[archy]

Investigation on behalf of Congress seems OK to me. However, investigation "for services rendered as an informant to narcotics agents and the IRS" implies law enforcement, or the duties of the executive branch, which I would normally expect to run into the Constitutional issue of the separation of powers if given active assistance from Congress.

(Or are these fine points only debated by patsies in flyover country?)

It's not at all an overly fine point; it's an outright collaberation between members of the executive branch and the legislative, probably with intent to utilize the judicial process to achieve their ends. That's a *pyramid of power* of the sort this country's founders killed Englishmen and Americans who supported the Crown to prevent, and they too debated such matters long before those former colonies became *flyover country.*

And that's just the best case; if there's even the slightest truth to the reports of BATF involvement in FBI COINTELPRO operations at the time, it probably extends well beyond just federal governmental efforts to have such troublesom individuals as labour leader Cesar Chavez, Eldridge Cleaver and Martin Luther King killed, but also in framing and blackmailing certain key congressmen and killing a few who wouldn't play ball; as with the *Operation Watch Tower* [see the *Cutolo Affidavit*] and *Operation Canton Song* [see the *DeFeo Report*] investigations that led to the invasion of Panama and removal of former accomplice Manuel Noriega.

And, very probably, certain eatrlier activities in the 1963-1968 period....

[SteveH]

Yes- I read those although I am not entirely sure how to interpret them. And just thinking about a "pyramid of power" only gets me all worked up about what is printed on one-dollar bills and secret societies way back to the days of the Crusades... It is somewhat distressing to consider that the Vince Foster "suicide" still stands as a "message" for any high-level federalistas in any branch who are tempted to follow their conscience instead of the law... so yes, the strategies just might be as you claim...