File #:
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Serial Scope:
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EBF
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Released under the John F. Kennedy
Assassination Records Collection Act of
1992 (44 USC 2107 Note). Case#:NW
88614 Date: 03-18-2025
Vol. 14
Copy S
The United States Senate
Report of Proceedings
Hearing held before
Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations
With Respect to Intelligence Activities
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ZUTELA IGENCE INVESTIGATION
ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED
HEREIN 
IS UNCLASSIFIED
DATE 
10/25/07 
BY-
Wednesday, November 19, 1975
Washington, D. C.
10/26/00 SAL/ely
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CONTENT
2 STATEMENT OF:
PAGE
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Testimony of James B. Adams, Deputy Associate Director
FBI Intelligence Division
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INTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATION
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Wednesday, November 19, 1975
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HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED
DATE 10/25/02 BYSPZALM/
United States Senate,
Select Committee to Study Governmental
Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 o'clock
a.m., in Room 318, Russell Senate Office Building, the
Honorable Frank Church (Chairman) presiding.
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Present: Senators Church (presiding), Hart (Michigan),
Mondale, Huddleston, Hart (Colo) Baker, Tower, Gold, Mathias and Schweiker.
Also present: Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr., Chief Counsel
and Curtis R. Smothers, Minority Counsel.
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The Chairman. The hearing will please come to order.
Our witnesses today are Mr. James B. Adams, the Deputy
Associate Director of the FBI, and Mr. Raymond Wannall, who
is the Assistant Director in charge of the Intelligence
Division of the FBI.
Before I swear the witnesses, Senator Mondale has asked
if he might make an opening statement. And for that purpose
the Chair: recognizes the distinguished Senator from Minnesota.
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Senator Mondale. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I have always supported the FBI. It is clearly the finest,
3 most professional law enforcement agency in the nation and
probably in the world. In apprehending robbers, foiling
5 kidnappers, catching fugitives, the FBI has an outstanding
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record.
This is based on my own experience with the FBI in my
own state where I served as Attorney General. The vast bulk
of its work is devoted to law enforcement and legitimate
counter-espionage.
In these fields the FBI deserves fully the admiration
and respect which Americans traditionally held for the Bureau
and its personnel. But in one area, domestic intelligence,
It now
the FBI, in my opinion, has clearly gone astray.
appears that there was an underworld within the FBI which
took the tools, techniques and zeal which was so effective
against the real foreign threats and turned them in upon some
of the American people.
Yesterday this Committee heard some of the most disturbing
testimony that can be imagined in a free society. We heard
evidence that for decades the institutions designed to enforce
the laws and constitutions of our country itself has been
engaging in conduct that violates the law and the Constitution.
We heard that the FBI, which is a part of the Department of
Justice, took justice into its own hands by seeking to punish
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those with unpopular ideas. We learned that the chief law
enforcement agency in the Federal government decided that it
did not need laws to investigate and suppress the peaceful
and constitutional activities of those whom it disapproved.
We heard testimony that the FBI, to protect the country
against those it believed had totalitarian political views,
employed the tactics of totalitarian societies against
American citizens. We heard that the FBI attempted to destroy
one of our greatest leaders in the field of civil rights, and
then replace him with someone of the FBI's choosing.
From the evidence the Committee has obtained it is
clear that the FBI for decades has conducted surveillance over
the personal and political activities of millions of
Americans.
Evidently, no meeting was too small, no group
too insignificant to escape their attention. It did not
seem to matter whether the politics of these Americans were
legal or radical or whether the participants were well known
or obscure. It did not matter whether the information was
The FBI created indexes, more
intimate and personal.
commonly called enemy lists, of thousands of Americans and
targeted many of the Americans on these lists for special
harassment. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were victims
of this surveillance program. Most of this was done in secret.
Much of it was kept from Congress and the Justice Department
and all of it from the American people. No one outside the
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FBI has ever had an opportunity to know and appreciate the
full extent of the domestic surveillance program that was
then being conducted.
Thus we see that just as in the case of the CIA the
key issue was accountability: How we can assure that the
secret instruments of government are accountable to the
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people, the Congress and the law.
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It is clear that the FBI's authority for these programs
is essentially non-existent. I am not persuaded that the
Secret Presidential orders of President Roosevelt support the
Domestic Intelligence program, and even if it did, I do
not believe that any President has the authority to order the
FBI or anyone else to spy on Americans, to burgle their homes,
to wiretap them, to open their mail or to blackmail them.
One of the most disturbing aspects of this affair is
that the FBI never paid very much attention to whether their
activities were authorized or not or whether they were legal
One former senior intelligence officer
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and constitutional.
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has testified that he never once heard a discussion about
legality or constitutionality. Most governments in history
have relied on some form of police power to determine what
views would prevail in their society. However, America was
based on the revolutionary concept that the people should
decide what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable
and what is not.
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. That is what we meant by a free government, and our
forefathers were convinced that it can exist only through the
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greatest tolerance of speech and opinion. They placed their
faith in the people to remain alert to encroachments on their
liberty.
The founders of our country knew that the greatest
danger to freedom comes from the efforts of government to
suppress the opinions of its opponents. They set up a
system which limited the powers of government, bound it in
the constraints of the law, and prohibited it from infringing.
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on the rights of people to free expression.
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And through
the separation of power, the system of checks and balances,
they tried to assure that the Executive would be accountable
to the people through the Congress.
For the 200 years of our existence as a nation the
preservation of liberty has been a constant struggle. Whether
it has been the Alien and Sedition Acts during the French
Revolution, the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids of World War
I, or McCarthyism after World War II, or Army spying during
the Vietnam War, the government has let a fear of unorthodox
opinion lead it into the trap of infringing upon the
Constitution in the name of internal security.
The issues we confront today are a part of a continuing
drama of American democracy. It is proof, if we ever needed
it, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
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Revelations of abuse of power, do not threaten doméstic
These hearings do not weaken the FBI. What weakens
security.
it is its failure to adhere to the proper role of law
enforcement.
Somehow it forgot that this was its job. It
began to use its energy to spy on Americans whose only
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offense was an expressing opinions that some in the FBI did not
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like. It confused talk of violence with acts of violence,
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and all too often paid more attention to the talk than to
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the "act.
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The answer, of course, is that violence justifies
prosecution, not surveillance. Our security is not improved
by watching those who commit crimes.
Security from violence
lies in active and vigorous law enforcement of those who
are committing crimes. Security fram dangerous ideas, if
we need any security, should come not from the FBI but
from the merit of better ideas, in the good sense of the
American people.
Our liberty is best protected by scrupulous adherence
to the law and the Constitution by the agencies of government.
No government agency likes to be the subject of public
scrutiny. I know these have been difficult times for the
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in these programs at all. But if they had been spending a lot
of time responding to Congressional investigations, they
could not forget that this is the first time in 50 years that
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the FBI had been subjected to public scrutiny.
As painful as this process.is, I hope the FBI itself.
would welcome the opportunity to let in some fresh air and
come to grips with the problems in candor and not retreat. into
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past patterns of stirring up public fears to distract our
attention from the necessity of reform.
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Mr. Chairman, may I say that yesterday I am told that
following our hearing the FBI responded exactly in the spirit
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that I had hoped it would. If they can take this constructive
approach, I have no doubt that the FBI will benefit from
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in law enforcement, in the detection of crime, and in the
.gathering of legal evidence for prosecution and conviction,
but an FBI without abuses..
As we proceed with these hearings today, we should also
bear in mind the responsibility for the abuses we have
uncovered does not rest on the FBI alone. We in the
Congress have been derelict. It should not have taken until
this date for us to discharge our responsibility for
investigating FBI and other domestic intelligence.
We should also realize that the FBI has been performing
a function which many Americans, and at times the vast
majority of Americans, have wanted to see undertaken. When
popular opinion brands a group unAmerican and subversive
merely because of its political views, all too often the FBI
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has reponded to public expectations and from pressure from
a higher authority in government.
While this does not excuse what happened, we should
temper our criticism of the FBI's excesses by understanding that
in large part it was only the instrument of our own intolerance
Indeed, I believe that is why our laws and the charter of the
FBI must be carefully redrawn to protect the FBI's integrity
from political pressures and hysteria.
Finally, it would be a mistake to regard the abuses
of the FBI as those of evil men. The FBI has always been
composed of dedicated and hard-working public servants who
seek to do their jobs as best they can. The lesson we learn
from this history is that we cannot keep our liberty secure.
by relying alone on the good faith of men with great power.
As Mr. Justice Brandeis once wrote:
"Experience should teach us to be most on guard to
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protect liberty when government's purposes are beneficiént.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious
encroachment of men of zeal, well-meaning but without
understanding."
It is my hope that the FBI witnesses we will hear today
can enlighten us as to how it can conduct internal security
surveillance programs which do not infringe on our
constitutional liberties. I hope they can suggest iron-clad
assurances that the abuses of the past will not be repeated.
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We need more protection than promises of self-restraint
by men of good will.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Mondale.
That is
an excellent statement with which I would like to be fully
associated.
Senator Hart of Michigan. I would, Mr. Chairman, also,
except that I want to make clear my family certainly did not
support, encourage, or by its vocal position give any
indication to the Bureau that they could do what they did.
I don't want to go too far in suggesting that what we heard
yesterday was simply responding by the Bureau to the mood
of those years.
In those years if we had known what you were doing,
I lay dough, most families would have said stop it.
Senator Mondale. That is true. I think one of the
points that we might aver to is the Houston Plan and the
tremendous pressure the FBI was placed under to again resume
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question that they were getting private pressure from higher
authority to do things. In that instance they didn't want
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it.
The Chairman. Well, I was struck with the fact that
the Houston Plan, as illegal as it was, was limited to techniques
far more restrictive than the far-reaching methods that were
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employed by the FBI during the years that we have reviewed in
yesterday's hearings. They led beyond anything that was
ever contained in any official document requesting from
the President additional authority.
Now I think, Mr. Adams, Mr. Wannall, in addition to
swearing you both, if you are going to have occasion to
ask others who are with you to testify in response to certain
questions, that it would be well at this time to swear them
also.
So if that is the case, anyone who anticipates that he
may be testifying in this morning's hearing in response to
questions, if you will all stand and take the oath at this
time.
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help you God?
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Do you and each of you solemnly swear that all of the
testimony that you will give in these proceedings will be
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
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Mr Wanhall: I do.
The Chairman: wAfter yesterday's hearing I asked the staff
to furnish me with the statutory authority that presently exists
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which was of course: the subject of yesterday's hearings.
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And I am furnished in response to that request
Title XVIII, Section 533 of the United States Code, which
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reads as follows: "The Attorney General may appoint officials:
one, to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States;
two, to assist in the protection of the person of the
President;
and three, to conduct such other investigations
regarding official maṭters under the control of the Department
of Justice and the Department of State as maybe directed by
the Attorney General.
Now yesterday, Mr. Wannall, we were told about a series
of activities that were undertaken by the FBI, and indeed,
initiated within the FBI, the purpose of which was to harass
and discredit Dr. Martin Luther King.
Now I am not referring to the results of any FBI
investigative activity, but rather, I am referring to these
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Mr. King himself.
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My first question is was Dr. King, in his advocacy of
equal rights for black citizens, advocating a course of
action that in the opinion of the FBI constituted a crime?
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TESTIMONY OF JAMES B. ADAMS, DEPUTY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
OE THE FBI, AND. RAYMOND WANNALL, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR,
¨EBI INTELLIGENCE DIVISION
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Mr. Adams. NO, sir.
The Chairman. So he was not then thought to be engaged
in any criminal activity. In fact, he was preaching, as I
remember those days, non-violence, was he not, as a method
of achieving equal rights for black citizens?
Mr. Adams. That's right, his advocacy for civil rights.
The Chairman. His advocacy of civil rights was non-
violent and therefore legal in character.
Mr. Adams. That was not the basis of our investigation
of him.
The Chairman. But as you have said, he was not
engaging in any unlawful activity in connection with his
advocacy of equal rights for black citizens.
Is that correct?
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. Well, is it true that at one time the
FBI undertook to discourage an American college from conferring
an honorary degree on Dr. King?
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. On what legal basis does the FBI have
a right to interfere, in an effort to discourage a college from
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1 conferring an honorary degree upon a man like Dr. Martin
2 Luther King, who was not engaging in or suspected of engaging
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in criminal activity?
1. Mr. Adams. I know of no basis.
The Chairman. Why did the FBI do it?
Mr. Adams. Well, we have to approach two parts, in
my estimation, Senator Church. One, the basis for our
investigation of Martin Luther King, which was to determiņe
communist influence. on him, my hands are tied in discussing
that somewhat on the basis that there is certain information
which today, from an ongoing operation is sensitive and
which, of course, we have made known to you and certain
staff members.
I would like to say on the basis that from our review
we feel that we initially had a basis for investigating Martin
Luther King.
Now as far as the activities which you are asking about,
the discrediting, I know of no basis for that and I will
not attempt to justify it.
The Chairman.. You never made a finding, did you, that
Martin Luther King was a communist?
We
Mr. Adams. No, sir, we did not. We were investigating
communist influence and the possible effect on him.
never made such a determination.
The Chairman.
Very well, Then there was no justification
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for the FBI to interfere?
Mr. Adams. To discredit him.
The Chairman.
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The Chairman.
Mr. Adams. I cannot find any justification for that.
Is it true that the FBI on another occasion
intervened in an attempt to prevent Dr. Martin Luther King
from seeing the Pope?
Mr. Adams. I believe that is correct, sir. There were
approximately 25 incidents, I believe, of actions taken in
this regard. I think Mr. Schwarz has those available, that
I would lump basically all of them into the same situation
of I see no statutory basis or no basis of justification for
the activity.
The Chairman. But what was the motive, there being no
statutory basis or other valid basis? What was the motive
for attempting to prevent Dr. Martin Luther King from visiting
with the Pope?
