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CHURCH COMMITTEE REPORTS
CIA INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION ABOUT AMERICANS:
CHAOS AND THE OFFICE OF SECURITY
CONTENTS
I. IntroAd.ucCtiHoAnOS _
B. MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE _
C. Special security investigations _
D. The investigation _
E. Summary of the issues _
1. Statutory authority _
a. Counterintelligence _
b. Protecting sources and methods of intelligence_
2. Statutory prohibitions _
3. Questions raised by CHAOS _
4. Questions raised by the Office of Security Programs__
II. History and Operation of CHAOS _
A. Background _
B. Authorization of CHAOS " _
C. The November 1967 peace movement study _
D. Operation of the CHAOS program and related CIA projects_
1. Gathering information _
2. Proticoenssing, storage and control of CHAOS informa_-
3. Reporting by CIA _
a. Studies _
b. Special reports _
c. Disseminations to the FBL _
E. 1969 expansion of CHAOS _
I. The review of CHAOS for the President _
2. Domestic contact service _
3. CHAOS agents _
4. Project 2 _
5. Provision to CHAOS of NSA and mail intercepts _
F. Reduction, limitation and termination of CHAOS _
1. Reduced reporting priority _
2. Reaction to Inspector General's Survey _
3. Termination of CHAOS _
III. Issues Raised by CHAOS and Related Projects _
A. The propriety of the CHAOS mission _
B. Domestic intelligence collection _
1. Domestic contact service _
2. Domestic reporting by CIA agents _
a. CHAOS agents _
b. Project 2 agents _
3. Praorpartiieotny of domestic reports by agents during prep_-
C. Assistance to FBI internal security investigations _
D. Maintenance of files on Americans _
E. Apspernotaches to determining foreign direction of domestic dis_-
1. The nature of counterintelligence work _
2. Political setting of investigations _
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IV. Office of Security Programs___ __ ___ __ ____ _____ __ _ ___ 721
A. Project RESISTANCE_________________________________ 721
B. Project MERRIMAC 723
C. Special security investigations_____ ____ __ __ __ __ __ ___ __ ____ 726
D. Issues raised by the Office of Security Programs and Investigations______________________________________________
727
1. Protecting the CIA from potential violence_ ________ 727
2. Sensitive security investigations ___________________ 730
CIA INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION ABOUT AMERICANS:
CHAOS AND THE OFFICE OF SECURITY
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the main controversies raised by recent practices of the Central
Intelligence Agency is the question of intelligence collection about
Americans. Unlike the FBI, the CIA was intended to focus on foreign
intelligence matters. Charges have been made, however, suggesting
that the CIA spied on thousands of Americans and maintained files on
many more, all in violation of its statutory charter.
Senate Resolution 21, establishing the Select Committee, authorized
inquiry into the extent of covert mtelligence efforts again&. Americans
and their legality under CIA's charter. It specifically authorized
review of the need for new legislation to protect American citizens
and to clarify the authority of CIA. This included the tension under
present law between the authority of the Director of Central Intelligence
to protect sources and methods of intelligence, on the one hand,
and the prohibition on CIA exercising police powers and internal
security functions, on the other.
This report discusses the results of a staff inquiry into the major
CIA programs which involved collection of information about Americans:
the CHAOS, MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE programs
and the special security investigations undertaken by the Office of
Security.
A.Ohaos
The most extensive program of alleged "domestic spying" by CIA
on Americans was the "CHAOS" program. CHAOS was the centerpiece
of a major CIA effort begun in 1967 in response to White House
pressure for intelligence about foreign influence upon American dissent.
The CHAOS mission was to gather and evaluate all available
information about foreign links to racial, antiwar and other protest
activity in the United States. CHAOS was terminated in 1974.
The CHAOS office participated in the preparation of some half
dozen major reports for higher authorities, all of which concluded that
no significant role was being played by foreign elements in the various
protest movements. This repeatedly negative finding met with continued
skepticism from the White House under two administrations
and pressures for further inquiry. In response to this skepticism
CHAOS continued to expand its coverage of Americans in order to
increase White House confidence in the accuracy of its findings.
A second major element of the CHAOS operation was to pursue
specific inquiries from the FBI about the activity of particular Americans
traveling abroad.
(681)
682
CHAOS received a great deal of information regarding Americans
from CIA stations abroad, as well as from the FBI itself. In addition,
CHAOS eventually received such information from its own agents
who participated in domestic dissident activity in America in order
to develop radical "credentials" as cover for overseas assignment.
CHAOS also obtained information about Americans from other domestic
CIA components, from the CIA mail opening project and from
a National Security Agency international communications intercept
program.l
In the process, the CHAOS project amassed thousands of files on
Americans, indexed hundreds of thousands of Americans into its computer
records, and disseminated thousands of reports about Americans
to the FBI and other government offices. Some of the information
concernerl the domestic activity of those Americans.
B. Merrimac and Resistance
The MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE programs were both run
by the CIA Office of Security, a support unit of the CIA charged
with safpguarding its personnel, facilities and information.
Project MERRIMAC involved the infiltration by CIA agents of
Washington-based peace groups and black activist groups. The stated
purpose of that program was simply to obtain early warning of demonstrations
and other physical threats to the CIA. The collection requirpmepts.
however, were broadened to include general information
about the leadership, funding and activities and policies of the targetpd
groups.
Proipct RESISTANCE was a broad effort to obtain general backgrOlmd
information for predicting violence which might create threats
to CIA installations, recruiters or contractors and for security evaluation
of CIA applicants. From 1967 until 1973, the program compiled
information about radical groups around the country, particularly
on campuses. Much of the reporting to headquarters by field
offices was from open sources such as newspapers. But additional information
was obtained from cooperating police departments, campus
officials and other local authorities, some of whom, in turn, were
using more active collection techniques such as informants.
In addition, both MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE supplied information
for the CHAOS program.
O. Special Security Investigatimls
Finally, there was a group of specific security investigations undertaken
either to find the source of newsleaks, or to determine whether
governmpnt employees were involved in espionage or otherwise constituted
security risks. Investigations were made of former CIA
employees. employees of other government agencies, newsmen and
othe~ privat~ individuals in this country. Physical surveillance, elect~
omc surveIHance, mail and tax return inspection, and surreptitIOUS
entry have been used on various occasions.
1 These last two are the subjects of separate Cemmittee reports.
683
Thev were not part of a particularly organized program, and were
conducted on a case-by-case basis. But they raise questions about
what kinds of security investigations are within the CIA's lawful authoritv,
and also about what kmds of techniques are permissible, even
when such investigations are authorized.
D. The Inve8tigatWn
Th~ Committee staff investigation of each of these areas has included
interviews, depositions, and documentary review of available
files.
Each of these areas had been examined intensively by the Rockefeller
Commission on CIA Activities within the United States before the
Select Committee was given access to the files and to some of the
persons involved.2
The Committee staff conducted an independent review of these
programs. At the same time, an effort was made to avoid duplication
of the extensive testimonial record already made by the Commission,
and to take additional testimony only when necessary to
clarify the record or to explore additional issues which arose. Hence,
this report includes citation to both testimony given to the Select
Committee and the Rockefeller Commission.
Part Two of this report reviews the evolution and operation of the
CHAOS program. Part Three considers the questions which the
history of CHAOS raises about future CIA programs. Part Four
reviews more briefly the Office of Security programs and considers
the questions which they raise.
E. Summary of the I88ue8
Before turning to the description of these programs, the remainder
of this introduction summarizes the issues which these programs present
for congressional decision.
Three themes are fundamental. First, to wha.t extent did any of
these activities exceed the lawful authority of the CIA under its charter
in the 1947 National Security Act? The answer is not always clear;
the statute's legislative history is often obscure at best.
Second, what should be the extent of the CIA's authority in the future?
Whatever the limits of present law, now is the time to reassess
which intelligence operations impinging upon Americans are appropriate
for the CIA, and which best left to others. .
Finally, in reviewing the CHAOS program, particularly, the Congress
must look beyond judging past legality or reallocating functions
among Federal agencies. For the American citizen, the fact that his
Government keeps a file on his associations, or monitors his travel
and his advocacy of dissent, is far more important than the question
of which office in the bureaucracy is doing it. Ultimately the activity
discussed in this report bears on the questIOn of what kinds of intellIgence
operations are proper undertakings for any part of the
Government.
• See generally, Report of the Oommission on OIA Activities Within the Unite!!
States, June 1975.
69-984 0 - 76 - 44
684
1. Statutory Authority
The legality of the CIA activity involves, first, the general positive
statutory autllo1'1ty on which it can be based, and second, specific
prohibitions which might supersede or limit the aftirmative autnority
and responsibilities of the CIA.
(a) (jounterintettigence.-l.;lA's charter in the 1947 National
Security Act speaks of "intelligence." The legislative history establishes
that this means "foreign mtelligence" in the case of the CIA.
The only explicitly specified duties of the CIA are to "correlate and
evaluate intelligence relating to the national security." However, the
CIA's role as an intelligence gatherer was understood at the time of
enactment; the provision that the National Security Council may
assign CIA "other functions and duties" has been accepted as implied
authority for clandestine foreign intelligence collection. In addition,
the legislative history of the 1947 Act and the 1949 Central Intelligence
Act recognize that the CIA would perform training and other
functions in the United States in support of its overseas mtelligence
efforts.2
&
Like foreign intelligence, the term "counterintelligence" is not dealt
with explicitly in the 1947 Act. In the broad sense, however, counterintelligence
may be viewed as one facet of "foreign intelligence activities."
Counterintelligence is the effort to learn about foreign intelligence
activities and to thwart hostile attempts to penetrate our own
intelligence activity or to conduct operations against us.
Organizationally, the CIA and other intelligence agencies distinguish
positive intelligence collection from counterintelligence. It has
long been assumed, however, that CIA's general charter in foreign
intelligence, includes authority for counterintelligence activity abroad.
Although it was not expressly addressed by Congress during the
passage of the 1947 Act, it is hard to imagine, for example, that foreign
intelligence collection was implicitly authorized, but that Congress
precluded CIA efforts abroad to ascertain hostile threats to the security
of its own operations or to learn about enemy espionage.
Treating counterintelligence as part of "foreign intelligence" within
the meaning of the 1947 Act, the Executive branch has viewed CIA
'as having statutory authority for the collection, collation and evaluation
of counterintelligence. Pursuant to this authority National Security
Intelligence Directive 5 designated the Director of Central Intelligence
to coordinate all counterintelligence abroad.3 The Directive
defines counterintelligence comprehensively:
b. Counterintelligence is defined as that intelligence activity,
with its resultant product, devoted to destroying the
effectiveness of inimical foreign intelligence activities and
undertaken to protect the security of the nation and its personnel,
information and installations against espionage, sabo-
2. See "The Central Intelligence Agency: Statutory Authority," in the Committee's
Final Report on Foreign and Military Intelligence.
3 The National Security Intelligence Directives, or so-called "NSCIDS" have
been promulgated by the National Security Council to provide the basic organization
and direction of the intelligence agencies within their statutory framework.
685
tage and 8ubveTSWn. Counterintelligence includes the process
of procuring, developing, recording, and disseminatmg information
concerning hostile clandestine activity and of penetrating,
manipulatmg or repressing individuals, groups or
organizations conducting such activIty. [Emphasis added.] 4
Under this directive the CIA was given primary responsibility for
the conduct of counterintelligence operations abroad, and is also tasked
with maintaining central counterintelligence files for the entire intelligence
commumty. All agencies are direoted to provide the CIA with
any information appropnate for such a central tile and such material
maintained by the CIA is to be "collated and analyzed for appropriate
dissemination." NSCID 5 does not purport to give the CIA
authority to conduct counterintelligence actIvities in the United
States.5
It is this directive regarding CIA's counterintelligence responsibility
that the director of CHAOS testified was the authority for the
program. He claimed that the mission of determining and reporting
on the extent and nature of foreign links to American dissident protest
activity was an assignment within the CIA's counterintelligence
responsibility.6
(b) Protecting Source8 and Methods of Intelligen.ce.-The MERRIMAC
and RESISTANCE programs were premised on a more
explicit provision of authority under the 1947 Act. The Act provides
that:
The Director of Central Intelligence shall be responsible for
protecting intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized
disclosure/
The responsibility is given to the Director of Central Intelligence,
rather than to the Central Intelligence Agency. However, the Office of
Security within the Agency has been the administrative arm to implement
the Director's duty in this regard.
This authority has been read by the CIA to authorize protection of
CIA personnel and facilities against any kind of "security threat"
including the possibility of violent demonstrations by the public. That
was the stated basis for undertaking the MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE
programs.s The legislative history of this provision suggests
it was included essentially to allay the concern of the military
services that the new civilian agency would not itself operate with
adequate safeguards to protect the services' intelligence secrets to
which the CIA gained access.9
The individual special security investigations examined in this report
were also justified by a claim of authority derived from the Director's
responsibility to protect intelligence "sources and methods."
• National Security Intelligence Directive Number 5.
5 Ibid.
• Richard Ober testimony, 10/28/75, pp. 53-54.
750 U.S.C. 403(d) (3).
8 See pp. 84.
• Lawrence Houston testimony, Commission on CIA Activities Within the
United States, hereinafter cited as the Rockefeller Commission, 3/17/75, p. 165455.
686
2. Statutory Prohibitimul
Juxtaposed to CIA's counterintelligence authority and the Director's
charge to protect sources and methods, are specific constraints on
the activity in which CIA may engage. The 1947 Act provides in Section
403 (d) (3) :
That the Agency shall have no police, subpoena, law enforcement
powers or internal security functions.
Neither "internal security functions" nor "law enforcement powers"
are defined in the statute. Nor is the scope of "internal security" for
purposes of this ban directly discussed within the legislative hIStOry.
The legislative history, however, does reflect the public concern at the
time that the CIA might become a secret police agency, an American
"Gestapo," spying on opponents of the government in power.10 Moreover,
"internal security junctions" are distinguished in the statutory
prohibition from law enforcement and police powers, suggesting that
the "functions" limitation covered intelligence investigation and not
merely arrest or prosecution.
Thus, one purpose of the section was to prevent this new foreign
intelligence organization from investigating American citizens.
3. QuestiO'M Raised by CHAOS
When does CIA collection and use of information about Americans
exceed its authority to engage in foreign intelligence work, including
counterintelligence? And when does it violate the speeific ban on the
CIA performing internal security functions ~
A review of CHAOS reveals the blurred line between permissible
foreign counterintelligence and prohibited internal security. Traditionally,
the concept of internal security has not been confined to
groups which were considered purely domestic. It has included inquiry
into the foreign connections of domestic groups considered to
pose an internal security threat.
10 General Vandenberg, who was then head of the Central Intelligence Group,
the CIA's predecessor, testified as one of the main witnesses for the legislation.
In the Senate hearings, he commented on the directive setting up the Group,
from which the prohibition was taken:
"One final thought in connection with the President's directive: It includes an
express provision that no police, law enforcement, or internal security functions
shall be exercised. These provisions are imporant, for they draw the lines very
sharply between the CIG and the FBI. In addition, the prohibition against police
powers Qr internal security functions will assure that the Central Intelligence
Group can never become a Gestapo or security police." (Hoyt Vandenberg testimony,
Armed Services Committee, Hearings on S. 758, Pt. 3, 1947, p. 497.)
Another witness for the bill, Dr. Vannevar Bush, was asked during the House
hearings to comment 'On the concern the new agency might become a "Gestapo."
Dr. Bush testified:
"I think there is no danger of that. The bill provides clearly that it is concerned
with intelligence outside of this country, that it is not concerned with
intelligence on internal affairs. . . .
"We already have, of course, the FBI in this country, concerned with internal
matters, and the collection of intelligence in connection with law enforcement internally."
