\IRS Gave FBI ‘Names of Secret SCLC Contributors; » By CLAUDIA TOWNSEND R K Constitution Washington Bureau . WASHINGTON — When the FBI was looking for ways to undermine tht civil rights work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) helped out by revealing the names of people who had contributed secretly to King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), according to a Sen- ate staff report released Tuesday. The IRS had the names because the . SCLC is a tax-exempt organization re- quired by Jaw to file a list of its contrib- utors. But the list is a confidential one, so that persons may contribute te SCLC or similar organizations without making their support public. . Giving the FBI access to the names of donors to SCLC and other organiza- lions “has threatcred both the integritlr f the tax systern and the constitutional tights of the contributors,” the Senatp Intelligence Coramittee staff repor charges. - “The identity of members of organ- ' izations such as the SCLC is privileged io protect members in their right to freedom of association,” the committee staffers wrote, The -FBI’s plans to use the list of names in efforts to disrupt SCLC “con- stitute a direet attack on the very inter- est which the right to anonymity pro- tects,” according to the report. The bureau’s plans were “a purpose for which the FBI could not have obtained a list of SCLC -contributors from any ourt.” , | According to the Intelligence Com! thittee, the FBI obtained from the IRS” “all available information” about both, NW 34961 Doold: 32989495 ese ca x ) {Mount Clitanina in Soace Balew) 4 King and the SCLC in 1964. On April ua 1964, the Atlanta field office suggested in a memo to ‘FBI headquarters i; Washington that the SCLC donor list he ‘used in a plan to disrupt future contribu- tions to the organization. an What the FBI should do, the Atlanta office suggested, was to forge letters from King to each of the donors, warn- ing the donors that the IRS was investi- gating SCLC’s tax records and reassur- ing each one that his contribution was properly reported according to tax lav requirements, - . “It is believed such a letter of this type from SCLC (to the donors) may cause considerable concern and elimi- nate future contributions,” the FBI memo stated, wos ®, FBI officials in Washington rejected, the suggestion as “not appearing desiras ‘ble and-or teasible for direct action by! “the bureau this time.” However, the committee report . states, the fact that the FBI didn’t go through with the plan “does not affect the basic point that FBI headquarters furnished the tax information, including the list of contributors, to the local of- fice in order to enable the local office to devise disruptive action.” The report says FBI policy as applied in other similar cases “makes it clear that the suggestion was not re- jected because of concern for the legal- ity of using the contributor list” for the purpose of disrupting the organization. Committee research into the FBI activities has turned up other instances’ in which the FBI attempted to use finan- cial information to discredit King or hamper his activities, of fiw Yovor copies 12.0.0 bd anes TO - Geiginel seme Lures a Page 74 (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Pazse 1-C TID: {| ATLANTA COMSTITULIC © Atlanta, Gcorgia Date: cA 1 ~76 Edition: orn Claudia Touase wx Hal Gulliver SEASTUDY 75 Authors Editor: Title: Character: or Classification: 59.4 @ 5 . Submitting Office: ATT, ATT [_]} Being Investigated MAY 1 2 1976 FBI+ ATLANTA
The bureau in 1964 reviewed five * December, 1965, that investigation was years’ worth of tax returns for King, the “described by Hoover as “the most f JSCLS, and the Gandhi Society (a group important presently pending” portion of |‘. ‘that the FBI said “augmented” SCLC’s, the FBI's activilies against King. fundraising activities). Shortly after that, however, the : FBI agents also obtained a promise investigation was dropped when the , from IRS to scrutinize King’s then-cur- rent: returns “very carefully to deter- mine whether any violations appear.” Tn 1965, the FBI launched an inves- tigation aimed at proving that King held large amounts of money in a-numbered Swiss bank account. That plan was con- ceived during a golf