Mr. Adams. In looking at absolute motive, I don't think
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Committee, give me a clear picture of what the motive was.
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I think that there were, the motive was certainly known to
Mr. Hoover. It was known to one top official who is no longer
with the Bureau and maybe known to others, all of whom have
been interviewed by the Committee. Matters bearing on what
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might have been the real motive or the possible motive,
again feel, because of reasons of privacy and delicacy, are
not a proper subject of discussion at a public hearing.
one,
I think we know what could have. influenced this, but
the primary individual, Mr. Hoover, is not with us.
Individuals who were closest to him in this effort are not
And the Committee itself has interviewed him.
with us.
issue.
So I really am not in a position to discuss this motive
The Chairman.
Nevertheless, you would agree that
whatever the motive, it was a very improper thing to do.
Mr. Adams. I cannot find any justification, no, sir.
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The Chairman. Is it true that after Dr. Martin Luther
King had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, that an
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anonymous letter was sent to Dr. Martin Luther King and to
Mrs. King, Coretta King, his wife, which was sent 34 days before
he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize?
Mr. Adams. I do not think those dates are correct.
Well, it was sent
Mr. Adams. It was before he was to receive it. I think
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upon reconstruction by one of the members of my
staff, 34 days would have been Christmas Day, and whether that
34 days
The Chairman. It is hard to believe that such a letter
would be written on Christmas Day.
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Mr. Adams. It was not. written on Christmas Day, but 34
the Nobel Peace Prize I think was on December 10, the
letter 34 days from the date of the mailing of: the letter
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as has been reconstructed, as best as possible, would have been
Christmas Day..
FBI?
The Chairman. Was the letter written and sent by the
Mr. Adams. We have no information to that effect. All
we know is that the draft, or original, of what may have been
the letter was found in papers of the FBI left after a former
official departed the FBI. We know that based upon inquiries
that we have conducted and you have conducted, we know that the
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I mean it was in connection with other
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The Chairman.
Other materials which were sent.
Mr. Adams. That's right. So I can assume that the letter
was sent. I have determined nothing from my review of the
files, and neither has your staff, to my knowledge, or has been
reported back to me which would indicate that this action was
duly recorded in any file or was a part of any authorized
program or anything else. This is a void that I do not think
any of us has been satisfactorily able to resolve.
The Chairman. We know the letter appeared in the files. We
know that the letter was received. We know it was associated
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with other matters that were sent by the FBI to Dr. Martin
14 Luther King.
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Mr. Adams. The letter was never in our files in the sense
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It was
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The Chairman. It was among. papers..
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Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. The letter read, "King, there is only one
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34 days in which to do it; this exact number has been sélected
for a specific reason. It has definite practical significance.
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You are done. There is but one way out for you."
Now, if you had received such a letter, how would you have
interpreted it? What would you have thought it meant?
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Mr. Adams. I have read that statement. I have heard the
conclusions of your staff that it was a suicide urging. I can't
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that, approaching it from an objective standpoint, as I read it,
I don't know what it means.
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--
I don't understand the basis for it. It is a
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from my.reading of that statement..
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The Chairman. Now, if you had received a letter of this
kind and it had been directed to you, if you were in Dr. King's
position and you read, "King, there is only one thing left
for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in
which to do it." Now, that happened to correspond to the time
before which he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. What
would you think that meant?.
Mr. Adams. I would have to consider what I was being
accused of. I would have to consider what the facts were. I
would have to consider what the intent of the person was writing
such a note, coming just before Christmas. I don't know if it
means, it is an urging to repent from something this person,
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1 whoever he was, that had sent it, I have no idea what it meant.
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The Chairman. It is certainly no Christmas card, is it?
Mr. Adams. It is certainly no Christmas card.
The Chairman. It reads, "You are done. There is but one
way out for you."
What does that mean?
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Mr. Adams. I don't know. I don't know if it means
I don't know if it means suicide, as has been raised.
I have no idea. You have the statement. I am not in a position
to say.
I haven't interviewed anyone that was with him at the
time he received it.
The Chairman. Would you disown this statement and say that
any connection the FBI had with it was utterly improper and
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Mr. Adams.
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I certainly would say it was improper, and I
can't justify its being prepared or sent, yes, sir.
Senator Mondale. . Mr. Chairman, if I might just interrupt.
The Chairman.
Senator Mondale.
Senator Mondale.
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What I asked yesterday of the staff was
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what Dr. King took it to mean. I have no knowledge of what those
who framed this letter intended, and those who were with him at
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the time he read it, including Congressman Young who was one of
his assistants at the time, said that they took it to mean a
suggestion that he take his own life..
Mr. Adams.
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I am not in possession of that information. I
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Mr. Adams. Absolutely.
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am being put in a position, I don't know what the staff determined.
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The Chairman. The letter will speak for itself. You
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The Chairman. As a highly improper thing for the FBI
to be connected with in any way, do you agree with that?
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir, yes, sir..
The Chairman. Now, without going through the many
different and specific undertakings that were intended to public-
ly discredit. Dr. King, because my time will not permit that and
others will want to question you on other specific matters, I
have just one further question to put to you..
Yesterday there was a document of the FBI which suggested
that in the opinion of the Bureau, Dr. King was an unsuitable
leader for the civil rights movement, and that another man
should be looked for, and indeed, another candidate was actually
suggested to Mr. Hoover as one who should be promoted in
various ways so that he might assume the leadership of this
movement..
Now, can you tell me of anything in the law, or any other
justification, given the mission of the FBI, that would entitle
it to decide who should lead political movements in this country
or to undertake to degrade à man who had fought' and won such
leadership and had the support of a great many black people in
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the FBI's favor?
Can you think of any justification for such activity on
the part of a law enforcement agency?
Mr. Adams. I can't think of any offhand, no, sir.
The Chairman. Neither can I.
Senator Tower?
Senator Tower. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
What is your understanding, if you have any understanding
of the underlying causes of the feud between Mr. Hoover and
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Dr. King?
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Senator Tower,
feel if we got into any
discussion of that, I think we would have to take into consider-
ation certain material which I feel should not be disclosed
publicly, and I would respectfully ask that a question of motive
of Mr. Hoover and the spat with Mr. King should be discussed
in executive session, if at all.
Senator Tower. All right..
In 1965 Attorney General Katzenbach was informed by Mr.
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What was the Attorney General's reaction? What was his
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position once he was informed by Mr. Hoover of this surveillance?
Mr. Adams. I don't recall having seen it.
Senator Tower. In other words, did the Attorney General
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1 give any direction to the Bureau in the matter that you know of?
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Mr. Adams. Yes, sir. I know that, of course, on the
wiretapping on Martin Luther King, it was approved by the
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and the Attorney General specifically discussed their concern
with Dr. King over: Communist influence on him. I do know there
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was concern, but I don't tie in this date, 1965.
Senator Tower. Do you know whether or not Mr. Hoover
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ever sought direct authorization from Mr. Katzenbach for this
very sensitive surveillance of. Dr. King?
Mr. Adams. I don't know.. Attorney General Kennedy approved
the actual surveillance that was instituted on Dr. King. I
don't know of any correspondence between Attorney General
Katzenbach
Senator Tower. Or any personal communication between them
that would have indicated the level of the Attorney General's
involvement?
Mr. Adams.
NO.
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If my recollection serves me correct, as far as Attorney
General Kennedy was concerned, he requested coverage on Dr.
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is our normal procedure. He declined to approve that request,
and then we came back later, a few months later and requested
it again, at which time he did approve. That is my recollection
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of that.
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Senator Tower. Why did the Attorney General change his
mind? Do you have any idea, or is that again a matter of
sensitivity?
Mr. Adams. I don't know why he actually changed his mind
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and then approving it on the second go round.
It may be in the files. If it is, I would be glad to see
what I could determine.
Senator Tower. If you could, we would like to have that.
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
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Senator Tower.
Mr. Adams, you have been familiar with the
Bureau's domestic intelligence work for many years. How did
the Bureau come to launch the COINTEL program and what in essence
did COINTELPRO accomplish?
Mr. Adams.
Well, the program as such, as I can reconstruct
from the files, was indicated as concern over conspiratorial
efforts of certain groups, and a decision made that perhaps
more affirmative action should be taken to neutralize violence
which was becoming of more concern to the FBI in that regard.
I believe these are some of the basic considerations that went
into the launching of the COINTELPRO..
Now, as far as the first one, which was the Communist
Party, of course, there was the concern here to neutralize the
effectiveness of the Communist Party in the United States. In
fact, out of all of the COINTELPRO operations that were approved,
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59 percent of them were directed at the Communist Party. The
2 bulk of the concern initially was with the Communist Party and
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it was a desire to create factionalism within the Communist
4 Party and try to neutralize its efforts.
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The Communist Party, Congress itself, still has a determina+
tion on the record as to the threat of the Communist Party in a
statute. The Supreme Court has held that the Communist Party is
an instrument of the Soviet Unión. The Soviet Union certainly
has not relinquished its interest in the United States as a
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All of these considerations went into should we do
something not only to follow the activities of the Communist
Party, but should we destroy its effectiveness in the United
States.
That was the first program, I believe, that was initiated.
Senator Tower. Now, did the Bureau ever seek direction and
counsel from the Attorney General on any of its COINTELPRO
efforts or specific programs?
Mr. Adams.
As best as I can reconstruct, Senator, there
was no direct authority requested from any Attorney General for
the initiation of these programs, and it is only a question, as
your staff presented yesterday, that the Attorney Generals,
Presidents, Congress, had been made available of certain aspects
of programs after the fact and those were primarily concerned
with the Communist Party and, oh, one other organization but
not the New Left and these other types. So I cannot find any
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evidence, and I have no reason to believe that there would be
any evidence that the Bureau initiated these programs other than
as an internal decision.
Senator Tower. Well, were reports on these programs made
to the Attorney General? Was he informed of them? Was he kept
informed on a continuing basis?
Mr. Adams. He was kept informed by letters, which again
the staff has alluded to, letters reporting certain developments.
For instance, one of them that went to one Attorney General,
reading of that letter outlined almost in complete detail Klan
activities; activities taken to disrupt the Klan. It used
terms of neutralize, disrupt. There was a clear explanation of
what we were doing against the Klan in that regard.
Senator Tower. How is it that you came to believe that you
had the authority to neutralize or disrupt these organizations
rather than proceed against them frontally through prosecuting
them for law violations?
Mr. Adams.
I guess you would have to say, in a position
,like this, that it is just like the Smith Act of 1940, which is
designed to prevent revolutionary groups from advocating the
overthrow of the Government, and then subsequent interpretations
as to the constitutionality of it leaves us with a statute
still on the books that proscribes certain actions, but yet the
degree of proof necessary to operate under the few remaining
areas is such that there was no satisfactory way to proceed,
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The Chairman.
Will the Senator: yield at that point; please?
What you are saying, Mr. Wannall - Mr. Adams, excuse
me, is that you did not operate within the law because the
law didn't give you sufficient latitude:. Therefore you under-
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took direct action to disrupt and otherwise undermine these
organizations.
Senator Tower:. Did you proceed on the assumption that
these organizations would eventually break the law, and therefore
you sought to neutralize and disrupt. them before they did?
Mr. Adams.
I can't say that, sir. I think that the investi-
gations of them were based on this belief, that they might
break the law or they were breaking the law. The disruptive
activities, I can't find where we were able to relate to that.
What it boils down to is what we have gotten into a question
before on: in our review of the situation we see men of the
FBI recognizing or having a good faith belief that there was
immediate danger to the United States
Senator Tower. All right, but to repair to Senator Church's
question, you don't say that you really had specific legal
authority.
Mr. Adams. No. And this is the hangup with the whole
program, and which we are not trying to justify, that there is
some statutory basis. I would not make that effort whatsoever.
All I'm trying to do is say that at the time it was initiated,
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we had men who felt--that there was an immediate danger to the
They felt they had a responsibility to act and having
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felt this responsibility, did act. And this is the whole problem
we have at the present time, because we do have, one, we can
see good evidence of their belief there was a threat. We had
cities being burned, we had educational institutions being
bombed. We had deaths occurring from all of these activities.
We had a situation that we didn't know what the end was going
to be. We never can look around the corner in intelligence
operations. We don't know if ultimately this might bring the
destruction of the country. All we know is we had an extremely
violent time. So I don't find any basis in my mind to argue
with their good faith belief they were faced with a danger.
Now, when they move over to the second area of responsi-
bility, here is where we have the problem, and I think it is
the whole purpose of this Committee, the Attorney General,
Mr. Kelley, all of us realizing we can't operate in these areas
where we feel responsibility. but we don't have a mandate by
Congress. So in that area; this feeling of responsibility
I. feel.came from the fact that Presidents, as your staff said
yesterday, Presidents, Congressmen, the Attorney General,
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no
one really provided direction and guidance or instructions
don't do this. Do this, don't do that, or what are you doing
and how are you doing it.
For instance, there is some feeling on the part of some
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1 that our whole domestic intelligence operations were secret.
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The COINTELPRO operation was. I mean, I think we all agree that
3 this was, to be effective, they felt it should be secret. But
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back in our
am
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this is printed appropriation testimony which
went to the members of the Committee. It was mailed out to
newspapers, friends, anyone that was interested in it, back
in 1967 talking about Internal Security's operations, the New
Left movement, Young Socialist Alliance, Chicago trial, nationwide
demonstrations, student agitation, anti-war activities, the
Committee of Returned Volunteers, Communist Party; U.S.A.“,
Progressive Party, Socialist Party, extremist organizations,
Black Panther Party. All of these items and statements about
extremists, white extremists and hate type groups, the Republic
of New Africa, Minutemen, our coverage of subversive organiza-
tions there are several groups, organizations and movements
which I discussed showed. the wide.coverage we must maintain
to follow on their activities and changing tactics, and in spite
of the proliferation of these organizations, our informant
coverage at all. levels has been of great value and assistance,
enabling us to keep abreast of our investigative responsibilities.