(Vannevar Bush testimony, House Committee on Expenditures in the Executive
Departments, Hearings on H.R. 2319, 1947, p. 559.)
687
Indeed, the preeminent "internal security" concern of the late 1940s
was Communist subversion of the Government aided or directed from
abroad.ll
Therefore, if the CIA's counterintelligence authority is broadly
construed to include examining ties between domestic grouJ;>s and
foreign elements, there is a question whether such authority IS consistent
with the specific prohibition on internal security functions.
The CHAOS program presents these questions with respect to both
the overall mission undertaken by the CIA, and the specific tasks which
the CIA performed:
-CIA received and maintained considerable information
about the domestic activities and relationships of American
individuals and organizations. Much of that material was collected
in the first instance by the FBI, police or other cOllidential
sources, who turned it over to the CIA. The Agency
maintained it in files on those persons and groups and made
m,e of it the CHAOS operation.
-The CIA prepared several analyses of student dissent in
America and other reports which included material of domestic
protest activities.
-Undercover agents of the CHAOS program, while in the
United States in preparation for overseas assignment or between
assignments, provided substantial information about
domestic activities of dissident groups, as well as information
providing leads about possible foreign ties.
-In a few instances the CIA agents appear to have been encouraged
to participate in specific protest activity or to obtain
particular domestic information.
Even if the basic mission of CHAOS was appropriate for the CIA, the
question remains whether the way in which the CIA implemented that
mission should be permitted.
Another aspect of this issue is the degree to which the CIA assisted
the internal security operations of the FBI. Much of the CHAOS
arrangements for ooverage of Americans a;broad "Was in response to
specific FBI requests. The CIA 'also gave the FBI considerable information
about the activities of Americans here, not limited to evidence
of crimes, which had heen developed in the c,Qurse of the CHAOS
operation.
Thus, a separate question is the point at which CIA assistance to
the FBI's interll'al security investigations may constitute participation
ina forbidden function.
Finally CHAOS raises 'a fundamental question ahout the kind of
intelligence investigati?llS, by any G?ve~en~ agency! which are acceptable
to 'R free SOCIety. Should mvestIgatmg foreIgn oontrol of
domestic dissent be done through screening Americans to see if their
intemational travel or contacts reflect hostile foreign direction? Or
11 The concern about wholely "domestic" internal security threats from groups
deemed completely independent of any foreign influence is a fairly recent development.
688
should the Government be 'able to investigate the "foreign connections"
of Americans only when substantial indication of illegal conspiracy
is acquired in the course of counterintelligence work against
the hostile foreign elements themselves?
4. Questiom Raised by the Office of Security Program.s
The questions raised by the Office of Security activities are the scope
and limi'ts of the Director's authority to protect intelligence sources
and methods.
Does that 'authority include a general mission to protect the physical
security of the CIA against violent domestic disorder?
What are the Director's responsibilities 'and legal authority to safeguard
intelligence activities through investigations of personnel from
other government agencies, or prIvate citizens? What is his proper
role WIth respect to CIA employees? And what techniques may he
employ to detect and counter those threats which are within that
authority?
In addition, the "sources and methods" authority under the 1947
Act must be considered in conjunction with the restraints expressly
imposed on the CIA. Is the DIrector's power to protect sources and
methods limited by the denial to the CIA of law enforcement and
police powers and internal security functions?
The MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE programs also raise the
question of the relationship between the Director's authority to proteot
sources and the prohibition on internal security functions. Neither
were limited to gathering information of imminent demonstrations
which threatened the CIA. Both programs involved collection of intelligence
on dissident ad:ivity generally and both suggest that the "protection
of sources and methods," read broadly, can OOcomea mandate
to scour the society for possible threats to the CIA, thereby rendering
meaningless the ban on performing internal securi:ty functions.
PART II: HISTORY AND OPERATION OF CHAOS
A. Background
Operation CHAOS was not an intelligence mission sought by the
CIA. Presidents Johnson and Nixon pressed the Director of CIA,
Richard Helms, to determine the extent of hostile foreign influence on
domestic unrest among students, opponents of the Vietnam war, minorities
and the "New Left." By all the testimony and available evidence,
it was this pressure which led to the creation and expansion of a
special office in the CIA to coordinate the efforts to respond.
The decisions to initiate the CHAOS program and, subsequently,
to expand the effort, were made in the context of increasing domestic
unrest in the United States.
The nonviolent policy of civil rights efforts in the first half of the
Sixties was being challenged by militant "Black Power" advocates
urging confrontation with the white majority. On July 29, 1967, following
serious disturbances in the Nation's cities, which comprised
the worst period of racial riots in American history, President Johnson
had established the National Commission on Civil Disorders (the
"Kerner Commission") to investigate their origins.12
12 Executive Order No. 11365,7/29/67.
689
Organized demonstrations and international conferences protesting
America's role in the Vietnamese war also became an increasing
concern to the Government.
In April 1967, there were large antiwar demonstrations in San
Francisco and New York. In May the International War Crimes
Trials, sponsored by Bertrand Russell in regard to U.S. activity in
Vietnam, began in Stockholm. In July 1967, there was a major international
conference of peace groups in Stockholm. In September, a
wide range of American activists in domestic peace groups, student
and black organizations met with groups from other countries who
were opposed to American involvement in Vietnam, including North
Vietnam, in Bratislavia, Czechoslovakia. Finally, on October 21, 1967,
there were large scale protest activities in Wasington, including a
march on the Pentagon, and worldwide demonstrations of support
for opposition to continued American involvement in Vietnam.
Government concern about domestic unrest continued throughout
1968, with riots following the death of Martin Luther King in April,
continuing student violence at campuses from coast to coast, steppedup
antiwar protest activity, and violence at the National Democratic
Party Convention in Chicago.
During the remaining five years for which the CHAOS program
lasted, 1969-1974, racial disorders diminished but the intensity of
antiwar demonstration and student violence increased and then subsided
after 1972.
B. Authorization of CHAOS
Against this backdrop of unrest, the CIA's systematic investigation
of possible foreign involvement began with two assignments made
by Director Richard Helms in the late summer and fall of 1967.
In August, Helms established a program to coordinate and improve
the CIA's coverage abroad of American dissidents. Helms does not
claim a specific presidential request for a new CIA program in this
area. Rather, Helms testified that he was acting in general response to
President Johnson's insistent interest in the extent, of foreign influence
on domestic dissidents. Helms testified that:
President Johnson was after this all the time. I don't recall
any specific instructions in writing from his staff, particularly,
but this was something that came up almost daily and
weekly,13
Helms summarized his response to the presidential overtures:
But what I am attempting to say is that when a President
keeps asking if there is any information, "how are you getting
along with your examination," "have you picked up any more
information on these subjects," it isn't a direct order to do
something, but it seems to me it behooves the Director of Central
Intelligence to find some way to improve his performance,
or improve his Agency's performance. And the setting
up of this unit was what I conceived to be a proper action in
an effort to see if we couldn't improve the Agency's performance
in this general field.14
13 Richard Hf'lms testimony, Rockefeller Commission, 1/13/75, p. 163.
a Helms, Rockefeller Oommission, 4/28/15, pp. 2434--5.
690
The Deputy Director of Plans, Thomas Karamessines also testified
to his understanding of the 'White House pressures precipitating
CHAOS.I5
As a result, Helms sought to have the CIA try to pull together all
the pertinent information already being received and to use the resources
available for better intelligence coverage.
Within CIA, there is no written directive from Helms to Karamessines,
his deputy for the Plans Directorate, to establish the CHAOS
program.I6 The first recorded authorization is an August 15, 1967,
memorandum from Karamessines to James Angelton, Chief of the
Counterintelligence Staff.
Karamessines' memorandum refers to discussions earlier that day
among himself, Angelton and Helms and asks Angelton to designate a
staff officer to run the program. The memorandum contemplated the
conduct of operations to collect intelligence. It also acknowledged the
program's "domestic counterintelligence aspects," and the need for
dissemination of the information obtained to domestic agencies. The
memorandum requested:
b. The exclusive briefing of specific division chiefs and certain
selected officers in each division, on the aims and objectives
of this intelligence collection program with definite
domestic counterintelligence aspects.
c. The establishment of some sort of system by Dick Ober
(or whatever officer you select) for the orderly coordination
of the operations to be conducted, with the responsibility for
the actual conduct of the operations vested in the specific area
divisions.
d. The identification of a limited dissemination procedure
which will afford these activities high operational security
while at the same time getting the information to the appropriate
departments and agencies which have the responsibility
domesticallyY
Angleton chose Richard Ober to head what became the Special
Operations Group within the Counterintelligence Staff. Ober had
already been involved in a more limited inquiry into possible foreign
links to American dissidents.
In the beginning of 1967, Ramparts magazine had published an
expose of various CIA activities and relationships with private institutions
in America. Ober had been investigating the possibility of
ties between foreign intelligence services and persons associated with
the magazine, or their friends. He had begun to build a computerizedfile
on dissident activists in America with some connection to the
Ramparts organization. By the time he was given the more general
CHAOS assignment in August 1967. Ober estimwtes he had indexed
several hundred Americans and had created perhaps fifty actual files.
However, there was no indication that the Ramparts inquiry was expected
to lead to a larger investigation of American protest.IS
'" Thomas Karamessines testimony, Rockefeller Commission, 2/24/75, p. 1001-2.
,. The program did not become known as "CHAOS" until a year after its inception
infra, pp. 27-28, but, for continuity, it is so referred to throughout this
report.
17 M{'morandum from Thomas K'lr'lmessines to James Angelton, 8/15/67, p. 1.
18 Richard Ober testimony, 10/28/75, pp. 4-5; Ober, Rockefeller Commission,
3/28/75, pp. 5-7.
691
ObeT first sought to pull together the Agency's holdings and information
readily available here and abroad which would be pertinent
to his assigned inquiry.
The scope of that inquiry had not been defined in Karamessines'
August 15 memorandum, which was simply entitled: "Overseas Coverage
of Su'bversive Student and Related Matters." The first direct statement
of the target was included in an August 31 cable to the field
describing the collection requirement:
In light of recent and current events which of major interest
and deep concern to highest levels here, Headquarters has established
program for keeping tabs on radical students and
U.S. Negro expatriates as well as travelers passing through
certain select areas abroad. Objective is to find out extent to
which Soviets, Chicoms and Cubans are exploiting our domestic
problems in terms of espionage and subversion. High sensitivity
is obvious.19
The cable also advised that a special reporting channel had been established
with a cr,Yptonym limiting distri'bution at Headquarters of
any traffic. The reCIpient chiefs of station were told to control knowledge
of the program and the information collected and to destroy the
cable itself after reading. Cable distribution was to be limited at
Headquarters to the Division Chiefs controlling the station or base
involved, Angelton and Karamessines or his deputy.2o
O. The November 1967 Peace;jfovement Study
CIA's inquiry into foreign ties of American dissidents intensified
at the end of October 1967. This time, responding to a spedific White
House request, Helms directed CIA to produce a study on the "International
Connections of the U.S. Peace Movement." 21 Presumably,
this request was precipitated by the October 21 demonstrations and
arrests at the Pentagon and the worldwide antiwar demonstrations on
the same da;y:.
Ober testIfied that the scope of his own operation soon came to include
antiwar activists, as well as student radicals and black nationalists.
But it was his participation in the October CIA study for the
President which firmly set Vietnam protest as a major target of the
CHAOS office's efforts.22
The study was written by the Intelligence Directorate of the
Agency.23 Ober coordinated the Plans Directorate contribution and
the receipt of material from the FBI and other Federal agencies.24
lJI CIA Headquarters cable to several field stations, August 1967, p. 1.
,., Memorandum from Deputy Chief Counterintelligence Staff to Cable Secretary,
8/17/75.
rn There is no written record of this request, but Helms' transmittal note to
President Johnson states, "here is the Study of the U.S. Peace Movement you requested."
(Cover Memorandum from Richard Helms to President Johnson,
11/15/67.)
.. Ober, 10/28/75, pp. 10-17.
.. The Intelligence Directorate is the component with the primary analytical and
evnlnation re"T)(lnsihilities in the CIA.
.. Richard Ober, Memorandum for the Record: "International Connections of
the U.S. Peace Movement." 10/31/67, p.1.
692
Both the "peace movement" and "foreign connections" were broadly
defined. According to Ober's memorandum of his meeting with the
Directorate of Intelligence officers in charge of the study, American
organizations "affiliated with the overall Peace Movement" as well as
peace organizations themselves, were to be included. "Foreign connections"
were defined to include associations with the American Communist
Party.25
With the approval of Angleton. Karamessines and Helms, Ober
sent a second reporting requirement to the stations, this time asking
for information on foreign connections to the peace movement. The
information was to be handled in another restricted channel separate
from the one provided for responses to the August inquiry on radical
students and black activists. The November 1967, cable to multiple
addresses told the stations:
Headquarters is participating in high level interdepartmental
survey of international connections of anti-Vietnam warmovement
in U.S. For purposes this study, we are attempting
to establish nature and extent of illegal and subversive connections
that may exist between US organizations or activists
involved and communist, communist front or other antiAmerican
and foreign elements abroad. Such connections
might range from casual contaats based merely on mutual
interest to closely controlled channels for party directives.
[Emphasis added.] ~6
Since Director Helms had asked for the report within two weeks, the
stations were asked only to furnish information on hand or readily
available.21
The conclusions of the review were essentially negative. The study
noted that the diversity and loose structure of the peace movement in
America permitted the more active leaders to coordinate some of the
activities on an international scale and it cited the simultaneous demonstrations
on October 21, both here and abroad. But the CIA found
little evidence of actual foreign direction or control, or evidence that
any international dialogue went beyond consultation and coordination.
28
However, these conclusions were explicitly tentative. Director
Helms' letter of transmittal to the President states reservations about
the adequacy of the intelligence community's coverage of the target:
From this intimate review of the bulk of the material on
hand in Washington, we conclude that there are significant
holes in the story. We lack information on certain aspects of
the movement which could only be met by levying requirements
on the FBI.
.. Richard Ober, Memorandum for the Record, "International Connections of
thf> n.S. Pf>ace Movemf>nt", 11/1/67, p. 1.
.. CIA book cable from Acting Deputy Director for Plans to various field stations,
November 1967, PP. 1-2.
71 CIA book cable from Acting Deputy Director for plans to various ,field stations,
November 1967, p. 2.
.. "International Connections of the U.S. Peace Movement," CIA study prepared
by the Office of Current Intelligence, 11/15/67, Summary, pp. 2-3.
693
First we found little or no information on the financing of
the principal peace movement groups. Specifically, we were
unable to uncover any sources of funds for the costly travel
schedules of prominent peace movement coordinators, many
of whom are on the wing almost constantly.
Second we could find no evidence of any contact between the
most prominent peace movement leaders and foreign embassies,
either in the U.S. or abroad. Of course, there may not be
any such contact, but on the other hand, we are woefully short
of information on the day-to-day activities and itineraries of
these men.
Finally, there is little information available about radical
peace movement groups on U.S. college campuses. These
groups are, of course, highly mobile and sometimes even
difficult to identify, but their more prominent leaders are
certainly visible and active enough for monitoring.29
D. Operation of the OHAOS Program and Related OIA Projects
The assignment of responsibility to Ober in August 1967 and the
CIA's study of the peace movement in November, set the initial pattern
of the Agency's inquiry into foreign powers and American dissidents.
Ober's office served as the focal point and clearinghouse for Agency
efforts on this question, and along with the analysts in the Intelligence
Directorate, provided the expertise for Director Helms to respond to
the White House interest.
As it developed, the CHAOS mission included three related tasks:
(1) to coordinate and expand CIA's own collection of relevant
information and to obtain pertinent material from other
government agencies;
(2) to process, control and retain the information as it
became available;
(3) to provide the resull<; for dissemination by CIA to the
White House, other high level offices and interested agencies.
