[Vision2020] To Tom

[Andreas Schou]

On 8/23/05, Pat Kraut <pkraut at moscow.com> wrote:
> Isn't Frank Church a part of those that made some of the changes in the CIA
> and FBI that put that 'wall' up so we couldn't track terriorists?? I know
> that part of the problem is an executive order that Carter did but seems to
> me Church was involved in this mess also.

Pat --

Frank Church is responsible for pointing out some of the horrific
civil rights abuses of the 1960s and 1970s, like COINTELPRO (which,
among other things, tracked Martin Luther King and sent him letters
encouraging him to commmit suicide) and Artichoke, which randomly
tested LSD on American citizens. It also prevented the CIA from
following executive orders to assassinate foreign citizens with whom
we are not at war.

Did that hamper our ability to fight terrorism? Yes, in the same sense
that not sealing our borders and not giving the government the right
to detain American citizens with impunity hampered our ability to
fight terrorism.

-- ACS