The Pike Committee

[bobthedrummer]

After the Watergate "scandal" there were Congressional investigations into illegal activities by the intelligence and law enforcement communities because it is the duty to have Congressional oversight to protect and defend the rights of US citizens (aka we, the people).

We have a Congress today that is not going to hold accountable an administration that uses war as a policy, tortures, employs mercenaries, has a world-wide secret prison system, conducts massive illegal domestic surveillance, conducts domestic psychological warfare operations and God knows what else.

The oversight role of Congress (in a representational democracy, that=you and me) has been seriously negated. Previous and current suggested reforms of the intelligence and law enforcement communities have been continuously neutralized by an increased para-militarized and privatized component engaged in the administration's "war on terror".

This is a thread about the reforms recommended after the Watergate "scandal"-and a study on the forces that opposed them.

The post-Watergate Senate investigation was chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho) and known as The Church Committee-most of the various reports and documents from the Church Committee are declassified and available to the public, they have been cited/discussed here for years.

The House investigation began with controversy over leadership, Rep. Lucien Nedzi (D-Michigan) was replaced as Chairman after 5 months by Rep. Otis G. Pike (D-New York)-this House investigation became known as The Pike Committee.

Below are a few links about The Pike Committee, the first is an overview that was authored by the CIA's Agency Historian and head of the CIA History Staff, Gerald K. Haines.

"The Pike Committee Investigations and the CIA" by Gerald K. Haines
http://bss.sfsu.edu/fischer/IR%20360/Readings/pike.htm

Otis G. Pike profile from Spartacus Schoolnet
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpikeO.htm

Kathryn S. Olmsted wrote "Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigation of the CIA and FBI" (University of North Carolina Press 1996, paper)-Third World Traveler has a page of excerpts from her work which is linked below.

"Counterattack, Unwelcome Truths, Epilogue"
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/Unwelcome_Truths_CTSG.html

I was unable to find the complete final report and documents of The Pike Committee-it is my understanding that portions are declassified yet the House retains control of the full report and documents.

Some of the report was leaked to the Village Voice which set-off a "national security" furor. Daniel Schorr lost his job at CBS as a result of passing on Pike Committee docs to the Village Voice.

NameBase.org has an archived Daniel Brandt article about this aspect of The Pike Committee (and other public disclosure issues).

"Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty Wurlitzer" by Daniel Brandt (NameBase NewsLine #17, April-June 1997)
http://www.namebase.org/news17.html

It is worth noting that George Herbert Walker Bush was Director CIA during this tumultuous period 1975-77.

James Ridgeway wrote an article at the end of 2005 that ties a lot of this together inasmuch as documenting what the failure to implement reform has resulted in.

"The Bush Family Coup" by James Ridgeway (Village Voice 12-27-2005)
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0601,mondo1,71442,6.html

So, DU, lets discuss some of this.

[bobthedrummer]

1. So, whose heads are on the pikes today, figuratively speaking?

[Solly Mack]

2. Don't often see the Pike Committee brought up

[bobthedrummer]

9. I wonder why...

[Solly Mack]

30. I'll quote Otis Pike to answer that

"Oh, they think it is better not to know," Pike replied. "There are too many things that embarrass Americans in that report. You see, this country went through an awful trauma with Watergate. But even then, all they were asked to believe was that their president had been a bad person. In this new situation they are asked much more; they are asked to believe that their country has been evil. And nobody wants to believe that."

Rogue State


Sound familiar?

[Solly Mack]

3. Here's a good link from my favorites

Oct. 13, 1975

New Chapter in Pike's Progress

"On President Ford's orders, the CIA had refused to produce the documents for Pike's committee investigating U.S. intelligence, so the committee subpoenaed them. The CIA then ignored the subpoena, so Pike's committee voted 10-3 to ask the support of the full House in forcing the CIA to obey. Implicit in that vote was the threat of a contempt citation against CIA Director William Colby.

Weighing those warnings and threats, President Ford decided to compromise. He ordered Colby to turn over the seven-in.-high pile of documents on three conditions: 1) no public disclosure of the material before a consultation with the CIA; 2) any dispute over a document's release to be refereed by the White House; and 3) a presidential decision not to release a document for security reasons would be binding, unless the committee chose to go to court. Pike thought that compromise reasonable enough, and his committee voted to accept it.

Critical Memo. The Congressman then took aim at his next target: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. In questioning State Department Official Thomas D. Boyatt, about Boyatt's criticism of intelligence failures during the Cyprus invasion, Pike found that the witness had been forbidden to answer key questions. Reason: Kissinger was insisting that no State Department officials below the rank of Assistant Secretary should ever testify on the formation of policy, only on the "facts" of such policies. The State Department justified that ban as a defense against McCarthyite harassment of policymakers, but Pike called it "preposterous." His committee thereupon voted 9-2 to subpoena Boyatt's critical memo on Cyprus."