This is the same way through all of our public appropriation
testimony.
We have told the world we are investigating black
hate groups, New Left groups.
So, I merely mention this to try to put in the frame of
reference of these men feeling, they know we are investigating
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1 them. They didn't tell them, though, in sufficient detail other
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than scantily before the Appropriations Committee what we were
3 doing to disrupt these activities, and my feeling is that the
4 men recognized the danger, they pointed out the danger to the
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world. They said, we are investigating these organizations and
they felt then that the comfortable climate of leave it-up to
the FBI, we should do something more. And that is what we are
looking for guidelines on, the Attorney General, Mr. Kelley,
you, that give us the guidelines under which we should operate.
Now, there are certain guidelines that we don't need to
be given, we shouldn't do this. We don't have such activities
today, programs designed to disrupt and neutralize in the
domestic intelligence field. But beyond that, we need guidelines
on what does the whole of Congress, representative of the people,
by passing of legislation say this is the FBI's role in
domestic intelligence..
Senator Tower. Mr. Chairman, my time has long since
expired.
I would like to note that I saw Mr. Kelley on the Today
Show this morning indicating strong support for a response to
Congressional oversight, and that is a healthy attitude.
The Chairman. Well, I think it must come because, as
you have really conceded, you shouldn't have ever had to have
had the guidelines that the Federal Government's chief law
enforcement agency ought not to disobey the law, and really, r
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shouldn't have.
1 you don't need explicit guidelines to tell you that, or you
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Wouldn't you agree?
Mr. Adams. I would say that looking at it today, we should
have looked at it that way yesterday, but I do feel, I don't
have any doubt about the good faith of people recognizing the
danger, feeling they had a responsibility, no matter whose fault
it was, ours internally or because we weren't given the super-
vision we should have been given, and taking what they considered
to be appropriate action.
The Chairman.
Senator Hart.
Senator Hart of Michigan. I should apologize both to
witnesses and my colleagues on the Committee for scrambling
around loosely, but in explanation to the witnesses, I have not
been able to give attention to the evolution of the files that
are now at hand until the last couple of days, and I am not
sure what is in the files for the public record, and what of
the materials I have been shown in the last couple of days since
I got back are still under seal. So just out of memory I am
20 going to summarize certain activities which have been acknowledged
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that the Bureau undertook, but without being specific with respect
to location and names, and I do it for this reason. It is
23 right that the Committee and the press be worried about the
treatment of a Nobel Prize winner, Dr. King.
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There are an awful lot of people who never got close to a
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Nobel Prize whose names are Jones and Smith, that my review
of the files show had violence done to their First Amendment
rights. And Nobel Prize winners will always get protection,
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him, too.
Now, included in this COINTEL were activities like this,
anonymous letters, drafted by Bureau offices in the field, sent
to headquarters in Washington, approved, and then put in the
mail, intended to break up marriages, not of Dr. King but of
Mary and John Jones because one or the other was thought to be
a dissenter, might have dressed strangely or showed up at
meetings in company of others who dressed strangely; anonymous
letters to university officials and to the several newspapers
in that city to prevent university facilities from being made
available to a speaker of whom the Bureau disapproved, and it
was not a top flight, big name speaker. In that case, an
anonymous letter was sent to me making protest. Being an
anonymous letter, it never occurred to me that it came from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The series of anonymous letters, one with the spelling
very poor, the grammar sloppy, and another more sophisticated,
protesting the employment by a city of a man alleging that he
was a Communist or came from a Communist family, and there are
loyal Americans out of work, what are you doing, Mayor.
to the press, isn't this an outrage. And again the letter, the
And
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this. There are loyal Democrats in this town who need work. And
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in that case happened to have known the man about whom the
protest was made, and the Bureau's facts were wrong as hell on
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Now, yes or no, are those actions regarded now by the
Bureau as within bounds?
Mr. Adams. No, sir.
Senator Hart of Michigan. Why were they regarded as within
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Mr. Adams. Well, I think even under the guidelines of
COINTELPRO, as established, the programs were not designed for
the purpose of harrassment of an individual. The memoranda
indicate they were designed to disrupt the organizations. Some
of the turn downs were turned down on this specific wording.
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This is mere harrassment.
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and of course, here, I
The rationale would have been
say some of these you mentioned wouldn't even appear to me to
meet the criteria of the program and should have been disavowed,
even under the existence of the program. However, in the total
context of the program activities were to be directed towards
the organization itself; but we do not do that at the present
time.
Senator Hart of Michigan. Yes, but everything I have
summarized, rather poorly, was approved by the Bureau at the
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time by headquarters, not by the field office agents.
Mr. Adams. I do think that there were improper actions
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Attorney General certainly has. Yet the majority of the actions
taken, even the Department concluded were lawful and legal,
"proper investigative activities, but the
Senator Hart of Michigan.
--
You see, my feeling is it isn't
a question of techniques that are bad. The concept of the
program seems to do violence to the First Amendment because
everything you did sought to silence someone or threaten
somebody to silence, or deny somebody a platform, or create an
atmosphere in which people were in fact afraid to assemble.
Now, sometimes law enforcement, legitimate law enforcement
has what we call this chilling effect, when it is legitimate
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Oftentimes that chilling effect is a necessary
though regretable side effect. But what I am talking about,
and what these files are full of are actions the only purpose
of which is to chill. It isn't in pursuit of any crime at all.
Indeed, when a court of general jurisdiction approved the use
of that university premise for the use of the speaker the
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Bureau had stirred so much controversy with its anonymous
letters, when that judge wrote an order, after the sponsoring
group went to court, what was the Bureau's reaction from
headquarters? Investigate the judge.
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Now, that, you know, if
Mr. Adams. I'm not familiar with that fact.
Senator Hart of Michigan. Well, neither was I until last
night.
Mr. Adams. The instruction was to investigate the judge?
Senator Hart of Michigan. This is the kind of stuff that
I came out of the hospital to find, and it is the sort of thing,
as I said yesterday, that my children have been telling me for
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And they were right and I am wrong.
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Mr. Adams. Well, there were about 3200 activities, and
about 2300 I believe or so were approved under the COINTELPRO,
and over 59 percent were addressed to the Communist Party. That
leaves 1000. And out of 1000, perhaps, I don't know what the
actual figure was of ones that just clearly stand out as
improprietous under the program, even as it existed at the
time, but I do feel that -- well, it is a very difficult area.
Senator Hart of Michigan.. My time is up, too, I am sure,
but on this business of the Communist Party, if your theory
continues to be that any socially active group of citizens
who organize, whether Women's libbers or fight the bomb or
anything else, might be a target for infiltration by the
Communist Party and therefore you can move your agents in, that
means, almost not as an overstatement, that any and every citizen
activity could be made the target of the kind of business that
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then you are justified in running tails on everybody.
Mr. Adams. Well, that was not
--
Senator Hart of Michigan. Everybody has got that privilege
and that clearly is a police state concept.
Mr. Adams. That is not our criteria.
Senator Hart of Michigan.
All right, but if the criteria
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is three or four of us get together and we have a sort of
nutty idea, just the kind of thing the Communists would like to
exploit, and therefore you seek to justify shutting off the
forum for that group or to surveille it, the potential for
Communist intrusion, then, if that continues to be your theory,
14 then I say you are, you are going to pursue the same wretched
road that these files show you have been pursuing before. If
that is the predicate, the fact that a Soviet or Marxist or
Maoist Hottentot is liable to think there is an idea that we
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can exploit, then you people are going to be spending how many
man hours, how many tax dollars doing the kind of things that
.I summarized so briefly here.
That in my book is the 20th century version of what the
Founding Fathers intended to prevent when they wrote the First
Amendment.
What is the position of the Bureau when a Communist.
may participate, associate with and promote an idea, this
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justifies you trying to figure out if you can bust up a marriage
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if two of the people are in the group?
sir.
Mr. Adams. It does not, and it is not our criteria, no
Senator Hart of Michigan. What does it justify?
Mr. Adams. It justifies our doing nothing in the way of
I still feel it has a justification,
COINTELPRO activities.
that you agree with, to investigate the Communist Party. It is
when you get into the disruptive areas where the program goes
beyond investigation that we have no statutory authority.
Senator Hart of Michigan. Well, we have been emphasizing
COINTEL. Would it justify putting tails on the people?
Mr. Adams. What, just a
Senator Hart of Michigan. Or putting an informant into
the group.
Mr. Adams. If it is a Communist group?
Senator Hart of Michigan. No, if it's me and somebody
else that thinks we oughtn't to have something that a majority
of people think we should. We organize and you people say,
well, there is something the Communists can take and run with.
Mr. Adams. No, sir.
Senator Hart of Michigan. Does that justify putting a
tail on them?
Mr. Adams. It does not, and we would not. Before we
25 would even open for a preliminary inquiry, we should have an
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indication that the Communist Party has attempted to infiltrate
or is infiltrating, in other words, where you have some evidence
of a subversive group, participating in the functions of that
organization, and there are grey areas here, in the spectrum
of anything where I am sure we have opened investigations where
we should not because there has been scant evidence of such
infiltration. And this is a supervisory problem. It is a
criteria problem. And it is also an oversight problem which
we are responding to.
1
Senator Hart of Michigan. My time is up and I haven't gotten
into some of the other material.
The Chairman. Well, Senator, you have not been with us
Senator Hart of Michigan. No, no, I. just
The Chairman. If you want more time, you have a lot of time
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If you want to use it now, you go right ahead.
Senator Hart of Michigan.
for this sort of business.
Well let me ask the justification
I have been talking about the things I have seen in the files
that bear on direct, First Amendment denial, and again, this
does not deal with the treatment of a distinguished American.
Indeed, it involves groups that are generally viewed with very
sharp disapproval. The ground rules for the treatment should
be precisely the same, whether it is a good guy, a popular
guy, or a dirty and smelly guy.
What was the purpose of the Bureau in trying to stir up
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perhaps I shouldn't say what was the purpose
what
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possible justification for the Bureau trying to sick the Black
Panthers on that outfit call the US out in California, or between
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the Black Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers in Chicago? Was
it with the hope that by fomenting it they would kill each other
off?
Mr. Adams.
Absolutely not, and I think the Committee
staff can inform you that during their review of all of these
matters they haven't come up with one instance of violence
resulting from any of these actions, and in that particular
case there was a communication in the same file which I believe
the staff had access to which showed that we did get information
that one of these groups was going to put out a contract on one
of the others, and we notified the police and the individuals
of the fact that their life was in danger.
None of our programs have contemplated violence,, and
the instructions prohibited it, and the record of turndowns of
recommended actions in some instances specifically say that
we do not approve this action because if we take it it could
result in harm to the individual...
So I think this is one charge
--
and the staff did not
make such a charge, I might add, when they presented the picture
but I think any inference that we were trying to result in
violence is wrong.
Senator Hart of Michigan. Let me explain for the record
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why I reached the conclusion I did..
Mr. Adams. The wording of that memorandum
Senator Hart of Michigan.
And why I continue to hold to
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On January 30th, 1969, the Bureau headquarters in Washington
approved sending an anonymous letter to the leader of the
Blackstone Rangers, Jeff Forky, which indicated that the Black
Panthers had put a contract out on his life as a result of
conflicts between the two organizations. Now, you say that was
to warn him.
I ask, wasn't the principal purpose of the letter to
encourage the Rangers to shoot some or all of the leadership
Otherwise, what does this quote mean,
and I
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of the Panthers?
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of the Bureau asking approval to undertake this. Here is the
way it reads: "It is believed that the above" this anonymous
tip that a contract is out on you, "It is believed that the
above may intensify the degree of animosity between the two
groups and occasion. Forky to take retaliatory actions which
could disrupt the BPP, the Black Panthers, or lead to
reprisals against its leadership.. Consideration has been
given to a similar letter to the Panthers alleging a Ranger
plot against Panther leadership. However, it is not felt that
this will be productive, principally because the Panthers at
present is not believed as violence prone as the Rangers,
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to whom violent type activity, shooting and the like, is second
2 nature.
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Now, how can you reach any conclusion other than a purpose
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killing
Mr. Adams. Well, if that purpose was for that rather than
generating factionalism, disagreements, disrupting it, it would
be contrary to the communication I referred to in the other
file, the Black Panthers versus Ellis, where we notified the
police of the contract, we notified the individuals of the
contract and took every action at our command to prevent
direct violence, and also the fact that the files showed that
we turned down these situations where violence was involved.
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Senator Hart of Michigan.
Well, we have differing
2 views with respect to motives and the purpose of the Panther
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situation in Chicago.¨·I still do not understand why the
Panthers and this US group in California we sought to be set
as they were but finally, and again, I don't know whether it
is in the record, open or not, for what purpose other than to
occasion violence moved the Bureau to approve of forged
signatures of Communist Party personnel to letters addressed
to Mafia-owned businesses attacking the employment`practices
of the Mafia-owned business?
Why would a Bureau, why would the Bureau think there was
any value to be served in concocting a forged letter?
Let us assume Phil Hart is a local communist in this
· city. The Bureau forges Phil Hart's name to a racket-owned
business, notorious for using muscle, protesting that fellow's
business practices.
Now certainly it was not intended to improve the
employment practices.
Mr. Adams. I think if the full communication were
available, it did show a purpose unrelated to violence. I
don't recall the exact wording now, but I think it was to
create a lack of support or something like that.
This was part of that Hoodwink program, I believe, that
was one of four actions that were involved in Hoodwink, and
I think there have been some public descriptions of that
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program that indicate that it was not the greatest thing
2 coming down the pike.
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Senator Hart of Michigan. Well, that is the sort of
thing I found that persuaded me to say very openly that I do
not buy the idea that the American people ultimately are
responsible for that kind of nonsense because I am certain
that virtually every family in the country would have screamed
in protest no much how much they disliked Dr. King or the
Panthers or the Communists.
