CIA Announces Declassification of 1970s 'Skeletons' File...(Drudge Title)

GWU via Drudge Report ^ | June 21, 2007 | Thomas Blanton

[RDTF]

The Central Intelligence Agency violated its charter for 25 years until revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation led to official investigations and reforms in the 1970s, according to declassified documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden announced today that the Agency is declassifying the full 693-page file amassed on CIA's illegal activities by order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973--the so-called "family jewels." Only a few dozen heavily-censored pages of this file have previously been declassified, although multiple Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed over the years for the documents. Gen. Hayden called today's release "a glimpse of a very different time and a very different Agency."

"This is the first voluntary CIA declassification of controversial material since George Tenet in 1998 reneged on the 1990s promises of greater openness at the Agency," commented Thomas Blanton, the Archive's director.

Hayden also announced the declassification of some 11,000 pages of the so-called CAESAR, POLO and ESAU papers--hard-target analyses of Soviet and Chinese leadership internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations from 1953-1973, a collection of intelligence on Warsaw Pact military programs, and hundreds of pages on the A-12 spy plane.

The National Security Archive separately obtained (and posted today) a six-page summary of the illegal CIA activities, prepared by Justice Department lawyers after a CIA briefing in December 1974, the memorandum of conversation when the CIA first briefed President Gerald Ford on the scandal on January 3, 1975.

Then-CIA director Schlesinger commissioned the "family jewels" compilation with a May 9, 1973 directive after finding out that Watergate burglars E. Howard Hunt and James McCord (both veteran CIA officers) had cooperation from the Agency as they carried out "dirty tricks" for President Nixon

[weegee]

Certainly SOME members of the anti-American/pro-Communist war movement MET with enemy troops in war time (John Kerry and Jane Fonda among them).

“Files on 9,900-plus Americans related to the antiwar movement” does not surprise me. Agents of Soviet influence needed to be investigated. It doesn’t say “charged”. It doesn’t say “arrested”. It says investigated.

[NoBullZone]

Michael Hayden is NOT a stupid man. He presided over a major reorganiation and reorientation of NSA as it moved from the cold war mentality where Russia was the major target into the new reality of the worldwide war on terror. Given the absence of a serious terrorist attack between 9/11 and 2005 (when he left NSA), I think he must have been doing something right.

I strongly suspect that is an attempt to “encourage” some of the people involved to retire, and to send a message to the rest of the agency that they better toe the line are risk having their rogue actions exposed at some point in time.

I also supect the General has intelligence that a major war in the middle east is imminent; once that happens, this will quickly become “old news”.

[leadpenny]

During the first hour of Washington Journal, Brian Lamb got an interesting call. The call-in topic at the time was “Secrecy.”

The question comes right at the 33 minute point. Just prior to the question Brian had played a short clip of General Hayden giving his talk yesterday. Brian talks to this fellow for three minutes. He seemed legit and had some information on Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda that I had not heard before.

http://www.c-span.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100

Washington Journal Entire Program
Gen. Hayden’s Remarks at SHAFR Conference
8am - Thomas Barnett, Esquire Magazine, Contributing Writer | Article: “The Americans Have Landed”
6/22/2007: WASHINGTON, DC: 2 hr.