[bobthedrummer]

4. Thanks Solly. The Pike Committee looked at the FBI too.

John Edgar Hoover died on May 2, 1972. Someone had removed John Edgar's personal "secret files" really quickly after that.

The DoJ put out some reports of its own after The Pike Committee report.

Here's a quote from one of them: "It was increasingly discovered that POLICE AGENCIES were keeping INTELLIGENCE FILES on people for whom there was NO EVIDENCE of criminality."

For anyone else interested, below is a link (pdf) to a DoJ report issued after the release of The Pike Committee report.

A Brief History of Law Enforcement Intelligence: Past Practice and Recommendations for Change
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=1394

The Pike Committee also looked at assassination, of course.

[bobthedrummer]

6. "It was increasingly discovered that POLICE AGENCIES were keeping INTELLIGENCE FILES on people

for whom there was NO EVIDENCE of criminality."

Here's a supporting link to that fact, it is a page from Third World Traveler containing excerpts from Ross Gelbspan's book "Break-ins, Death Threats and the FBI" (South End Press, 1991)

http://thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/Active_Decoy_Explosion_BDF.html

The Pike Committee's investigations are critical to understanding the rise of the shadow government and the installation of the George Walker Bush/Richard Bruce Cheney administration.

[bobthedrummer]

5. More about The Pike Committee

From the Cooperative Research History Commons

PROFILE: PIKE COMMITTEE
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=_pike_committee_1

From J. Ransom Clark's The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials with Essays, Reviews, and Comments

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY The 1970's
Congress Investigates U.S. Intelligence U-Z
http://intellit.org/cia_folder/cia70s_folder/cia70sinvu-z.html

Fair use cited.

[MinM]

19. More about the origin of The Pike Committee

Ford made a blunder so egregious it launched four separate investigations of the CIA:

Schlesinger saw right away how huge a problem the whole Watergate episode represented for the Agency. The CIA was forbidden, by its charter, to operate domestically. Spying on Americans was absolutely illegal, and what else were E. Howard Hunt and the Watergate burglars doing but exactly that? Schlesinger knew, from his longtime experience in government, that these activities were likely the tip of the iceberg. So on May 9, 1973 Schlesinger sent a memo to all CIA employees asking that anyone with any knowledge of illegal activities should come forward:

The resulting report prepared from responses came to be known as “the family jewels.” Colby preferred to call them, more accurately, “our skeletons in the closet." And as proof that some secrets can be kept forever, in 2005, former Senator Gary Hart, who had actually seen this report, says most of what’s in there has never reached the public..

By December, the family jewels were bubbling just under the surface. Schlesinger had learned of Operation CHAOS – Angleton’s large, domestic, and very illegal domestic spying operation, and told Angleton, “this thing is not only breaking the law, but we’re getting nothing out of it.” (See Cold Warrior, by Tom Mangold.) Despite both fearing and respecting Angleton, Schlesinger put an instant end of the program. But when the baton was passed to Colby, the issue didn’t end there..

President Ford learned about the CIA’s illegal activities while in Vail. He had called Bill Colby at CIA and asked to be briefed immediately. Colby forwarded to Ford, via Kissinger, the “family jewels” report. When Ford returned to DC on January 3, 1975, he called Colby over to the White House for a private meeting. The next day, he announced he was forming a “blue ribbon” commission to be headed by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller that would conduct an inquiry into the CIA’s domestic activities. As Daniel Schorr noted in his book Clearing the Air:

The administration seemed anxious to seize the initiative, perhaps to head off a potentially more troublesome congressional investigation -- a standard defensive tactic.

Having served on the Warren Commission, Ford must have known what he was doing would produce more cover-up than revelation. Indeed, when the appointments were made, the press yelled immediately that the fix was in. The other Commission members were John T. Connor, C. Douglas Dillon, Erwin N. Griswold, Lane Kirkland, Lyman L. Lemnitzer, Ronald Reagan, and Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. Ford’s fellow Warren Commission member David W. Belin was given the role of Executive Director. The formal Commission title was “U.S. President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States.” It’s important to remember, as you read what follows, that the focus of the commission was on CIA activities within the United States.

At a White House luncheon for New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and its editors, Ford made a blunder so egregious it launched four separate investigations of the CIA:

Toward the end of the conversation, the subject of the Rockefeller commission came up. One editor, noting the predominantly conservative and defense-oriented membership of the commission, asked what credibility it would have. President Ford explained that he needed trustworthy citizens who would not stray from the narrow confines of their mission because they might come upon matters that would damage the national interests and blacken the reputation of every President since Truman.