At the same time, CHAOS performed a second role. It serviced the
FBI's own requirements for information about foreign contacts and
travel of Americans. Ober regarded responding to the Bureau's requests
for coverage of Americans abroad as an accepted part of his
responsibilities.30
1. Gathering Information
The two main sources of information received by CHAOS were thf'
CIA's stations abroad, and the FBI at home. .
For example, the CIA received all of the FBI's reports on the
American peace movement.31
The material received from the FBI included information about
foreign travel, contacts, and communications of Americans. Much of
'"Memorandum from Richard Helms to President Johnson, 11/15/67, p. 1.
00 Ober, 10/28/75, pp. 9, 22.
81 Richard Ober memorandum for the record, "Daily Progress Report,"
11/1/67, p. 1.
694
it was simply information about individual activists or groups and
their domestic activities. In many instances, FBI reports would contain
both kinds of information.32
By June 1970, these FBI reports were pouring into CHAOS at the
rate of over 1,000 a month.33
The background information on individuals provided by the FBI
served as a "data base" of names, and intelligence about the associations
between different dissident elements. This background information
could be used to develop leads, and to understand the significance
of reports directly relating to foreign contacts.34
The other basic source of information was the reporting from the
CIA's overseas stations. Using the special reporting channel, the stations
supplied reports from their own assets and also supplied whatever
CHAOS information was obtained from the liaison with local
intelligence services.
On June 25, 1968, a message was sent to various European stations
advising that recent high level discussions had underscored the need
for increasing the coverage of American black, student and antiwar
dissidents abroad. The stations were asked to engage friendly foreign
intelligence services more fully in that effort. Headquarters said that
foreign intelligence services covering their own dissidents might be
able to provide more information on the foreign contacts of American
citizens.35
This cable was followed shortly by another multi-station message
which repeated the general reporting requirement as follows:
As many of you know, Headquarters is en~aged in a sensitive
high priority program concerning foreIgn contacts with
US individuals and organizations of the "Radical Left." Included
in this category are radical students, antiwar activists,
draft resisters and deserters, black nationalists, anarchists
and assorted "New Leftists." The objective is to discover the
extent to which Soviets, ChiComs, Cubans and other Communist
countries are exploiting our domestic problems in
terms of subversion and espionage. Of particular interest is
any evidence of foreign direction, control, training or
funding.36
The cable also dirooted even tighter control over the reporting procedures.
The two previously separate channels for reporting information
on antiwar and on black or student activists were combined
into the single restricted handling cryptonym "CHAOS." 37
InformatIOn supplied CHAOS by the stations was of two types.
First there was the general outstanding requirement for any intelli-
.. Committee staff review of CHAOS individual and organization files.
.., Memorandum from Richard Ober to James Angelton re CHAOS, 6/9/70, p. 9.
.. James gatinger testimony, 10/14/75, pp. 10, 12-13. "James Eatinger," (Ober's
deputy at CHAOS) testified nnder lliias.
... CIA cable from Thomas Kammessines to various European stations, June
1968, p.l.
ao CIA cable from Thomas Karamessines to various field stations, July 1968,
p.l.
ttl CIA cable from Thomas Karamesieres to various field stations, July 1968.
pp.1-3.
695
gence pertinent to the CHAOS mission as defined in the 'basic cable
instructions. Second, the stations were asked to respond to specific
inquiries. Such requests from Ober might relate to an upcoming international
conference or the activities of particular foreign person
suspected of being involved in efforts to influence American unrest.
Frequently these special inquiries were triggered by travel of particular
Americans to the 'area and a CHAOS request for coverage of
their activities and contacts.3S
fa. Processing, Storage and Oontrol of OHAOS Information
As the material flowed into CHAOS from stations, domestic CIA
components, and the FBI, it was analyzed, indexed and filed. Every
name of individuals and organizations was extracted and referenced
in the central CHAOS computer system known as "HYDRA." This
system served as the reference index to all of the office's holdings.39
If a report on one individual referred to others, their names would
be indexed also. Any information which was received about an individual
for whom CHAOS maintained a file, went into his file.·o
There was no winnowing of the material before its entry into the
permanent record system of CHAOSY
Once the information was indexed and filed, the HYDRA computer
system permitted its prompt retrieval. By checking a name in
HYDRA, one could find all the cables, memoranda or other documents
referring to that individual, whether he was the subject of the
material or merely mentioned in passing.42 It should be emphasized,
however, that CHAOS did not maintain a separate file on every
American whose name was indexed in the computer. In many instances
the computer would refer a searcher to the file of another
person, or some other CHAOS holdings in which the subject individual
was mentioned, but there was not enough material to open a file.
Thus, there were an estimated 300,000 Americans indexed in HYDRA,
but only an estimated 7,500 Americans for whom actual files were
maintained.43
The tight control maintained over communication of CHAOS information
from the CIA's stations was continued at Headquarters.
The special reporting channel and restricted handling assured
that the cable traffic would be seen only by a few high-level officials in
.. Staff reveiw of CHAOS files .
.. Testimony of Chief, International Terrorism Group, CIA, Rockefeller CommiRsion.
3/10/75. pp. 14R4-1489.
." Chief, International Terrorism Group, CIA, Rockefeller OommiBSion, 3/10/75,
pp. 1488-1489.
.. Eatinger te8'timony, 10/14/75, pp. 11-12.
4' Chief, International Terrorism Group, CIA, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75,
pp. 1485-1489.
.. Chief, International Terrorism Group, CIA, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75,
pp. 1488-90.
In addition to the distinction between files and names indexed, the varying
figures as to the number of CHAOS files reflect other ambiguities. For example,
the "file" on many individuals and groups ran several volumes, sometimes ten or
more for the active leaders and organizations. Thus the Rockefeller Commission
cites 1,000 "files" on private organizations, while the CIA notes that these mUltiple
files actually were maintained on only 107 groups. (Letter from Director
William Colby to Vice President Rockefeller with attachment of CIA comments
on the Rockefeller Commission Report, 6/25/75, attachment, p. 8.)
696
the area divisions of the Plans Directorate, Karamessines, Angleton
and their deputies or designees.44
Tight security was maintained over the information deemed most
sensitive, even within the CHAOS office itself. The information in
the HYDRA computer system was compartmented into several layers
of increasing sensitivity and correspondingly more restricted access.
Only CHAOS officers cleared for access to the more restricted streams
of information could retrieve the items on an individual which involved
sensitive sources and methods or other tightly held intelligence.
45
3. Reporting by OIA
CIA disseminated the information gathered on foreign ties of American
dissidents in three forms: major studies prepared for the President;
special reports for the White House and other senior officials
on individual items of information; and routine reporting to the
FBI.
(a) Studies.-On November 20, 1967, at the request of Director
Helms, the CIA began an investigation of "Demonstration Techniques"
both here and abroad.46
On December 21, 1967, Helms sent President Johnson a followup
review of the November Study on the United States Peace Movement,47
On January 5, 1968, Helms sent to the White House an interim
study of "Student Dissent and Its Techniques in the U.S.," "which is
part of our continuing examination of this general matter. It is an
effort to identify the locus of student dissent and how widespread it
is." 48 The forty-page paper dealt exclusively with American student
activists and the bulk of it contained much the same kind of material
on the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that formed the
chapter of "Restless Youth," CIA produced a year later.
"Student Dissent" briefly noted that Communist front groups did
not control the student. organizations, and that American student
groups had not forged significant links with foreign radicals.49 The
report concentrated on domestic matters and analyzed the makeup,
strength, motivation, strategy and views of the American students. It
concluded, for example, that
Except on the issue of selective service, the student community
appears generally to support the Administration more
strongly than the population as a whole.50
.. Richard Ober, Memorandum for the Record, re CHAOS Tramc Distribution.
5/29/69.
.. Chief, International Terrorism Group, CIA, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75,
pp. 1i'iO!'l-l506.
.. Richard Ober Memorandum for the Record: "Demonstration Techniques,"
11/20/67.
.. "The Peace Movement: A Review of Developments Since 15 November,"
12/21/67.
.. Letter from Richard Helms to President Johnson, 1/5/68, with attached
study "Student Dissent and Its Techniques in the U.S."
• Student Dissent and Its Techniques in the U.S., 1/5/68, Summary p. ii.
so Student Dissent and Its Techniques in the U.S., 1/5/68, Summary, p. 1.
697
The last analytical study prepared for President Johnson, "Restless
Youth," was finished in the fall of 1968. "Restless Youth" is a
detailed sociological and political analysis of student unrest throu~hout
the world.51 It found common sources of alienation and hostilIty
to established institutions in many countries, but concluded that, in
each nation, student dissent was essentially homegrown and not stimulated
by an international conspiracy.52
The version sent to the White House included a section on the SDS
in the United States. Helms cover memorandum to the President
stated:
Some time ago you requested that I make occasional roundup
reports on youth and student movements worldwide. Responding
to this request and guided by comments and suggestions
from Walt Rostow, we have prepared the attached
study. You will, of course, be aware of the peculiar sensitivity
which attached to the fact that CIA has prepared a report
on student activities both here and abroad.53
Helms did not testify that the White House had requested the section
on domestic student protest. Rather, he said that since the White
House had wanted a study of possible international orchestration of
protest activity, it did not seem sensible to leave out the American
scene, so it was included.S!
The section on the United States was drawn largely from public
sources. An updated, unabridged version was sent to Henry Kissinger
for President Nixon in February of the following year. Helms stated
his concern more explicitly in the transmittal letter for that version:
HerewitJh is a survey of student dissidence worldwide as requested
by the President. In an effort to round out our discussion
of this subject, we have included a section on American
students. This is an area not within the charter of this Agency,
so I need not emphasize how extremely sensitive this makes
the paper. Should anyone learn of its existence, it would prove
most embarrassing for all concerned.55
This first series of studies for the White House were all prepaw
by the CIA's Intelligence Directorate, with continuing assistance from
CHAOS in providing material from overseas stations, other CIA components,
and the FBV6 The CHAOS office, itself, only began to produce
the studies itself following further White House requests in the
summer of 1969, discussed below. Copies of the material collected for
the 1967 and 1968 studies on the Peace movement and on student dissent,
however, were also indexed and retained by the CHAOS operation
for its own files.
&1 "Restless Youth," 9/4/68.
•• "Restless Youth," conclusions, p. I, 9/4/68.
.. Memorandum from Richard Helms to President Johnson, 9/4/68.
.. Helms, Rockefeller Commission, 4/28/75, p. 244.
.. Letter from Richard Helms to Henry Kissinger, 2/18/69.
.. In other words, the procedures used in the first Peace Movement study were
continued in this period. See p. 169, supra.
698
(b) Special Reports.-In addition to the formal studies CIA prepared
for the President, Ober prepared occasional reports, so-called
"M," memoranda, of particularly sensitive or timely intelligence items
for high level distribution to the White Housej the Attorney General,
Secretary of State, and similar officials. During the entire history of
CHAOS there were 34 suchM memoranda.
The content of M memoranda varied. They included, for example,
information that a foreign government was making a grant to a
dissident protest group in America, information regarding a reported
kidnapping and murder plot against high government officials; and
information about speeches made by radical leaders while abroad.
Essentially these were one-shot reports about some contact or cooperation
between foreign elements and American radicals, rather
than an analysis of such links.57
One or two of the earliest memoranda did deal with plans for domestic
protests.
In connection with the anticipated demonstrations in Washington
at the end of October 1967, Helms had requested all available information
to be furnished the administration:
In any event, I want to be sure that any information you
gentlemen acquire through whatever channels, is promptly
passed to appropriate Federal authorities, including the
White House, the Secret Service, the FBI, and anlone else
who counts. I am under the impression that this' do" may
turn out to be a humdinger, and I want to insure that we have
clean hands in passing along any information that we tum up
in the normril course of business. [Emphasis added.] 58
On October 10, the CIA distributed a memorandum to the White
House, recounting "unevaluated information" about alleged plans
for racial disturbances at the time of the October 21 demonstrations
and the alleged involvement of a particular black leader.59
Richard Ober, at the request of Director Helms, also provided the
Kerner Commission with a series of 26 reports. The Executive Order
establishing the Commission had directed all agencies, to the extent
permitted by law, to provide information and otherwise assist its
efforts.6o The material supplied by the CIA primarily consisted of
reports on overseas travel and statements by American black leaders
and allegations of foreign efforts to exacerbate racial unrest in America.
However, they included some of the early memoranda on reported
plans for domestic disorders, which appear to be from domestic
sources and to have little relevance to the question of foreign links.61
(c) Dissemination to the FBI.-By far the main tangible product
of CHAOS was extensive dissemination of raw reports to the FBI.
Information deemed of interest to the Bureau was put in memorandum
form and sent through special channels directly from the
., Staff review of M memoranda.
.. Memorandum from Richard Helms to Deputy Directors for Plans and Intelligence,
and Director of Security, 9/26/67.
.. M Memorandum No. 10, 10/9/67.
eo Exec. Order No. 11865, 7/29/67, p. 2.
.. Committee Staff review of memoranda provided to the Kerner Commission.
699
CHAOS office to the FBI. In many insta"uces it was information about
Americans which CHAOS had sought in response to a specific FBI
request. Most typically, the Bureau would notify Ober that it wished
coverage of Americans whose overseas travel it had learned about in
advance.62
In addition, CHAOS obtained information pursuant to its general
collection requirements from stations abroad, and wholly domestic
information about dissident activities obtained in the course of its
operations. This, too, was disseminated to the FBI, if it was deemed
pertinent to the Bureau's concerns about such Americans. Ober testified
that he regarded any names in reports sent to CHAOS by the
FBI as a standing requirement from the FBI for information which
CHAOS obtained about those persons.63
E. 1969 EwpansWn of Oluws
The CHAOS operation was expanded and given renewed impetus in
1969, when the new Nixon administration expressed the same concern
about foreign influence on domestic unrest as had its predecessors.
1. The Review of OHAOS for the President
On June 20, 1969, Tom Huston, Staff Assistant to the President,
asked the CIA for a review of its progress:
The President has directed that a report on foreign Communist
support of revolutionary protest movements in this
country be prepared for his study.... "Support" should be
liberally construed to include all activities by foreign Communists
designed to encourage or assist revolutionary protest
movements in the United States.
On the basis of earlier reports submitted to the President on
a more limited aspect of this problem, it appears that our
present intelligence collection capabilities in this area may be
madequate.64
Huston asked for both a substantive review and a survey of the effectiveness
of resources the CIA was employing, and what gaps might
exist "because of either inadequate resources or a low priority of attention."
65 This study was the first one actually produced by the CHAOS
office.
The review was completed within 10 days. Deputy Director Cushman
summarized the results in his letter of transmittal:
2. The information collected by this A~ncy provides evidence
of only a very limited amount of foreign Communist
assistance to revolutionary protest movements in the United
States. There is very little reporting on Communist assistance
in the form of funding or training and no evidence of Communist
direction or control of any United States revolutionary
protest movement. The bulk of our information illustrates
.. Ober, 10/30/75, p. 88.
.. Ober, 10/28/75, p. 45.
'" Memorandum from Tom Huston to the Deputy Director of CIA., 6/20/69, p. 1.
.. Memorandum from Tom Huston to the Deputy Director of the CIA, 6/20/69,
p. 1.
69-984 0 - 76 - 45
700
Communist encouragement of these movements through
propaganda methods.
