Spies For Hire

Harper's magazine reports that a privately-owned intelligence-gathering organization has quietly expanded into a worldwide spying and security network that, in many ways, rivals the CIA.

The organization in question, based in the Bahamas, is named "International Intelligence, Incorporated", and is known as "Intertel" by its multinational corporate clients.

Among the individuals and groups linked to "Intertel", according to Harper's, are Howard Hughes, Robert Vesco, and Nixon, "Bebe"Rebozo, E. Howard Hunt, the ITT Corporation, and allegedly, members of the Mafia.

Intertel, after being created by gambling interest in the Bahamas in the early 1960's, has expanded to the point where it now has offices discretely located in London, Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles.

This mysterious corporation, Harper's states, is "for hire" by the major multinational corporations around the world. It functions, the magazine says, much like a private CIA--gathering intelligence data on individuals and political movements posing a threat to its clientele.

The current staff of "Intertel" reads like a "Who's Who of intelligence agencies." Among those on Intertel's payroll are former top agents of the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency; Federal Drug Agencies, the Internal Revenue Service; the U.S. organized crime strike force, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

One of Intertel's most famous assignmets, Harper's reports, was to secretly spirit Howard Hughes out of Las Vegas to the Bahamas four years ago.