Mr. Adams. Sir
--
Senator Hart of Michigan. If they had known that tax
money and Federal personnel were busy, busy, busy around
the country, notwithstanding bank robberies that were going
on at the same time, pounding out that kind of correspondence
and inciting that kind of conflict and curbing speech.
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Hart.
Senator Mondale is next.
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'Senator Mondale. Mr. Adams, I realize that you were
not a part of this particular event, but being an old,
experienced FBI hand, wonder if you could help us understand
the psychology that led to this kind of memorandum.
Mr. Adams. I feel it coming, but go ahead.
Senator Mondale. This is a memorandum to the Director.
It has been referred to before, which calls for removing
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King from his pedestal and replacing him by someone else,
2 dated January 8th, 1964, which memo was written a week
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following the time that King was named man of the year by
Time magazine.
'
This memo as you know, received the following comment
"I am glad to see that light, though it
from Mr. Hoover.
häs been delayed, has come to the Domestic Intelligence
Division," and so on.
I would just quote part of the language and maybe you
can help us understand the psychology that led to it.
The first part of the memo says: "We have got to remove
King from his pedestal. Then it says, "the negroes will be
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left without a national leader of sufficiently compelling
personality to steer it in a proper direction. This is
what could happen but need not happen if the right kind of
national negro leader could at this time be gradually developed
so as to overthrow Dr. King and be in the position to assume
the role of leadership of the negro people when King has
been completely discredited.
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"For some months I have been thinking about this matter.
One day I had an opportunity to explore this from a philosophical
and sociological standpoint with X"
the name of the
"whom I have known for some years. As I previously
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reported, he is a very able fellow and one on whom I can
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he knew any negro of outstanding intelligence or ability, let
me know and we would have a discussion.
"He has submitted to me the name of the above-named
person.- Enclosed with this memorandum is an outline of
X's biography, which is truly remarkable.
In scanning, this
biography, it will be seen that X does have all of the
qualifications of the kind of a negro I have in mind to
advance to positions of national leadership."
And skipping: ¯¯I want to make it clear at once that
I don't propose that the FBI in any way become involved
openly as the sponsor of a negro leader to overshadow Martin
Luther King. If this thing can be set up properly without
the Bureau in any way becoming directly involved, I think
it would be not only a great help to the FBI, but would be
a fine thing for the country at large.
"While I'm not specifying at this moment, there are
various ways in which the FBI could give this entire matter
There are highly placed
the proper direction and development.
contacts at the FBI who it might be very helpful to further
such a step. This can be discussed at a later date when
I have probed more fully into the possibilities and this
recommendation is that approval be given for me to explore
the whole matter as set forth above," and to that Mr. Hoover
says, "I'm glad to see the light has finally come. I have
struggled for months to gat over the fact that the communists
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were taking over the racial movements but our experts here
couldn't or wouldn't see it."
Now I think you testified earlier that you do not accept
this as proper FBI activity, but can you help us understand
how at one point in American history someone thought it was
proper, apparently including the Director?
Mr. Adams. I would have to say for one thing that this
gets into the real motive of the discrediting of Martin Luther
King, which I don't feel can be fully explored. I think that
the people most directly involved in that are not available.
because I don't know from my experience what they had in
mind in this regard.
I have no doubt from this memorandum and other memorandum
that the two individuals involved felt very strongly that
Martin Luther King was a threat to the success of the negro
movement and that steps should be taken to get him out of
that what the reason for it was or the motivation, I am
just not in a position to say.
I do say it is improper to inject yourself into that
type of activity, but I don't know what the real motive was.
Senator Mondale.
Now Dr. King was investigated, as I
think you earlier testified, because of fears of communist
influence upon him?
Mr. Adams, Yes.
Senator Mondale. Is that a proper basis for investigating
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Dr. King or anyone else?
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Mr. Adams. It is where you have information indicating
that the Communist Party is and has made efforts to try
to influence an individual.
I would say that that would normally be considered
within the current criteria.
Senator Mondale. You would consider that to be a
valid purpose for investigating today?
Mr. Adams. Excuse me, what?
Senator Mondale.
You would consider that to be a
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valid basis for investigating today?
·Mr. Adams. The movement itself, but not the individual.
Senator Mondale. How do you investigate a movement
without investigating individuals?
Mr. Adams. You do get into a gray area. The main thing
would be if we had an organization today that we saw the.
Communist Party gravitating to, trying to work in positions
of leadership, we would be interested in opening an investigation
on Communist infiltration of that organization to see if
it was affecting it.
Senator Mondale. All right, now let's go back'
specifically.
I gather there never was any question raised about
whether Dr. King was a Communist. That was never charged.
Mr. Adams. Not as a Communist Party member, no, sir.
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Senator Mondale.
That's right. Or that he was about to
or had committed acts of violence?
.Mr. Adams.
No.
Senator Mondale. But the reason for investigating him
apparently was that he was subject to Communist influence.
Now what makes that a justified reason for investigating
him? Is it a crime to be approached by someone who is a
Communist?
Mr. Adams. No.
Senator Mondale. What is the legal basis for thạt
investigation?
Mr. Adams. The basis would be the Communist influence
on him and the effect it would have on the organization. It
would be in connection with our basic investigation of the
Communist Party.
Senator Mondale. Well, as I understand the law to
read, it is not a crime to be a member of a Communist Party.
Mr. Adams. That is correct.
Senator Mondale. How can it be a crime to know someone
who is a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. Adams. It is not.
Senator Mondale.
How do you investigate something as
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tenuous as that? What is the basis for it legally?
Mr. Adams. Well, it falls into the area of, one; the
intelligence jurisdiction of the activities of the Communist

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Party to have a situation where an individual in an organization,
a leader of an organization, efforts are being made to
influence him and to achieve control over the organization,
and it is part of the overall investigation of the Party
trying to exert this influence as to are they successful,
are they taking over the black movement or the civil rights
movement.\
It is just like we tried to make clear in investigations
that were more prevalent years ago but still occur on the
Communist influence in labor unions. We tried to tell every-
body we interview we are not interested in labor matters. We
are not trying to inquire into that. We are interested in
the effect of the Communist Party on this union.
Senator Mondale. Mr. Adams, I am trying to get at the
legal basis in this particular case in investigating Dr.
King on the grounds that he might be subject to Communist
influence.
Can you cite any legal basis for that or is it based
entirely upon a generalized authority thought to exist in
the FBI to investigate "internal security matters"?
Mr. Adams. It would fall also in the Presidential
directives of investigating subversive activities.
Senator Mondale. And then the question would return
to what authority the President had.
Mr. Adams. That's right.
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Senator Mondale. Now Dr. King was investigated among
other things for matters of, I think you call it delicacy.
Would that be a basis for investigating an American
citizen by the FBI?
Mr. Adams. No.
Senator Mondale. Would you say then that those
investigations were improper?
1775
Mr. Adams. -I don't believe that there is an allegation
that we investigated him for that. I think there were
certain by-products of information that developed and I think
at a point you had a situation where the tail was wagging
the dog, perhaps, but I don't see any basis for such investi-
gation. And I find it very difficult to get into a discussion
of this in view of the prohibitions that I think --
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Senator Mondale. You answered my question.
That for
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itself would not be a basis for investigation.
Mr. Adams. No, sir.
Senator Mondale. Would you agree with me, Mr. Adams,
that this whole vague, generalized area of the assignment
that the FBI has been tasked, which they thought they possessed
ør could use to investigate Americans, not where there were
allegations of crime or suspicion that crimes were about to
be committed, or that violence was about to be committed,
but rather this whole generalized area, to investigate
Americans in terms of ideas that they have or might be persuaded
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to have that might hold potential for danger to this country
2 is an exceedingly vague, difficult, if not impossible to
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define area and an area which has got the FBI into an awful
lot of trouble, including today's hearings.
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
Senator Mondale. And because of that there is a very
important need to sit down and redefine it, have the guidelines
known specifically by all so that the FBI can know precisely
what it can do and what it cannot do.
Mr. Adams. I think this is why the country is fortunate
in this particular time to have an Attorney General who is
a legal scholar and a lawyer of unquestioned repute who
has indicated a willingness to address these problems, which
:
as the staff has determined, was not always the case over
But we have an Attorney General, we have a
Director, who has offered his complete cooperation, just as
he has to the Committee in this inquiry, that we are not
The only thing we are trying
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to hold back are identities of informants and sensitive,
ongoing operations that we have, a concern on the part of
Congress that not only recognizes there have been abuses,
but recognizes that there still always has to be some degree
of flexibility.
We are going to have situations where you have a
Weatherman working for the water works, and in college he was
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End Tape 46
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a scientific student, and he makes a comment to a fellow
employee that there is going to be some spectacular event
that is going to bring the attention of the world on this
city.
Senator Mondale. Wouldn't you have probable cause then
to investigate the commission of a crime?
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Mr. Adams. We might have to investigate, but to disrupt,
we have the authority. to tell the supervisor of the waterworks,
3 you had better get him out of there before the city water is
4 poisoned and 100,000 people die, and I think the Committee is
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going to find the same problems we do in coping with that
situation, and even the Attorney General in his speech in Ottawa
pointed out that there is still possibly a necessity for some
flexibility to take appropriate action under extreme conditions.
But it should be controlled. It is like Mr. Kelley says, go
to the Attorney General, explore the legal issues, lay the
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Senator Mondale. But do you also agree that the Congress
ought to redefine the rules legislatively?
Mr. Adams. Yes, because the problem I have with it is
we talk about oversight, and Mr. Kelley and the Attorney General
and I believe this Committee. agree that we should have joint
oversight which would avoid the proliferation of hearings
and the sensitive knowledge among many people which always
poses that inadvertent leak of information. But yet even with
oversight, under the plan you discussed yesterday, or some of
the observations that were discused yesterday, having people,
conservative, liberal, black, and the other qualifications you
put in, can a Committee speak for the will of Congress? At
one time we had Congressmen making speeches all over the
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do something about it this country is in trouble. Is that the
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Until it is embodied in legislation where the whole will
of Congress is expressed, we are going to have problems.
Senator Mondale. I am glad to hear that, because there is
a way Congress speaks. It is not through the buddy system or
a person. It speaks through the law.
Mr. Adams. That's right.
Senator Mondale. And now we have for the first time this
whole issue, it is not denied by the FBI. The elements are
known. What I hear you saying is you would like the Congress
now to define and redefine specifically and carefully what it
is we expect the FBI to do, and what it is we wish the FBI and
will prohibit the FBI from doing.
Mr. Adams.
Right. What is our role in society?
After World War II, if you'll remember, a Congressional
Committee met and raised all sorts of storm. over the fact that
there was not enough in the way of intelligence investigations.
Never again should it happen in the United States that we be
caught with our pants down...
After the Kennedy assassination, if you recall, the FBI
was properly criticized for having too restrictive dissemination
policies in connection with Secret Service because they depend
upon us for the intelligence necessary to provide protection.
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1 for the President against extremist groups.. We did that but
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just before the recent incidents in California there was going
to be Committee concern, not this Committee, over has there..
been too much dissemination.
So the FBI is in the position of at different times in our
history being damned for doing too much and damned for doing
And it is because of reacting to what we try to
too little.
judge is what they want us to do, and this is what we are not
in a position to do. We need the will of Congress expressed in
some definitive measure, yet providing the latitude, because as
you have seen from these problems, there are many that there is
no black and white answer to. There have to be occasions
where when you are confronted with an extreme emergency, someone
can act, and I don't think you or anyone else wants to tie the
hands of law enforcement when today we have over 10 million
serious crimes in the United States.. We have 1 million crimes
a year involving violence, and there has to be a capability to
But we need to know in better terms what is our role
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react.
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in this, especially in domestic intelligence.
Senator Mondale. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
≈ N N N N 12
Senator Tower (presiding).
Senator Schweiker.
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Senator Schweiker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Mr. Adams, in 1966 a letter written by the Bureau to
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Marvin Watson, Special Assistant to the President at the White
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House, and the gist of this letter was, in reference to his
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1 request, and I want to make it clear it was his request, not
2 the Bureau's, authors of books that were critical of the Warren
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Commission Report, the assassination of President Kennedy, were
4 requested to file any pertinent personal data information,
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dossiers, etc., on seven individuals whose names I will not
discuss.
Do you have any knowledge as to why the White House requested
this kind of material on the Warren Commission critics?
Mr. Adams. I don't recall. I am familiar with the material.
I did review it some time ago when we were testifying before
the House Committee in February, but I don't recall that I saw
in there any specific motivation on the part of the White House
group requesting this information.
Senator Schweiker.
Now, in the same letter it also says
a copy of this communication has not been sent to the Acting
Attorney General.
Mr. Adams. Yes.
Senator Schweiker.
Number one,
is that a normal procedure,
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when you get requests of this kind that the Acting Attorney
General is bypassed, and why was the Attorney General bypassed
in this instance?
Mr. Adams. This is not a normal procedure. It is not
the procedure followed today. There was a period of time where,
at the President's directions, Mr. Hoover reported more
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directly to him in certain areas, and it was apparently a
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feeling that he did not want the Attorney General to know certain
2. things:
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Senator Schweiker. One of the dossiers specifically in-
cluded photographs of sexual activities.
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
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And my question is, how is that relevant
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What standard do we use when we just pass photographs of
sexual activities to the White House? Is this a normal
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again,
is this a normal proceeding when a dossier is requested? Is this
included, or did they specifically request photographs of this
kind, or what light can you shed on this?
Mr. Adams. I can't shed much. I know they requested
..
information on him. I think there was other material concerning
that individual of a security nature that was included. Why
the information in that respect was submitted I am unable to
answer.
