FBI DATA AND CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700640016-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2006
• Sequence Number: 16
• Content Type: NSPR

IT FINDS ITS WAY
FBI Data and Congre
By L. CDC" PMA
"We wouldn't be able to stay In
burins overnight If It weren't for
The Bureau."
This statement was made to this
reporter some time ago by a for-
mer special agent of the PBI who
then was a staff investigator for
;,congressional committee 686 11114
with communism and subversion.
His statement is in direct conflict
with the P11's position that it does
not violate a presidential dtrastlve
and make available confidential
security information to the Con-
gress And It is in conflict with dts-
claimers from congressional eom-
mittee members, who say they do
not have access to FBI data.
The evidence is clear. however.
that confidential PSI information
does find Its way Into committee
tees by some means.
The issue of congressional use of
executive agency security informa-
tion has been raised again by the
international controversy over the
case of Herbert Norman, the Ca?
nadian Ambassador to IBrypt. Who
jumped to his death recently In
Cairo. The United States Senate
Internal Security subcommittee
shortly before had re-aired charges
that he had had Communist asso-
ciations. Subcommittee Oounsel
Robert Morris. In making the accu-
sations, referred to a report by
"a security agency." A stars aR
protest was heard In Canada. Whorl
it was charged that information
provided the United States execu-
tive agenda had found its way
to the Senate suboaatluttt s.
The former agents stateaent
about congressional reliance on the
FBI is exaggerated. Congressional
Red-hunting committees have de-
veloped cases of their own. wait
:girls or no help from the PSI or
other executive investigative arms.
Fuchs Case an IIxemple
Approved For Release 2006/611,13,-. CIA.E~Cr7MM00149R0007
-we dive sism sir' adartBttrargr" ahhg9 a :Arse i01s1"sen a, ae-aa
gatota." the thtes AaftniNM 6696 January a9. IMt, the alsattsaeat
member said. "How could we Poo- aflagadiT wseagd d asplaeMp 61141,
derv build up all the cases we have security rises at Fart Menmesrth
had without, outside asslatansof a is New Jersey.
lust could oat be done. We would Although Mr. Hoover denied at
i?-have to keep lots of people tinder the McCarthy daquaent we. a
surveillance. but how Could we 40 "copy" of any PSI letter or ripest.
It with our small staff? The FBI it became clear at the hearing that
has betwQen 6,000 and 9.000 special the senator's document contained
agents." much of the Information inciedQd
Most of the executive Investlia- in a 15-page memorandum which
Live agencies maintain close liaison the FBI director acknowledged he
with the two congressional Red- dispatched to fen. Boiling on the
hunting groups. each of which ha same date-January $1, 1"1. '
had former FBI ? agents on its staff hater, the Senator said that
for years. young Army intelligence ofdaa'.
The un-American 'Activities Cam- whom he declined to
mittee in 1964 had low former slipped him the FBI material. A)-
bureau agents and ono ex-secret though the Wisconsin Repabitegn's
Service operative on its staff of explanation has not been genereib
investigators. The FBI, has had questioned by the preen and pttb-
one or more special agents lie, Army sources take It with a large
assigned to gleaning data from the grain of salt. They point out that
extensive files of the Un-Ameri- despite an exhaustive 0-2 investigs-
can Activities Committee since the Lion, the "leak" has never been
1940s. found. They assert that Senator
Information developed by the FBI McCarthy, who then was at war
which finds Its way to the commit- with the Army and friendly with
teen does not necessarily have to the FBI. could have protected the
come directly from the Bureau nm biirrau and given the Army a
does It have to be a formal report blackrye in one stroke by pinning
or memorandum. It can be paved the leak on a 0-2 officer.
by word-of-mouth tips and ether- Fulbright's Charges
manes of reports. Or it an be a
report turned over by another exec-
utive agency whch received it from
the FBI.
The Van Faison Case
The much-publicised Van Poison
case was an example of the latter
situation. Capt. Res S. Van Poison,
the Air Pore Owed of Speelal In-
vestigations liaison oAoer with the
Un-Amerisan Activities Consgafttee.
turned over a ph*60e9811ed PBI iecn.
rity report to committee staff in-
vestigators.
All would boos gone smoothly,
but the Central mtsI$gence Agency
learned of it, got bold of it lens
enough to photograph it and laid
It before J. Bdsiar lrhsaur s Up
aide.. The report dsaoeros l a maa
-11"West.
is wham CIA bed' on
Capt. van Parson was sepavat-
ed from the Air Peres under eoo-
ditions "ether than honorable." but
wan quickly hirer d by the limes
committee as an tnvMUsatar: When
a committee member !naked the
story, Mr. Van Fonnon was aneelnd
and indicted on eight counts. When
he pleaded guilty to a charge of
"unlawfully converting to his awn
we 11$ streets of paper" owned by
the Oov.nsment and valued at less
than $100, seven felony counts were
dropped.
Senator McCarthy caused an. up.
roar during the Army-McCarthy
hcerinxs in 1954 when he submitted
:gat: weS pucirr?rtrd W be n r,,rv
One such recant *Xmnla in-
volved the dlalaautds at IFO~
Fuchs, a former law pr ol at,
American University. 6da$osthe
House Un-American Activities
Committee of his 13 Y*rS to the
Communist Party and deasd as
sociatee to three underground cells
in the Federal Government In the
itsoa and mos. In another ease
of some not.. Whittaker Chambers.
turned over his famous "pumpkin
papers"--svIdenas which helped
send Alger Hiss to pawn- -to' the
same Committee.
But the ex-agent's basic point is
a valid one. Without acoess to in-
formation developed by FBI and,
to a lesser extent, military intelft-
ge:tce operatives--data which, by
i.rcxider:tial directive, they are not
ApprovedT or Release'2006/11%13*:"CIA-RDP75-00149R0007'00640016-1
A few months before the above
situation developed, Senator Pul-
bright, Democrat of Arkansas. aN-
ated a stir of hawser'' equal pro-
portions when he announced that
he no longer would give the Fpl
information it seeks in weuM t1
invesfhatione because he was
vinoed that Senator McCarthy bed
access to the bureau's conAdenOW
filft.
When Senator McCarthy denMA
he had such access and said he
would now sib for it Senator
Fulbright quoted two statements
the Wisconsin Republican made on
the floor of the Senate which the
Democrat said indicated that Sen-
ator McCarthy was able to obtain
FBI data.
914 (McCarthy) said an lldg
4avestigation of an Army major
was 'emellent,' " according to Sen-
ator Fuibrlght. "He said 'the Iw-
vagllgatton by the FBI disclosed
everything known about the major.
and perhaps contained more tn-
ftwwatlon than we had about him.'
'bran be went on to state what
the FBI report contained."
Undoubtedly the best report on
Soviet esAtonags in the United
Slates over trade by a congressional
grow U Aatvf-
Us 'a famous document
55
STAT
`l/i_ F1