3. Smce the summer of 1967, this Agency has been attempting
to determine through its sources abroad, whether or not
there is any significant Communist direction or assistance to
revolutionary groups in the United States. We have been collaborating
closely m this effort with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and disseminating information to it. Existing
Agency collection resources are being employed wherever
feasible and new sources are being sought through independent
means as well as with the assistance of foreign intelligence
services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of course,
the Katzenbach guidelines have inhibited our access to certain
persons who might have information on efforts by Communist
intelligence services to exploit revolutionary groups in the
United States.66
Two additional studies were prepared by CHAOS, which were essentially
revisions of this 1969 review. In 1970, as part of the CIA contribution
to the work of the Interdepartmental Committee on Intelligence
which led to the so-called "Huston Plan," CHAOS prepared an
update of the 1969 study.67 A similar revised version was prepared
in 1971.
The 1971 report, "Definition and Assessment of Existing Internal
Security Threat-Foreign," concluded that hostile foreign governments
were committed to exploiting United States unrest as much as
possible. But, apart from a f~w isolated instances, the study concluded
that the main "assistance" was still in the form of exhortation and
encouragement through international conferences and statements of
support by foreign figures. The summary of foreign Communist
influence on the New Left and radical student groups stated:
There is no evidence, based on available information and
sources, that foreign governments, organizations, or intelligence
services now control U.S. New Left movements and/or
are capable at the present time of directing these movements
for the purpose of mstigating open insurrection or disorders;
for initiating and supporting terrorist or sabotage activities;
or for fomenting unrest and subversion in the United States
Armed Forces, among government employees, or in labor
unions, colleges and universities, and mass media.
In summary, foreign funding, training, propaganda, and
other support does not now playa major role in the U.S. New
Left. International fronts and conferences help to promote
New Left causes, but at present the U.S. New Left is basically
self-sufficient and moves under its own impetus.68
.. Memorandum from Gen. Robert Cushman to Tom Charles Huston, 6/30/69,
transmitting "Special Report on Foreign Communist Support to Revolutionary
Protest Movements in the U.S.," p.1.
., See Huston Plan Report.
.. Report, "Definition and A.~sessment of Existing Internal Security Threat-Foreign,"
1/5/71, pp. 1-3. Thereafter. Richard Ober also used the CHAOS omce
to prepare the CIA contributions on foreign aspects of domestic unrest for the
Intelligence Evaluation Committee established in the'wake of the aborted Huston
Plan. See Huston Plan Report.
701
The conclusions with regard to black activists were the same.
Following the Huston memorandum of June 1969, questioning
the adequacy of the CIA's efforts, the CHAOS program was expanded
to develop better sources of information, and an improved
capability to process it.
In September, Helms issued a memorandum regarding CHAOS to
the heads of the Directorates. Helms told the Deputy Directors that
he had:
recently reviewed the Agency's efforts to monitor those international
activities of radicals and black militants which may
affect the national security. I believe that we have the
proper approach in discharging this sensitive responsibility,
while strictly observin~ the statutory and de facto proscriptions
on Agency domestIc involvements.69
The memo acknowledged overlapping interests of several CIA components
in this area but made clear that Ober had the principal
operational responsibility for coordinating collection efforts. Helms
specifically requested that Ober be provided with trained analysts to
process a large backlog of undigested data and skilled operations
officers.10
In the fall of 1969, CHAOS began to develop two additional programs
to increase its sources of information. The first was a. domestic
collection program undertaken by the Domestic Contact Servi~.l1 ~
the second, CHAOS developed Its own agents, who were tramed III
the United States and then sent on reporting missions abroad.
~. Domestic Oontract Service
In early 1969, Domestic Contact Service (DCS)· was receiving
an increasing volume of field reports 011 Black militant aCtivity. Some
of the material related to possible foreign association and had· been
routinely sent in by the fieldoffic~. QnMarch 10, 1~69, in order to
channel and control this material~DCS opened a newcase'on'''Activi.;
ties of Black Militants" here and abroad.1~ .
Because of references to foreign contacts, PCS sent s0P1e.9f.~he
reports to the Counterintelligence Staff and they were route4·.~
Ober, who sought additional materia1.1$ . ... . ..,.
In October 1969, Ober formally l.?riefed.DSC officials. A su:t>S~uent
memorandum to DCS field offices; jointly drafted by DCSfilId
CHAOS representatives, expanded projects to the same five subject
categori~ used by CHAOS : black militants; radical youth groups;
• Memorandum from Richard Helms to the Deputy DlrectoTs for Support,
Plans, Intelligence and Science and Technology, September 1969, p. 1.
T·ld.. p. 2.
71 At that time in the Intelligence Directorate, the unit has sinCe been renamed
Domestic Contact Division and returned to the Operations Directorate.
Its main mission is the collection of foreign intelligence information in the
United States from witting Americans. In connection with that role and other
tasks which support CIA's foreign operations many DOS field otDces have developed
a network of con.fidential sources and contacts with local authorities.
They are also openly listed in the phone book and would receive any walk·ins
or phone calls from citizens to the CIA.
n Deposition of Deputy Chief, Operational Support Branch, DOS. Rockefeller
Commission, 4/11/75, pp. 32-36.
T3 Ibid.
702
radical underground press; antiwar groups; and deserter/draft resister
movements. The directive advised that:
CI's interest is primarily to ascertain the details, if any, of
any foreign involvement/support/guidance/training/funding/
or exploitation of above groups and movements, parti.
cularly through coverage of foreign travel, contacts and
activities of the Americans involved/4
Over 200 reports and other items were supplied -by DCS to CHAOS
between 1969 and 1913. Much of the material included information
relating to foreign contacts of Americans; some contained "operational
leads" to potential sources who .might be willing to collect information
when they went overseas. Other items consisted largely of
information about domestic organization and activity/5
DeS officials thought they were expected to supply domestic information
about dissidents for use as background data, as well as any
leads to foreign connections.76
There was no express reference to a domestic information collection
requirement in the directive sent to DeS field offices· in December
1969. But the Deputy Chief of CHAOS testified that his office had
indicated their appreciation to DCS for such material, which helped
build the CHAOS data OOse.77
Moreover, whatever the formal written requirement..<;, CHAOS nm.de
specific requests for domestic materials and, in other instances, made
follow up requests based on items which DCS field offices had sent in.
For example, CHAOS asked the Chicago Field Office for information
on the "28 co-conspirators" of 12 SDS members who had been
locally indicted for the Weathermen riots in Chicago the previous fall.
This was supplied, as well as subsequent coverage of the legal
proceedings.78
Another CHAOS request resulted in a DCS field office obtaining
from confidential sources a large report prepared by a state investigating
commission on radical demonstrations in that state.79
The CHAOS office thanked DeS for one early report on the domestic
political activities of a black leader and asked for any additional
information available.80
In the beginning of 1911, however, after expressions of uncertainty
about the program from the field, DeS officials sought -a revised written
requirement stating both a primary interest in foreign-related
information and a secondary CHAOS interest in background information
of a domestic nature.
DCS claimed this was merely intended to confirm the prior practice
based on oral requests from CHAOS.81
7& DOS Memorandum to Field Offices: Case 52722, 12/19/64, p. 1.
'" Deputy Chief, Operational Support Branch, DeS, Deposition, Rockefeller
Commission, 4/11/75, pp. 47, 48-44.
7. Chief Support Branch, DOS, Deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/11/75,
pp. 56, 61.
'17 Eatinger, 10/14/75, pp. 36-37.
78 Field Office Reports to DCS, 4/16/70, 6/1/70.
'" Field Office Report to DeS, 5/14/70.
!lO Undated memorandum from Richard Ober to DCS: re DCS Field Report
LA~of 9/14/69.
81 Chief Support Branch, DCS, Rockefeller Commission, 4/11/75, PP. 53-56.
703
The draft directive stated that: ... The second type of
information concerns the activities of US radical groups but
does not contain any obvious foreign implications. Such mformation
is considered of primary interest to the FBI under its
domestic security charter. DCS however has been directed to
collect both types of information, with the emphasis on that
pertaining to foreign involvement.82
Ober refused to approve the new directive. As a result, DCS closed
the old case, and opened a new one under a narrower directive. DCS
reporting was to be "focused exclusively upon the collection of information
suggesting foreign involivement in U.S. radical activities."
[Emphasis in original.] Purely domestic information was to be passed
locally to the FBI.83
Though nowhere near as voluminous as domestic reports received
by CHAOS from the FBI, the DCS material was one of the main
additional sources of "domestic intelligence" in the CHAOS files.
3. OHAOS Agents
The other main source of "domestic intelligence" about Americans
which went into CHAOS' files came from agents bein~ run by the
CHAOS project and a few from a related foreign intellIgence operation
run in close coordination with CHAOS.
The effort to develop assets targeted fully on CHAOS information
began right after the White House review of the Agency's CHAOS
effort in the fall of 1969. Previously, overseas reporting had oome from
assets already working for the various stations on other assignments.
Those station 'assets continued to supply CHAOS infol"JllatIon even
after Ober obmined his own agent progrwm.
Over 40 potential recruits were evaluated. About half of these
were referred by the FBI, for whom they had already worked. Most of
those referred by the FBI ultimately were used on a single assignment.
Seven recnrits developed unilwterally Iby the CIA also were used as
CHAOS agents.84
CHAOS llIgents participated in radical activity here as part of their
preparation for assignment overseas. In the process, they supplied
detailed information on domestic 1lICtivities of Americans.
While here, the agents spent 1lIt least several weeks, and, in some
cases, much longer, immersed in the radical community. This net only
enhanced their radioal credentials and increased their familiarity with
persons and groups they mi~ht 'be reporting on from abroad. It 9.190
afforded their case officer WIth an opportunity to tmin them, assess
their progress, test the possibility they were 'a plant, and evaluate how
CHAOS could best use them abroad.85 This was done by extensive
debriefing of the agents on a periodic basis.86
.. Draft memorandum from Director, DCS, to Field Otllces, 1/6/71.
... Memorandum from Director, DCS, to Field Offices, 3/23/71.
• 4 Charles Marcules testimony, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75, pp. 1538--1545.
(For security reasons, the CHAOS agent case officer testified as "Charles
Marcules.")
85 Ibid., pp. 1545-1547; 1566---1667; Ober 9/24/75, p. 46.
.. Staff Review of CHAOS Agent ~les.
704
According to Marcules, the ~nts in training were 'asked to report
to him in detail on theiractivitles, persons with whom they had been
mOOting and so foI'th.87
In all of these instances, the information about individuals in dissident
groups, the plans and policies of the organizations and other
domestic information, flS well as any leads to possible foreign connections
went not only into the case file of the agent in training but also
into the 'general CHAOS files on those individuals and groups.
4. Project ~
A separate intelligence project which also involved the use of radical
credentials by American agents, furnished CHAOS with additional
information about American dissidents. "Project 2" was developed
in 1969 and implemented in 1970, by a particul'ar area division at
CIA.88 It was designed ultimately to penetrate certJain foreign intelligence
t4trgets through these agents, or to have them spot others who
could accomplish such infiltration.
Most of the assets developed their leftist coloration by entering universities
in the United States after an initial period of basic agent
training. When in school, they paI'ticipated in the radical community.
While preparing for their future assignments, the agents filed detailed
reports and were also debriefed by their case officer. In the
process, they provided considerable information on their associates,
dissident organizations, demonstrai;ion plans and sometimes personal
information.89 One asset submitted a 60 page report for a three week
period which included detailed information on demonstrations, group
meetings, and general accounts of such activity as Women's Liberation
efforts in the area.90
From the outset, the project's potential usefulness to CHAOS was
recognized. All of the agent reports and debriefing contact reports
were provided to CHAOS for its files.91
Once abroad on their basic intelligence mission, moreover, the Proj·
ect 2 agents were explicitly directed to acquire CHAOS information
as well. One memorandum regarding the overseas assignment of a
Project 2 agent, stated:
His mission will be to spot, assess and develop leftists in the
Maoist spectrum.... He will also report on CHAOS developments
in [the target countryJ.92
One Project 2 agent became affiliated with an American dissident
group in the foreIgn country which was directing its activities at personnel
of American bases in that area. He began to report on. both
the native "radical left and the American radical left." 93
8T Mareules testimony, 3/10/75, Rockefeller Commission, p. 1567.
.. The Rockefeller Commission refers to this project. in its Report as "Project
2." For continuity, the SIllme refen>nce is used here.
.. Stalf review of Project 2 agent files.
.. Agent 1, contact report, Vol. 11, Agent 1 file.
•, Earl Williams tf'stimony. 10/14/71), p. 10. (For security reasons, one of the
Project 2 case officers testified as "Earl Williams.")
.. Memorandum from Chairman, CS Agent Pllnel to DDP: "Request for Apprgval
for Nonofficial Cover Premium Pay," 8/4/70.
Project 2 Progress Report, August-September 1971, p. 201.
705
5. Provision to OHAOS of NSA and Mail Intercepts
When CHAOS was in full scale operation, it also was receiving in·
formation from the CIA's mail intercept program and the interception
of international communications by the National Security Agency.
The CIA mail project was run by another unit within the Counterintelligence
Staff. CHAOS supplied that office with a list of 41 individuals
and organizations for specific inclusion in the so-called
"watch list" used as one basis for intercepting international mai1.94
The names provided by CHAOS were to be sent to the point of interception
in the field, and not merely to be used to screen mail which
had independently been selected and had already arrived at the project
office in Headquarters.95
CHAOS also supplied lists of individuals and organizations to the
Nllitional Security Agency for inclusion in its "watch list." In Mdition,
CHAOS had access to more general distributions of communications
intelligence involving Americans which were received by the
CIA from NSA.96
F. Redudion, Limitation and Termination of OHAOS
1. Reduced Reporting Priority
With the decline of student demonstrations and antiwar activity in
the latter part of 1972, the intensity of the CHAOS effort declined.
A cable to several stations advised that general reporting of information
regarding foreign contacts of the New Left was no longer a high
priority, although routine coverage was to be maintained in order to
preserve a "residual counteraction capability for possible future usa"
The cable noted thllit a high priority would continue with regard to
foreign connections of New Left individuals or groups advocating or
engaging in violence.97
~. Reaction to Inspector General's Survey
At the end of 1972, the CHAOS program was subject to a high level
review. In the fall of 1972, an Inspector General survey of overseas
stations for a particular region raised questions about CHAOS. The
survey team was not permitted to review specific CHAOS files and
operations, either in the field or at Headquarters. However, questions
voiced to the team by station personnel in several countries resulted in a
separate memorandum from the Inspector General, William Broe to
the Executive Director. Broe summarized the policy concerns expressed
about CHAOS:
Even though there is a general belief that CIA involvement
is directed primarily Il;t foreign manipulation and subversive
exploitation of U.S. citizens, we also encountered general concern
over what appeared to constitute a monitoring of the
political views and activities of Americans not known to be
or suspected of being involved in espionage. Occasionally,
.. Memorandum from Richard Ober to Chief, CI Project, 2/15/72.
.. James Eatinger, Memorandum for the Record: CI Project Material Handling,
10/7/71.
"" Ober, 10/30/75, p.16--17.
Of CIA Headquarters Cable to several Stations, JUly 1972.
706
stations were asked to report on the whereabouts and activities
of prominent persons ... whose comings and goings were not
only in the public domain but for whom allegations of subversion
seemed sufficiently nebtilotuJ to raise renewed doubts
as to the nature and legitimacy of the i1fHOHAOS program.98
[Emphasis added.]
On a practical level, the stations had complained about the burden
of seeking information from the liaison service on behalf of the FBI
when the local or nearby FBI representative had also requested the
same information from the liaison directly.99
Broe's memorandum caused a review of the CHAOS operation by
Karamessines, Helms, William Colby, who was then the Executive
Director/Comptroller of the CIA, and other senior officials. In addition
to improving coordination with the FBI and briefing overseas
officers with a misunderstanding of CHAOS, Helms also directed that
thereafter:
A clear priority is to be given in this general field to the subject
of terrorism. This should bring about a reduction in the intensity
of attention to political dissidents in the United States
not, or not apt to be, Involved in terrorism. On a secondary
level, continued discreet coverage will be maintained of counterintelligence
matters, including the possible manipulation
of American citizens by foreign intelligence services or their
actions abroad of counterintelligence interest.loo
Ober had already taken on the additional duties of coordinating the
CIA's efforts to combat international terrorism the previous summer.lOl
In 1973, the CHAOS program was transferred from the Counterintelligence
Staff to the newly formed Operations Staff within the
Plans Directorate.
