Richard Helms Testifies at The Church Committee Hearings - 1975
By Gordonskene Friday May 22, 2009 6:00pm
(Richard Helms - What Didn't He Know and When Didn't He Know It)
Ever since the latest fiasco regarding the CIA surfaced, I kept thinking how adept the CIA has always been, historically in telling half-truths, no truths and "who me?" prevarications.
Beginning in 1975, a series of hearings took place in an attempt to investigate certain "illegal goings on" within the CIA, It ran the full gamut from wiretapping, domestic espionage, assassinations and mail tampering. Heading up the Senate Select Committee was Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), and the hearings were dubbed The Church Committee. The hearings lasted several months and fortunately most all of them were recorded and broadcast by NPR, back when NPR actually stood for something in the way of integrity and solid reporting.
This particular clip, from the afternoon session of October 22, 1975, features former CIA Director Richard Helms (who would later serve as Ambassador to Iran) being questioned by Senator Church over his role in the matter of illegal mail tampering - a practice that had gone on since the days Allen Dulles ran the CIA in 1953.
Since there are numerous hours of testimony to sift through from many witnesses, I will try and offer as much as I can in small doses over the next few weeks. Bear with me - it'll be worth it.
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Dismantle the CIA.
It has been done before. Time to call for a House Select Committee, my dear.
But it damned well should be shut down. How can you have a functioning democracy when citizens can be secretly be spied on at will by an unaccountable and almost all-powerful intelligence arm of the government?
The testimony in this tape is almost quaint. The scale of CIA and NSA surveillance of email and phone calls dwarfs what the Church Committee uncovered, and is in obvious violation of the FISA laws set up in the aftermath of the Church Committee.
Where's the outrage? Why is there no new Church Committee sitting right now?
yeah, and this time, the president and cabinet definitely knew!
however, here is how to shut down the cia--stop funding it!
stop funding it, and create a new agency that's sole purpose is limited to gaining intelligence abroad. that was its original purpose at least in theory.
how can the usa be seriously viewed as a country standing for, and spreading, liberty and democracy when we have programs and an agency specifically geared to undermine these very ideals in other countries?
>>shut down the cia
>>shut down the school of americas
>>and get back on track before the lunacy of 1945 (1947 is when the cia was created, but 1945 is when the "fun" began with "operation: paperclip". who would have guessed that u.s. hired nazi's would have fed the u.s. gov't deceitful information about the u.s.s.r. just to secure their position and inflate their importance). thank you nazi's and the cia for making our lives "interesting".
I am getting really disgusted with our govt and the total lack of accountability. Both parties and even Obama are determined to sweep the war crimes under the rug and shield the guilty from ever seeing justice done.
This little nugget surfaced today:
http://open.salon.com/blog/dennis_loo/2009/05...
You'll notice it moves the next possible release date to after the next presidential election cycle.
That we are all living under the most ruthless criminal regime in history?
I need a drink. This information is beginning to get to me....and I'm one tough M-F'er.
It doesn't matter who's elected. 'The Others' are running the show, and it's always been that way.
The US is transforming itself into a copy of the old USSR. Torture, imprisonment without charge for indefinite lengths of time, party officials who are above the law, widespread surveillance against citizens, all kinds of criminal abuses being swept aside under the cloak of 'national security' --- Didn't we fight a cold war to prevent this sort of thing from happening here? What the f*ck has happened to us?
Not the USSR, please resist being a sucker for the endless anti social propaganda the National Security State Crowd ie the CIA has been spewing since 1947 to keep the war bucks flowing.
These people are much, much closer to Hitler's National Socialists.
After the Soviets lost Stalin (good riddance) they still had the fascists in Washington.
Whatever else was wrong, they were a nation that had universal education and health care.
We have nothing of the sort and we still have the fascists in Washington.
They killed Kennedy before he could dismantle it. If I recall correctly, E. Howard Hunt fingered Richard Helms as another "company" man who participated in the assassination of Kennedy. Mail tampering was the least of their crimes. Now they're into massive drug smuggling, nuclear proliferation, assassination, torture, overthrowing democratically elected governments (Chavez in Venezuela)--pretty much the same things they were doing 50 years ago.
As long as the CIA exists and acts with impunity, the US will decline drastically.
mwhahahahahahahaha
ahh one can dream.
One thing to remember about the CIA and its and Americas future, is that how people perceive the CIA, is it merely a government agency following orders, or a secretive cabal of insiders working for the monied families.
If its an agency working under orders and some twisted form of government control, it can be reformed or changed into a lawful body.
If its a cabal, then nothing can change it, except dismemberment and indicting the crooks.
I've taken hope in NPR being the last beacon of true journalism. A place where the big conglomerates didn't control the news. Now this "...back when NPR actually stood for something in the way of integrity and solid reporting..." Has the world turned itself that far upside down that there is NO PLACE left to get news without the bias slant of the right or left? God, I hope not!
Frank Church....my God, how that name brings back the days of Congress taking a strong hand in matters of corruption and investigating concerns. Guess I was a lot younger then, and I probably thought our government was really "for the people" back then.
Getting old has a lot of downfalls. Losing faith in one's government is one of them.
How was Eisenhower to know that they would rebrand themselves as, "Corporate"? Demobrat/Rapublican is a dodge used by the true rulers of America to lie!
Generations of Americans get to pay the bailout bills, while the elite hide their bonus/retention money in offshore tax havens! Now I'm a terrorist. AT&T lets the corporate scan my every word, including these (hiring pissants to work the holiday yeah, you pissant corporate spy, getting a bonus).
While they stocked up for the boat, bbq, and beaches, I went to the cemetery. To pay tribute to those who sacrificed! The news cycle ends on friday and they get a day off of eternity?
What Government?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockin...
Something else uncovered by the Church committee. Of course, the head of the CIA assured us that such things would never happen again.
It was Poppy Bush. Do you believe him?
There is assorted gov sponsorship of terror groups to annoy/topple other govs, but that is better handled diplomatically through the UN and international law mechanisms. Global warfare is a retarded way to settle differences and problems. Playing the 'great game' is a cruel, moronic and wasteful method of interaction, its time the world's govs understood this. We need a new global peace conference organized through the UN.
I wanted so much to believe in Obama. I have placed so much hope in Conyers and the other brave people who want to bring out the truth.
But maybe the Machine is just too big, too powerful. The CIA, even if it allowed itself to be officially dismantled, would just go underground, receive black funding, and keep on doing what it has always been doing.
Thank you for posting this, and I look forward to hearing more even as I dread it. I have to agree with Abby and CalgaryLady and Hulk above. I grieve for my country.
... Helms says he spoke to AG Mitchell "about a variety of problems infecting the agency." I played that part twice to make sure; he actually said "infecting."
That gives a clue to their mindset.
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