1977 Justice Dept. Report on CIA (was: Rockefeller Commission Report)

[Gregory Foster]

Ah, I must correct myself.

On 10/4/14, 1:25 AM, Gregory Foster wrote:
> The James Bamford article sent along by coderman is excellent.
> 
> The Intercept (Oct 2) - "The NSA and Me" by James Bamford [ @WashAuthor ]:
> https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/02/the-nsa-and-me/
> 
> I just noticed the article links to an interesting document.
> 
> Rockefeller Commission Report (RCR, 1977)
> "REPORT ON INQUIRY INTO CIA-RELATED ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE ACTIVITIES"
> http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1304974-report-on-inquiry-into-cia-related-electronic.html#document/p1
> 
>> A 1977 Justice Department report, obtained by reporter James
>> Bamford in 1981 under the Freedom of Information Act, investigating
>> criminal surveillance operations conducted by the CIA and NSA.
> 
> In 1975, the executive branch under President Gerald Ford initiated
> its own investigation of the CIA's and the NSA's activities in
> parallel with the larger committees in the legislature.  The report
> Bamford shared is a (redacted) product of the President's Commission.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_President%27s_Commission_on_CIA_Activities_within_the_United_States


A quick glance at the real RCR shows it is a very different document:
http://history-matters.com/archive/contents/church/contents_church_reports_rockcomm.htm

Instead, here's Bamford from the article:

> The secret investigation grew out of the final report by the Rockefeller Commission, a panel that had been set up by President Gerald Ford to parallel the Church Committee. Issued on June 6, 1975, the report noted that both the NSA and CIA had engaged in questionable and possibly illegal electronic surveillance. As a result, Attorney General Edward Levi established a secret internal task force to look into the potential for criminal prosecution. Focusing particularly on NSA, the task force probed more deeply into domestic eavesdropping than any part of the executive branch had ever done before.
> 
> I had heard rumors from several sources about such a probe, so I thought it would be worth requesting a copy of the file under FOIA. Nevertheless, I was surprised when the documents, with relatively few redactions, turned up at my door 10 months later. They included a lengthy, detailed “Report on Inquiry into CIA-Related Surveillance Activities” that laid out the investigation in stark detail, as well as a shorter draft “prosecutive summary” evaluating the potential for criminal prosecution. I was shocked that the Justice Department had released them to me without notifying the NSA. An official at Justice later told me that it was standard procedure not to notify the object of a criminal investigation (think John Gotti) once it is completed and requested under FOIA.

gf

-- 
Gregory Foster || gfoster at entersection.org
@gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/