“Like what?” asked the irrepressible Times managing editor, A. M. Rosenthal.

“Like assassinations!” President Ford shot back, quickly adding, “That’s off the record!”

The Times executives went into a huddle in their Washington office and agreed, after a spirited argument, to keep the President’s confidence.

This secret, however, got out, and word got around that Ford had been concerned about revealing assassinations. Daniel Schorr went to Colby and asked what was meant. Colby said Ford’s comments referred to foreign assassination plots, and Schorr satisfied himself that’s what Ford was referring to.

It bears repeating that the Rockefeller commission was only to look into the CIA’s domestic activities. If that were the case, why should Ford worry that an investigation of the CIA domestic activities would reveal information about foreign assassinations? Of course, the unasked question was this: Was there some domestic assassination the CIA have been involved with that Ford knew about? As a member of the Warren Commission, was Ford worried about exposing the CIA’s role in the Kennedy assassination? I’ve been disappointed, over the years, that most commentators on the commission never point out this other probable explanation for his strange outburst. To me, it seems likely Ford feared the exposure of a domestic assassination conspiracy. I believe strongly that Bill Colby revealed details of foreign assassination attempts in order to draw attention away from the one assassination that should have been on everyone’s mind after Ford’s outburst: the assassination of President Kennedy.

In terms of foreign assassination possibilities, Schorr’s instincts on this matter are interesting. “Hammerskjold?” Schorr asked. (See my article “Midnight in the Congo” for details of Hammerskjold’s mysterious plane crash, and the CIA operative who claimed responsibility for it to government officials.) “Lumumba?” Schorr asked next. (See my same article, as I also talk about a CIA officer’s published admission that he drove around with Lumumba in the trunk of his car for a few days, wondering what to do with his body.) Schorr appears to have been on the right track, in terms of CIA operations internationally. Naturally, however, Colby refused to confirm or deny any of Schorr’s suspicions.

The House and Senate, convinced that the Rockefeller Commission would be little more than a whitewash, convened their own bodies to investigate the CIA’s activities. The House’s official body was called the U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence, and was chaired by Congressman Otis Pike. It was informally called the Pike Committee..

Listen to the narrative to this story here.

http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2007/01/real-history-of-gerald-ford-watergate.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2993907&mesg_id=2997808

[bobthedrummer]

20. Thanks for sharing, MinM.

[hootinholler]

7. Not only was HW at CIA...

Cheney and Rummy were helping Ford out too, learning the ropes and the capabilities thatwere quiesced by the investigations.

The question is, now that we have the intelligence apparatus so deeply instilled, how an it be reliably defanged?

-Hoot

[bobthedrummer]

8. "It was increasingly discovered that POLICE AGENCIES were keeping INTELLIGENCE FILES on people for

whom there was NO EVIDENCE of criminality."

From today's LBN
"Audit: More FBI Privacy Abuses in 2006" by Michael J. Sniffen AP (3-13-2008, Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7381995

The Pike Committee's final report is still not available-maybe there wasn't a report at all--whatever records exist are still held by the House. The Pike Committee did investigate assassination and regime change.

"The deep politics of regime removal in Iraq: Overt conquest, covert operations.
Pt 4: The unfinished business between Saddam Hussein and George H.W. Bush" by Larry Chin (11-14-2002 OnlineJournal)
http://onlinejournal.org/Special_Reports/Chin111402/chin111402.html

[bobthedrummer]

10. Why do we have a 110th Congress meeting in secret to "debate" illegal domestic surveillance programs

and the House still retains whatever reports The Pike Committee produced for the people?

Maybe House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) could answer those questions, and state what reforms are necessary.

Chairman Reyes DC office can be reached directly by calling [phone], [phone] or you can call his El Paso office [phone].

Here's a link for further contact sources to reach House Intelligence Committee Chairman Reyes (from Congress.org)
http://www.congress.org/bio/id/570

[L. Coyote]

11. kick

[bobthedrummer]

12. "Happy Fifth Birthday, DHS!" by Ivan Eland (3-15-2008 consortium News)

The Department of HOMELAND SECURITY came into being in The United States of America 5 years ago.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/031508a.html

[bobthedrummer]

13. Here's a bit of paradox-we the people know who presides over the FISA

system, that's democratic enough it meets transparency in those cases that follow the criteria to get legal authority for surveillance of a person or group seriously suspected of being in league with a foreign agency that is up to no good against America.

