Nexus - 0606 - New Times Magazine-pages

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particular keywords, locations, senders or addressees. Project SHAMROCK became so successful that in 1966 the NSA and CIA set up a front company in lower Manhattan (where the offices of the telegraph companies were located) under the code-name LPMEDLEY. At the height of Project SHAMROCK, 150,000 messages a month were printed and analysed by NSA agents. NSA Director Lew Allen brought Project SHAMROCK to a crashing halt in May 1975 as congressional critics began to rip open the program's shroud of secrecy. The testimony of both the representatives from the cable companies and Director Allen at the hearings prompted Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Senator Frank Church to conclude that Project SHAMROCK was "probably the largest government interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken".* up to target anti-war protesters and organisations: Project RESISTANCE, which worked with college administrators, cam- pus security and local police to identify anti-war activists and political dissidents; and Project MERRIMAC, which monitored any demonstrations being conducted in the Washington, DC, area. The CIA then began monitoring student activists and infiltrating anti-war organisations by working with local police departments to pull-off burglaries, illegal entries (black bag jobs), interroga- tions and electronic surveillance.* After President Nixon came to office in 1969, all of these domestic surveillance activities were consolidated into Operation CHAOS. After the revelation of two former CIA agents’ involvement in the Watergate break-in, the publication of an article about CHAOS in the New York Times® and the growing concern about distancing itself from illegal domestic spying activities, the CIA shut down Operation CHAOS. But during the life of the project, the Church Committee and the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (the Rockefeller Commission) revealed that the CIA had compiled files on over 13,000 individuals, including 7,000 US citizens and 1,000 domestic organisations.” Project MINARET the Church Committee and the Commission on CIA Activities A sister project to Project SHAMROCK, Project MINARET Within the United States (the Rockefeller Commission) revealed involved the creation of "watch lists", by each of the intelligence that the CIA had compiled files on over 13,000 individuals, agencies and the FBI, of those accused of "subversive" domestic including 7,000 US citizens and 1,000 domestic organisations.” activities. The watch lists included such notables as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Dr The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) Benjamin Spock. In response to the discovery of such a comprehensive effort by After the Supreme Court handed down its 1972 Keith previous administrations and the intelligence agencies, Congress decision*— which held that, while passed legislation (the Foreign the President could act to protect the Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978)" country from unlawful and subver- This quiet collusion between that created a top-secret court, the sive activity designed to overthrow Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the government, that same power did political and private interests (FISC), to hear applications for elec- not extend to include warrantless typically involves the very same tronic surveillance from the FBI and electronic surveillance of domestic NSA to provide some check on the organisations—pressure came to bear companies that are involved in domestic activities of the agencies. In on Project MINARET.* Attorney- developing the technology that 1995, Congress granted the court addi- General Elliot Petersen shut down tional power to authorise surreptitious Project MINARET as soon as its empowers ECHELON and the entries. In all of these actions, congres- activities were revealed to the Justice i i i sional intent was to provide a check on Department, despite the fact that the intelligence agencies. the domestic surveillance abuses men- FBI (an agency under the Justice tioned above. Department's authority) was actively The seven-member court, comprised involved with the NSA and other intelligence agencies in creating of Federal District Court judges appointed by the Supreme Court the watch lists. Chief Justice, sits in secret in a sealed room on the top floor of the Operating between 1967 and 1973, over 5,925 foreigners and Department of Justice building. Public information about the 1,690 organisations and US citizens were included on the Project FISC's hearings is scarce, but each year the Attorney-General is MINARET watch lists. Despite extensive efforts to conceal the — required by law to transmit to Congress a report detailing the NSA's involvement in Project MINARET, NSA Director Lew number of applications each year and the number granted. Allen testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975 With over 10,000 applications submitted to the FISC during the that the NSA had issued over 3,900 reports on the watch-listed past 20 years, the court has only rejected one application (and that Americans.” Additionally, the NSA Office of Security Services rejection was at the request of the Reagan Administration, which maintained reports on at least 75,000 Americans between 1952 had submitted the application). and 1974. This list included the names of anyone who was men- While the FISC was established to be the watchdog for the tioned in an NSA message intercept. Constitutional rights of the American people against domestic sur- veillance, it quickly became the lap dog of the intelligence agen- Operation CHAOS cies. Surveillance requests that would never receive a hearing in a While the NSA was busy snooping on US citizens through state or federal court are routinely approved by the FISC. This Projects SHAMROCK and MINARET, the CIA got into the has allowed the FBI to use the process to conduct surveillance to domestic spying act by initiating Operation CHAOS. President obtain evidence in circumvention of the US Constitution, the evi- Lyndon Johnson authorised the creation of the CIA's Domestic dence then being used in subsequent criminal trials. But the Operations Division (DOD), whose purpose was to "exercise cen- process established by Congress and the courts ensures that infor- tralised responsibility for direction, support and coordination of | mation regarding the cause or extent of the surveillance order is clandestine operations activities within the United States". withheld from defence attorneys because of the classified nature When Johnson ordered CIA Director John McCone to use the of the court.” Despite Congress's initial intent for the FISC, it is DOD to analyse the growing college student protests against the doubtful that domestic surveillance by means of ECHELON Administration's policy towards Vietnam, two new units were set comes under any scrutiny by the court. Operation CHAOS While the NSA was busy snooping on US citizens through Projects SHAMROCK and MINARET, the CIA got into the domestic spying act by initiating Operation CHAOS. President Lyndon Johnson authorised the creation of the CIA's Domestic Operations Division (DOD), whose purpose was to "exercise cen- tralised responsibility for direction, support and coordination of clandestine operations activities within the United States". When Johnson ordered CIA Director John McCone to use the DOD to analyse the growing college student protests against the Administration's policy towards Vietnam, two new units were set 20 - NEXUS OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 1999