On May 9, 1973, CIA Director James Schlesinger requested an inventory
of all "questionable aotivities" in which the CIA might have engaged.
One such activity on which reports were sent to the Director
was CHAOS. On August 29, 1973, William Colby, who had succeeded
Schlesinger as Director, issued a series of instructions regarding the
questioned programs and activities. His directive in regard ,to CHAOS
limited the CIA's own operations to focus more narrowly on collecting
information about foreign nationals and organiz'ations, rather than the
Americans with whom they might be in contact:
MEMORANDUM
Subject: OHAOS
CHAOS is restricted to the collection abroad of information
on foreign activities related to domestic matters. OIA
will focus clearly on the foreign organizations and individuals
involved and only incidentally on their American contacts.
.. Memorandum from Inspector General to Executive Director-Comptroller,
11/9/72, p. 1.
oo Memorandum from Inspector General to Executive Director-Comptroller,
11/9/72, p. 2.
100 Memorandum from Executive Director-Comptroller to DDP, 12/20/72, p. 7.
101 Clandestine Service Notice-Establishment of International Terrorist Information
Program, from Thomas Karamessines, 7/19/72.
707
As a consequence, OIA will not take on the primary responsibility
for following Americans abroad, although OIA can
accept a request by the FBI to be passed to an appropriate
liaison service in a foreign country for the 8urveillance of
such an American and the transmission of the results back to
the FBI. It must be plainly demonstrated in each such transmission
that the CIA is merely a channel of communication
between the FBI and the appropriate forei~ service and is
not to be directly engaged in the surveIllance or other
action against the American involved. [Emphasis added.]102
3. Termination of OHAOS
CHAOS was terminated as a Sipecified collection program in
March 5,1974, by order of Director Colby. The cable announcing this
to the stations also stated guidelines for future activity involving
Americans:
1. This message is to notify you of the termination of the
CHAOS program and to provide guidelines under which
HQS has been operating for some time on certain activities
formerly included in CHAOS.
2. Guidelines: All collection takes place aibroad. Collection
is restricted to information on foreign activities related to
domestic matters. CIA will focus clearly on the foreign organizationsand
individuals involved and only incidentally on
their American contacts. In doing this, following will apply:
A. Whenever information is uncovered as a byproduct
result of CIA foreign-targeted intelligence or counterintelligence
operations 'abroad which makes Americans abroad suspect
for security or counterintelligence reasons, the information
will be reported by CIA in the following manner.
(1) With respect to private American citizens abroad, such
information will be reported to the FBI.
(2) With respect to official U.S. personnel aibroad, such
information will be reported to their parent agency's security
authorities, and to the FBI if 'appropriate.
In both such cases, under this sub-paragraph, specific CIA
operations will not be mounted against such individuals;
CIA responsibilities thereafter will be restricted to reporting
any further intelligence or counterintelligence aspects of the
specific case which come to CIA attention as a by-product of
its continuing foreign targeted operational actIvity. If the
FBI, on the basis of the receipt of the CIA information,
however, specifically requests further information on terrorist
or counterintelligence matters relating to the private American
citizens involved in the specific case, CIA will respond
according to the guidance in subparagraph B below. In performing
these functions CIA will be discharging its responsibilities
for primary foreign counterintellIgence collection
abroad, particularly as assigned it under paragraphs 1B
and 3B of NSCID 5.
102 Memorandum from William Colby to Deputy Director for Operation, At..
tachment "Memorandum: CHAOS." 8/29/73.
708
B. CIA may respond to written requests by the FBI for
clandestine collection abroad by CIA of information on foreign
terrorist or counterintelligence matters involving private
American citizens. Such collection activity may involve
both liaison services and unilateral operwtions. In the case
. of liaison services, whenever feasible it should be plainly
demonstrated in the transmission of the request to such liaison
services that CIA is acting as a channel of communication
between the FBI and the appropriate foreign service. Any
unilateral operational activity will require specific prior approval
of the DDO and the DCI will be advised thereof.
Pertinent information obtained will be provided by CIA to
the FBvo3
A new restricted channel cryptonym was provided for the controlled
reporting and handling of information relwting to Americans which
was furnished pursuant to these guidelines.10•
At the same time, domestic offices of the CIA were sent a copy of
the cable to stations with the additional l(Uidance th8it the cable was
specifically restricted to informwtion obtained abroad:
If as a byproduct of ongoing activities, incidental information
is received on U.S. citizens and it is determined that
such information is inimical to U.S. interests or the Base feels
thwt the incidental information should be reported to Headquarters,
they should do so via appropriate staff channels
with [a priority] indicator. Headquarters will make the final
determination as to disposition of any information which is
received.10ll
PART III. ISSUES RAISED BY CHAOS AND RELATED PROJECTS
CHAOS and the related studies undertaken by the CIA for the
White House sought to determine the role plaved by hostile foreign
involvement in domestic unrest. Was that an appropriate task for the
CIA under its charter ~
A. The Propriety of the OHAOS MusWn
The history of CHAOS raises a serious question whether the
entire mission was a proper one for CIA. The inquiry into links between
American dissidents and foreiWl elements inevitably involved
the Agency not only in "foreign intelligence" but also in examining
domestic affairs outside of its foreiWl intelligence jurisdiction, and,
at the least, treading close to prohibited internal security functions.
Of course, the mission required "foreign intelligence" about the
efforts of hostile governments or foreign groups. But it also involved
acquiring and using information about the American dissidents and
their activities. In order to detect and understand connections between
'" Cable from William Colby to Fi+>ld Stations, 3/5/74.
.... Oable from William Colby to Field Stations, 3/5/74, p. 5.
," CIA Headquarters Cable to Domestic Bases, March 1974.
709
foreign elements and the Americans, the CIA felt that it had to
examine both sides of the connection-the foreign and the domestic.
As Ober put it:
Obviously, if you're talking about links between the foreign
individuals or groups or people or groups in the United
States, to understand any link you need some information on
either end. So that a degree of information would have to be
maintained against whICh you could measure your foreign
information and understand whether it is relevant or not.106
The inevitable involvement in the activities of Americans was increased
by the fact that the scope of CIA's interest in domestic dissidents
was sometimes defined in broad terms. While the emphasis was
clearly placed on evidence of direct foreign funding or control, both
the requested reporting and the studies provided for the President
covered a much broader range of "foreign connections." As a result,
CHAOS screened a wide range of individuals and groups.
For example, the CIA asked stations providing mformation for the
1967 study of the peace movement to report on "subversive connections"
between Americans and foreign elements, but then explained
that "such connections might range from Ca8ua) contacts ba8ea 'TI'W1'ely
on mutua) interest to closely controlled channels for party directives."
107 [Emphasis added.] In that context, "subversive connections"
to be reported meant no more than a possible basis for foreign powers
to develop actual control or direction at some point in the future.
Similarly, the White House request in the summer of 1969 for a
study of foreign communist support to American protest groups
directed that "support should be liberally construed to include" encouragement
by Communist countries, as well as assistance.108 Thus, mere
expressions of sympathy and approval conveyed to an American group
would constitute a "foreign link" and make the group a subject of
the CHAOS examination of foreign influence.
In the fall of 1969, anticipating a new worldwide "peace offensive,"
CHAOS asked stations to report on "any foreign support, inspiration,
and/or guidance" to such activities in the United States.lOg
The studies produced by CIA on the peace movement, black activist
groups, and the New Left included the efforts of foreign governments
to exploit or stimulate unrest through propaganda and expressions
of support. In the case of the peace movement, they also discussed
international coordination of antiwar activity in various countries.
The attempt to ascertain and evaluate "foreign links" so broadly
defined reqUIred more than background information on a few individuals
suspected of actually being agents directed by a hostile power.
In a period when there was considerable international communication
and travel involving American dissidents, a study of "foreign links"
which included expressions of common concern, contact at conferences,
or encouragement came necessarily to include a substantial segment
of the more militant protest groups in America.
"'" Ober, 10/28/75, p. 44-
107 CIA Headquarters cable to several field stations, November 1967, pp. 1-2.
"'" Memorandum from Tom Huston to Deputy Director of CIA, 6/20/69.
,. CIA cable trom headquarters to stations, November, 1969.
710
Mo~ver, the CIA exami~eddomestic dissident activity not only to
determme the extent of foreIgn contracts, but also to evaluate the impact
they had in the domestic arena.
Isolated reports of training, directions, and limited financial assistance
provided to American dissidents by hostile foreign governments
were found. Instances of mutual encouragement and international
coordination were far more numerous. The studies prepared by the
CIA sought to weigh the significance of such instances in the context of
the domestic sources of support for the American dissident movements,
in order to portray accurately the role played by foreign influence.
This was the theory on which Helms and the Directorate of Intelligence
justified including the study by CIA of American student
protest. Acknowledging that analysis of American student groups
was sensitive, they felt that one could not test the proposition that there
was an underlying international conspiracy mampulating the students
in each country, without examining the origins and nature of the student
protests here.11O
Yet Helms contemporaneously indicated his understanding that
the section of the "Restless Youth" report by CIA analyzing American
student unrest was beyond the CIA's authority.ll1
Thus, whether or not the primary interest of the CHAOS mission
is characterized as "foreign intelligence," the very nature of the inquiry
can be said to have taken the Agency into domestic matters as well.
The ultimate objective transcended any effort to limit CIA's role to
"foreign intelligence." As Director Helms testified:
The jurisdiction is divided at the water's edge. When you
are dealing with something that has both foreign and domestic
aspects to it, I don't recall anybody having come down, I
mean any President come down hard and say, all of this is for
the FBI and all of this is for the agency. I mean the line has
to be wavy. There is no other way to do it that I know of. It is
like cutting a man down the middle.112
Did the overall CHAOS program also inherently involve the CIA
in prohibited internal security functions ~
If the intent of the statutory prohibition is considered to limit
active investigation of Americans by the CIA only in this country,
then the answer is no. The specific ways in which CHAOS was implemented
still raise a problem, but the task of determining the extent
and impact of foreiWl links to domestic unrest did not inevitably
require that the CIA do such investig-ation itself.
On the other hand, the g'eneral thrust of the statutory prohibition
can be read as a more rigid limit to the CIA's entry into the internal
security field at all-not merely a geographical limitation on domestic
CIA investigations. If the proscription is read that broadly, then
the basic mission of CHAOS to determine the role played by foreign
influence in domestic dissent violated the statutory charter.
110 Drexel Godfrey deposition, Rockefeller Commission, January 1975, p. 9.
m See 8upra,'pp. 33--84.
u.o Helms deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/24/75, p. 222.
711
This ambiguity was reflected in the study prepared for the White
House by CHAOS in June 1971 on the extent of foreign links.ll3 It was
entitled:
Definition and Assessment of the Internal Security Threat-Foreign.
[Emphasis added.] 114
Interestingly, the Rockefeller Commission concluded that with the
exception of several particulars, the CHAOS mission undertaken by
CIA was a proper foreign intelligence mission. But in its basic recommendation
on the CHAOS program, immediately following that conclusion,
the Commission advised that the President in the future not
direct "the CIA to perform what are essentially internal seaurity
tasks." 115 [Emphasis added.]
Both the 1971 study title and the Rockefeller Commission recommendation
implicitly recognize that the question of foreign influence
on domestic unrest or subversion is an aspect of "internal security".
Ober suggested that CHAOS could be viewed as the foreign collection,
collation, analysis, and dissemination of counterintelligence. In
short, he justified CHAOS as a "vertical slice" of the CIA's counterintelligence
responsibilities under NSCID 5.116 But as the history of
CHAOS shows, the inclusion of "subversion" in the definition of
threats covered by "counterintelli~ence" under NSCID 5, meant that
the effort by CIA to perform foreIgn collection of counterintelligence
information and to produce analyses of foreign counterintelligence
questions would involve it in internal security matters. Therefore, to
the extent the specific prohibition of the statute applied, it superceded
any general implied authority for counterintelligence work upon
which NSCID 5 was predicated.
Whether or not the overall CHAOS program was proper under the
CIA charter, the ways in which the project was implemented raise
further questions about the limits of the CIA's authority to gather
informatIOn about Americans.
B. Domestic Intelligence Oollection
To what extent was the CIA involved in improper domestic intelligence
collection ~
In any ordinary sense of the word, the CIA had "collected" a great
deal of information in the United States about Americans, which was
systematically maintained in files on those persons and used in the
CHAOS program.
The manner in which the CIA had acquired that information, however,
varied considerably. Most of it was received from the FBI,
partly in response to traces and general requests from the CIA, and
partly through disseminations made routinely by the Bureau.
The CIA's own acquisition of information about dissident Americans
in this country involved the reports by the Domestic Contacts
111 See supra, pp. 39-40.
Ui Report, "Definition and Assessment of Existing Internal Security ThreatForei,:
m",1/5/71.
m Rockefeller Commission Report, PP. 149--150.
118 Ober, 10/28/75, p. 53, and see supra, pp. 8-9.
712
Services, the CHAOS and Project 2 agents, and by the Office of Security
sources in the MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE programs.
1. Domestic Oontact Service
The basic formal policy of the DCS aid to CHAOS precluded active
collection efforts by the field offices. Information was to be accepted
if volunteered in the course of other duties, or sent in if it was available
in the local public media.ll7
As a practical matter, however, information was provided by local
officials or other "confidential sources" who became alerted to the field'
offices' interest in such material. And some of that information was
obtained through local informants or undercover agents of police
intelligence units.
In one city, for example, the DOS field office was obtaining from
local authorities the coverage by informants of the meetings of local
chapters of New Left dissident groups.l18 Another confidential report
dealt with local funding sources for the Black Panther Party.m
Thus, CIA's "passive" receipt sometimes was simply one step removed
from active covert collection efforts by other public agencies.120
The DCS involvement in CHAOS was questionable, even as to leads
about foreign travel or possible contacts of Americans. The essential
aspect was the intentional acquisition here by CIA of information
about the political activities and associations of Americans. The argument
such material was useful background for a "foreign intelligence"
project does not answer the basic question of whether the CIA should
leave such intelligence gathering here about Americans to other federal
agencies, if, indeed, such information should be collected at all.
2. Domestic Reporting by 01A Agents
The CIA was most directly involved in clandestine gathering of
domestic intelligence as a result of the reporting by CHAOS and
Project 2 agents while they were in the United States. Both sets of
agents participated in the radical milieu here in order to develop or
improve their leftist credentials and, consequently, their access to information
in their overseas assignments.
The CHAOS case officer who debriefed the CHAOS agents in this
country sought a complete account of the agents' activities and associates.
He frequently amazed the FBI in the degree of information
he could extract from the agents' experience; he was "like a vacuum
cleaner." 121
Since the extensive debriefings about their associates in the United
States served a variety of training, assessment, and counterintelligence
purposes, any information reported to the CIA in the process can be
viewed as the byproduct of overseas operations. At times, however,
the CHAOS agent program and, to a lesser extent, Project 2 went
beyond incidental collection.
117 Th>puty Chief, Support Branch, DOS, Deposition, 4/11/75, Rockefeller Commission,
p. 45.
118 Memorandum from DCS to CHAOS with attached field office reports,
11/15/68.
118 Report from field office to DCS, 8/14/70.
uo In addition, as already noted, DCS pursued follow-up requests from CHAOS
for specific information with its local sources. See 8upra, p. 44.
