76-15-A7
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1977
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Intelligence[edit]
Transcript[edit]In both houses of the United States Congress the committees and subcommittees which used to concern themselves with threats to national security by alien and subversive groups have been closed down. There is, however, a Senate Committee to ride herd on our intelligence gathering agencies to see that they operate -- Number One -- lawfully and -- Number Two -- effectively. In the committee's annual report, 38 of its 40 pages are devoted to what the committee has done to make sure our agencies operate lawfully. Senator Daniel Moynihan wrote a dissent to the report, in which he said the committee made it sound as if the chief threat to our liberties was our own intelligence apparatus rather than the enemies that apparatus was supposed to protect us from. In the report there is mention of intelligence activities in our midst by South Korea, Chile, Iran, Taiwan and the Philippines. Has something happened we don't know about? Last I heard - all of these countries were friends and allies. Are we to believe the Russian K.G.B., Cuba and others among the Communist set aren't doing any snooping? When I served on the Presidential commission looking into the C.I.A. we learned the Soviet Union had quadrupled its espionage efforts in the U. S. Can we hope that in the next annual report the Senate Committee will let us know how the enemy is doing now that they are so proud of having brought our own intelligence agencies under control - which means handcuffed? This all seems part of an attitude in Washington that our liberties will be safe if we can just keep the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. from doing what they are supposed to do. I've spoken on this program about the indictment of former F.B.I. agent John Kearney by our own Justice Department for using wiretaps, mail openings and break ins several years ago against the "Weathermen". When Agent Kearney did these things they had been presumed to be legal for 25 years. Since then a Supreme Court ruling has changed all that and J. Stanley Pottinger, head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, is plunging ahead not only to get Kearney, but apparently to get others in the Bureau, too. Mr. Pottinger is being cheered on by columnists of the New York Times and others who saw nothing wrong with forgiving draft evaders whose crimes were not presumed to be legal when they committed them, But as one columnist said, --QUOTE -- "In a free society the police cannot be above the law". -- UNQUOTE -- No one is suggesting they should be . But isn't it time for someone to ask if we aren't threatened more by the people the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. are watching than by the F.B.I. and the C.I.A.? In the spring of 1968 there were ten bombings on college campuses; that fall there were 41. By the next spring the total was 84 on campus and 10 off. In the 1969-70 school year there were almost 200 on our campuses and in 1970 - in the nation as a whole - some 3000 bombings. That is more than eight a day. Damage was in the millions of dollars and innocent people lost their lives. Can anyone point to any comparable crimes against the citizens of this country committed by our law enforcement agencies? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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