That is why FISA was passed in 1978, shortly after the investigations of both the Church and Pike Committees, FISA was one of the responses to the call for reform.

Historically, FISA court members have never turned down a request.

Since we the people have a right to know who our government officials are, and our representatives the power to exercise oversight and regulate them in our interests here's a link to John Young's Cryptome web site and a recent post.

"Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Members"
http://cryptome.org/fisc-members.htm

But the criminal administration of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney combined with the "privatization" of government and the criminal use of the national security shield of secrecy has resulted in the paradox of Americans living in a police state where our Constitution and Bill of Rights have been papered over incrementally by a group of RW extremists, following a treasonous agenda.

We the people are paying bills to telecom companies that have spied on us for political purposes, we the people have paid taxes to help finance a world wide gulag system that tortures and disappears people, we the people have financed private military companies, etc.

And there is no real accountability as of yet, our representatives haven't acted on our urgent messages for accountability.

We haven't even seen the reports of The Pike Committee, if there are any-they are still held by the House.

A coup has occured here that began with the installation of the George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney that have constructed the infrastructure of an extreme politicized police state, among other crimes.

[bobthedrummer]

14. By not making sweeping reforms as called for by the suppressed Pike Committee

the shadow government consolidated itself during the Reagan/Bush Bush/Quayle administrations.

Some of the shadow government operatives from earlier eras are still with us, people like Henry Kissinger, George H.W.Bush, and others that went through the progression of "scandals" (in a democracy just one of these "scandals" would have brought real reform and accountability) from Watergate to Iran-contra to what the late Democratic Chairman of the House Banking Committee Rep. Henry Gonzalez called Iraqgate as he unsuccessfully sought the impeachment of George H.W. Bush for covertly arming Iraq.

The black budget network that Henry Gonzalez had been investigating through following the money trail had been around for decades, it was focused on the role of an Atlanta based branch of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro/BNL in financing the delivery of products from US based black budget assets to Iraq-products like chemical weapon raw materials, shell casings, military computers, solid fuel for rockets and God knows what else covertly being sold and delivered to the regime of Saddam Hussein by the US.

Here are a couple of highly informative articles about what the lack of effective reform led to during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton, a "scandal" called IRAQGATE.

The Los Angeles Times had been at the forefront of reporting on this. There is an excellent comprehensive 6 page archived article by David Shaw that was published by the LA Times October 27, 1992 that is valuable to understanding our current world situation, this article is linked below.

"Iraqgate--A Case Study of a Big Story With Little Impact. Despite hundreds of news reports, no public outrage has erupted over secret aid to Iraq" by David Shaw (10-29-1992 LA Times)
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/food/la-me-shaw27oct27,1,6057214.story

The Gulf War Veterans Resource Web has a reposting of one of the journalists works, Kenneth R. Timmerman, cited by David Shaw in the LA Times article. It was originally published in The American Spectator November 1, 1996.

The Gulf War Veterans Web reposted it August 12, 1997. It is a must read today.

"Whatever Happened to IRAQGATE" by Kenneth R. Timmerman
http://www.gulfweb.org/doc_show.cfm?ID=527

Is anyone else seeing the patterns I've posted about here since 2001 clearer now, in the context of a RW coup installing George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney?

This thread about The Pike Committee is related to that firm belief of mine, a belief shared by many others today.

[bobthedrummer]

15. The FBI as a Foreign Intelligence Organization (3-11-2008 Federation of American Scientists blog)

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2008/03/the_fbi_as_a_foreign_intellige.html

INTELWIRE Releases FBI Documents Given To The 9/11 Commission by J.M. Berger (2-18-2008 INTELWIRE)
http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2008_02_18_exclusives.html

[bobthedrummer]

16. "Intelligence Activities And The Rights Of Americans: Final Report

Of The Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activities" (Church Committee Report April 26, 1976/Third World Traveler archive)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/Church_Committee_Report.html

Yes, we the people can read the report of Senator Frank Church's investigations and recommendations-yet The Pike Committee's work is still suppressed and held by the House.

And we are living with the results of unaccountability and inaction today.

[bushmeister0]

17. Kissinger and Nixon: Duplicity, the Kurds and destabilizing Iraq

Christopher Hitchens foudn this interesting tid-bit about what the Commission found out about our suckering the Kurds into keeping up an insurgency up against Iraq in the service of the Shah of Iran, until that is, we made a deal with Saddam.

When our good buddy the Shah was in power in the 70's, Tricky Dick and his attack dog Henry Kissinger actively supported the Kurds in their insurgency against Iraq. The then leader of Iraq Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, had the audacity to give refuge to Ayatollah Khomeini and otherwise discomfort the Shah. The Pike Commision report found that Kissinger used the Kurds to help destabilize Iraq. . . but not too much.

