75-16-A1
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CIA Commission[edit]
Transcript[edit]Having served on the commission investigating the C.I.A., I've been more than a little interested in how our findings have been reported. I'll be right back. My own reaction after months of testimony and discussion during the investigation of the C.I.A. is "much ado about-if not nothing, at least very little." Yes we found instances of some wrongdoing with regard to keyhole peaking at our fellow citizens, and of course that's wrong, but it did not constitute "massive spying" as had been charged in the press account that actually caused the investigation and the misdeeds were scattered over a 28-year period. In addition most of them had long since been corrected by C.I.A. itself. What disturbs me about the witch-hunting mood that came into being almost overnight and the investigations that resulted, including most especially the Congressional hearings now going on, is the inestimable harm that has been done to this nation's entire intelligence gathering ability. There is no doubt that information sources worldwide have been frightened into silence and certainly our own personnel must be retreating into a "don't-stick-your-neck-out posture". I've watched very carefully the media's handling of our commission's report. I don't think I'm being unfair in saying that for the most part the media seized upon whatever misdeeds we found and played them up, possibly to confirm the earlier charges and possibly because they thought they made for more exciting drama. One chapter in our report received very little attention and yet it's a vital importance to every American. So if you don't mind, here's a portion of the commission's report you probably haven't seen or heard about. Quote. "The number of Communist government officials in the United States has tripled since 1960 and is still increasing. Nearly 2000 of them are now in this country and a significant percentage of them have been identified as members of intelligence or security agencies. Conservative estimates for the number of unidentified intelligence officers among the remaining officials raised the level to over 40 percent. In addition to sending increasing numbers of their citizens to this country openly, many of whom have been trained in espionage, Communist bloc countries also place considerable emphasis on the training, provision of false identification and dispatching of illegal agents, that is, operators for whom an alias identity has been systematically developed, which enables them to live in the United States as American citizens or resident aliens without our knowledge of their true origins. While making large-scale use of human intelligence sources, the Communist countries also appear to have developed electronic collection of intelligence to an extraordinary degree of technology and sophistication for use in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world and we believe that these countries can monitor and record thousands of private telephone conversations. Americans have a right to be uneasy if not seriously disturbed at the real possibility that their personal and business activities, which they discuss freely over the telephone, could be recorded and analyzed by agents of foreign powers. This raises the real specter that selected American users of telephones are potentially subject to blackmail that can seriously affect their actions or even lead in some cases to recruitment as espionage agents." Unquote. That's in chapter two of the commission's report entitled "The Need for Intelligence." The simple truth is Americans are being spied on massively and continually by a dangerous potential enemy. we need an effective counter intelligence force operating on our behalf. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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