I do know at the time there was a lot of concern following
19 the Warren Commission Report, had all the answers been explored,
was the Soviet Union involved, was Cuba involved, and who were
the critics who now are attacking this. But I have seen
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material.
Senator Schweiker. I think what concerns us on the Committee.
is that whenever you get to the nitty gritty of investigations,
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and it doesn't have to relate to the Warren Commission, I will
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leave that alone, or to some activity we are involved in, we
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get back to something like that, where a photograph or a tape
recording or some letter referring to some kind of human weakness
or failing that is really very irrelevant to the investigation
is sandwiched in here, and it just seems to me that it was a
tactic
--
this just happens to be the Warren Commission I
but it was a tactic that was used rather
singled out
frequently as a lever or for some reason which I am trying to
find out as an instrument of investigative policy.
Would you differ with that or dispute that, or again,
what rationale? Do we use sexual activities as a standard
criterion for investigations?
Mr. Adams. We do not use sexual activities as a criterion,
but during the course of our investigation
--
we did have an
investigation on that individual at one time and during
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the course of the investigation, in checking the records of a
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had conducted an investigation for a criminal act involving these
photographs, and they made that available to us.
.So it went into our files.
Now, the request of the President, he is the Chief
Executive of the United States. He in effect has custody of
everything. There are problems involved when the man who is
in charge of everything requests information. I would like
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1 to add, however, that following the cleansing effect of Watergate
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anymore.
There is a direct line between the Attorney General and
5 the Director, and the Director certainly recognizes that in a
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case of extreme disagreement he would have the alternative to
tell the Attorney General, I need to go directly to the President,
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or feel I should, but we do not have this line of communication
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at the present time.
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Senator Schweiker.
Well, it seems to me if they had just
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listed the other investigation and listed what was alleged
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in the other investigation, that certainly would have sufficed
for whatever purpose it would have. But it seemsito me when
you in fact enclose living photographs, you are really getting
very much, to my way of thinking, towards attempting to
discredit their critics. What other purpose, would a photograph
have of this nature other than to discredit critics because
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they will not quarrel with listing whatever was charged in
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another state.
That may well have been included. I cannot
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argue that.
Mr. Adams. I can't answer that.
One area that I think this gets to
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Senator Schweiker.
which we really touched on in the assassination probe quite a
bit, Mr. Adams, is where the Bureau stops when they get some
of these requests, in other words, what kind of criteria, if
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any. You touched on it a moment ago. The President asked for
something. I don't know in this case whether the President
asked to see photographs of this nature or didn't ask, but the
point is, nobody said no and he got them.
So the question is, where do you see the Bureau's responsi-
bility here, and what can this Committee do to ensure that
there is some kind of a test that we either put in the law
or that the FBI invokes, or that we invoke on the White House
in using police power in this way?
Mr. Adams. I don't think Congress can ever fill the
responsibility of trying--to-draw up guidelines, even in conjunc-
tion with the Executive Branch, to guarantee that all abuses
won't take place. The organization is made up of human beings,
and these things occur.
Certain corrective actions are self-initiated, such as
this. The President, for instance, you know we had an incident
a few years ago about investigating a newsman, where we were
requested, and if I recall from our information, we thought he
was being considered for an appointed position which would have
been a logical basis. As facts turned out, that was not the
purpose that the information was requested.
To stem or stop abuses like that, the President, the
current Administration has issued instructions that any requests
for investigations under the special inquiry or White House
investigation such as for appointment must clear through the
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1 office of his counsel, in other words, not let the lower line
2 people come over and say we need this information or we need
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this request.
They come through the office of Phil Buchen
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responsibility.
Now, we do still make certain name checksrequests for the
White House, and those, too, have to clear through his office.
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So we do have that. Then we have the responsibility, if we
get something which on its face appears political or improper,
then our responsibility under that would be to go to the
Attorney General and ask -him- to intercede by finding out is
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this a proper request on the Bureau. And I can assure you that
as Mr. Kelley has testified and has made it perfectly clear
that he has not had any such improper requests and he would
go right to the Attorney General if it was necessary.
Otherwise
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he would reject the request.
Senator Schweiker. What steps are we taking, under your
jurisdiction comes whatever internal investigation unit the
FBI has. I. just wondered very briefly, because I know my
time is very limited, we have a vote on, what steps are you
taking to make sure that we catch some of these things in the
present that maybe we either overlooked or did not catch or
somehow got sidetracked in the past?
Mr. Adams. We have been working with the Attorney General
and his staff. It started even when Attorney General Saxbe
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was there, to look at all of our procedures, all of our
investigative operations:
are they proper, do they fit
criteria, do we have a legal basis for them, and we have guide-
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lines, committees which have been established in the Department
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that meet every day on questions of what is even an overwhelming
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problem of collection and maintenance of information.
What
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regard, and I feel certain that it will continue to make sure
that we are aware of everything and take appropriate action.
Senator Schweiker. I wonder if you might share some of
these with the staff so that we can have an advantage of taking
a look at those, too. I am glad to see this being made.
He did tell the House
Mr. Adams.' I would have to secure the approval of the
Attorney General on the guidelines.
Committee which originally raised the question on maintenance of
information, that once we get something and they are nearing
completion in the Department, that he does intend to take it
up with Congress. So I am sure there would be no problem at
that point in bringing it to this Committee as well.
Senator Schweiker. Because it seems to me this is where
the problems in the past have arisen, in not having clearly
23 defined or maybe if you measure it you can measure it in
terms of today's standards versus standards of before, but I
think this is the crux of it.
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Mr. Adams. That is true.
Senator Schweiker. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Tower. Mr. Adams, what use does the Bureau presently
make of its intelligence informants, and have they ever been
used as provocateurs or as magnets for action?
Mr. Adams. No, sir.
Well, you asked two questions.
Senator Tower. Yes.
Mr. Adams. Let me take the last one first, provocateurs.
--
Our policy has not or our policy has been to discourage any
activities which in any way might involve an informant doing
•
something that an agent cannot do, which would be in the area
of being a provocateur, which basically is entrapment.
And
we have had some allegations of entrapment come up. We feel
we have satisfactorily answered them. This is a very technical
legal field which boils down, of course, to the fact that if a
person is willing to do something, and the government merely
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provides the opportunity, that is not legally entrapment.
So
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if a person comes to us and says I have been asked to participate
in a breakin of a Federal building, I would like to help you,
then the law basically would indicate we have the authority
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to continue to let him operate.
The question comes up if he assumes the whole direction
and causes people to do something which they would not otherwise
have done. That is the entrapment issue. So we are very alert
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to this. We have instructions, clear guidelines; instructions
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to our field offices that they are not to use an informant for
anything that an agent cannot legally do. I don't say there
4 haven't been some mistakes in that regard, but I don't know of
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Senator Huddleston.
Senator Tower. Senator Huddleston?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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First I think to keep this activity in proper perspective
it might be well to remember that even though a great deal of
the testimony and the questioning has been relating to the
question of Dr. King, that this is by no means an isolated
situation.
Dr. King's case is indeed a classic example utilizing
all of the various techniques of the Bureau in both intelligence-
gathering an action against an individual in order to dis-
credit him or embarrass him, or indeed destroy him.
.
But the record is replete, and indeed, here is an entire
sheaf of similar targets who are certainly not as well known.
Some of them are high school students, some of them are
high school teachers, college students, college teachers,
broadcasters and journalists, people whose names would be almost
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totally unfamiliar. to. the vast majority of Americans,
activity was not confined to those that are immediately
recognizable who were indeed public figures.
So the.
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I want to just proceed along the question of informants
that Senator Tower just raised for just a moment or two.
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You say that your informants are not expected to do anything
that an agent himself could not do, but in the gathering of the
information for which you are securing him in the first place,
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proceeds in order to gather the information you are looking
for?
Mr. Adams. Only that he proceed through legal means.
Senator Huddleston.
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when he is employed?
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Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
Senator Huddleston.
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Is that specifically stated to him
Are most informers paid on the
basis of a regular fee or regular salary, or are they paid
on the basis of the information they gather?
Mr. Adams. Even those who are paid on what you could say
a salary, that salary is determined on a COD basis as to the
value of the information furnished. In other words, in the
criminal case, for instance, you could have a person come in and
give you the identity of three individuals who just robbed a
bank. You might pay him a lump sum amount, and never go back
to him.
In the security field where informants do finally manage
to work into a revolutionary type organization, their
continued activities in our behalf do set up more of a program
for payment.
Senator Huddleston. Do you check on occasion on the basis
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of information that may be supplied to you if it happens to be
of a sensational nature or of a surprising nature, do you ever
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Mr. Adams. I am sure this takes place. In any handling
of an informant over a sustained period of time, you do have a
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rapport which they don't just come in and say Joe Blow said
this, Joe Blow did that. There is a conversation that goes
through which I feel certain would, if something looked like,
if it looked like he had something that came from some improper
source, I think the agent would say where did you get this.
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Senator Huddleston. If you found it had been taken
improperly or if some improper action had been taken, would
it be put in the files?
Mr. Adams. If he violated the law, we would have an
open investigation if it were within our jurisdication.
Senator Huddleston. Now the Bureau disseminates this
information on individuals that is collected in various
ways in the various other agencies.
How many other agencies can request, for instance, an
individual check that would result in your supplying to him
information from these personal intelligence files?
Mr. Adams. Every agent in the Federal Government under
the employee security program there is an obligation on the
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name check search of our files to see if there is any subversive
derrogatory information which might militate against appointing
that inḍividual to a Federal position.
Senator Huddleston.
Do you take any precautions as to
how they will use that information once it is supplied to
them by your agents?
Mr. Adams.
All we do is indicate to them on thė
report that it is the property of the FBI and is not to be
disseminated outside their agency.
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Senator Huddleston.
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Mr. Adams. No, sir, we do not.
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Senator Huddleston.
What internal precautions do you
have against the Bureau itself misusing information that it
gains from other agencies?
Mr. Adams. Strong prohibitions. One, we don't allow
access to files except on a need-to-know basis. Any employee
of the FBI knows that if he improperly divulges information
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to administrative action.
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We had a case where an agent obtained an identification
· record and made it out improperly, and I think that agent
was separated from the roles. But we had asked for, and of
course we share in CIA's request to this extent, is that there
be a criminal penalty attached to misuse of information and
leaking it or making it available outside of an agency.
This is another issue before Congress.
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Did this in fact happen to your knowledge?
Mr.
Adams. I am not familiar with that case.
I can
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easily say it would not be proper.
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Senator Huddleston.
But you don't know whether it
happened or whether the act was carried out?
Mr. Adams. I do not know.
Senator Huddleston. Mr. Adams, getting on to another
subject, one of the techniques used very frequently by the
Bureau in its attempt to discredit individuals was to
utilize the press. It was customary to send anonymous letters
on many occasions to editors, broadcasters, commentators and
columnists around the country containing information or
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wanted to discredit in some way.
There was also some evidence that the Bureau utilized
within the press itself on a regular contact basis certain.
columnists or broadcasters for the purpose of disseminating
information that the FBI wanted to get out about individuals.
How extensive was this custom utilized?
Mr. Adams. I don't believe it was very extensive.
In fact, I think there were probably very few incidents where
untrue information was put out.
That is my recollection.
On disseminating public source information there were
a number of instances of that which is still proper to date
under guidelines. I just don't know of many instances where
untrue information was used, and I do not know of too many
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instances overall where that was done.
Senator Huddleston. Do you know of any instances or
how many actual journalists or practitioners or regular
disseminators of FBI information?
Mr. Adams. I don't know of any today that are in that
regard. I know there have been situations where, and people
still do. They come to us and say, we would like to do an
article on organized crime. Can you be of assistance?
And if we can be of assistance within the guidelines
established by the Attorney General, we do assist. We have
a pull and a tug over privacy acts and freedom of information
and also the need to know, but we try to satisfy.
Senator Huddleston. Do you know of any at the present
time or in the past who have been paid by the FBI for their
services?
Mr. Adams. Not personally. I don't know of any.
Senator Huddleston. Not personally.
Do you know of
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any evidence that indicates that?
Mr. Adams. That's what I mean.. I don't have any
evidence that indicates that.
Senator Huddleston. I think it would be helpful to our
inquiry if we could review or you would review the files and
make a determination as to whether or not that might be the
case, that the FBI has paid journalists who are amenable to
disseminating information supplied by the FBI.
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Mr. Adams. I am told we have. I don't know what files
we have reviewed, but we have reviewed them and we haven't
found any.
Senator Huddleston.
You haven't found any.
What is the mass media program of the FBI?
Mr. Adams. To try to get the truth out, to get a proper
picture of the FBI's jurisdiction, its activities.
Senator Huddleston. Is it also to suppress other
publications or other commentators or journalists who might
be disseminating other views?
Mr. Adams.
NO.
Senator Huddleston. . . Did the FBI not take some action
against a number of newspapers, most of them student newspapers
that they felt should be suppressed?
Mr. Adams. We may have in the past. I don't recall
any specific case.
You are talking about some of the Weatherman support
papers or Black Panther paper. I don't know of any in that
regard, but I'm not saying that such action was not taken.
Are you familiar with the special
Senator Huddleston.
correspondence list? ·
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Mr. Adams. Yes.
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Senator Huddleston. What is this list?
Mr. Adams. My recollection is that the special
correspondence list was a list of individuals that had requested
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from time to time various Bureau publications and were kept
on a continuing list and mailed such communications to them.
It was a list that was considered
Senator Huddleston.
to be friendly towards the FBI view?
Mr. Adams.. Yes. I would say anyone on that list would
normally be friendly.
Senator Huddleston.
Do you have knowledge of a number
of instances in which the Bureau carrying out its COINTEL
program utilized the existing press in order to attempt to
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Mr. Adams. I don't have an idea of the number, but I
don't think there were very many.
Senator Huddleston. Do you have a list of the instances
in which the Bureau attempted to discredit other publications?
Mr. Adams. No, I don't know.
