104: 10069. 10260 Bie « ° | Mo-172-55 Chief, Hew Grieans Office The teformation Counci! of the Americas , 625 Gravier Street, Hew Orleans, Louistana 70136 Ref. ee NO-152-65, Support Branch (Richardson) memo of 26 April 1 * Poor és oe fh -S BS 5! SSF Z- co a G? 1. The Information Council of the Americas (INCA) OF 620 Gravier Street, - New Orleans, Loulstanad, was recently opened as a source of foreign intelligence information on the radio broadcasting industry in Latin America, The current program of INCA is primarily concerned with the dissemination of taped record~ ings of anti-Communist material, called Truth Tapes, to certain radio broad- casting stations in Latin America and North America for use as a weapon against Communist penetration in the Americas. Its headquarters are ftocated at 620 Gravier Street, Hew Orleans, Louisiana 76130. You will find the names of its officers, directors, and consultants given on the enclosed letterhead of the. organization. fA fat: /4/ O 2. We have been in recent contact with Edward Scannell Butler, Executive Vice President and Staff Director, and have received his assurances” ‘of whole- hearted cooperation in our agency's mission. [Yesterday we examined all of | the Files of correspondence between Mr. Butler and personne) of various radio-~ tations in 16 Latin American count ries.| tn order to bulld up a market for the Truth Tapes program in Latin America, Mr. Butler first obtained from the appropriate consul in New Orleans a list of the radio stations in operatisn in his country. He next wrote the administrative personnel of these stations about the anti-Communist purpose of INCA and offered to supply each station with Truth Tapes. Those stations requesting them were then provided with a eries of the tapes. One or two years later, Mr. Sutter sent the participating station a questionnaire designed to elicit information. about audience respanse to the Truth Tapes program, Copies of the first questionnaire and of a revised one are attached for your information. Judging by the responses we read, the INCA correspondence files will provide a limited amount of information; dated jjo4% aad 1355, en the identification of radio stations in Latin America which are broadcasting Truth Tapes, their addresses, the names of key personnel, the identification of stations not respondine to the INCA offer, sizes of audiences, and thelr cesponses. Una the case of Urusuay. the exchange of correspondence betweeniMr, Sutter as Fantained information about the poli€ical orientat toorT Rey Tsdiy personner in Montevideo /HO-1GG7E4, This examole, However, is an exceptic since the files contain virtually no detailed political information of Ticance, RETURN TO CIA Background Use Only on Do Net Reproduce ae
Chief, Contact divisis: ' % 3 Stawtiaw SEA cred MONMaSY UEOL are. Ar, Butter mentioned yestersay inasmuch a5 he was again ravising af s ak @ the questiusnaire, he woulda welcoae our vuiwestia as aueut additional topics, We sugsested Questions designed to elicit technical jiaformation about ‘the station and its equipment, such as descriptions (manufac turer, type, m model) of trans~ ei mitter, receiver, antenna type and power, frequencies and frequency range, reli- ability of equipment , normal and emeryency power sources, remote pick-up arrange= nents, etc. We stressed of course that none of these topics should be introduced into the questionnaire unless Mr< Butler was convinced of their suitability for his fmmediate purpose as well as for the long-term propaganda alm of his organi- . zation. He stated that our suggestions were entirely proper and, in his opinion, were reasonable requests that would not arouse the station manager's curiosity. We pointed out to Mr. Butler that, while information fabout key personnel and their political orientation; ») about the station's adainistrative policies, etc., was of prime importance to us, these subjects obviously could not be introduced into the questionnaire. He agreed that It would be better to elicit such infor~ -mation in another manner, as he kad done wit Pbut because of his very heavy responsibilities, he did not hava time-to-devetop similar ‘sources of information in each of the other 15 countries. ; . 4, &¢ occurs to us that you or a possible consumer could assist us by suggesting other appropriate topics for Mr. Butler's consideration in the revision of the questionnaire. We shall appreciate whatever help you can give us In this regard. S. in the meantime, as soon as all of Mr. Sutier's current correspondence been properly filed, we expect to extract the upprooriate information from nes the folders and to present the material in a series of 00-B reports ’ LLOYD A, RAY DABrandao/gqn Enclosures cc: Services Branch