game, when an acquaintance of the FBI supervisor of the King case mentioned that he’d heard King had a.million-dollar bank account Qverseas, 2 With the approval of former FBI: { - ilirector J. Edgar Hoover, ‘a search for ghat bank account was undertaken. By! MW 54961 Docld: 32999499 Page 75 original source of the rumor told the - FBI that the existence of the bank ac- count “was merely a wild conclusion.” Fifth District Rep. Andrew Young told the committee that contributions to ° SCLC were “chilled” by the FBI’s alle- gations about the bank account. “There were direct attempts at some of our larger contributors who told us that they had been told by agents that Martin had a Swiss bank account, or, § that Martin had confiscated some of the fnonies from the march on Washington tor his personal use. None of that was}, (sue,” Young testified. ’
Ore RD Spans For 25 years or more, us intelligence agencies opened and read Americans’ mail. (+ tampered with oversea! cables, and spied on thousands of private citizens while their leaders condoned violating the Constitution, a former White House staffer said here. i “These were not ‘minor | aberrations’ as some would ' like us to believe. Intelligence | agencies, acting sometimes as an arm of the president, sometimes on their own, carried out systematic pro- grams which their leaders knew were illegal,” said Dr. Morton Halperin, one-time senior staff member of the | National Security Council. | | _ Halperin told an American | | i Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) | audience Tuesday night that i intelligence “reforms” recom- mended by President Ford will allow the Central Intelli- gence Agency, FBI, and mili- tary spy services to continue abusing the law under a cloak ° of legality: Even the Russians were so confident of American consti- tutional guarantees that they occasionally used the U.S. ‘mail to send information to : agents in this country, Halp- ‘ erin said. g “ “They used it in the crazy belief that Americans would . not open up their citizen’s mail,” he said. He said CIA officials first asked postal officials for per- mission to copy addresses on, Igtters sent {to Americans‘ fom the Soviet Union, and then bribed postal overseers. P allow the CIA to open and’ ead the mail. ‘MW 54961 —Docld: 32989499 _Page 76 MORTON HALPERIN SAYS ' Oo spying on Citizen “ levy a criminal penalty on (Mount Cloning In Snace Ralaw) my i @ l peed R i i 25 Years? One such letter, in 1968, iyritten by political consultant; lRay Price, who was a tourist } in Russia at the time, was full, wbf advice on the U.S. presiden-— tial primaries to his candidate —Richard Nixon. Halperin, now director of the ACLU-sponsored Project on National Security and Civil Liberties, said Ford’s pro- - posed reforms would make it harder to uncover abuses by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, The Ford proposal would 4} Undicate page, name of -| newspaper, city and state.) ~ Page 2-4 THe ATLANTA JOURHAL —Atlanta, Georgia a anyone who exposed intelli- gence operations without a prior “lawful” demand from a ‘congressional committee. “The Founding Fathers started with the assumption {hat it is a crime to tempt neople with unlimited power..- and they meant the Bill a ‘Rights to apply in times o . i Date: ~ emergency as well as times of Pdition: 5 | 2 76 ‘calm,” Halperin said. on Bye nin 3 Author: 2 He called for a strong con- gressional oversight commit: Editor: 1 oo tee to monitor intelligence Paiters Jacks ppaldins Tite: SHISTUDY 75 agencies, and advocated that: mast officials who ordered, ondoned or covered up priminal activities be prose cuted. Character: or Cc é Classification: 62-2854 Submitting Offfee: ATT, LL TA [ Being Investigated an Ney a v s As Sead
tack him fo the wall—the air p  * blewing him down’ | . t ener AOA aode $ x Tet ee AL Upietne.. sowh 2 yore he a Sy wedi HW 54961 Doeold:32989499 Page 77 4. — | Undicate page, name of .| newspaper, city and state.) Page 19-A THE ATLANTA JOURTAL —Atlanta, Georgia Date: 5-1 8-76 Edition: Eveaing Author: Tom Darcey {Editer: Jack Spalding Tile: SENGSTUDY 75 “4 4 Character: or Classification: 62 28 5h. Submitting Office: APT. MTA C) Being Investigated 62.-SkSY. bg SHARCHED DEXE si RIALIZED OH Za ‘BI = ATLANTA, fo. / .
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63) lu But who watches the watchdogs? * The Senate, with ample reason, has approved 72-22 a resolution creating a j5-member permanent committee to oversee and control activities of the CIA, FBI and other government spy agencies. By now every literate citizen tundere stands why the Senate found this connivance of presidents and other top leaders, have been trying to usher im 1984 a little ahead of time. We have eommented at length on all this bee fore and won’t go through it here. Suf- fice it to say that thick reports from ing the misdeeds of the agencies make it clear that something has to be done to curb their excesses or we can all kiss goodbye to The Bill of Rights. So we have the Senate’s new watche dog committee. The new committee _ Will take over a job that was supposed fe have been done by several other committees, including the Armed Services Committee which lost its ef ‘fort to retain jurisdiction over the Nae Orreir hee HW 54961 Doold: 32989495 (Mount Clipping in Space Below) - Watchdog necessary, The spy agencies, with the, congressional committees ‘documents . tional Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and others. %s there any reason to believe the ew committee will do the job the others shirked? Maybe. Not certainly —just maybe. In the post-Watergate climate Congress is feistier than usual, Bad practices have beet exe posed and here is Congress’ chancé to show its mettle, The 15-month investi- gation by the Senate Select Intelli- gence Committee, headed by Frank Church, was part of doing that, and se was the creation of this new commit. tee, But whether this new committee will continue to do its duty remains to be seen, We, the people, will probably have to watch the watchdogs, Georgia’s Sen. Sam Nunn, inciden- tally, added an amendment, accepted without objection, that requires classi- fied information released over ‘the President’s objection to be approved by the full Senate, During the long congressional investigations the track record for secret keeping was dismal ~ and there are some secrets that, for the good of us all, must be kept. ot x oxox = eo! ge ds 3, meg, doe Pe Pe oy Page 78 (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Page 4-A THE APBAITA COASTITULION Atlanta, Georgia Date: 524 ~76 Edition: Mo orni ne Author: Edi torsal Editor Hal Gulliver me: SENSITUDY 75 Character: or Classification: 285) Submitting one woe cp A {_] Being Investigated
NW 5496) Dooid: 32989495 FD-350 (Rev, 7-16-63) " Over the past 15 months, con- gressional investigations and ’ journalistic exposes have uncov- ered benumbing evidence of gross malfeasance on the part of - the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Many Americans have tradi- the CIA. They had doubts about the IRS because of the complex- ity of its tax forms and an al- most paranoid anticipation of a .tax audit. The coat-and-dagger, super-secret nature of the CIA engendered anxiety. It was a simple case of fear of the un- known. On the other hand, the FBI was the most respected and trusted law enforcement agency in the land. The late J. Edgar Hoover and TV’s Inspector Ir- _ skin were the country’s two best known cops. f oa survey conducted early in | 1974 indicated that more than 85 4 per cent of those polled had complete faith in the integrity .of + Refurbished F.B.L | ‘tionally mistrusted the IRS and ' _ (Mount Clipping in Space Balau\ the FBI. .A similar survey re- cently showed that fewer than. 40 per cent still kept the faith. Out of the investigations and’ charges, important overdue changes in the FBI are beginning to emerge. Internal changes are being made by Director Clarence Kelly and his overseer, Attorney General Edward H. Levi. Con- gress will impose curbs on FBI powers and modus operandi. The new rules of the game de- fine the FBI’s powers to carry out domestic intelligence opera- tions. Provision is made for close congressional and Justice Depart- ment oversight of FBI opera- tions. There will be restrictions on the collection, filing and. dis-. semination of information that might be damaging to individu- als. ure for the director will prevent anyone in the future from build- ‘ing up such awesome power as that acquired by the late J. _Ed- gar Hoover. { ‘ Thank Providence! It appear that we acted in time. | ; Page 73 LS) Most importantly, a fixed ten- aan ang I _SEARCH ED INDEXED eee ; SERIALIAE (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Page 4-~A THE MACOT MEWS —Hacon, Georgia Date: 5 q 7 ~76 Edition: Byening Author: = =iditorial Editor: Joseph Parha~. Title: SEU STUDY 75 Character: or Classification: 62-~ 235k Submitting Office: ATT, * “TTS Lae eee CJ Being Invest aatg c) : oC» LA—_| eS LIA? & 6 1976 FEI~ ASLAN TS, VM
FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63) fee 2 Mtr tee te Ca men Ralaud . * , ‘ . ‘ ht! a The need for congressional oversight tion of the strong ~ within ine ‘of ‘the CIA, the FBI and other Senate that these agencies oversteppéd’ «intelligence-gathering groups has been the bounds of proper conduct, especial abvious for dlong time. - dy in the area of domestic spying." * There have been -shameful abuses, ‘Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn played a vastly contrary to our democratic significant role in injecting a matter of society. These abuses have been common sense when the Senate got ‘carefully detailed by the Senate Select down to approving the final version of Intelligence Committee’s 15-month in- a resolution creating the Senate panel — vestigation of spy agencies. _. to oversee these intelligence agencies. Now comes the full U.S. Senate The Senate accepted without objec- ° overwhelmingly approving creation of tion an amendment from Senator Nunn. a permanent committee to monitor which requires that any classified infor- io control the activities of the CIA mation released ‘over the President’s (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Page L-A THE COLUMBUS LEDGER Columbus, Georgia and FBI. - - objections must be approved by the full: The vote. _ 72 to 22 — is an indica- Senate. “ : : I ! : . +4 Senator Nunn properly pointed out’ f that language in the bill did not clearly i spell out the full Senate’s role in, i declassification and could have been read as allowing the committee alone to make the decision on the release. Date: 5 ~21 -76 Edition: Afternoon Author: Editorial Editor: CaaS JOHUSO. Title: BUSTUDY 75 The Senate, not the ‘committee, should have the final responsibility in making such a sensitive, and potentially “damaging decision. . We trust that adequate safeguards | will be instituted to prevent any, careless or unwarranted leaking of classified information. Character: or Classification: 6e- 265" 4 Some members of. Congress routinely Submitting Office: leaked damaging information disclosed in the long congressional hearings. They did it despite pleas from the ex- / ~Teamayet BUGS made: ecutive branch they were damaging ee 2 Daye She national security. The Senate committee can play a, significant role in guiding our in- | telligence agencies toward a healthy, and reasonable operation that will! guard our national security. 54961 Docld:32989499 Page 80
| Other Voices/Bugene Patterson’ GS « Sweet Lies Soothe Hoover) EDITOR'S NOTE: Eugene Patterson is. president and editor of The St. Petersburg. Times, where this column ‘originally ab- peared. He was editor of The Atlanta C " stitution 1960-1968. - ; ‘> “While the late J. Edgar Hoover was di-. Yecting’ agents of his Federal Bureau of‘ zéns he didn’t like, he . Was being deluded within ‘his own -head- qiarters, we now learn, by deceitful reports from assistants . who apparently told the director what he | wanted to hear. Not only was Hoover = dangerously fs misusing the federal & police powers, he was : being fed false and obsequious | on which to base his reprehensible acts. ,. Ehat double danger surfaced last week ‘when a’staff study was released on the Sen- ate investigation into FBI spying on Ameri- can citizens in Hoover's time. —-- .. The study contained a memo from Wil-/ liam Sullivan, Hoover’s deputy, to Hoover., This writer has personal knowledge that thd information Sullivan fed his ‘superior was : alse, ‘ . Sullivan told Hoover in 1965 that the Yate Atlanta Constitution publisher Ralph McGill said and did certain dishonorable _ things which I know he did not'say or do. eras ne aos: at that time, adjoined McGill’s. As close personal friends and professional running Mates we talked repeatedly every day, sought each other’s advice. We were in- during our 12 years together I never knew him to tell me an untruth or deceive me on his thinking. . . Nothing disturbed us more during that stressful time of Southern desegregation than our separate discoveries, discoveries, which we immedately shared, that FBI agents were spying on the personal life of Dr, Martin Luther King Jr. Our knowledge was firsthand. Agents of the Atlanta FBI bu- réau visited us in our offices and alleged they had proof of Dr. King’s involvement in _ extra-marital affairs, In my case an agent, on two separate visits, insisted strenuously hat I assign a reporter and photographer to ~ patch Dr. King and his companion at an air- ‘port where an FBI “informant” (meaning ug) said he was going to board a plane the .pthe agent a person’s private life is not news, }; Investigation to smear and ruin private citi- i ally told this story to John Doar, one ‘ol ' - dy’s control, or élse Kennedy” knew wha 2 My office, as editor of The Constitution — ‘lunched together, shared our problems and - separable, in almost constant contact, and . @ (Mount Clipping In Space Below) a ee er . did not publish a peephole journal, and told § he hotly criticized The Constitution for sup-| ¥ porting Dr. King’s public. leadership and}: ‘blinding its readers to his private “immoral- ity.” Other Southern newspapers. received — similar visits and to the ‘press’ credit not ‘ one printed the FBI’s smears in Dr. King’s | lifetime. : sf . - McGill and I were astonished and out- raged that our friends in the FBI Atlanta ‘bureau had been assigned, obviously by Hoover, to such a dirty business as charac- ter assassination, and by these Sleazy . Ralph McGill could muster a towering ‘anger and I never saw him madder. His first impluse was to get word to Dr. King so he could protect himself. He picked up the . telephone to pass the information to Dr. King’s father but I dissuaded him from ~ # upsetting Dr. King Sr. by spreading the ~ FBY’s smear around the family. - 3 He spoke of getting in touch instead } with Atty: Gen. Robert Kennedy to let him. know what the FBI was up to. I don’t know if he reached Kennedy personally. 