Senator Huddleston.
Do you know that they did occur?
Mr. Adams. I can ask. I get a no as far as any knowledge
in that regard.
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Senator Huddleston.
As far as knowledge.
Mr. Adams. That means knowledge of what we have come
up with in our current review, I would assume.
Senator Huddleston. It seems to me that this is an
area in which we are particularly troubled and should be. If
there is any right that is specifically called for in our
Constitution and has been upheld and reaffirmed in court decision
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after court decision, it is the right to publish in this
country. The First Amendment speaks not only of freedom of
speech, but also freedom of the press. And yet it seems that
we have a pattern here of the chief law enforcement agency
of the country attempting to suppress that very right.
Mr. Adams. I haven't seen
--
I think any effort to
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possibility in that regard and I don't see the logic of
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Senator Huddleston. But it did happen.
Mr. Adams. It may have happened in
Senator Huddleston. In a rather extensive field.
Mr. Adams. I disagree with that rather extensive field.
I just don't know the extent that you are talking to here.
Senator Huddleston.
We are talking about the cases where
Mr. Adams. Are you lumping in cases where we disseminated
public source information? Are you lumping in a case where
we may have gone to a
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Senator Huddleston.
I think disseminating public source
information is somewhat different from furnishing a TV
commentator with derrogatory information about a specific
individual who has been targeted as one that apparently the
Bureau thinks is dangerous or his ideas ought to be suppressed.
Mr. Adams. Is that manipulating the press, though?
Here you have a situation where an individual is going around
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the country advocating off-the-pig or kill-the-police or
something like that. And a newspaper man was furnished, say
some background information on him which would have been in
the area of public source material which he could use in an
article.
Are we really, if the information is true, the final
decision, it would seem to me, would be the newspaperman as
to whether he would use any such information.
I think if we concealed our motives from the newspaper
man, or furnished false information, which I think we did in
one anonymous letter or something that I saw in all of this,
I would say that was improper.
Senator Huddleston. Or
Mr. Adams. I think newsmen have sources. I think
Senator Huddleston. Or convincing a cartoonist, for
instance, to draw a derrogatory cartoon about a college
\professor who certainly did not constitute a threat to the
violent overthrow of the government.
Mr. Adams. If anyone accuses us of having any great
success in trying to influence the press, I think that their
objectivity stands pretty high.
Senator Huddleston. I think the point is whether there
was success or not, there was an effort made. I'm glad to
hear you acknowledge now that it is almost an impossibility.
But more than that it seems to me at the beginning when
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these type of techniques were used, it seemed to indicate a
lack of confidence or faith in the American people to believe
that they could not hear ideas that might be contrary to their
own without being serious damaged.
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hearing other ideas whether we agree with them or not. I
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think this is an area that we are concerned with and one
technique which I hope is being discontinued and one that will
be by the time these hearings conclude and by the time proper
legislation is drawn.
Mr. Adams. Well, I think you can be assured that any
such techniques in that area died with COINTELPRO in 1971.
Senator Huddleston. That is comforting.
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The Chairman (presiding)..
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Thank you, Senator.
I have been forced in and out by virtue of votes and other
Committee business. I am not sure which Senators have had
their opportunity to question and which have not.
Senator Goldwater, were you next?
Senator Goldwater. I will not take much time. I
apologize for not having been here in the last two days. It
is going good, I have heard.
We have heard testimony regarding the voluminous records,
I believe 500,000, maintained by the Bureau.
How in your view have these records come to be kept?
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For what purpose have they been kept and has the Bureau ever
undertaken to destroy or prune down any of these records?.
Mr. Adams. We have a number of records. We are
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a business-like organization. We record our activities. And
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as the staff knows, they had access to a lot of recorded
material that is the product of what the FBI has done over
the years.
When we conduct an investigation, we maintain the
results. We do have destruction procedures where after the
passage of certain time limits approved by the Archives
authority, we are allowed to destroy certain files. Other
information we are required to put on microfilm. There is
a regular standard procedure for the destruction of FBI
'files. This has been, suspended, of course, during the
initiation of these hearings and our files probably have
increased considerably during this period because we are not
allowed to destroy anything since the Committee commenced
its hearings.
But we do have procedures for destroying these that
are approved by the Archives, and a problem inherent in that
is maintaining information, what should we keep, what should
we obtain during an investigation, what should we record?
The
In the past we have been pretty consistent in recording
everything we thought was relevant to the investigation.
passage of the Privacy Act put certain restrictions in. We
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cannot collect or maintain anything unless it is relevant to
an ongoing matter of which we have investigative jurisdiction.
But beyond even the Privacy Act, the Attorney Generäl
instituted a guidelines committee in this area that we have
been meeting diligently with every day and hopefully have
tried to avoid this idea that we are for no good reason
maintaining a gossip, scandal, and unncessary, irrelevant
material.
So once these guidelines are in some sort of final
form, not to be adopted, then the Attorney General has
indicated that he is going to take it up with the various
Congressional committees to get their input into it, after
which they will be published.
Senator Goldwater. Well, now these dossiers, I think
you can call them that probably.
Mr. Adams. I prefer not to, but I accept the fact that
that is how they are referred to.
Senator Goldwater. What do you call them?
Mr. Adams. I call them files. To me, I guess we all
have our little hang-ups, but to me that is usually used in
some sinister connotation. It is probably not to you. But
I will use whatever terminology you want to use on this.
Senator Goldwater. I hope what you have on me is not
called a dossier.
Mr. Adams. No, sir, it's a collection of material.
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(General laughter)
Mr. Adams. Of which you are aware.
Senator Goldwater.
That's right..
Now let me ask you, the information you have would
probably be on computer tape?
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Mr. Adams. No, sir.
Senator Goldwater.
It's not. Information that IRS
would have, is that computerized?
Mr. Adams. It may be. I'm not familiar with the extent
of theirs. We do have certain computer activities, such as
the National Crime Information Center, or we have, I guess,
7 or 8 million records. This is not the usual file material.
This is, it consists of individuals concerning whom a
warrant is outstanding, stolen property, material such as
this.
And also some documented criminal history information
in the nature of prior arrest history. But not what I think
you are referring to in the way of file material, reports,
intelligence, this type of information.
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Mr. Adams. I don't know what other agencies have, but
the FBI does not have such a list, does not have such a
capability to interface with such a list if such a list
exists.
Senator Goldwater. Do you feel rather safe in saying
then that no agency of government has put together such a
computerized total of all the information on the people that
you have surveilled?
Mr. Adams. Oh, I think it is safe to say I don't know
of any.
Today I am not saying what does exist or doesn't
exist elsewhere.
Senator Goldwater. In addition to the 500,000 records
that you have, would I be correct in saying that you have
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intelligence in the Fiscal year 1975 in maintaining this
library?
Mr. Adams. No, I don't think that is correct. I think
the figure of $82 million is what our budget people have
drawn up as being the total cost in a given year of our
intelligence operations, security, criminal, organized crime,
the whole intelligence field. But I don't relate it to the
maintenance of any data cards.
Senator Goldwater. Now one other area, and I think it
probably, according to the records, it does go back to 170.
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How did the Bureau come to place the so-called women's
lib movement under surveillance, and I say so-called. because
think we discovered that there was no such organized movement.
Mr. Adams. There were a lot of movements.
recollection
It is my
I have not reviewed the file in detail, but
it is my recollection that the case was originally opened
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because of indications that certain groups were attempting
to infiltrate or control the women's liberation movement.
:
The investigation was conducted and was terminted several
years ago, as far as I know.
Senator Goldwater.
Do you know of any actions that were
taken by the Bureau as to the women's liberation movement
except to monitor it?
Mr. Adams. No. And the monitoring was for the purpose
of determining the infiltration, and I don't know of any
actions taken against them.
Senator Goldwater. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Goldwater.
Senator Hart, have you had an opportunity to question?
Senator Hart of Colorado. No, I have not.
The Chairman.
Senator Hart.
Senator Hart of Colorado. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In the testimony yesterday developed by the staff concerning
the last few days of Martin Luther King's life, we learned
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that the Bureau in March of 1968 developed information to
be given to the press criticizing Dr. King for staying in
a white-owned and operated hotel, the Holiday Inn in Memphis,
instead of the Lorraine.
At some point during Dr. King's stay in Memphis, he
moved from the Holiday Inn to Lorraine.
To your knowledge, Mr. Adams, was that information ever
given to the press?
Mr. Adams. I have been unable to determine that. This
question was raised of me by the Civil Rights Division of the
Department. Apparently, they had had some inquiry along
the same lines several months ago. But my recollection of it
at the time, we saw that this action had been proposed and
the memorandum bore the initials, I believe it was the
initials, statement handled, and the initials of the agent
in the External Affairs Division who assumed the responsibility
of saying handle it and initiated it..
They contacted him and he said that he had no recollection
of the matter but the fact that he did say handled didn't
mean that he was able to do anything with it. He was just
clearing that memorandum so it would show action was taken,
and he doesn't know if he gave it to anyone or not.
- Segator. Hart of Colorado. Well, suffice it to say that
the facts are that subsequent to the time the Bureau developed
this information to pass on to the press, it did appear in the
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local papers in Memphis.
Mr. Adams. There was some statement in the local papers,
not according to the terminology of the proposed statement that
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was to be given to him. There was some comment made, if .I
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recall, that Martin Luther King gave a press conference
following the riots that followed one of his appearances,
:
and that he gave that press conference in a hotel, the Holiday
Inn Hotel. But it didn't have any, at least the newspaper
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article itself didn't have any direct relation to acts taken.
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Senator Hart of Colorado. Well, according to some
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they were fairly explicit in stating that the local press
was critical of him during that period for staying in the
white hotel, but I don't want to make a big issue out of
that.
What was the name of the agent that you talked to?
Mr. Adams. I didn't talk to him personally. People in
the Bureau that were working on this did and I believe his
name was Linbaugh, L-i-n-b-a-u-g-h.
Senator Hart of Colorado. If you could provide that
name to us, I would appreciate it.
Mr. Adams. I would be glad to.
Senator Hart of Colorado. Mr. Adams, was any effort
24 made during this entire COINTELPRO period to objectively
define what the New Left meant? What was your understanding
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of the New Left?
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Mr. Adams. They did have a definition of the New Left
distinguishing it from the old Left. It was primarily to dis-
3 tinguish it from the, in the area that the New Left was trying
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to separate itself from the old hidebound policies of the
Communist Party or some of its links to the Communist Party.
Perhaps Mr. Wannall has a better definition of that.
Senator Hart of Colorado. It very definitely included those
who were opposed to the war, organized groups that opposed the
war and felt strongly about racial injustice in this country,
leaving the Communist Party aside.
Mr. Adams. People involved in the New Left movement were,
of course, also involved in the Vietnam, anti-Vietnam was
13 effort.
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Senator Hart of Colorado.
What do you mean also?
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That's what I'm trying to get out. What was the New
Left? If you didn't oppose the war and you weren't involved in
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Mr. Adams. Well, the New Left was a
--
did involve a
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It wasn't related solely to the
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Senator Hart of Colorado. Thomas Jefferson embodied a
revolutionary philosophy.
Mr. Adams. That's right. And the New Left activity
•
exceeded Thomas Jefferson's philosophy in that it did fit in
25 with the basic Communist philosophy.
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Senator Hart of Colorado. Every group that was placed under
the efforts of the COINTELPRO supported the violent overthrow
of this country?
Mr. Adams. The concept of COINTELPRO was directed toward:
I would have to refresh my memory on each
5
those organizations.
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one of the organizations that were targets of it, but they were
basically New Left, Communist Party, Socialist Workers Party,
those were the
Senator Hart of Colorado. The Southern Christian Leader-
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five basics.
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Mr. Adams. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
I don't know if it was involved specifically in COINTELPRO.
Three minor actions were taken against the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.
Senator Hart of Colorado.
Well, its leader, I think you
could say, for eight years was subject to a lot more than three
minor actions.
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Mr. Adams.
That's right, and that gets into the other
area that the activities taken against him were primarily
COINTELPRO type activities but weren't really under the control
of
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Senator Hart of Colorado.
You're saying that basically
every organization and individual that was swept into the
net of the five COINTELPRO nets supported the violent overthrow
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Mr. Adams. Well, not just the violent overthrow of the
government. It would have been organizations that were threaten-
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related to the actual overthrow of the government.
Senator Hart of Colorado. Is a street demonstration
violent?
Mr. Adams. It depends on where you are in relation to
what is taking place. If there are a lot of activities in
connection with street demonstrations that are not violent,
and there are a lot of street demonstrations that have reported
in deaths, so it just depends on activity taking place and
the circumstances.
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Our problem is we are given the responsibility by the
Attorney General to monitor demonstrations which have the
potential of violence.
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The question is, how do you find out,
at what point do you get in and monitor demonstrations to deter-
minē if that has a potential violence?
Senator Hart of Colorado. Well, obviously what we're
told was here is, we have received testimony to the effect
that the FBI went out of its way to foment violence itself,
to encourage disruptions internally, to encourage hostilities
and conflict between and among these groups in the hope that
violence would occur, and therefore you could, say, go back to
the Director or the press or whomever and say look, this is
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Mr. Adams. I accept the allegation but I don't accept the
fact, the conclusion that, from what I have seen in reviewing
these files in connection with our investigations, we don't
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foment violence. We don't permit as a matter of policy our
informants to act as provocateurs to engage in violence.
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not denying it may have happened, but the FBI does not foment
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Senator Hart of Colorado.
You are using present tense
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Mr.
Adams. We didn't then.
I don't agree that our actions
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Senator Hart of Colorado.
I think there is plenty of
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documentation of the attempt to set the Black Panthers against
the Blackstone Rangers in Chicago.
Mr. Adams. Well, I don't consider that plenty of evidence.
I think the evidence to the contrary is that one of the.
organizations, when we got word that the Black Panther versus
US, we notified the local police that this activity was going
to take place, and the individual, so that we would prevent.
the killing which had come to our attention was going to take
place, and then the turndowns of various COINTELPRO actions,
there were specific statements made, that will not be
approved because it might result in harm to an individual,
physical harm, and we have no indication from any of these
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more extensive inquiry.
Senator Hart of Colorado.
June 3rd, 1968, a memorandum
from the Special Agent in Charge of Cincinatti to the Director
of the FBI, the title of which is Counterintelligence Program,
Disruption of the New Left, a five page memorandum having to
do with Antioch College in Ohio. It is a long description of
the college and background. There is a recommendation on page
3, Cincinatti recommends that counterintelligence action be
taken to expose the pseudo-intellectual image of Antioch, and it
12
gives specific ways of doing that, and then the next page,
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defend itself as an educational institution.
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Where in the laws of this country or the charter of the
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Federal Bureau of Investigation does it say that that Agency
should be forcing any educational institution to defend itself?
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Mr. Adams. I know of none.
Senator Hart of Colorado.
You would say this is stepping
beyond the bounds of your authority?
Mr. Adams. I would say
--
I'm not familiar with the total
action of what was there, but just on the surface I don't see
any basis for it.
Senator Hart of Colorado. It is my understanding that
participating field officers of the counterintelligence, the
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COINTELPRO activities were required to send in status letters
2 and report in annual results.
Is that correct?
Mr. Adams. Yes.
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Senator Hart of Colorado.
What kind of results generally
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were you looking for? What was considered success?
Mr. Adams. Well, it would be considered success, like
in one instance where an action was taken to create factionalism
9
in the highest level of the Communist Party, and the results
10
were that we were advised that the Communisty Party influence
11 declined appreciably as a direct result of factionalism created
at that level. That to us was a concrete result.
We had other results where, well, you get in various
degrees. That is an extremely favorable degree. We had others,
I think one was alluded to yesterday or today where a letter
went on setting up a marital strife on the part of someone.
I don't see any basis. or. justification. for. that. I think that
is the other. extreme. I think in the middle there were ones
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. that fell into a different degree. .
The only thing that I feel is we had 3000 actions
recommended.
The Bureau
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just like this Antioch one. I
don't know if the document shows whether that was approved or
not. I doubt that it was approved.
Senator Hart of Colorado. I believe it was. We can
25 document that.
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Mr. Adams. Okay. Because there would be one. I would
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of 3000 recommended, the fact that 2000 approved shows that
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and I think the actual number of grossly improper activities
fortunately is rather small. I think there are a lot in there.
Well, the whole program, we feel, should have been dis-
continued, and we don't have a program like it now, and we
wouldn't institute a program like it now.
Senator Hart of Colorado. It would be helpful to us if
now or in the future you could recommend what steps we should
take, both as the Committee and this Congress, to make sure
that doesn't happen, aside from just the assurances we are being
given here.
Mr. Adams. Well, the main recommendation I make is that
we don't wind up on the point we have been on in the past
years that one time in our history. Congress. is saying we ought
to be doing. something to stop. violence in the streets, murders,
blowing up. of buildings, and at another time they are saying
you shouldn't have done. what you did, and that we make a
mistake when we react and try to identify one area and say that
is the voice of the people. What we need is a legislative
mandate which is the will of Congress in order to tell us what
our role should be in this area. I think that is the main
thing that would come out of all of these, I hope, some more
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Senator Hart of Colorado. I believe my time is up.
Senator Tower (presiding).
Mr. Adams, to return to the
5 business of informants which I initiated and was interrupted
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by a vote, who selects an informant?
Mr. Adams. The basic responsibility is on our special
agent personnel who develop informants, the agent on the street.
Senator Tower. Does the Special Agent in Charge in a given
area have control over the activities of an informant or a veto
on the use of a particular informant?
Mr. Adams. Not only the Special Agent in Charge, but FBI
headquarters. We maintain the tightest possible control of the
We require Bureau approval to utilize
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a person as an informant.
Senator Tower. The Special Agent in Charge has the power
to veto the use of an informant?
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Mr. Adams.
Yes, sir.
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Senator Tower. Does headquarters know who all the
informants are?.
Mr. Adams.
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Absolutely.
We require
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We do not allow hip pocket
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Senator Tower.
You don't have the agents informed by their
own special informants?
Mr. Adams.
Absolutely not.
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Senator Tower. Are the criteria different for paid and
for non-paid informers?
Mr. Adams. We have some informants over the years that have
4 refused to accept payment, but generally the criteria for
5 both, I mean for ones that are paid is that it must be on a
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Senator Tower. What protections are afforded to
informants?
Mr. Adams. Protections afforded them individually?
Senator Tower. Yes.
Mr. Adams. The greatest protection in the world we can
afford them is to maintain the confidential relationship which
they have adopted with the FBI, and the fact that those citizens
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of the United States who, for whatever reason, decide to
cooperate with the FBI and cooperate with their government
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in criminal and the security field, have that confidentiality.
maintained, and beyond that confidentiality we are unable to
afford them any protection, any physical protection.
had informants murdered through disclosure. We have had them
subjected to other violence, and criminal activities, and the
only. protection beyond maintaining the confidentiality is once
we have used them or. had. to. expose them. for. some purpose, we
do have procedures. for. relocation. and. maintenance. of them which
is utilized, quite frequently in the top hoodlum and the Cosa
Nostra type investigations.
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Senator Tower.. It is my understanding now that 83 percent
of all cases involve some use of informants, so that means that
the use is pretty widespread. and. apparently very essential.
What kind of guidance, does the FBI give to these informants
to give them any special training? Could you describe that kind
of relationship in terms of guidelines, control, authority,
what have you?
Mr. Adams.
Well, when an individual is being developed
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as an informant, our main concern is whether he provides
reliable information and that the information he collects is
collected by legal means. We don't permit an informant to
engage in any activity that an agent couldn't do legally
himself. In other words, you can't have an extension of the
agent out here engaging in illegal acts, and the agent saying
I abide by the law. This creates some problems, of course,
in the criminal field where you don't recruit informants from
Sunday schools. You recruit informants in areas where they do
have knowledge of criminal activities. But we even had to
open investigations and prosecute some of our informants, be-
cause, we do not bend from this, that they are not going to
enjoy favorite status. as a result of their relationship with
us..
So. the agent covers all of this with an informant during
the discussions..
We secure. background. information on the informants. We
do this to ensure, as best as possible, we are dealing with a
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reliable, stable individual even though he may be engaged in
an unstable activity, and we go through this period and consider
3 them more or less, in different terminology, probationary,
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potential, verifying information that he furnishes us, and
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verified by other means, by other informants or sources.
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So we do have a continuing indoctrination which is
supervised at FBI headquarters.
Senator Tower. You said you don't recruit your informants
from Sunday school class. Being an ex-Sunday school teacher, I
resent that, but
Many of
Mr. Adams. I am talking in the criminal field.
our security informants come from a very fine background.
Senator Tower. But this leads me into this. Sometimes,
then, you might recruit people that you know have committed
criminal acts.
Mr. Adams. That's true.
Senator Tower.
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Mr. Adams. No.
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Do you promise him immunity from future
prosecution in many instances to secure their. cooperation?
Now, the only exception to that would be
we may have an ongoing, it is what you call an informant
believe your question is addressed to someone that we are
actually considering in an informant status.
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Senator Tower.
Yes.
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Mr. Adams. We do have situations where during an investi-
2 gation we target on one individual, the lower rung, and the
3 United States Attorney and the Department offer immunity.
We
4 don't. And say, you cooperate, and we go up the ladder to the
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next level, and in some of these cases we have gone up through
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successive stages until we get the main honcho who we feel is
the proper target of our investigation.
Senator Tower. Getting on another subject, does the
FBI still request bank audits?
Mr. Adams. Bank audits? Do you mean do we still have
access to bank records?
Senator Tower. Yes.
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir, we do.
Senator Tower. And do you obtain access with or without
warrants?
Mr. Adams. We obtain access without warrants.
Senator Tower. Without warrants?
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
Senator Tower.. Is the subject notified in advance by the
FBI when you obtain one without a warrant?
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Mr. Adams.
NO,
sir.
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- Senator Tower. Are they notified by the bank, or is he
notified subsequently by the FBI?
Mr. Adams. No. We do get subpoenas in many cases, not
warrants, but we do get subpoenas in many cases, but in some
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cases a bank will make available to us records without subpoena.
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a subpoena for the information.
Senator Tower. Do you have legal authority to gain .
access to these records?
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir, we do.
Senator Tower. Without a subpoena, without a court
document?
Mr. Adams. There is no law that I know of that forbids
us access. There have been several court decisions, including
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the current finding is that the bank records are the records
of the bank and this does not violate any First Amendment or
14 other Amendments in connection with it.
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Senator Tower. Do you make similar requests of S&Ls and
other, and credit unions and other financial institutions?
Mr. Adams. I would assume the same would provide there.
The Chairman (presiding). Thank you, Senator Tower.
I just have a question or two. We are going to try to
conclude this morning because the Committee has a hearing, a
business meeting at 2:00 o'clock this afternoon and for the
information of the members, that meeting will take place in
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And while I am making announcements, I think I should say.
that tomorrow between the hours of 9:00 o'clock in the morning
end 8
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begin 9
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1 and 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon, the Committee will report
2 its findings and make its recommendations to the Senate in
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connection with our investigation into alleged involvement of
4 the United States in certain assassination plots, and attempts
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directed against foreign leaders.
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The Committee, as you know, has made an exhaustive investi-
gation of this issue. It has taken some six months; 75 witnesses
have been interrogated, over 8000 pages of testimony have been
taken, mountains of documents have been analyzed and digested,
and the report will be a detailed accounting to the American
people of that evidence, together with the findings and
recommendations of the Committee.
Initially these disclosures will be made to the Senate in
secret session, after which the Committee has previously voted
to make the report public. Therefore, it is anticipated that
at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon in this room, the caucus room,
following that secret session of the Senate, the Committee will
meet with the press for the purpose of answering such
questions as the press may wish to address to the Committee on
the assassination report.
Now, the last few questions I would like to put to you,
Mr. Adams, have to do with some confusion in my mind concerning
the purpose of the FBI in monitoring the Women's Liberation
movement, what was
that? What was that surveillance done for?
Why were you involved in monitoring that movement?
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Mr. Adams. It was basically, as I recall, I have not
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acquired, it would indicate there were groups that were believed
to be infiltrating and attempting to exert control over it. That
investigation was based_or_initiated on this fact.
The Chairman. But you never found, did you, that the
Women's Liberation movement was seriously infiltrated, influenced
or controlled by Communists.
Mr.
Adams. No, and the case was closed. I would put them
in the position of comments we have made earlier about the
press, that I don't think anyone is going to dominate or control.
That is a very independent group.
way.
The Chairman. Well, we are trying to keep the country that
Mr. Adams. That's right.
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The Chairman. And the kind of thing that disturbs me
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'is what the documents reveal. For example, if you will turn
you have the document book there with you. If you will turn
to Tab 5, 5-4, can you find that? Can you move your thumb
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through the pages to 5-4?
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Have you found that?
It's in the upper right hand
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5-4, under Tab 5.
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one,
Mr. Adams. Yes.
The Chairman.
Then, if you will turn back beyond that,
two, three, four pages where you find under the caption

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1 Origin, Aims, and Purposes, a description of the Women's
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Now, I call your attention to this because it seems to me
to typify the whole problem of this generalized kind of
surveillance over activities of American citizens. Here is
the report, if you will read with me this paragraph, the
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report on the group reads as follows: "The Women's Liberation
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movement in Baltimore, Maryland began during the summer of
1968.
There was no structure or a parent organization.
were no rules or plans to go by. It started out as a group
therapy session with young women who were either lonely or
confined to the home with small children, getting together to
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talk out their problems. Along with this they wanted a
purpose and that was to be free women from the humdrum
existence of being only a wife and mother.
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They wanted
equal opportunities that men have in work and in society. They
wanted their husbands to share in the housework and in rearing
their children. They also wanted to go out and work in whatever
kind of jobs they wanted, and not to be discriminated against
as women.
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Now, can you find anything in that report that in any way
suggests that these women were engaged in improper or unlawful
activity?..
Mr. Adams. Not in that one. I believe there was another
report, though, giving the origin of it, which went into a
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I little more description of what our basic interest was.
The Chairman.
Can you tell me, because this is the report
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Mr. Adams.
Well, I am given here --
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The Chairman.
What other, if there was some sinister
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activity connected with this group that isn't laid out in the
document
"Women's Liberation Movement.
Mr. Adams. I was given a work paper here which reads,
Investigation of captioned
movement was initiated by our New York Office in April 1969
as the Women's Libber movement was described as a loosely
structured women's movement comprised of individuals with
varying ideologies from liberal to New Left persuasion, some
of whom had exhibited an affiliation with and/or sympathy
for several organizations of investigative interest to this
Bureau, namely, the Students for a Democratic. Society, Black
Panther Party, the Vietnam. Peace Parade. Committee, Venceremos
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the Young Socialist. Alliance."
The Chairman. May I stop you at this point?
Mr. Adams. Yes.
The Chairman. You are reading from a paper which has to
do with the origination of an investigation coming out of
New York, are you not?
Mr. Adams. Yes.
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The Chairman. I am reading from a document that relates
to the Women's Liberation Movement in Baltimore, and the findings
concerning it in the summer of 1968. My question hasn't to do
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this kind of surveillance in New York, but with a finding
made concerning the Women's Liberation movement in Baltimore
which I have just read to you, and I think you would agree with
me that women do have the right to get together to talk about
humdrum existence and equal opportunities with men and equal
opportunities for work in our society, don't they? That is
not a subversive activity.
Mr. Adams. Well, but what you have here is the setup of
our investigative activity. We had New York, which was the
office of origin of the investigation. You have other offices
that were checking to determine what influence there was.