"Documents in the Committee's possession clearly show that the President, Dr. Kissinger and the foreign head of state hoped that our clients would not prevail. They preferred instead that the insurgents simply continue a level of hostilities sufficient to sap the resources of our ally's neighbor . . .

This policy was not imparted to our clients, who were encouraged to continue fighting."

See, we wanted them to keep fighting, but we never wanted them to be successful. When Kissinger made a deal with Saddam, before he took power, we pulled the rug from under the Kurds and shortly after Saddam began his genocidal efforts to wipe them out completly.

Hitchen's article in harpers:

http://www.harpers.org/archive/1991/01/0000414

Additional infor on the various committees investigating the CIA in the 70's

http://bss.sfsu.edu/fischer/IR%20360/Readings/pike.htm

[bobthedrummer]

18. I linked to the Gerald Haines article in the OP-if anyone can

find a link to Otis Pike's final report or Pike Committee documents it would be much appreciated, it's my understanding that the House still has them.

I've searched for whatever Daniel Schorr gave the Village Voice, I've searched for some "bootleg" Pike Committee report published in the UK, nothing has shown up in my searches.

[bobthedrummer]

21. John Young's Cryptome posted the complete House Bill on FISA Amendments today

for those of us detail oriented interested DUers (and perhaps our monitors, lol)

HR 3773
http://cryptome.org/hr3773eah.htm

[bobthedrummer]

22. Call out for a copy of The Pike Committee's final report...anyone got that?

[maine_raptor]

23. Actually I think I do.

But it's buried at the moment up in my attic and I doubt I could find it. One interesting note about that report: The US Government Printing Office issued a very limited number of copies for public sale and did not give it (the sale) all that much publicity.

Now, by contrast, the Church Committee Report went through several re-prints before it was discontinued for sale. The Pike Report only had one printing, and like I said, of a limited run.

Your best bet might be to see if the libraries that hold the papers of former Representatives and Senators who were in Congress at the time have a copy, if you can't find one at a used bookstore specializing in government documents.

[bobthedrummer]

24. You may have something worth finding then, maine_raptor-and as for the Internet

I still haven't found the report of The Pike Committee.

Politically toxic, it must be akin to plutonium.

A lot of we the people have been harmed for simply having being put on "lists", a lot of we the people have been used in longitudinal "experiments", and there are bodies of citizens that were "terminated" by domestic death squads sanctioned by various administrations since the mid-1960's.

That is not tinfoil. It is history.

[lonestarnot]

26. Wow. You better put on your spelunker hat and get busy finding that.

[suffragette]

25. Looks like it was printed in England in 1977

Looks like there are some copies available through used sources at steep prices:


http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?title=pike+report

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=cia%3A+pike+report&x=0&y=0


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-8610871-5082517?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cia%3A+the+pike+report&x=0&y=0


Went to the publisher's site, but didn't find it in a quick search.


Some pdf's of parts of it here.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5314&pid=43991&mode=threaded&start=#entry43991

Hadn't heard of this before. Will need to read more later.

Thanks.

[horseshoecrab]

31. village voice and maybe NYT

Village Voice might have reprints? New York Times apparently printed parts as well.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=daniel_schorr_1

"The report will never be released, though large sections of it will be leaked within days to reporter Daniel Schorr of the Village Voice, and printed in that newspaper. Schorr himself will be suspended from his position with CBS News and investigated by the House Ethics Committee (Schorr will refuse to disclose his source, and the committee will eventually decide, on a 6-5 vote, not to bring contempt of Congress charges against him). The New York Times will follow suit and print large portions of the report as well. "


horseshoecrab

[H2O Man]

33. I have quite a bit

of what was made public. It outlined parts of the form of non-democratic government that Ike warned of.

[horseshoecrab]

34. kick

:kick:

[countryjake]

27. Kick

[donkeyotay]

28. I can't discuss this right now. I am overwhelmed by the seeming futility

of studying the takeover. Right now I just want to cry, Right now I just want to wish that some white knight - some branch of the intelligence and defense that isn't corrupt - would come swooping down and save us. Is there such a thing? Is there any hope? Why study this if we can't change any of it. Is there an emoticon for god help us?

[spanone]

29. this is the cheney dream govt. - no accountablility to anyone

[bobthedrummer]

35. Here's another recent example of that fact-from CREW (3-24-2008)

"White House Destroyed Hard Drives That May Have Contained Missing Emails"
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/31318

on edit: fixed link

[horseshoecrab]

32. kicking

:kick: