NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Program moderator Paul Duke, in television studio, introduces Church Committee hearings footage of Senate meeting press and introducing their report in which they express why this information should be made public.
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
U.S. Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN) says, "We need a CIA-- matter of fact, we need the best we can possibly have. And the CIA must operate in secret. But what this record discloses, in my opinion, is that it's not only operating secretly but also unaccountably. And it is that second concession that a democratic constitutional society cannot permit. When you read this report, you will find that the record is contradictory, elusive, and as I said a few weeks ago, to try to establish real responsibility and accountability is like trying to nail Jell-o to the wall. And I believe the system was intended to work that way. Namely, that things would be ordered to be done but should it be made public no one could be held accountable. It's the theory of plausible deniability. But in fact it has become the practice of implausible deniability, because these matters do become known and then public officials are put into the position of denying it, or even worse lying about it. Secondly, when Congress exercises its responsibilities, wishes to determine what actually happened, it is almost impossible to do so. And finally, this unaccountability, I think results in actions being taken that probably wouldn't have occurred if the principals involved felt that they would be fundamentally responsible. Now they can take acts which are indefensible with the hope that no one will ever be able to blame them, and I think that contributes to harsh and irrational acts that cannot be permitted in American society. Secondly, it seems to me the record shows over many, many years, and under administrations of both political parties, an incredible naivete about the capacity of American society to control and dictate the course of another society through such things as an assassination, a few guns, a few dollars, or a few lives. None of it worked and all of it assumed that other societies were capable of being moved around and dictated and directed by our society in a way that we would never accept in terms of outside direction of our own society."
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
U.S. Senator Walter Huddleston (D-KY) expresses his belief on the benefits of making the report public. "I think what we're dealing with today certainly is the sensational, the spectacular, even the bizarre examples of what has happened within our intelligence gathering operations without proper control and direction. And it's fitting and proper in my judgment that we come before the country today and detail some of the difficulties that have occurred. Now, we have agonized, I think each of us separately and the committee as a whole, as to what extent this type of activity ought to be exposed to the American people and indeed to the world. There have been reservations. But we have concluded that whatever temporary problem it might create for our intelligence gathering organizations, whatever embarrassment it may cause to this country will be far outweighed by the fact that we have, before the world, stated what our shortcomings have been and expressed a determination and an effort to bring about the necessary actions to improve and to eliminate those occurrences from happening again."
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
U.S. Senator Robert Morgan (D-NC) believes the CIA acts revealed in the report were at the time thought to be principled and it is now the job of Congress to set up guidelines to direct future operations. "Throughout the entire investigation there has been one thought, one question, paramount in my mind. And that question has been whether or not these alleged acts of assassination were conducted by the intelligence agencies on their own recklessly and without authority, or on the other hand were they the acts of a well-disciplined, intelligence organization. The question is important. For if the answer to the first part is true, that they were reckless and irresponsible acts of the intelligence agency, then in my opinion we would probably have to dismantle the agency and start anew. On the other hand if they were acting, or if they had justifiably believed, that they were acting in response to orders from higher authority, then I think it would be incumbent upon the Congress to create new lines of authority and to maintain much closer over site and supervision. After listening to the evidence, for weeks and weeks and weeks and weighing the testimony, as I saw it and as I observed it, I am convinced that the principals in these acts felt and believed that they were carrying out orders from a higher authority. I am also convinced by the testimony and its greater weight that they were justified in that belief. Therefore I think it is more incumbent now upon the Senate to make sure that we fulfill our responsibility by establishing clear lines of authority, establishing once and for all what we expect our intelligence agencies to do and what we expect them not to do. And then maintain over site over these agencies to the end that what we expect of them will be that which they do."
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Quick shot of adult Caucasian male reporter taking notes. U.S. Senator Frank Church (D-ID), Chairman of the Church Committee, says, "We seem to believe that it was necessary for us to emulate the methods of the enemy. And that anything that happened anywhere in the world represented and ultimate contest between us and the Communists. And thus, covert actions were justified for reasons that today seem hard to understand. Yet, this was a period when the Cold War was still very virulent. And attitudes, perspectives, have to be measured, as the committee points out in the prologue of this report, in the context of the times."