NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Opens to screen "Senate Hearings on Intelligence Activities" (00:01:37) NPACT logo appears (00:02:31) Opens with F.A.O. SCHWARZ testifying before Senate committee that FBI system used against communist and Nazi intelligence was turned against the American people in particular groups part of the New Left such as black nationalist movement (00:02:44) Opening graphic for Washington NPACT (00:03:21) PAUL DUKE opens up program, explains that this part of the hearings is an investigation of the FBI's domestic surveilance activities and gives some examples of the groups which were its targets and how they were targeted: MARTIN LUTHER KING, civil rights groups, leftist groups, women's liberation movement (00:03:47) Duke introduces the day's testimony to be seen and his panelists - SANFORD UNGAR, Washington correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, and NICHOLAS HORAC (?) of the New York Times (00:05:10)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Chief counsel Schwarz and CURTIS SMOTHERS, minority counsel, testify about their investigation findings from the witness stand (00:05:32) FRANK CHURCH opens up hearings which he explains are the first public accounting of FBI domestic intelligence operations taken on by committee - the FBI is being investigated according to the standards of the constitution, he explains the faults revealed by these investigations lie with more than the FBI alone, also with the government agencies that supported them and thier work - Goes on to say that at today's hearing will reveal what was found in the investigations regarding FBI surveilance, political abuses, unjustified intelligence operations - Church explains the purpose of this hearing is to gather information for congress to legislate appropriate standards for the FBI (00:07:50) Schwarz begins testimony about New Left investigation, he lists what director of FBI wanted agents to report on: groups' finances, publications, religion, political activities, education, social reform, labor, public appearance of leaders, mass media (00:08:06) Schwarz on the extent of the FBI's investigation: "A wholly comprehensive listing of everything those people though or did on any subject you can imagine" (00:10:49) Schwatz talks about how the FBI investigated the women's liberation movement as a subversive and threatening movement and that even women's group meetings of discontent house wives were infiltrated (00:11:00)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Duke narrates over court footage that much of the FBI's information was turned over to White House aids to be used for political purposes (00:13:15) Smothers tells the committee that the FBI was involved in making the 1964 Democratic convention secure against violent outbreaks, how they infiltrated various groups and discreditted them and their members - Martin Luther King included among them, records of their infiltration were given over to the White House - Smothers also mentions the FBI got dirt on those people who contested the Warren Commision findings - Smothers explains the name check process in which critics of the administration including reporters from newspapers and tv, citizens who objected to the Vietnam war (00:13:25) Smothers mentions an incident of the FBI trying to influence a Speaker of the House regarding a prominent civil rights figure (00:17:05) Schwarz tells the committee how at the 1964 democratic convention the FBI infiltrated press meetings with fake credentials pretending to be reporters in order to get dirt on their enemies (00:17:20) Schwarz explains the term COINTEL PRO which means Counter Intelligence Program and served in the words of the FBI as "disrupt and neutralize people" (00:18:00) Duke narrates over hearings to segue the following testimony which is about the range of weopons used by the FBI to disturb groups (00:18:25) Smothers gives an example of how the FBI destroys job and family life of subversives, he reads a letter written to the husband of a white female officer in a local black activist group - the letter says the only integration this woman wants to do is in the bed and ends that she should be beaten for this (00:19:42)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Schwarz lists several acts of the FBI do disrupt the new left: sending false addresses to demonstrators of places they can stay during demonstrations, giving fake cb radio broadcasts of demonstration movements to disrupt organization, falsely claiming jobs necessary to demonstration activities (00:20:29) Picture returns to Duke in the studio - asks the panel if they agree with the statement "that nothing is sacred with the FBI" -they both agree, Ungar claiming the motivation for this was Hoover's desire to stop the dramatic change of life style taking place - Both panelists address issues of public trust of the organization - how was the FBI allowed to go as far as it did, especially as an organization established to protect the freedoms of Americans (00:23:34) Duke introduces the next segment of testimony by calling it the most dramatic, this is the testimony about the FBI's attempt to "discredit and destroy" Martin Luther King (00:28:07) Smothers tells the committee how as early as 1962 Hoover saw King as a threat to order in America, this coupled with King's attacks on Hoover and the Bureau led to such planned action as "taking hiim off his pedestal and reduce him completely in influence - Smother's explains FBI thought this would not be a hard task but that they would need a new leader for blacks to turn to (00:28:31)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Schwarz