1Jll Ober, 10/30/75, p. 56.
713
(a) OHAOS Agents.-Generally, the CHAOS agents under development
were not directed to acquire information about particular
targets. But the case officer would sometimes put specific questions to
them, asking what they had learned about particular persons or events.
Sometimes the questions had been provided by the FBI.122 Ober agreed
that an agent trying to perform well would thereby be sensitized and
implicitly directed toward obtaining information on those subjects or
persons when he returned to the radical community.123
In addition, not all of the CHAOS agent debriefings on domestic
matters was tied to their preparation and development. When agents
returned to America and reentered the radical community here pending
reassignment, they continued to report on the activities of their domestic
associates.124 According to Ober, agents were sometimes expressly
brought back from their overseas assignment to cover a target in the
ITnited States of particular interest to the FBI.125
Three cases illustrate this range of circumstances in which domestic
information was collected by CHAOS agents.
The first instance involved a recruit who was under assessment
and not formally hired for over half a year, during which time he was
debriefed on his knowledge of domestic radical activity.lu
In April 1971, after consultation with the case officer and at the
time he was formally recruited as a CHAOS agent, he attended the
spring demonstrations against the Vietnam war in Washington.121
Prior to this time, the agent had not been directed to try to acquire
information about domestic radicals, but had done so as a result of his
continuing association with them. In the case of the Washington demonstrations,
however, he was briefed in advance by the case officer,
Marcules, on a number of individuals in whom the FBI was interested,
as well as being asked to report any advance information about plans
for the demonstrations.128 Marcules testified it was not practical to
turn Finch over to the Bureau during' this period because of problems
with compartmenting his identity. He also said it provided a ~ood
training opportunity.l29
ttl Ober. 10/30/75, p. 47.
,.. Ober, 10/30/75, p. 60.
,.. Staff Interview of Chief, International Terrorism Group, Rockefeller Commission,
2/24/75, p. 3.
I2I5 Memorandum from Richard Ober to James Angelton, 6/9/70, p.9.
128 Bob Finch deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/16/75, pp. 5--6. (For security
reasons, thiR agent testified under the alias "Bob Finch".)
127 The case officer testified that Finch had raised the possibility and that from
a security viewpoint, it would have seemed suspicious if Finch had n()t come.
(Marcules, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75, p. 1550), Finch testified he could
not recall whether he or Marcules first suggested his participation at the demonstrations.
(Finch, Rockefeller Commission, 4/16/75, pp. 14-15.) However, a memorandum
prepared by the case officer states that Finch was "willing to go" to
D.C. (Marcules contact report, 4/5/71). In addition, the circumstances of his being
formally recruited just in time for the assignment, and the juggling of his training
schedule, strongly suggest the reporting was more planned as a collection
opportunity than it was merely a fortuitous coincidence.
... Marcules contact report, 4/17/71.
120 Marcules, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75, p. 1552.
714
The second instance of intensive domestic reporting involved another
CHAOS agent with particularly good entree into the highest
levels of a segment of the domestic radical community. He made several
trips abroad and reported CHAOS information obtained overseas.
13O In addition, both during his preparation period and in between
his overseas assignments, this asset reported a gre3lt deal of detailed
information, some extremely personal, about individuals in this segment
of the radical community and about their personal relationships.
l3l In the fall of 1969 it was determined that he would not be
used on an overseas assignment for many months and, in the meantime,
would continue to be debriefed as a source of information about
his associates, in part because he did not wish to deal with the FBI.132
But there is no indication in the file that the personal information of
an intimate nature was requested by CIA or was disseminated to the
Bureau.
A third CHAOS asset had already been working for the CIA
abroad. At the time he was recruited for the CHAOS effort, the agent
had an opportunitv to attend antiwar demonstrations in this country.
He was encouraged to attend by CHAOS, which assisted his arrangements.
133 The agent attended a series of activities in. the United States
and was debriefed extensively. The information was the basis for
numerous reports to the FBI on domestic antiwar efforts and plans.1s•
(b) Proje<:t 'Z Agents.-The Project 2 agents developing their credentials
in this country were not directed to participate in particular
dissident activities. But the principal case officer for the agents' preparation
stated there was a sense of urgency to get the maximum
amount of information for CHAOS from the credential building
process in the United States,135
The Deputy Chief of CHAOS testified that he briefed Project 2
agents while they were in this country. He could not recall asking the
agents to collect any specific information. But he testified that the
CHAOS office had requested the Project 2_ case officers to ask their
agents specific questions about the persons and activities they were
reporting upon.1358
A cover memorandum written by the Project 2 case officer attached
to a debriefing report of an ~gent prior to his departure overseas read:
A part of the substance herein is in response to questions
posed by CHAOS before I went to the West Coast. Especially
the part on factionalism in the New Left and the orgamzational
activity. Am sending a copy of this to CHAOS as
per usual practice. (The attachments were collooted by the
asset for CHAOS at our request.) 138
180 The agent had been a CIA source for a number of years.
131 Staff review of CHAOS agent file.
'32 Memorandum for the Record from Charles Marcules, 10/21/70. (in agent
file. )
1" Marcules, Rockefeller Commission, 3/10/75, pp. 1556-1558; staff review of
CHAOS agent file.
,.. Staff' review of agent file.
'35 Williams, 10/14/75, pp. 8, 23.
1lII5a Eatinger, 10/14/75, pp. 50-51.
'36 Cover memorandum from Earl Williams to Acting Chief of Operations of
the Project 2 area division, 7/28/70.
715
3. Propriety of Domestic Reports by Agents During
Preparation
In those situations when CHAOS agents were directed to cover
specific activity in the United States or to find out about a particular
person, CIA was engaged in domestic clandestine intelligence collection
about Americans.
Whether the information was sought for CHAOS' own use or at
the request of the FBI, should the CIA ever be involved in domestic
collection targeted against United States citizens?
It can be argued, for example, that where CHAOS and Project 2
agents were not directed to collect specific information, and were
reporting domestic intelligence as a by-product of their preparation
for overseas operations, that CIA was not involved in improper
domestic operations.
Thus, Deputy Director Karamessines felt that the general preparation
of agents through participation in domestic dissident activity,
and their debriefing by CIA, was consistent with his policy
that CHAOS would not engage in domestic intelligence operations.
Karamessines understood that the agents would report to their case
officer information which included domestic matters which would
be available to CHAOS and which might be disseminated to the
FBI. But he explained that CHAOS was not to conduct operations
"for the purpose" of acquiring domestic information about targeted
groups.137
Such narrow definitions of the intelligence trade differ from the
general public understanding of what constitutes "domestic intelligence
collection" by CIA. Under this narrow definition of "domestic
operations," if the ultimate purpose of the covert reporting is preparation
for a foreign operation, then even the conscious acquisition
of detailed domestic intelligence in the process, its systematic retention
and dissemination, would be appropriate for CIA. That standard
poses a potential loophole in any guidelines which purport to restrict
the CIA's collection of information about Americans here in the
United States. It is particularly dangerous when, as was true for
CHAOS, the overseas mission itself includes reporting on Americans
abroad.
If it is to be continued. does CIA use of such credential building
and training techniques require strict controls on the use of any information
acquired during such preparation ~
O. Assistance to FBI Internal Security Investigations
A third issue is raised by the extensive pattern of assistance CHAOS
provided to the FBI. Apart from the mission Helms had the CIA
undertake for the White House, and the specific ways in which
CHAOS sought to implement that mission, a major focus of the
actual CHAOS operation became its servicing of the FBI's internal
security investigations. Did the extent of that assistance bring the
CIA into the realm of forbidden internal security work ~
131 Thomas Karamessines testimony, Rockefeller Commission, 2/24/75, pp. lOIS1020.
A similar analysis was offered by the Chief of Counterintelligence, Ober's
immediate superior. (James Angleton testimony, Rockefeller Commission,
2/10/75, p. 699.)
69-984 0 - 78 - 46
716
As just noted, the most directed use of CHAOS agents to collect
domestic information in the United States was done on behalf of the
FBI.
Abroad, the bulk of the CHAOS r~uests for coverage of specific
Americans by CIA stations, foreign liaIson services, or both, also resulted
from FBI requests.
Both Karamessines and Ober acknowledged that the CIA through
CHAOS was assisting the FBI in its performance of internal secunty
functions.138
They characterized that assistance as a proper part of the CIA's
counterintelligence responsibility.
Karamessines testified that, as the foreign operational arm of the
American counterintelligence effort, CIA has always accepted. the
responsibility to meet the FBI's collection requirements abroad.13D But,
collection of intelligence about Americans abroad, whether the CIA's
own agents or from liaison services, can be done for internal security
purposes, just as much as can intelligence operations at home.
This issue was reviewed in a different context by the Rockefeller
Commission when it considered the propriety of the CIA's mail interception
program. The Commission found that it exceeded CIA authority
wholly apart from the statutory ban on any government
agency opening mail without a warrant. The Commission concluded
that:
The nature and degree of assistance given by the CIA to the
FBI in the New York mail project indicate that the primary
purpose eventually became participating with the FBI
in internal security functions. Accordingly, the CIA's participation
was prohibited under the National ~ecurity Act. [Emphasis
added.] 140
In contrast to the relatively small number of formal studies and special
memoranda CIA provided the White House, the CHAOS office
disseminated thousands of reports to the FBI.
All told, in its seven years of operation, CHAOS sent well over
5,000 reports to the Bureau j approximately 4,400 memoranda, lUld
some 1,000 cable disseminations.l4l
Reviewing the degree to which the product of the CHAOS operation
was internal security intelligence sent to the FBI, as well as the
testimony that targeted operations abroad against Americans were
largely the result of specific FBI requests, one can draw a similar·
conclusion paralleling that analysis of the mail project: a major purpose
of CHAOS activity in actual practice became its participation
with the FBI in the Bureau's internal security work.
On the other hand, because CHAOS generated information of interest
to the FBI in the course of pursuing its own mission, the dissemination
figures combine production requested by the Bureau and
also the byproduct of CHAOS which was made available to the FBI.
JIll O~r, 10/30/75, pp. 74--76; Karamessines, 10/24/75, p. 29.
1lIO Karamesslnes, Rockefeller Commission, 2/18/75, pp. 995-996.
1" Rockefeller Commission Report, p. 115.
1<1 Letter from Director William Colby to the Vice President, 7/8/75, p. 6 of
Attacbment.
717
Moreover, insofar as CHAOS watched Americans abroad at the
FBI's request, CIA participation in the Bureau's internal security
work, unlike the mail program, did not involve domestic CIA operations,
the primary concern underlying the prohibition of international
security functions to the CIA.
For the future, the question remains which intelligence agency will
be the operational arm for the United States to collect informatIon
about Americans outside the country. Even if all collection of information
about Americans undertaken in the United States were reserved
to the FBI, there might be situations in which surveillance
of Americans abroad was sought as part of an internal security or
counterterrorism investigation initiated pursuant to approved criteria.
In such cases, unless the FBI or some new agency had adequate capability
to cover the subject's activities abroad, it would be necessary
either to permit the CIA to do it, or to request coverage by the local
intelligence service through an FBI legal attache or a State Department
representative. And, of course, the second course would not be
open unless America had a cooperative relationship with the liaison
service in the foreign country.
The solution of this issue may lie less in determining what to deem
the performance abroad of internal security functions than in setting
restraints on the investigation of Americans by the FBI and applying
those restraints to surveillance of Americans overseas, by any arm of
the government.
D. Maintenance of Files on Americans
The mechanics of the CHAOS operation, both in performing the
mission undertaken by the CIA and in servicing the FBI's needs,
involved the establishment of files and retention of information on
thousands of Americans.
To the extent that information related to domestic activity, its maintenance
by the CIA, although perhaps not itself the performance of
an internal security function, is a step toward the dangers of a domestic
secret police against which the prohibition of the charter
sought to guard. Specific standards are required for the retention of
such material when its direct availability in the CIA's own files is
necessary for legitimate foreign intelligence purposes and the Agency
has acquired it properly. In addition, the CIA can be required to purge
existing files in conformity with the new standards, and where appropriate,
to purge name indexes as well.
E. Approaches to Determining Foreign Direction of Domestic Dissent
Beyond the questions CHAOS raises about the scope of CIA's authority
under its charter, CHAOS also suggests the more general
problems of controlling efforts by any intelligence agency to determine
the nature of foreign connections to domestic unrest.
The most systematic and the quickest way to look for foreign direction
of domestic unrest is to start at both ends of the suspected
connection. One tries to learn what hostile intelligence services are
doing, by coverage of them. But one can also begin to investigate
those Americans thought most likely to have such ties. Thus, CHAOS
718
sought to sift through the leaders and more active segments of domestic
protest movements in order to learn of travel and other foreign
contacts and then to investigate the possibility that those Americans
were supported or controlled by foreIgn powers.
The more traditional CIA policy has been to monitor hostile intelligence
services and then, only if it thereby learns of their involvement
WIth particular Americans, to investigate those Americans abroad or
request an inquiry here. Generally, CIA has not tried to work backward
from a surveillance of traveling Americans who seemed likely
prospects in order to see what kinds of connections could be found.
The present Assistant Deputy Director of CIA for Operations,
David Blee, summarized the distinction:
We have always said that we did not operate that way, but
that we went about it much more inefficiently, which is by
penetrating the foreign government or foreIgn subversive
operation and finding if that led us to an American, rather
than trying to see what Americans were doing, and seeing if
they were in touch with those groups.
In this, we operate very differently from practically all
of the other security and intelligence services, which typically
watch their own citizens to see what they are doing.142
The CHAOS program took the more "efficient" approach; it acquired
information from coverage of foreign elements, but also worked back
from the American end by screening foreign contacts of dissidents. As
Ober testified:
At some point perhaps it should be explained that one of
the reasons for having so many files on so many people was
that the estimates and assessments required of the Agency in
terms of possible foreign involvement with domestic activities
were such that one could only give a responsible answer
if one knew, of this group of people, how many had any sort
of connectiop. of significance abroad. What I am getting at
indirectly, I think, is that to respond with any degree of
knowledge as to whether there is significant foreIgn involvement
in a group, a large number of people, one has to know
whether each and every rme of those persons has any s'U(]h armnection.
And having checked 'flUmy, 'l1Ulny na'TlU3S and coming
up with no significant crmnectirms, one can say with some degree
of confidence that there is no significant involve'TlU3nt,
foreign involvement with that group of individuals. But if
one does not check the names, one has no way of evaluating
that, without a controlled penetration agent of the FBI by
that group, or a control penetration agent of the KGB abroad
who works on the desk which deals with these matters through
us. [Emphasis added.] 143
The former Deputy Director for Plans, Thomas Karamessines, testified
that, in this regard, CHAOS reflected a general increase through-
,.. David Blee deposition, Rock'efeller Commission, 4/18/75, p. 15.
.... Ober, Rockefeller Commission, 3/28/75, pp. 88--89.
719
out the intelligence community in the use of such a screening approach
on American dissidents as opposed to more traditional counterintelligence
efforts targeted directly at hostile foreign elements.l44
CHAOS suggests the dangers of any intellIgence agency starting
from such an investigation of Americans to find illegal or subversive
foreign ties. It particularly shows how the broad impact of that approach
is amplified by the dynamics of counterintelligence work, and
the likely natIOnal setting of such efforts.
1. The Nature of Oownterintelligence Work
Counterintelligence investigations of this type start from a data base
of background information necessarily broader than the ultimate target
of the inquiry. The foundation of such counterintelligence efforts
is to build up a reference collection of names and organizations against
which one can check informationreported about possible ties between
foreign elements and Americans.145 Hence, the extraction of every
name from materials received about domestic dissidence.
Along with the identities, the data base requires developing background
information about the individuals and group&-their relationships,
the status of particular individuals, their views and policies.
