Declassified NSA Docs Shed Light On Cold War (And Modern) Operations

AHuxley writes "With the U.S. trying to understand the domestic role of their foreign intelligence and counterintelligence services in 2013, what can a declassified look back into the 1960s and 1970s add to the ongoing legal debate? Welcome to the world of Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel and the work done by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Read how prominent anti-war critics and U.S. senators were tracked, and who was on the late-1960s NSA watch list, from Rev. Martin Luther King to civil rights leader Whitney Young, boxer Muhammad Ali, Tom Wicker, the Washington bureau chief and Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald, and Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.). The NSA was aware of the legality of its work and removed all logos or classification markings, using the term 'For Background Use Only.' Even back then, NSA director at the time, Lew Allen noted: "appeared to be a possible violation of constitutional guarantees" (from page 86 of this PDF). What did the NSA think about signals intelligence sites in your country? See if your country makes the 'indefinite' list on page 392."

Comments

Some things never change

[Anonymous Coward]

Tracking senators huh? This is the United States of America, you do not do that kind of shit to powerful and rich people. Let's hope we get evidence of that leaked, maybe with evidence of blackmail and manipulation; if the elite realize that it's not just the gutter trash getting crushed under the jackboot they might actually do something.

Re:Some things never change

[ISoldat53]

I wonder how much the NSA monitors our own diplomats and political leaders and government bureaucracy? It would explain why so many in government think this is such a good idea.

Re:Some things never change

[s.petry]

I'm not sure if you are new to the game or not, so let me take the slow approach. Who do you think has been putting the majority of politicians in power for the last 100 or so years? I'll give you a hint, it's not you and me.

While the scale of corruption has grown exponentially in the last 30 years, the corruption is not something new. Hell go read Gary Allen "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" from the 1970. That should be a decent eye opener for you. Just to make sure you don't have any excuses not to read it, the book is free for most e-readers.

If the self proclaimed elites buy or put people in office, why would those same people complain about the job that they signed up for?

Re:Some things never change

[Anonymous Coward]

The self-labeled elite still probably operate under the delusion that they are in power. I make this claim because most sociopaths have narcissistic tendencies as well. At the very least, a fight between them would be quite fun to watch. Media magnates, bankers, military contractors, politicians, and spooks frantically assassinating each other, character or otherwise. Politicians would be the first to capitulate, of course. They're position is the weakest and most have traded the public for the support of the others. The spooks will probably win, sadly. Money can buy power, but is not power itself.

We'd be the ones to lose, obviously, but is there any scenario where that isn't inevitable? God, I'm sounding like a conspiracy theorist. If I were someone else, I'd tell me I'm crazy.

Re:Some things never change

[VortexCortex]

Hell go read Gary Allen "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" from the 1970. That should be a decent eye opener for you.

Yep. Eyes fully open now. You're sending us searching in a honey pot to tag us innocent party-goers one 'uh them radical anti-establishmenterriorists.
Nope. Not falling for it. I'm a fine upstanding citizen. You're either trying to hide in the crowd, or maybe just meet your NSA quota so you can have an early vacation.

Hope you enjoy your trip either way; May you git-mo them fine Cuban cigars...

Re:Some things never change

[Dunbal]

They don't even have the guts to disband a bank, and you think they'll disband the NSA? LOL never gonna happen. If anything they'll threaten the NSA with "we want you to give us more intel so we can put the squeeze on people, or we'll start regulating you".

Re:Some things never change

[kamapuaa]

It was a common charge against that book (the book is pretty dated BTW, with its focus on Communist states). A quick Google:

[In Chapter 5, Allen says that the financing of Hitler "was handled through the Warburg-controlled Mendelsohn Bank of Amsterdam..." He cites 2 sources on page 85 for thisassertion. However, neither source says anything about the Warburgs having helped finance Hitler and neither source mentions any role played by the Mendelsohn Bank of Amsterdam.]

2. In Chapter 3, Allen exhumes the charges made by Father Charles Coughlin, Eustace Mullins, and Dearborn Independent articles, that the Federal Reserve System was a scheme by international bankers, led by Paul Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb and Co. to gain control of the nation's economy. This theme has always been pre-eminent in anti-Semitic diatribes about the "Jewish plan for world control"

3. In Chapter 4, "Bankrolling the Bolshevik Revolution" Allen revives a lie originated by Czarist propagandists at the end of World War I - that Jewish bankers, especially Jacob Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., financed the Bolshevik takeover in Russia. This lie was first published in the Dearborn Independent in their series of articles entitled The International Jew.