details how as King's popularity grew so too did FBI operations to discredit him, even the declaration of his birthday as a holiday was met with resistance, the FBI briefed members of congress as to why this was a bad idea (00:31:20) Schwarz explains FBI operations to combat King: an attempt to prevent the POPE from meeting with King, ROCKEFELLER was approached and asked not to meet with King (00:32:47) Schwarz tells the committee about a letter written by the FBI to King recommending he commit suicide before accepting the Nobel prize - where if he did not take his own life he would meet his end (00:35:15) Schwarz asked who wrote the above letter to King and he responds it is a matter of dispute as the letter was found in the files of Mr. SULLIVAN, assistant director to the FBI, who says it was a plant by another FBI member who wrote it - Church asks if there is any dispute that the letter was written by the FBI - Schwarz responds no (00:36:00) Smothers tells story of how ROBERT KENNEDY, then attorney general, wrote a letter to Hoover to inquire how many black special agents he had, Hoover reported back they had five, all of whom were not actually agents but chauffers -Smothers explains that this was 1961 and suggests that this is a good example of the motivations for the bureau through out its existance - working with ideas from dealing with communist threats the bureau thought it could apply such tactics to determine a social path for the nation as in propping up a new leader for the black people (00:37:25)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Back to the tv studio and Duke and the panel discuss the incredible testimony of the FBI's attempt to discredit the late Martin Luther King - Duke asks the panel why was King such a target - Haroc answers because he had the audacity to attack Hoover himself saying that there were not enough agents working in the South, meanwhile Haroc says the bureau justified its actions by claiming that King had connections to communist funding - Duke asks was Hoover a biggot? Ungar answers yes, Hoover fought against the bureau fighting civil rights battle and made statements about not wanting any black agents in bureau - Haroc says Hoover as well was anti-semetic - Haroc mentions another tape sent to King suggesting that Mrs. King pressure King out of the spot light - Ungar talks about how FBI was convinced it could sway social forces in America (00:39:00) Duke segues to following hearing footage explaining bureau originally set up as a crime fighting system but in 1939 FBI assumed the role of fighting infiltration of fascism and communism (00:44:05) Back to Schwarz who gives some history of FBI and thier use of a security index, a list of individuals considered dangerous during times of war, Schwarz explains this list continued to exist even after the attorney general ordered Hoover to end it in 1943, then in 1948 new attorney general instructed FBI to prepare an emergency detention program - which included plans to suspend the writ of habeus corpus, plans for a master warrant of arrest where by on the signature of the attorney general thousands of people could be locked up (00:44:31) Church asks if this tradition continues - Schwarz answers yes they continue to maintain this file which is now called the administrative index, and Schwarz adds what purpose this serves will have to be asked of the bureau (00:48:43)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Back to Duke the studio who asks if FBI's authority as characterized in Schwarz's testimony above is in fact legal - Ungar says that they can carry out any investigation the attorney general directs, also mentions executive orders for dealing wih subversives - Duke and panel go on to discuss how these abuses could have gotten by the rest of the government and whether or not these revelations will tarnish the images of Hoover and the FBI (00:49:27) Duke segues to the next bit of Hearing footage as senators giving vent to disgust with what today revealed about the FBI (00:55:38) Senator PHILLIP A. HART of Michigan said he's been told for years by family that this is what the bureau's been doing all along but he held to his own beliefs but now sees that the bureau has been denying citizens their first ammendment rights and now sees it as committee's project to inform American public that this did happen and make sure in the future it never happens again (00:55:59) Senator WALTER MONDALE of Minnesota says he hopes that as we strenghten the FBI in the criminal feild that we impose clear limits so that these sort of attrocities never happen again (00:57:23) Senator WALTER HUDDLESTON of Kentucky says that bureau has moved from combatting actual actions that are criminal or violent to combatting ideas they don't agree with (00:57:55)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Schwarz and Smothers testify
Church says the FBI has never had a statute clearly defining its authority and today after the first investigation of it we have seen the dark side of its activities - gives a general statement of the FBI's violations of citizens' rights, these revelations place responsibility on this committee that that never be let to happen again (00:58:21) Back to Duke in the studio who closes out the show with a quote of Justice BRANDEIS that the government can only be the teacher, for if it breaks the law than anyone is in a position to break the law - Duke goes on to say that tomorrow the FBI will testify on their own behalf (00:59:31)Credits role for program over court and panel footage (01:01:03) NPACT's logo appears followed by public tv logos (01:01:52)