The Deputy Chief of CHAOS testified that such background information
was needed to understand the significance of the "tidbits," Le.,
specific items relating to foreign connections which came to CHAOS.146
As Ober explained :
I think that is significant in any counterintelligence operation,
that the meaning of information in the abstract, it is very
difficult to determine. You have to measure it against other
information and put it into context.147
Moreover, in counterintelligence work, the credo is that every bit of
information about associations and activities might prove relevanta
piece of the puzzle. Thus, when CIA responded to the Rockefeller
Commission's conclusions that too much information was maintained
by CHAOS on wholly domestic activity, it stated:
this was due in part to the paucity of information pertinent to
its foreign intelligence objectives which the operation had
been able to collect and also to the urwertainty over how muoh
of the (J,(]au'lTlflilated data might not eventually prove relevant
to these objectives. [Emphasis added.] 148
The bias is toward inclusion, not selectivity, in collecting information
and maintaining files. Other agencies and components of the CIA,
alike, were not encouraged to be selective in their provision of material
to CHAOS.
The request to NSA for materials on persons CHAOS sought to
have watchlisted indicated the widest possible scope. In a memorandum
lO' Karamessines, 10/24/75, p. 44.
'" Ober, 10/28/75, p. 42.
lO·Ober, 10/28/75, p. 44.
lOT Ober, 10/28/75, p. 45.
148 Letter from William Colby to Vice President Rockefeller, JUly 1975.
720
to NSA, Ober indicated that he should be sent any material obtained
on those targets "regardless of how innocuous the information may
appear." 149 Ober testified this was not indicative of his pursuit of
domestic intelligence, but rather his view that NSA was not competent
to judge what bits of seemingly irrelevant information might be
meaningful to CHAOS. Therefore, he wanted NSA to turn everything
over and let CHAOS personnel sift through it for whatever
might prove fruitful to their interests.l50
The Director of the Office of Security, Howard Osborn, testified
that Ober requested he provide all information about dissident groups
obtained through Projects MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE, and
not merely specific items suggesting foreign connections. According
to Osborn, Ober explained that only the CHAOS office, not the Office
of Security, was cOmpetent to judge what might be relevant to the
CHAOS mission.151
~. Political Setting of lnvestigat~
The other main source of expansive pressures on intelligence operations
such as CHAOS is the political setting in which they are undertaken.
Such inquiries are most likely to be pursued in, times of
turbulent protest and dissent from official policy. Intense Government
concern about the source of that opposition is inevitable and the possibility
of foreign involvement is ever present. Moreover, the administration
in power may find it difficult to accept the fact that domestic
opposition to policy is really indigenous.152
In the case of CHAOS, two successive presidents were reluctant to
accept the CIA's conclusions that the dissident activity against the
Government was indigenous.
Director Helms testified that the White House was dissatisfied with
these reports and studies because they did not show "enough foreign
money and foreign influence in these dissident movements.... They
just said you aren't doing your job, you aren't finding it out, its got to
be there." l1S3
Ober testified that Helms never pressured him as to the findings
reported by the CIA. But a steadfast determination to provide unbiased
analyses, itself, creates pressure to expand an operation such
as CHAOS. The dynamic is present in any effort to establish the
validity of a negative finding-no substantial foreign infl;uence-to
the satisfaction of skeptical Government leaders. Only by increasing
the coverage of American dissidents with any kind of foreign contact
could the CIA hope to satisfy the White House that if there were
significant links of direction and support, CHAOS would find them.
Uo Memorandum from Richard Ober to Office of Customer Relations, NSA,
9/14/71.
1110 Ober, 10/30/75, p. 16-17.
2I5l Howard Osborn testimony, 10/3/75, p. 12-14.
W As Joseph Califano, a principal assistant to President Johnson put it, high
governml"nt officials soml"timl"s cannot believe that: "a cause that is so clearly
right for the country, as they perceive it, would be so widely attacked if there
were not some [foreign] force behind it." (Joseph Califano,l/27/76, p. 70.)
103 Richard Helms deposition, Rockfeller Commission, 4/24/75, p. 223.
721
Both Helms and Ober testified that the White House pressure for
redoubled efforts was a significant factor in the continued expansion
of CHAOS.154
The expansive pressures created by the nature of counterintelligence
work and by the difficulty of "proving a negative" to the White
House, of course, are not peculiar to the CIA. They increase the danger
that any intelligence agency's effort to find hostile foreign ties to
domestic dissent by working back from surveillance of Americans will
sweep within its scope many citizens engaged only in lawful activity.
The alternative would be to prohibit such investigations of the
activity of an American dissident unless, in the course of counterintelligence
efforts against hostile foreign elements, a reasonable basis
was established for suspecting- the American was acting- illegally on
behalf of the foreign power.
PART IV. OFFICE OF SECURITY PROGRAMS
The concerns about domestic unrest which led to the CHAOS
program, also caused the CIA to undertake other programs through
the Office of Security, the support unit of the CIA charged with protecting
its personnel, facilities and operations. The Office of Security
has responsibility for both physical security measures and questions
of personnel security.
The Office conducts routine background investigations Qf pros:(lOOtive
personnel. It has also developed files on individuals and orgamzations
in the course of investigating individual security cases of alleged
penetration or attempted penetration of CIA employees.
In 1967, the Office began two efforts which were not focused on
particular security cases. Rather, they were designed to collect information
about groups which might pose a threat to the Agency's
physical security through violent demonstrations or other disruptive
activities.
By the mid-1960s, student unrest had led to increased harassment
of government recruiters, including those of CIA, at campuses
throughout the country. In the fall of 1968, the CIA recruiting office
at the University of Michigan was destroyed by a bomb.
A. Project Resistance
Project RESISTANCE developed out of a narrower program
designed to provide direct support to CIA recruiters visiting college
campuses. In February 1967, the Office of Security had directed its
field offices to report on the possibilities of violence or harassment at
those schools which CIA recruiters planned to visit. Subsequently,
pursuant to this directive, the field offices provided information on
1" Helms deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/24/75, p. 234; Ober deposition,
Rockefeller Commission, 3/28/75, pp. 137-38. Ober also noted bis independent
professional judgment that in the beginning CHAOS SQurces were insufficient to
afford confidence in its findings. Ober, 10/30/75, p. 32. Nevertheless, his and
Helms' acknowledgments, as well as the circumstances of CHAOS' evolution,
indicate the role played by White House dissatisfaction with the results in the
program's expansion.
722
expected opposition to government recruiting, or to CIA in particular,
and made appropnate security arrangements with campus officials
if the recruitment effort took place.
The broader RESISTANCE program was initiated by the Deputy
Director of the CIA for support, whose directorate included the Office
of Security and who previously had been a Director of Security, himself.
In December 1967, he request€d the Office of Security to study
campus dissidence on a systematic basis. The Deputy Director suggested
that there was an increased pattern of simIlar activity among
student protest movements and directed the Office to examme their
aims, causes, attitudes and the extent of their support among the
Nation's students.155 The collection requirement sent to the field officers
in a telegram from headquarters asked for local news clippings
about campus demonstrations related both to local grievances or to
national issues such as the Vietnam War.166
Because of the volume of material reported by the field offices, a
special unit, the Targets Analysis Branch, was established in May
1968, to process and digest the information.
The testimony and the files indicate no use of infiltrations by CIA
in connection with this program. The overwhelming bulk of the
information continued to be press clippings passed on to headquarters.
However, the field offices also obtained information from confidential
sources in the local community such as campus officials and police
authorities. .
For example, one field office indicated that it had already obtained
information from the local law enforcement authorities and advised
of additional opportunities to obtain from other police departments
reports of their mformants with local dissident groUps.151 Headquarters
advised the office to utilize such sources when the information was
offered to CIA.15s
On some occasions, the field offices were specifically requested to
obtain information about particular activities or individuals, through
information obtained directly by CIA personnel and material developed
through confidential sources.159
The analyses provided by the RESISTANCE project were criticized
at one point by the Office of Security analyst who had initiated
the program for primarily focusing on publicly available information:
The RESISTANCE output should not attempt to duplicate
or compete with the media on such reporting. Rather it should
draw on such open sources for material needed to link together
the data acquired from other sources.160
By the end of 1970, the Director of the Office of Security felt that
some of the field offices might be going too far in developing informa-
1J5II Memo for tile Record from Security Research Staff Project Officer, 12/8/67.
,.. Telegram from CIA Headquarters to Office of Security Field Offices, 12/11/67.
1111 Memorandum from Field Office to CIA Headquarters, 5/23/68.
1IlII Memorandum from CIA Headquarters to Field Office, 6/11/68.
1IiO Memorandum from CIA Heallquarters to Washington, D.C. Field 01lice,
5/11/68; Memorandum from CIA Headquarters to Washington, D.O., Field
Office, 11/10/69.
,.. Memorandum from Security Research Staff analyst on Project RESISTANCE
to Chief, Special Activities Division, 5/13/68.
723
tion from cooperating confidential sources.161 At the beginning of
1971, limiting instructions to the field offices directed restraint in the
development of information:
No attempts should be made to recruit new informants or
sources such as campus or police officials for the express
purpose of obtaining information regarding dissident groups,
individuals, or activities. No new requirements for information
should be levied on existing sources.
The above limitations do not preclude acceptance of information
gratuitously offered by informants or sources and
field personnel should continue to be on the alert for nonsolicited
information which might contribute to the protection
of the Agency personnel, projects or installations.162
The Targets Analysis Branch also received FBI reports.163
Although the illltial impetus for RESISTANCE was an effort
to evalllate campus activities, the Targets Analysis Branch broadened
its inquiry to include analyses of protest activities in Washington
and other centers of protest.
The incoming- material was digested and indexed. Eventually the
project developed an estimated 600-700 files and indexed an estimated
12,000 to 16,000 names.164 Apart from specific spot reports and evaluations
of particular groups requested by other components of the
Office of Security, the main product of the operation was weekly Situation
Reports, summarizing and analyzing- past events and projecting a
calendar of upcoming events which might involve violence or disruption
directed at government facilities. 165
The knowledge of organizations was also made available to the
Personnel Office for purposes of evaluating membership in such groups
by prospective employees.166
The project was terminated at the end of June 1973.167
B. Projeet MernJn(l(]
The second general effort by the Office of Security to protect the CIA
from threats posed by domestic disorder was Project MERRIMAC.
MERRIMAC involved the participation of CIA assets in dissident
g-roups in the Washington metropolitan area in order to obtain advance
warning of demonstrations which posed a threat to CIA facilities and
also to collect other intelligence about the groups and their members.
There is no record of MERRIMAC having been authorizd at
the outset by Director Helms. The Director of the Office of Security,
Howard Osborn, testified that Helms had indicated his concern about
the security of the CIA facilities in the face of dissident activities in
the period prior to the formal commencement of MERRIMAC in
'11 Howard Osborn testimony, 10/3/75, pp. 19-20.
... Memorandum from CIA Headquarters to aU field offices, 1/6/71.
• 03 Chief, Targets Analysis Branch OS (1970-1973), testimony, Rockefeller
Commission, 3/3/75, p. 1277.
... Chief, Targets Analysis Branch OS (1970-197'3), Rockefeller Commission,
3/3/75,pp.1296,1314.
1M [d. at 1279.
•80 [d. at 1291-1292.
• OT Memorandum from CIA Headquarters to New York Field Office, 6/28/73.
724
early 1967.168 And Helms believes that he approved the project at
some point.169
In February 1967, Osborn inquired whether a proprietary company
used by the Office of Security could monitor the activity of certain
groups in Washington in order to provide advance information about
demonstrations directed against CIA properties.170
Shortly thereafter, the proprietary was directed to obtain such information.
At the beginning of April, it was specifically asked to have
its assets collect intelligence on the April antiwar demonstrations in
Washington, D.C.17l
The Office of Security initially chose four "indicator organizations"-
the Women's Strike for Peace, the Washington Peace Center,
the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee-deemed to be bellweathers of the likely nature of
protest activity and the potential threat it might pose to the CIA.l12
The proprietary used only a few assets at first, including one regular
employee and several others hired on a part-time basis. None of
the assets were sophisticated agents, although they eventually received
some training. They were construction workers or persons in
similar trades and their relatives. Most of their work continued on a
part-time basis, in addition to their regular employment, throughout
the duration of MERRIMAC.173
Initially, the assets were asked to monitor the organizations in order
to report information only about planned demonstrations which miglit
threaten the Agency. In June, however, the collection requirement was
expanded to include information about the organizations' financial operations
and sources of supporty4
In the fall of 1967, in anticipation of the peace demonstrations in
Washington, MERRIMAC sought to obtain information about the
leadershIp and plans of organizations participating in the National
Mobilization Committee to End the War, as well as mformation about
all the participant organizations.l15
The scope of the inform'ation requested continued to increase. The
assets were 'asked to report any information about the plans and attitudes
of groups revealed at meetings, their associations with other
groups, sources of support, and an account of what was said at the
meetings, in addition to information specifically relating to threatened
action 'against the CIA.176 In addition, other organizations were added
'88 Howard Osborn testimony, 10/3/75, p. 6.
,,. R~chard Helms, Rockefeller Commission, 4/28/75, p. 2472.
17. Memorandum from Deputy Director of Security to Howard Osborn, 2/20/67.
The proprietary company was engaged in commercial security business as a co,er
operation. It was used by the Office of Security where no government identification
was permissible, or where other considerations required "deep cover" for
the CIA's security work. (Osborn, Rockefeller Commission, 2/17/75, p. 837; Gen.
Manager of the proprietary testimony, Rockefeller Commission, 3/3/75, pp. 13721S79.)
111 Memorandum from Headquarters to proprietary Gen. Manager, 4/17/67.
172 Ibid.
173 Proprietary, General Manager, Rockefeller Commission, 3/3/75, pp. 1378-
1379.
'1< Memorandum from Headquarters to Propmetary Gen. Manager, 6/29/67.
1.,. Memorandum from Headquarters to Proprietary Gen. Manager, 9/14/67.
,,. Memorandum from Headquarters to Proprietary Gen. Manager, 8/15/68.
725
to the list of covered groups. By August 1968, ten groups were targeted
by MERRIMAC for such coverage.177 Thus, although the
primary purpose remained advance warning of threats to the Agency,
the program expanded into a general collection effort whose results
'were mace available to other components in the CIA, and in many
instances, to the FBI. As Osborn put it:
Now I would be less than candid and less than honest with
you to say that over the course of this .project we reported
pretty much of everything we got. [sic] I am not going to
try to kid you. But the primary purpose of the project was
self-protection physical security and I think we probably exceeded
that.178
In some insbances the agents conducted surveillance of particular
dissident leaders and 'activists of special interest to the CIA. Photographs
were taken of persons attending meeting, or license plates, and
persons were trailed home in orderto identify them. Some of the assets
also made contributions to the organiZJations at a low level necessary
for credible paI"ticipation.179
Information obtained from MERRIMAC agents was made available
to CHAOS. Osborn testified that the broadening scope of MERRIMAC
was due in part to the requests from the CHAOS office to
the Office of Security for general information about dissident groups.
I think it st'arted out legitimately concerned wi,th the physical
security of install-ations and I think it expanded 'as these
things often do,in light of the intense interest in the x:e9uirements
by Mr. Ober and by a lot of other people. I thmk it
just kind of grew in areas that it perhaps shouldn't have.18o
Osborn testified thUit most of the requests for specific informUition
beyond the threat of immediate situations, came from inquiries by the
CHAOSoffice.l81
The last reports from MERRIMAC agents found in CIA files
were gathered in late 1968. However, CIA has confirmed that the program
lasted until September 1970.182
In August 1973, Director Colby issued a directive as part of the
Agency's review of "questionable activities" regarding the activity
which had involved MERRIMAC."The Directive stated: .
