Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church Committee Hearings - Senate Hearings on Intelligence Activities - Tom Charles Huston, Nixon White House Aid - Houston Plan Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
At the hearings Chief Counsel FAO Schwarz asks questions to Tom Charles Huston that he submitted the Huston plan as a report which represented the views of all the intelligence community with the exception of J Edgar Hoover, Schwarz also confirms that the plan called for the implementation of illegal operations such as break-ins, wire taps and mail opening - Huston confirms all this was called for as a way to combat domestic terrorism, but he denies that it was his feeling in this case that the ends justified the means (00:11:09) Huston explains for Schwarz how Nixon accepted the plan and how the word was passed to the intelligence agencies
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Senator Frank Church confirms with Tom Huston his motivations for calling for the implementation of illegal intelligence gathering activities, domestic revolutionary violence, and asks him if when Nixon approved this plan it was clear that this was a request of the President to authorize these illegal operations
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church turns the questioning to Huston's call for the authorization of opening and reading mail - Huston says that he felt that intelligence agencies had been doing this all along, that the President needed the power to by-pass the federal law against this action and the 4th amendment so as to insure the preservation of the national security, Huston also adds that he did not consult the attorney general about this Church confirms that as Huston had testified earlier Nixon did not know that mail interception and opening was being conducted by the CIA before the Huston plan had been radified, Church then asks Huston if Nixon meant to reject such illegal operations by later revoking the Huston plan, even though mail opening continued after he had done so - Huston says it was Nixon's intention in revoking the Huston plan to deny mail opening as a legitmate intelligence gathering tactic
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
DO NOT USE Lehrer voices over a segue to later testimony of Huston.
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Huston gives a dramatic and angry response about his motivations for coming up with the Huston plan in which he says that had he known intelligence agencies were already using the illegal intelligence gathering tactics the plan called for maybe he would not have pushed it forward, Huston says the reason he did push it forward was because in 1970 America was facing a serious crisis because of domestic violence, Huston also says in this mild out burst that he did not write the plan his name just got slapped on it
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
*****During this segment the color tone returns to normal, Tower asks Huston for his response to Nixon's recalling of the plan - Huston says he thought it was a mistake because it meant starting from ground zero as far as intelligence gathering tactics and inter-agency coordination and because of Hoover's hand in bringing down the plan. Senator HOWARD BAKER discusses with Huston the FBI's COINTELPRO and the CIA Operation CHAOS program which were both intelligence gathering programs which had already implemented the intelligence gathering tactics the Huston plan called for - Huston says no President authorized these programs
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
DO NOT USE Back to Lehrer in the studio who segues to more of Huston's testimony
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Senator WALTER MONDALE asks Huston how as an attorney he could have approved such illegal measures as called for in the Huston plan, Huston responds that they were just out of the bounds of illegality and that their authorization was necessary to preserve National and domestic security, Huston and Mondale then spar over whether these measures should be defined as legal or illegal. Mondale asks if any of the representatives from the various intelligence agencies that formulated the Huston plan objected to the illegal intelligence gathering tactics it called for - Huston responds no, that they all knew that it was already going on within their agencies already. Senator GARY 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
Senator CHARLES MATHIAS asks about the violation of the Constitution the Huston plan's intelligence gathering tactics call for - Huston gives an articulate response illustrating how he believes Executive privilidge has stealthfully grown step by step into a monster over the past thirty years and that suddenly we've woken up to that reality and are now attacking it. Senator BARRY GOLDWATER 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 can lead to abuses of power that violate individual's rights - 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