. In addition, in New York, to the New York office, lay the fact
that interwoven. with. the Women's. Liberation movement goal for
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militancy and violence in achieving their goals.
NOW,
Baltimore is one office, and I believe that even
there in one of the reports
--
The Chairman. You keep taking me back to New York.
Mr. Adams. Right.
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The Chairman.
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And I keep taking you back to Baltimore.
And the reason I do that is because if you turn two pages.
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Baltimore organization, the question is whether based upon that
3 finding the investigation should continue of the Baltimore
4 group, and the decision is that you will continue to follow
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and report on the activities of the group.
And I just wondered why
Mr. Adams. This is a problem that we have, that we do
have organizations where sometimes the the Women's Liberation
The Chairman. What was washed out? Not the Women's
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Liberation movement?
Mr. Adams. No, the investigation indicated there was
no concern or no reason to be concerned about it.
But where you do have an organization that has branches
in many areas of the country, and you start with one place and
it looks like you have a subversive organization, you do have
to see, well, is this carried out. throughout the organization
or is it just one chapter. or one group? In other words, not
even an organizational problem..
The Chairman. But you see, in this
the trouble with
that is in this Baltimore organization you say in your own
report that it was independent, there was no structure or
a parent organization, no rules or plans, so it isn't a part
of a national controlled and directed organization called by
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your own admission
Mr. Adams. I believe this report had some subsequent
pages that aren't included in here that did show some additional
4 activity or influence.
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The Chairman. I am told by the staff that this summary is
accurate, and the only other thing contained was that these
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women had affiliations with an organization that had protested
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Mr. Adams. I think there were some other items.
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The Chairman.
That is the only other association that
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we have been able to determine.
Now, in a case of this kind, do you still carry you say
this has been closed. Apparently the Women's Liberation move-
ment is no longer under suspicion by the FBI and the case has
been closed. What happens when the case is closed? Are those
women's names still left in the files?
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Mr. Adams. Yes.
The Chairman. In the system? Yes. There is no
yes.
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Mr. Adams. Yes.
The Chairman.
system.
Pretty soon you will have us all in the
I mean, if there is no way, even after surveillance has
been terminated to terminate the references of individuals
through the files of the system, you will one day have us all,
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Mr. Adams. Well, I would say as part of a normal business
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record, when we do make a judgment that an organization should
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be investigated and we investigate it, and then we find activities
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but we make a conclusion that there is no additional problem
here, this is a record of our official action. Now, if we
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destroy it, at what point do we get into a situation of being
accused of doing things and then destroying things to keep from
showing what we do?
The critical thing on this is whether we are able, and we
do set up safeguards, where information in our files is not
misused at a later date, and that is what these guideline
committees are all about.
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The Chairman. Do you have any idea of how many names of
Americans you keep in your files all as a result of the
cumulative effect of all of these surveillances in all of
4 these cases?
It's in the millions, isn't it?
Mr. Adams.
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NO!
I don't.
The Chairman.
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Mr. Adams. We have 6 1/2 million files.
The Chairman. You have 6 1/2 million files?
Mr. Adams. Yes, sir.
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The Chairman.
And there are surely names of more than
one person typically in a file, aren't they?
Mr. Adams. But it is a rather large country.
The Chairman.
That's a large number of files to start.
with, and if you have multiple names in them, you are quickly
up in to the, you know, 20, 30, 40 million.
Mr. Adams.
Right.
But many of these files are
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applicant files.
They are not all subversive files. They are
not all criminal files. We have a million crimes of violence
each year.
There is a million people.
The Chairman.
Sure, and I wish you had more time to
spend on those crimes of violence.
Mr. Adams. I do too.
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The Chairman.
There we agree.
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Mr. Adams.
Right.
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The Chairman.
What I worry about is this. You say there's
no way to know when to close a file. These were surveillance
files, or originally opened up to determine whether organizations
might have subversive connections.
There are names in these files, so some demagogue comes
along and says against some public figure that his name is
contained in a certain file to be found in the subversive
files of the FBI and there it is.
II& has not made a misstatement
at all. But to the American people that man's name and
reputation has been scarred.
Mr. Adams. And I hope this Committee recognizes that
and recommends legislation that would enforce strong punitive
or criminal violations against misuse of information in the
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files. We feel this way, CIA feels this way.
We recognize
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We fire our
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We feel
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I don't think we can ever stop the accumulation of
information. I don't know an investigative agency in the
world, a law enforcement agency, that does not have to
accumulate information. And we are working on guidelines
as to how to get rid of the irrelevant information, how to
eliminate material that really does not need to be kept,
that we hope we will be able to come to Congress with these
guidelines before too long, which will help address itself
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to just some of these problems.
The Chairman. Well, you may be assured that the
Committee shares your objective in this regard and we will
be working with you and the Department of Justice and others
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to try and change the laws to give a greater measure of
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protection to the First Amendment rights of the American people
I have no further questions. Are there any other
questions.
Senator Mondale?
Senator Mondale. Mr. Adams, earlier, in inquiring about
the basis for investigating Dr. King, I thought I heard two
basic justifications. One, suspicion and fear of Communist
influence or infiltration. And secondly, "that he constituted
a threat to the success of the Negro movement."
Did I understand that second basis?
Mr. Adams. No. The first I was talking about was not
suspicion but information indicating Communist influence.
The second was on this question of motivation that you raised,
I don't know what their motive was to get to some of these
other activities in order to discredit and remove him, but it
apparently, they must have felt that he
was a question
--
was a threat to either as shown in the files the President
and Attorney General expressed concern about the civil rights
"
movement and his continued affiliation with some of these
people.
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Senator Mondale.. Would you agree that it would not be
a proper basis for an investigation for the FBI or any other
government official to be concerned about the success of the
negro movement?
In other words, that is not a valid --
Mr. Adams. I have no problem.
Senator Mondale.
All right. So let us take the one
ground that appears to have justified the investigation of
Dr. King and the investigation of the women's liberation
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the fear that "dangerous influences might
infiltrate these organizations."
Suppose it is true. Suppose that a Communist did
have influence over Dr. King, or suppose an SDS member
infiltrated and became a dominant influence in a chapter of
the women's liberation movement and you established it as
a fact. What would you do?
Assuming that we can't get into this harassing and so
on, you agree that that no longer has any validity. So what?
What do you have?
MI...
Adams.
We have potential violations which might
arise, which rarely come to fruition and haven't for many
years, but we do have an intelligence responsibility under
the directives from the President and the Attorney General. ·
That is, with a revolutionary group, like the Communist Party
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has taken over control of a domestic group and the Communist
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Party is operated by the Soviet Union. We would furnish that
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information as we do.
Every copy of our reports goes to the
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Senator Mondale.
Right. But I just want to get the
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known to be Communists, were gaining. influence over him.
Suppose you established that. What present use or
need is there for that information?
Mr. Adams. I feel that the President, the Attorney
General, the Executive Branch, needs to know the extent of
a foreign-directed Communist organization, its influence and
effect on the United States of America.
Senator Mondale. All right. So if such information
is valid and an investigation to seek it are necessary, is
there any limit on the investigative authority of the FBI?
We have just heard about the women's liberation movement
where we were fearful that New Left, SDS types might have
an influence. That justified that investigation.
We now
have your statement that we were fearful that some Communists
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thoroughly investigated.
Are there any limits. then on who can be investigated?
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Mr. Adams. Well, the only limits are that we must
relate it to a statutory basis of one of the Presidential
guidelines we have or the critéria we have, which criteria
are receiving scrutiny at the present time by Congress. They
have in the past by the Department of Justice, and this is the
area of guidelines. This whole area of domestic security is
what we need guidelines in.
Senator Mondale. Right. And you would agree, we talked
about this earlier, that being a Communist is not a crime.
Mr. Adams. No, it has not been a crime.
Senator Mondale. So that the whole basis for this has
to apparently stem from a Presidential directive, you think
has tasked you to do this.
Mr. Adams. Yes.
Senator Mondale. Just a few other points.
In 1970, 11/6/70, a telegram from Newark to the Director
went forth proposing that the following telegram be sent:
"Word received. Food donated to party by anti-liberation
white pigs contained poison. Symptoms: cramps, diarrhea,
severe stomach pains. Destroy all food donated for convention
suspected of poison.
"However, still required to meet your quota. Signed,
Ministry of Information.
"
And this was a telegram that was 'to be sent from Oakland,
California to the Jersey City, New Jersey headquarters.
The
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telegram went on further. It is suggested that the Bureau
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then consider having the laboratory treat fruit, such as
oranges, with mild laxative type drug by hypodermic needle
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or other appropriate method and ship fruit as a donation from
a fictitious person in Miami to the Jersey City headquarters.
The answer then from the Director of the FBI:
"The Bureau cannot authorize the treating of fruit to
be shipped to Jersey City because of lack of control over the
treated fruit in. transit.
However, Newarks's proposed
telegram regarding food collected for the Revolutionary
People's Constitutional Convention has merit."
How did you ever get to a point like that?
Mr. Adams. I don't know. What was the response from
Newark and then the final answer taken?
Senator Mondale. It was turned down because they
couldn't control transit, but they thought it was a good idea.
Do you think that's a good idea?
Mr. Adams. No, I don't. I think that
--
Senator Mondale. How did we ever get to the point that
this kind of insane suggestion violating everyone's civil
liberties based on government-sponsored fraud? How does
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Mr. Adams. I don't know.
Senator Mondale. One final point.
When we interviewed one of your former employees, he .
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referred to something I never heard of before called a no-
contact list. He did it jokingly because he said when the
Pope agreed to see Martin Luther King, he was sure he would be
put on the no-contact list thereafter.
Can you tell me what that list is?
Mr. Adams. Not in any specific detail. I know that at
one time there was a, there would be a list that if an agent
interviewed an individual and this individual created a storm
or a ruckus and we didn't want some other agent stumbling
out there and interviewing the same person, that we would make
sure that they were aware of the fact that further contacts
of this individual would result in a problem.
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Senator Mondale. All right.
Now on 6/24/71, in a
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with certain
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it looks like about 10 members of the FBI.
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And this is what it says:
"Pursuant to your instruction, members of the conference
were briefed concerning recent attempts by various newspapers
and reporters to obtain information about or from FBI
personnel.
Members were specifically advised that there would
be absolutely no conversations with or answers from any of
the representatives of the Washington" something. Oh here,
from the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
CBS and NBC.
"The only acceptable answer to such inquiries is no
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comment.'
Now Senator Huddleston earlier asked about efforts to
influence newspapers and media outlet.
Does this trouble you, a decision not to answer questions
from certain selected media outlets?
Mr. Adams. It is not the policy today. I think this
has been aired in the past. There was a period of time .
wherein Mr. Hoover, in reacting to criticism from some of these.
newspaper men, where he felt he hadn't been given a fair
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shake, or for some other reason, that he felt that they should
be told no comment, and he instructed they be told no comment.
The motivations I am not in a position to discuss, but
I can tell you that there has been no such policy in the
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Senator Mondale. If you could submit for us,
if you
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can find it, the no-contact list, I would appreciate that.
I have some other questions I will submit for the
record, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Very well. I just have one final follow-up
question on Senator Mondale's interrogation.
I continue to be somewhat fascinated by how long these
investigations go, and when, if ever, they are stopped.
Apparently they never come out of the files, whatever is
But Senator Mondale raised the point of a suspicion
that in the Martin Luther King case, an advisor, he was
found.
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getting advice from a person who had or was thought to have
2 Communist leanings.
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And so without using the name, because we are trying to
protect privacy as we conduct this investigation
Mr. Adams. I think we have a little more problem than
that, too, Senator.
The Chairman. I am just using a Mister X in place of
What I am trying to get at is when the Bureau,
the name.
what the criteria is for pursuing an investigation, for
pursuing the matter, and this is the kind of a statement that
This has to do with a reply to the
leaves me so perplexed.
New York office by the Bureau here in Washington.
The part I read to you is as follows:
"The Bureau does not agree with the expressed belief
of the New York office that Mr. X is not sympathetic to the
Party cause. While there may not be any direct evidence that
Mr. X is a Communist, neither is there any substantial
evidence that he is anti-Communist."
And so the directions are to continue the investigation
of this matter. And in cases of this kind, do you pursue
the investigation until you prove the negative?
Mr. Adams. No. I believe in that particular case, if
it is the one I am thinking about, that there was evidence
that at one time he had been a Communist and that there was
a. question of whether the office felt well, it's like we
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have had some situations where a person comes out and publicly
disavows their former leanings.
Do you take them at words right away after they have
been engaged in violent activities, or do you wait until
you determine that they really have carried through the dis-
avowed practice?
That's a gray area. This one seems like on the wording
itself, would seem like an extreme philosophy, leaning towards
everyone has to prove in the United States they are not
a Communist, and I can assure that is not a policy of the
Bureau and does not fit into the criteria of our general
investigative matters.
I just feel that there is more to it than just that
brief paragraph.
The Chairman. That particular kind of philosophy has
kept up in our life from time to time. I remember during
the days of McCarthyism in this country, we came very close
to the point where people had to prove that they were. not
now or had never been a Communist in order to establish them-
selves as patriotic citizens.
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both.
Mr. Adams. That's right.
That's true.
The Chairman. And when I see standards of this kind
or criteria of this kind emerging, it worries me very much.
I have no further questions. I want to thank you
If there are no further questions, I want to thank
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you both for your testimony this morning.
It has been very
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helpful to the Committee, and the Committee will stand adjourned
until 2:00.
We will stand adjourned in public session. Our next
public session will be 2:30 tomorrow afternoon for purposes
of press questioning on the assassination report.
WARD & PAUL
(Whereupon, at 1:07 o'clock p.m., the Committee adjourned,
to reconvene at 2:30 o'clock p.m., Thursday, November 20,
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