Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Opens to TOM CHARLES HUSTON in the midst of responding to a question put forth by Senator HOWARD BAKER, Baker asked Huston why J. EDGAR HOOVER put down the Huston Plan - Huston responds that Hoover was not against the new tactics the plan called for in principle he just didn't want his agency involved in them, Huston gives the example of having FBI collegiate informants under the age of 21
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Baker asks Huston why everyone was so scared of Hoover - Huston responds it was because Hoover was a very influential man in the government and for the plan to go forth it was necessary to have his approval, Huston goes on to talk about how he had wanted Hoover to be invited to the White House where Nixon would personally talk to him about the plan's approval
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Baker and Huston discuss Attorney General JOHN MITCHELL's rejection of the plan
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Baker confirms that the intelligence agencies involved in the Huston plan were already using illegal intelligence gathering tactics such as mail interception, breaking and entering, and wiretapping - Huston points out that until 1972 wiretapping was not illegal - Baker then asks what other illegal tactics does Huston know about that these agencies were using - Huston responds with a description of FBI COINTEL program's disruption tactic of making public denouncements or accusations concerning subversives, Huston also mentions the CIA CAOS (?) program of domestic surveillance, Huston adds upon questioning that he does not know who authorized these two programs
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Committee Chairman FRANK CHURCH recognizes Senator WALTER HUDDLESTON, Huddleston discusses with Huston why the plan was released without the signature of H.R. HALDEMAN or NIXON, Huddleston wants to know if it was because the plan called for "extra-legal" activity - Huston contends that any project proposed by the President and carried out by one of his aides can be assumed as having his authorization
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Huddleston and Huston have a long discussion about why Huston had requested tax/financial information from the IRS about different political organizations, Huddleston wants to know if the White House was using the Special Services division of the IRS as an intelligence gathering tool
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church recognizes Senator BARRY GOLDWATER, Goldwater tells the committee he is thrilled that the IRS has come up and that it will be subject to investigation, Goldwater says that the IRS will crush organizations it doesn't like while protecting others (the others he refers to are leftist political organizations), Goldwater then asks what Huston now thinks about the Huston Plan - Huston again gives an impassioned explanation as to why he did believe in it in 1970 and then without the passion suggests he now thinks it could have led to corruption and abuse of power - Goldwater gives his stamp of approval to Huston and says that we need to remain on our toes as long as there are DANIEL ELLSBERGs and media out there intent on undermining the principles of America with the same subversive tactics as the Huston plan contained
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church recognizes Senator GARY HART, Hart asks why the inter-agency task force members formulating the Huston plan kept to themselves that their respective agencies already used such tactics - Huston responds that all the agencies work within bubbles and that there was too much inter-agency jealousy to let one another know about their tactics, further, Huston adds, they didn't know Nixon was going to approve such tactics, he might have called for their end, Huston also volunteers that having the agencies working in bubbles seems to him to defeat the point of their existence
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Hart asks why, if the intelligence agencies were using the Huston plan's illegal tactics already, intelligence wasn't as good as the White House felt it should have been - Huston responds that the agencies need a shakeup in organization, he goes on to say what he likes and dislikes about the CIA and FBI and states that the Senate Committee should implement some of these changes
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Hart asks again why Hoover did not support the plan - Huston responds that on the record it was because Hoover was against the implementation of the illegal intelligence gathering tactics, however, Huston adds he also believes it was because it called for infringement by other agencies and White House into FBI / his territory
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Hart and Huston discuss the White House's desire to use the military as a domestic intelligence gathering tool
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Hart and Huston discuss the motivations of the agencies involved in formulating the Huston plan, was it passion for stopping domestic violence or the desire to expand their privileges
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Hart asks about Presidential knowledge of CIA plan operation CAOS
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Hart asks if Huston if he feels freedom must be destroyed in order to save it
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church mentions that Nixon's papers regarding the Huston plan will be subpoenaed for committee review
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church recognizes Senator CHARLES MATHIAS, Mathias conducts an interview of Huston confirming the Huston plan did not take into consideration the Senate Judiciary Committee or the Constitution in its authoring or approval, Mathias quotes a Justice BRANDEIS opinion that government officials should be subject to the same laws that the citizen is subject to, Mathias then asks Huston if he doesn't think that the 4th amendment s guarantee of an individual s right to privacy should be upheld - Huston says he does respect the right to privacy that he in his authoring of the Huston plan was merely recognizing the need and call of superiors to intensify intelligence operations
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
In response to a Mathias question Huston says that the problem currently with intelligence agencies is that sometimes is are too much in the control of the White House leading to their abuse by partisan politics and sometimes they act too independently of the rest of the government, the committee's task, Huston says, is to make the agencies political abuse free but still accountable for their actions
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Mathias asks isn't it the Constitution that will ensure that Huston's ideal state of intelligence agencies will be the case - Huston responds that he believes executive privilege has quietly grown step by step into a monster over the past thirty years, the rest of his response is cut off by the end of the tape