It is appropriate for the Office of Security to develop private
sources among CIA employees. It is not appropriate for CIA
to penetra.te domestic groups external to CIA, even for the
purpose of locating threats to the Agency. Notice of such
threat" should be reported to the 'appropriate law enforcement
bodies and CIA will cooperate with them in any 'action
required which does not involve direct CIA participation in
"., Ibid.
178 Osborn, Rockefeller Commission, 2/17/75, p. 836.
179 Examination of MERRIMAC Report files.
180 Osborn, Rockefeller Commission, 2/17/75, p. 844.
181 Testimony of MERRIMAC Agent A, 8/14/75, PP. 19-20; Osborn, 10/3/75,
p.16.
II'. Letter from William Colby to Vice President Rockefeller with CIA comments
on Rockefeller Commission RepoI'lt, 8/8/75, p. 8 of attachment.
726
covert clandestine operations against U.S. citizens m the
United States.l83
O. Special Security Investigations
Since the inception of the CIA, the Office of Security has conducted
routine background investigations of prospective CIA employees and
agents, as well as employees of contractors and other persons being
considered as cooperative sources of information or assistance. Periodic
reinvestigation of CIA employees is also performed.
In addition, the Office of Security has conducted numerous special
investigations of persons affiliated with the CIA and others who w~re
the subject of a particular security case. In some instances the Investigations
involved efforts to determine the source of news leaks
thought to compromise the security of intelligence sources and methods,
including news leaks for which there was no particular reason to
suspect that CIA personnel were responsible, as opposed to other government
employees with access to intelligence material.
More frequently, however, the investigations involving Americans
were conducted as a result of allegations or suspicions that individuals
had become the target of an effort to penetrate the CIA, or had become
involved in espionage, or had developed personal difficulties which
created risks that intelligence sources and methods might be compromised.
The subjects of these investigations have included for~er
and present CIA employees, employees of other government agenCIes,
and private citizens who ,,,ere in contact with the subject of an
investigation.
In the course of these investigations, various covert techniques have
been employed, singly and in combination, against American citizens
in this country: physical surveillance, electronic surveillance, unauthorized
entry, inspection of mail and of income tax records.
In January 1975, the Inspector General of the CIA initiated a
survey of all special security investigations and other activity undertaken
by the Office of Security since the inception of the CIA in 1947
which involved the USe of any such special investigative techniques
against persons in the United States.
A team of officers from the Inspector General's staff and the Office
of Security conducted such an examination, with complete access to
all records in the Office of Security and in other source records throughout
the CIA which might reflect such use of these investigative
techniques. Knowledgeable personnel were interviewed as well.1M
. The examination resulted in a compendium of every identifiable
mstaI!-ce in which physical surveillance, telephone tapping, electronic
survell~ance, mail cover and opening, access to tax information, unauthorIzed
entry and other special investigative procedures had been
employed against persons in the United States.l85
183 Memorandum from William Colby to Deputy Director for Administration.
Attachment, "Memorandum: MERRIMAC," 8/29/73.
'" Affidavit of staff officers from Inspector General's Office and Office of
Security responsible for investigation of domestic surveillance, 5/27/75.
1BO Ibid, p. 7.
727
Each instance was analyzed in terms of the techniques, the target
and the circumstances involved in the investigation. Specifically, the
survey detailed whatever information was available concerning:
-the background of the investigation.
-the level and nature of authorization within the CIA.
-coordination with other agencies.
-the methods used to implement the surveillance.
-reporting and the results of the operation.
-and the authority and reasons for terminating the operations.186
The Committee staff reviewed the methods and results of this survey
of domestic surveillance compiled by the Inspector General's office. In
addition, the Committee staff reviewed in their entirety the original
files of selected cases involving physical surveillance, electronic surveillance
and unauthorized entry which occurred within the last ten
years, and has also taken testimony regarding the use of such techniques
in America from present and former officials of the Office of
Security and other CIA components.
The result of this review by the Committee essentially confirms the
summary of the Inspector General's survey provided in the Rockefeller
Commission Report.187
However, the records of authorization, scope -and results of these
investigations are sometimes incomplete. This is particularly true for
the earlier history of the CIA, at a time when the use of covert investigative
techniques against Americans affiliated with the CIA or other
persons in the United States was more widespread than it has been in
the past decade.
Even in recent years, however, most authorizations and approvals at
the highest levels within the CIA have not been accompanied by a written
record.
Howard Osborn testified that during his ten year service as Director
of the Office of Security he regularly sought approval from Helms for
physical surveillance or any more intrusive technique, with the exception
of two minor instances of brief physical surveillance of CIA personnel
allegedly involved in irregular personal activities or financial
difficulties. In those instances, Osborn testified, approval was obtained
from the Deputy Director of CIA for Support. However, Osborn
added that such authorizations from the CIA Director were handled
orally with a minimum of paperwork because of the sensitivity of the
allegations.188
D./ss1Ms Raised by the Office of Security Programs and /nvestigatWns
1. Protecting 01A from Potential Violence
The MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE programs represent an
overly ambitious view of the CIA's authority to act on behalf of the
Director of Central Intelligence to protect intelligence sources and
methods.
186 Ibid.
187 Rockefeller Commission Report, June 1975, Chapter 13.
186 Osborn, 10/3/75, pp. 45-46.
728
While the special security investigations raise questions about the
propriety of targets and techniques in some cases, they reflected a
common concern-the threat of unauthorized disclosure by CIA personnel,
or in a few instances other government employees with access
to intelligence material. This common denominator was present
whether the particular case involved news leaks, suspected penetration
by hostile intelligence services or simply personal situations making
employees vulnerable, and thus security risks. The possibility of
such security problems developing within the CIA's own organization
was at least the basic concern expressed when the Director of Central
Intellie-ence was charged with protection of intelligence sources and
methOdS.
MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE, however, take the concept of
such protection a step further. They were premised on the assumption
that the responsibility for protectin~sources and methods includes the
general mission of safeguarding CIA-its personnel, facilities and
operations-from domestic unrest in the larger society.
Is the protection of the CIA from disruption by domestic violence
part of the intended responsibility to protect sources and methods 1
And if it is, how far would that authority extend 1
Presumably all government agencies, but particularly those doing
sensitive tasks, may undertake measures at their installations to prevent
physical disruption by outsiders, for example by maintaining a
guard force at entrances.
Beyond this, does the "sources and methods" mandate authorize the
CIA to go out into the community and covertly investi~ate protest
activity in order to detect potential threats, rather than relying on the
FBI and local police for advance warnin~1 Little in the legislative
history suggests such an open-ended reading of that provision. But
even if the mandate is presently so vague that it might be read that
broadly, the programs would be questionable under the prohibition on
CIA exercising law enforcement powers or performing internal security
functions.
Both programs involved the CIA in examinin~ domestic dissident
activity, which, insofar as it actually threatened the government or
particular agencies was a matter of internal security or law enforcement.
In RESISTANCE, the collection technique was less intrusive; even
where covert sources supplied information, no CIA personnel became
involved with the domestic ~oups. Its scope, however, was broad and
the in depth analysis of political organizations and their leaders went
beyond indications of specific threats to the CIA.
MERRIMAC, while· more narrowly focused, took the CIA into
actual penetration with the dissident groups. And to the extent the
collection requirement was broadened from warning of imminent attacks
on CIA to general information about the groups' finances and
policies, it brought the Office of Security even closer to performing
essentially internal security functions. .
In addition, a common theme running through the explanation of
the MERRIMAC and RESISTANCE prog-rams is the claim that
local police and federal law enforcement agencies were unwilling or
729
unable to provide adequate warning to permit safeguarding CIA
facilities and personnel.'89 If the CIA, therefore, took on what would
normally be responsibilities of law enforcement agencies, did it violate
the letter, or the spirit, of the 1947 Act ~
The CIA did undertake to supplement the public safety work of law
enforcement agencies, whatever the CIA's parochial purpose for such
activity.
Moreover, the FBI was providing the entire government with both
intelligence about expected demonstrations, and information about
the propensity of particular groups and individuals toward violence.
The. FBI did not assess the threat posed to each particular
agency by every group or expected activity. But to let each agency
run its own investigation of how domestic unrest might threaten its
operations would be a dangerous invitation to multiply the opportunity
for excessive surveillance of protest activity.
In any event, the CIA's perception, whether correct or not, that law
enforcement agencies were incapable of providing adequate warning
and countering any threat did not increase the CIA's authority to
take action inconsistent with its own statutory limitations. To what
extent should the CIA be permitted to engage in such activity in
the future~
Director Colby's regulations on MERRIMAC-type activity indicated
his view that the CIA should not be involved in any clandestine
operations directed against domestic groups which might threaten
the CIA. If the CIA is forbidden to infiltrate such groups, should it
still be permitted to monitor public rallies and demonstrations, or
should that, too, be reserved to law enforcement authorities ~ Although
such monitoring is less intrusive on the participants' expectations
of privacy, the general purpose of minimizing the CIA's involvement
in domestic affairs suggests that the CIA should engage
in no investigations beyond its own premises which are directed at
domestic dissidents.
What, then, could the CIA do, short of such efforts, to help protect
itself from external threats of public disorder? Anticipated
violence would justify analysis of information received from the
FBI or local police with direct responsibility for the jurisdiction
in which CIA facilities are located. Such information and analysis
~ould permit the CIA to take security precautions, such as notificatIOns
to employees and disposition of its own security forces, without
engaging in covert operations like MERRIMAC or RESISTANCE.
Finally, if the CIA requires some information about dissident
organizations in order to assess the significance of membership in
them for security clearance of CIA allplicants, should it rely on the
FBI and the Civil Service CommissIOn for such information ~ It
might ~e argue~ that the CIA would undertake a more sophisticated
analysI~, and, m fact, hold mere membership less a disqualification
than mIght some other government agencies. But that small benefit
~ust .be weighed against the risk of providing license for a foreign
mtelhgence agency to scrutinize domestic political activity.
... Helms deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/12/75, pp. 315-316.
730
2. Sensitive Security InvestigatWns
The power of the Director of Central Intelligence to take action
to protect intelligence sources and methods in particular security cases
has been viewed differently by recent directors.
Richard Helms testified that, in his view, the CIA could be asked
to take any reasonable investigative steps, with no covert technique
precluded. in order to protect sources and methods.190
While Helms explained that the FBI had been unwilling to undertake
many of the investigations which the CIA performed, he testified
that, independent of the Bureau's availability, he regarded those
investigations as a legitimate exercise of his responsibility as director
to protect intelligence sources and methods.l9l
Helms did recommend that the charge to protect sources and methods
which he termed an "albatross" around the neck of the Director, be
removed from the statute and given to the FBI, at least with regard
to investigation of any Americans who were not affiliated with the
CIA.192
William Colby, on the other hand, did not view the statutory
mandate to be accompanied by actual extraordinary investigative
authority:
It gives me the job of identifying any problem of protecting
sources and methods, but in the event I identify one it gives
me the responsibility to go to the appropriate authorities
with that information and it does not give me any authority
to act on my own. So I really see less of a gray area in that
regard. I believe that there is really no authority under that
act that can be used.lOS
His directives in response to the CIA's review of questionable practices
reflect this position. Thus, the directive addressing past instances
of investigating newsmen to determine the source of intelligence
leaks stated:
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: [Cases Involving Investigation of Newsmen]
No surveillance, telephone tap, surreptitious entry or other
action will be taken by Agency personnel in the United States
against United States citizens not connected with CIA, under
the claimed authority of "protection of intelligence sources
and methods." This provision of the law lays a charge and
duty on the Director and the Agency to act so as to protect
intelligence Sources and methods. It does not give it authority
to take action with respect to other American citizens. If
a threat or exposure of intelligence sources and methods occurs,
the Agency can appropriately assemble its information
on the topic and conduct such steps within its organization
... Helms deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/24/75, PP. 333--334.
191 Helms, Rockefeller Commission, 1/20/75, p. 288.
11>. Helms deposition, Rockefeller Commission, 4/24/75, pp. 353-354. .
193 'Villiam Colby testimony, Senate Armed Services Committee Hearings,
7/2/73, p. 25.
731
as may be appropriate. With respect to outsiders, the appropriate
lawful authorities must be approached for assistance
on the matter, e.g., the FBI or local police.194
In addition, Colby's directive concerning the use of covert investigative
techniques against the CIA's own employees off the Agency's
own premises stated:
~lE~10RA~DU~1
SUBJECT: [Cases Involvin~ Surveillance of CIA Employees
and Ex-employees]
No surveillance, telephone tap, or surreptitious entry will
be conducted against employees or ex-employees of the Agency
outside Agency property. In the event that threats to intelligence
sources and methods appear from Agency employees
or ex-employees, the appropriate authorities will be advised,
and the Agency will cooperate withthe appropriate authorities
in the investigation of possible violation of law.195
On its face, the director's statutory charge to protect sources and
methods does not authorize the use of the CIA, as opposed to other
agencies, for active investigation in the United States. The legislative
history is also unclear in this regard.
An additional ambiguity is the tension between this responsibility,
if it is deemed to authorize implementation by the CIA, and the restriction
upon the CIA's exercising law enforcement or police powers.
Not all of the special security investigations undertaken in the past
involve suspected criminal violations. For example, not all news leaks
may be subject to prosecution. Yet if surveillance reveals the source,
then he would be subject to administrative sanction or loss of clearances.
Similarly, when investigations are in response to allegations
that the subject's personal situation makes him a bad security risk,
there may be no suggestion that he is yet involved in any unauthorized
disclosure of information. It is merely a question of whether the subject
should continue to have access to sensitive information or be
given assistance in regard to his problems.
On the other hand, the more intrusive investigation techniques, at
least in recent years, have usually been employed by the CIA only
when there was a significant possibility of illegal activity, at which
point there is a law enforcement aspect to the investigation.
Moreover, some of the investigative techniques, such as electronic
surveillance and unauthorized entry, are tools which normally require
warrants as an exercise of the police power. And to theextent their
future use in national security matters is regulated by Congress under
warrant procedures, CIA participation in such activity would present
an even sharper question under the charter prohibition.
Most important, whatever the propriety of these special investigations
has been under the 1947 charter, the ultimate question before the
1.. Memorandum from William Colby to Deputy Director for Administration,
Attachment "Memorandum: [News Leak Investigations]", 8/29/73.
1.. Ibid. Attachment "Memorandum: [Investigation of CIA Employees and Exemployees]."
69-984 0 - 76 - 47
732
Congress is the degree to which a secret foreign intelligence agency
should conduct clandestine operations in the United States directed
at Americans.
Centralizing these special security investigations (as opposed to
routine background investigations) as much as possible within one
agency under tight controls would not only minimize the potential
opportunities for misuse of the more intrusive techniques. It would
also enable the CIA to reduce its own involvement in any covert activity
in the United States. The CIA's security role outside of its own
premises would be held to the minimum, with respect to both the permissible
subjects of such investigations and the techniques employed.
In the case of investigating newsmen to uncover inten~ence leaks,
Helms and Howard Osborn both agreed that the responsibIlity should
be given to the FBI. Such a restriction on the CIA could be extended
to any American not employed by the Agency. If the subject was
suspected of being involved in efforts to procure improper disclosure
of sources and methods, the same consideration of avoiding CIA involvement
with private citizens suggests that the subject be investigated
by the FBI.
What should the CIA's role be with respect to its own employees?
The CIA could be permitted to conduct some preliminary investigations
of its own employees outside of CIA premises, including interviews
and other routine checks, before calling the FBI into every case
in which a question of security risk has arisen. If some physical surveillance
is also permitted as part of this preliminary investigation,
it might be limited in duration and, more importantly, careful guidelines
provided concerning the authority of the CIA to investigate other
persons with whom the CIA employee comes in contact.

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