| NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director Richard Helms | ||
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| This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA. | Tape Master: | 3655 |
| Catalog #: | 459745 | |
| Clip Number: | 459745-1 | |
| Orginal Film: | ||
| Timecode: | ||
| Location: | TV Studio and Senate Caucus Room | |
| Year Shot: | 1975 (Actual Year) | |
| Audio: | Yes | |
| Color: | Yes | |
| Headings: | GOVERNMENT: Hearings, Church Committee | |
| Description: | (00:01:27) NPACT logo (National Public Affairs Center for Television) (00:01:41) NPACT introduction to the Senate Hearings on Intelligence Activities begins in which acronyms for the IRS, NSA, CIA & FBI spin around on the screen followed by an image of the capital and then a copy of the Senate resolution to investigate these Intelligence organizations, this intro is narrated by an announcer who also introduces NPACT correspondents PAUL DUKE and JIM LEHRER (00:02:28) Opens to Lehrer in tv studio with monitor behind, Lehrer introduces the program and the day's testimony NPACT will be showing and dicussing, it is of CIA Director RICHARD HELMS, Deputy Director THOMAS KARAMESSINES, and JAMES LEONARD (00:03:44) Lehrer introduces panel DAVID WEISS, co-author of several books on the CIA, and RAY KLIEN, 20 year veteran of the CIA (00:04:11) Shot changes to Duke in the hearing room who gives a profile of Helms "King of the Spies" and segues to his testimony (00:05:55) Committee Counsel F.A.O. SCHWARZ discusses with Helms and Karamessines the CIA's chemical and biological weapons program and its relationship to the Fort Dietrich army base, of particular concern is whether or not the two men knew the CIA had a stock of these weapons in CIA storage (00:08:50) Schwarz confirms that both Helms and Karamessines knew of Nixon's plans to destroy the country's supply of chemical and biological weapons, he then asks what the two men did to make sure that these materials in possession of the CIA were destroyed - Helms answered that they both knew that they had to abide by the President's request, Karamessines says he passed the word on to a Dr. GOTLEIB to destroy any CIA stock (00:11:40) Schwarz introduces a memorandum that was supposedly from Karamessines to Helms regarding the destruction of the chemical supply - Karamessines and Helms say they have never seen it before (00:13:50) Committee Chairman FRANK CHURCH asks why Dr. GORDON didn't receive a directive to destroy the CIA's toxin supply - Helms answers that he just assumed Gotleib was taking care of it and he jokes that he assumed they were destroyed when he read in the papers about the end of U.S.'s chemical and biological weapons programs - Karamessines adds that he confirmed destruction operations with Gotleib and that he was disappointed but not shocked to find out the toxin supply had not been taken care of (00:18:55) Helms says he was surprised to find out the toxin supply was not destroyed, especially as this is the only time he knew of in the CIA where an order had been disregarded (00:19:05) Senator JOHN TOWER confirms that a majority of CIA orders are issued by mouth, Tower then goes on to ask Helms about various weapons designed to offensively deliver the toxin - Helms says he never authorized the use or even saw the weapons Tower mentions (00:21:45) Senator WALTER HUDDLESTON also confirms orders are given orally in the CIA, Huddleston then asks why with something as important as a presidential directive was not a written order issued - Helms responds he should have gotten more written information from the White House and Department of Defense and that were he to have to do it again he would have written out an order (00:25:27) Senator RICHARD SCHWEIKER asks the two witnesses about the development of the shellfish toxin at two different public health centers - Helms and Karamessines seemed to be unaware of this relationship (public health and the CIA) which Schweiker defines as perverse - Helms debates Schweiker about the extent of the CIA's connection and whether it was for aggressive purposes that the toxin was being developed there (00:31:35) Back to studio and Lehrer who segues to the testimony of James Leonard, State Department Employee, who negotiated arms control treaties and was called before the senate committee to give the political and international context of the President NIXON's agreement to ban all chemical and biological weapons (00:32:17) Back at the hearing room Leonard gives a detailed blurb about the historical context of treaty development in which he answers questions from Church (00:35:11) Lehrer voices over segue to later Leonard testimony - Leonard talks about administrative measures to keep the CIA in compliance with weapon treaties - Church confirms with Leonard that written and signed on orders should have been issued within the CIA to ensure the execution of the presidential directive concerning the destruction of chemical and biological weapans (00:37:47) Lehrer turns to his panel Klein and Weiss to discuss the testimony thus far, the two of them get into a rather heated arguement about whether or not the CIA shellfish toxin is a worthy issue of investigation (00:42:38) Lehrer segues to more of day's testimony (00:42:56) Back to hearing room and Senator WALTER MONDALE asks Helms where the authority comes from to develop such things as the shellfish toxins - Helms responds with stories about Soviet spies using toxins in assassination missions, Helms says we need to stay in the vanguard of such weapons to keep up our defenses (00:47:32) Back to studio and Lehrer who segues to an interview conducted by Paul Duke with committee members Mondale and Senator HOWARD BAKER (00:48:09) Duke interviews simultaneously Mondale and Baker on the floor of the empty hearing room, Duke asks the men what they think of Helm's testimony, are they now closer to the truth about why the toxins were retained, what should the course of the committee now be (00:51:25) Back to Lehrer in the studio where Lehrer has a comparison discussion with his panel of CIA Directors Helms and WILLIAM COLBY, talk about the ideas of Leonard, concerning re-organization of the CIA and covert operations abroad (00:58:25) Lehrer closes out the show, previews what's to come in tommorrow's testimony (00:59:04) Credits role | |
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