Re:Some things never change

[hairyfeet]

Uhhh...they already KNOW they are being watched but don't care because unlike the peasants it won't be used against them. We know this because Dianne Feinstein Accidentally Confirms That NSA Tapped The Internet Backbone is the headline at Techdirt. Frankly none of us should be surprised by this, after all there is "rich people's laws" and the laws the peasants have to live under and rarely are they the same.

Honestly I doubt we'll be having to worry about this too much longer as when the stock market bubble bursts they won't have enough money to pay for a guy to tap a single phone, much less the entire backbone. When that bubble pops it'll make 29 look like a flash crash, we are talking a good half a century of depression, and I seriously doubt that with as much hatred as the people have for the current system it will survive another major crash. The only reason we aren't seeing our very own Arab Spring is the safety net keeps much of the poor fed, when that all dries up? I have a feeling the USA will go the way of the USSR. Oh well, no empire lasts forever and this one has gotten so corrupt they don't even pretend to give a fuck anymore, they are too busy looting the coffers and cashing bribes to care.

Re:Some things never change

[pupsocket]

In 1953, a CIA relay point in Nicosia, Cyprus, delayed by 24 hours orders from the White House that Kermit Roosevelt was to immediately halt his operation in Teheran to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. The cable arrived only after the coup was an irreversible fact.

In the mid-sixties, Armen Myer, U.S. Ambassador to Teheran, instructed the CIA Commo officer to stop cc'ing Langley on all correspondence with Washington. So Commo bcc'd Langley, and made sure the Company had a good lead to upstage the State Department.

But when President Obama spoke with the newly elected Prime Minister of Iran Friday about the prospect of peaceable relations, Prime Minister Rouhani was still in New York, so it was a domestic call, and surely safe from the usual skullduggery and sabotage, right?

J Edgar Hoover, Anyone?

[Atypical Geek]

Tracking and blackmailing rich and powerful people is not new. Hoover's personal files were used to do just that*. It was the entire point of COINTELPRO. The NSA is simply following the path of other alphabet soup agencies to consolidate power for themselves and their political masters.

* For example, we know that Jackie O. had a lesbian fling because an item of her correspondence obtained for Hoover's personal safe was misfiled. Can you think of any reason for the FBI having a love letter like that other than blackmail?

On Legality

[gr8_phk]

Someone once suggested to me that so long as these activities remain illegal, they are less likely to be abused. Think about that. If it's illegal you're going to think about every line you cross and try to justify it against your goals. Abuse would not only be a problem, it would be a problem caused by illegal activity. Once you legalize these activities I think they are more likely to be abused.

Re:On Legality

[Dunbal]

Illegal or not, familiarity breeds contempt. They keep doing it long enough they really won't give it a second thought, even if it is illegal.

So when are they going to be convicted for this?

[Bruce66423]

Given that the people who beat up civil rights workers in the 60s can be pursued for their offences of 'depriving of their civil rights', why can't these people? OK - stupid question in the real world...

Re:Tracking Martin Luther King

[Dunbal]

Sort of underlines the fact that it was never about the "bad guys" in the first place. Example, all that financial data and transaction records all over the world they've been tracking. You going to tell me they haven't tied them to terrorist networks? Funny I don't remember reading that suddenly a bunch of terrorist cells are put out of business. Yeah, once in a while, little fish to keep the people quiet. But if you have ALL the data and powerful computers, it's not long before you have the whole list. But no, it's about "tax avoiders" (which is totally legal, btw avoidance != evasion although they are trying their damnest to taint it), and the billions no trillions of dollars that leave the US completely legally for countries like Cyprus or Panama. No one cared up till now because no one knew how much money it actually was. Oh but now they want to eat that pie, too. That's what it's about. Terrorists... har har har! Yeah and the TSA stops bombs and weapons from getting on airplanes, too. They catch guys with bombs trying to board aircraft all the time. /sarcastic LOL.