Meier returned to Vegas after greasing the wheels for Mike Merhage in Ecuador. Merhage came back to the home office later and explained to Meier how really important this particular project was “from an agency standpoint,” believing Meier knew he was a CIA agent using Toolco as cover. Meier was stunned by the revelation. (Merhage was apparently just a clumsy agent. In Meier’s file on the Ecuadorian situation is a letter from a bemused Ecuadorian official explaining that Merhage “was so obvious” they spotted him as an agent almost immediately.) While Merhage was still in Nevada, he again let Meier in on an agency matter that should have been kept confidential, and this time it proved to be a serious mistake. He gave him a list of American politicians the CIA wanted funded through Hughes. Meier was supposed to act as a courier and give the directive to Hughes, but later the agency would suspect that Meier had retained a copy of the list. He did keep a copy.
The directive is dated September 2, 1968. It is addressed to H.R.H., with a copy designated for R.M.A.—Robert Maheu Associates—and is headed “Proposed Fund-Support List as Through Local Outlets.” The list reads as follows:
Paul J. Fannin, Arizona
Wilbur D. Mills, Arkansas
Craig Hosmer, California
Robert L. Leggett, California
Gordon L. Allcott, Colorado
J. Herbert Burke, Florida
Hiram L. Fong, Hawaii
Larry Winn Jr., Kansas
Joe D. Waggonner Jr., Louisiana
Gerald R. Ford, Michigan
James O. Eastland, Mississippi
William J. Randall, Missouri
Paul Laxalt, Nevada
Howard W. Cannon, Nevada
Norris Cotton, New Hampshire
James R. Grover, New York
William H. Harsha, Ohio
Frank T. Bow, Ohio
John N. Camp, Oklahoma
Strom Thurmond, South Carolina
Dan H. Kuykendall, Tennessee
James H. Quillen, Tennessee
James M. Collins, Texas
Olin E. Teague, Texas
Omar Burleson, Texas
Abraham Kazen, Texas
John G. Tower, Texas
Wallace F. Bennett, Utah
W. C. Daniel, Virginia
Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia
Vernon W. Thomson, Wisconsin
The depth of CIA influence can be partly measured by the behavior of new, middle-level executives such as Merhage. When he didn’t get a quick enough response to the funding directive, he gave another copy to Meier and this time wrote, “John—am asking for progress,” and signed it. Like he ran the place. Toolco and HAC routinely hired CIA agents who would then be given jobs in other countries.
9/2/1968