The "Family Jewels" Show: The More Things Change...

by Diane Farsetta — June 22, 2007 - 3:40pm
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On June 25, the Central Intelligence Agency will declassify its "full 693-page file amassed on CIA's illegal activities by order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973 -- the so-called 'family jewels.'" The non-governmental research institute National Security Archive "separately obtained ... a six-page summary of the illegal CIA activities, prepared by Justice Department lawyers after a CIA briefing in December 1974, and the memorandum of conversation when the CIA first briefed President Gerald Ford on the scandal on January 3, 1975." On the list of CIA activities that "presented legal questions" are: wiretapping two syndicated columnists; conducting physical surveillance of several journalists, including the Washington Post's Michael Getler and current Fox News anchor Brit Hume; compiling files on "9,900-plus Americans related to the antiwar movement"; conducting behavior modification experiments on "unwitting" U.S. citizens; and planning to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders.

Main Source: 
National Security Archive, June 21, 2007

Comments

CIA does PR

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on July 2, 2007 - 2:01pm.

According to [http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/666970/CIA-report-release-part-image-effort/ PR Week], the release of the "Family Jewels" is intended to burnish the CIA's image:

The CIA said the recent release of about 700 pages of formerly classified documents from the 1970s is part of an ongoing effort to establish a new agency reputation for being as open and honest as possible. ...

In a note from CIA director Michael Hayden to staff and provided to PRWeek, he describes the documents' release as a "process of recollection and self-examination" meant to show that the CIA is faith- fully living up to its "social contract with the American people."

CIA's Family Jewels, or just more disinformation?

Submitted by Richard64 on June 24, 2007 - 8:05pm.

It would be nice to think the CIA was voluntarily complying with the l994 ARRB JFK Act declassification order, recently countermanded by Bush and Gang, or just an honest 30 year house keeping. That doesn't seem to fit their MO however. I'd expect some sort of counter spin or limited hang out relating to some recent agenda, perhaps a new 1000 page JFK hit cover-up book recently released and soon to be serialized on TV, a follow up to Hartmann and Waldrons Mafia limited hang out book? (i.e. Blame the victims, RFK, never mind the CIA Atty.Gen. Report indicating they were informed after the fact!) What would they have to cover up? McCords CIA take down of Nixon with the Watergate set up after Nixon thrreatened to reveal "the Bay of Pigs Thing"?

CIA did not stop illegal activities before 1980

Submitted by Rhoda E Schollars on June 24, 2007 - 3:00pm.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. What about the 1980's when the CIA became drug dealers? My husband and I got caught in the mess in the late 1980's and early 1990's in Tucson, one of the two biggest drug warehouses in the United States (along with El Paso). If you want confirmation, ask Barbara Savage and Alejandro Valdez, CIA agents, and ask the Tucson Police Department who sent members of Internal Affairs and MANTIS to lean on us. They threatened to put us in jail if we got involved. Every time I thought I was wrong, was being paranoid, I came back to one simple question: What were two CIA agents doing in Tucson, one of whom sat in my family room discussing Karl Marx and the true opiate of the people.

Interesting!!!

Submitted by Pani113 on June 22, 2007 - 8:50pm.

Are they going to reveal ALL their secrets. Like all the "black ops," psyops crap that went on just a few years ago???? Are they going to tell us what all those mind control experiments were really about??? Then are they going to compensate all the ruined lives? How does one measure the spiritual damage done to someone who was forced to sell their soul only to find out they were really CIA guinea pigs and there was a scientific explanation for it all along? And how about those who refused to sell out, had their lives ruined, and can't possibly even begin to what happened? Karma!!!! Please God let it exist!!!!!!!!!!!