NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Program moderator Paul Duke begins to report on lessons learned by the Senate Committee in their investigation of CIA operations. The committee disapproved of assassinations being used as a foreign policy tool. The secrecy involved in CIA operations meant a loss of control over the intelligence bureaucracy.
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Program moderator Paul Duke introduces a sample from the Church Committee's report Scrolling text describes that high powered figures inexcusably did not know about CIA operations, that assassination should not be a permissible tool of foreign affairs, and that "plausible denial" was a technique for evading responsibility.
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - Assassinations
Program moderator Paul Duke summarizes the Senate committee's findings. The CIA did initiate and take part in plots to kill two foreign leaders, namely Patrice Lumumba of the Congo and Fidel Castro of Cuba. CIA offered support to groups that sought to overthrow leaders in Chile, the Dominican Republic, and South Vietnam, who all were eventually assassinated. The committee concludes that assassination is not compatible with American principles. The committee made further recommendations to avoid future CIA involvement in assassination plots.