1 persond i Kennedy’s assistants, and was appalled: when I got no reaction from him, not eve an indication he had heard what I said (and we were speaking face to face). I realized * then that Hoover either was beyond penne Hoover ‘was. doing. McGill arid I trade disappointed exclamations over this. Thereafter McGill’s columns supporte Dr. King’s leadership of the civil rights movement more strongly than ever: . ~ But Sullivan’s memo to Hoover claimed that McGill was so shocked ‘by the. FBI’s information on Dr. King’s private life that he stated he would use his influence to get Dr. King out of the leadership of the civil rights movement! That must have been Music to Hoover's ears, encouraging him to King’s bedroom. The problem is, it just was- in’t so, .McGill’s shock was directed at the FBI, and his support went to Dr. King. He’d have been the last man in the world to ’ desert King in these circumstances. Worse, Sullivan’s memo went on to re- gale Hoover with the notion that McGill would attempt to block an Atlanta banquet scheduled to honor Dr. King after he won the Nobel Prize. McGill would work through a banker friend to get the business com-} munity to withdraw its support for the ban-; \quet, Hoover was told by Sullivan. , ‘press on .with his bugs and taps on Dr. pst ' That fabrication is a laugher for one ‘who was there, as I was, There wasn’t any nigpmingsgsekens Whew J driejgte puplain ge § 3pusiness community support, . (ay (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) Page 5-A THE ATBANTA COASTITULION Atlanta, Georgia Meron copies madé s wo mapneln Tha eh Oviginel cont Bureau, Date: 5-31 ~76 Edition: Morning Author: Fugene Patterso Editor: Hal Gulliver Title: SENSTUDY 75 , Character: “Ly or sYGssification: 62-28 5h. 4 Submitting Office: ATL ATS {_} Being Investigated Je RGU _
: alternately raged and laughed at the specta- _ Second vice presidents to the banquet honor- ' ‘visions of the great liberal newspaper pub- + Jisher warning an eager business establish-. a alot * The ‘fact ‘is ‘that’ McGill’ was the only white business or professional leader: in "4 Atlanta whd stepped forward to co-sponsor, | the banquet, in conjunction with a Catholic. bishop and a Jewish rabbi, while the bank: ers anid businessmen of that’ city ran for, cover, In conversations with me. McGilt cle of Atlanta’s white establishment being too timid or-too segregated to even send ing a black Nobel Prize winner.- : While Hoover enjoyed Sullivan-inspired ment away from the King banquet, I . watched McGill work his way around the : _ boycotting. businessmen to the holders of ecreal power in. Atlanta, whom he persuaded -! to bring their influence and pressure to bear - _ .on the.bankers to-support the King banquet. ‘. _At a very Jate hour the banquet was saved | “from being a lonely gathering of black peo- *ple and a few white humanists by an inpour- -: ing of ‘second: ‘vice -presidents, and even some firsts, because the word had been | passed from on high as a result of McGill's - single-handed exertions. ” eu ew) a nee el ee ne a re I had thought the finest irony of that - . banquet was the praise Time magazine later ”. lavished on Atlanta because the white estab- ‘lishment had honored a black son, the kind © of national: publicity that brought a boom to that once sieepy town. But now the Senate investigating staff. » has disclosed the true irony: Hoover thought - McGill was trying to sabotage the banquet, because his agents had told him so. The implication speaks for itself. An ~, autocratic FBI -director, armed with the * public’s trust and secure from a cowed Con- | - -gress, could misuse his power to stalk and. " smear any American citizen of his choosing - _ including you or me. And probably because . che wanted only good news, he got demon- . - strably false intelligence upon which to base ‘his whims, Frightening? co Consider the footnote: The ‘agent who. ; . failed to persuade me to smear Dr. King in The Atlanta Constitution got a harsh Hoover’: letter and an overnight transfer to a distant city not long after he failed to come up with clippings that would have pleased Hoover: I saw the letter. It said the agent was being punished for being six pounds overweight, i MW 34961 Docld:i 32989493 Page 82