bingly accurate. In August, 1979, a top secret Senate report was leaked to Jack Anderson, columnist for The Washington Post. The report was a preliminary study of operations conducted in the United States by six foreign countries’ intelligence apparatus, including the Philippines’, “directed at the harassment, intimidation and monitoring of U.S. residents.” Anderson reported that activities included a wide range of covert crimes, “from simple spying to assassinations.” The report, written at the behest of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged that federal statutes, constitutional rights, and international law were ignored by foreign agents, and that our intelligence agencies did little to stop it for reasons ranging from “bureaucratic laziness” to “self-protection” and “jurisdictional pettifogging.” The report went on to say that “available evidence indicates that certain residents of the United States have valid reason to fear abridgment of [their] rights and protection by members of foreign intelligence services.” One week later, an internal Department of State memo discussed a request from Senator George McGovern for declassification of the report, in order to release a “sanitized” version to the public. A State Department telegram to McGovern in September of 1979 requested that the report be modified because “release of the report in its present condition would seriously . . . [cause] unnecessary harm to the foreign relations of the United States.” In March, 1981, Gene Viernes planned to travel to the Philippines to visit relatives and to meet with individuals and organizations opposed to Marcos. One of these opposition groups was the Kilusan Mayo Uno (KMU), a federation of labor unions and worker organizations whose members totalled more than 350,000 and who publicly took a stand against the Marcos regime by staging massive demonstrations whose show of strength and purpose troubled Marcos. Considered a growing threat, the KMU was tagged “subversive” and “communist- influenced,” prompting intense surveillance and disruption of the movement by the government. Prior to his trip to the Philippines, Viernes went to the San Francisco Bay Area to meet with leaders of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP), as well as the Movement for a Free Philippines. In April, he and Silme Domingo planned to propose a resolution at the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) convention in Hawaii which would put the union on record as critical of Marcos’ stance toward Philippine labor and trade, and would send a delegation to the Philippines to investigate the Through fou r U.S. presidents—Nixon, Ford, Carter and most of Reagan’s two terms in office—the Marcoses maintained the ir power at the expense o f the Filipino people, while Washington squinted myopically at the abuses o f martial law. poor working conditions that resulted from Marcos’ anti-labor martial law decrees. Domingo and Mast alleged that, as a result of the increased surveillance of dissidents, especially the KDP leadership in the Bay Area, Viernes’ upcoming trip was reported to Manila. Consequently, they asserted that Viernes and Domingo were monitored during the ILWUconvention in Hawaii where their resolution to investigate the Marcos regime’s treatment of labor and the KMU passed, despite opposition from pro-Marcos supporters planted their to block it. AntiMarcos supporters considered the resolution’s passage a significant victory; the Philippine government could only interpret it as a disturbing defeat. Three months later, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes were dead. i Allegations of a coverup were rife during the criminal trial of the hit men, whom Silme Domingo had managed to name before he died. Plantiffs believe that LeVane Forsythe, an informant for the IRS, received a call from his control agent and was told to be at the scene of the murders, to watch and take notes on whatever happened. Forsythe subsequently testified that Domingo stated shortly after being shot that he could not name his assassins. It was alleged that the State Department released previously classified documents regarding the KDP in an attempt to slander the organization and turn public opinion against Domingo and Viernes by labelling them “communists.” Further allegations declared that the Seattle FBI investigation of the murders was purposely thwarted, and that files relating to the surveillance of Viernes’ 1981 trips to the Bay Area, Hawaii and the Philippines were purged from their normal locations by U.S. intelligence agencies. Cindy Domingo is adamant that the U.S. goverment’s connection to the harassment of U.S.-based Filipino dissidents needs to be exposed. “Now that Marcos is gone, the whole network of Philippine spies in the U.S. is . no longer intact [and] it is even more dificult to get support in Congress for the whole issue. Now that Reagan is no longer there, we’re dealing with a president who says this doesn’t go on anymore, but we all know that eventually it could happen again. We just want to let the government know that we know what happened. That way, maybe [we can] stop certain activities from happening again.” Writer Jill A. Murray lives in Seattle. This is her first story in Clinton St. WE'VE MOVED’! TO 3208 SE HAWTHORNE Portland 231-3726 WEEKDAYS 12 - 7 WEEKENDS 10 -5 Closed Tuesdays Bring this ad and receive 2 Free bars of soap with any purchase! • Open T u e s -S a t . 11 -6 Sun 12-5 [Closed Monday 1429 1 |SE37thi «(off Hawthorne) ': 236-9565 2^66 sr ^AWnio^e £30-1231 WE'RE OPEN! 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