DCI BRIEFING OF THE DEFENSE SUBCOMMITTEE OF HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE - 20 FEBRUARY 1975

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000500070027-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2005
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: February 26, 1975
• Content Type: MFR

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OLC 75-0406
26 February 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: DCI Briefing of the Defense Subcommittee of House
Appropriations Committee - 20 February 1975
1. The Director met with the Defense Subcommittee of House
Appropriations on 20 February 1975 to brief them on domestic activities.
The meeting lasted from 1400 hours until 1730 hours. There was no
technical sweep of the room, H 140 in the Capitol, and no technical
monitoring. A transcript was made. The session was open and a copy
of the Director's prepared statement was given out to the press.
2. Present from the Subcommittee were:
George H. Mahon (D., Texas), Chairman
Robert L. F. Sikes (D. , Fla. )
Joseph P. Addabbo (D., N.Y.)
John J. McFall (D. , Calif. )
John J. Flynt (D. , Ga. )
Robert N. Giaimo (D., Conn.)
Bill Chappell (D. , Fla. )
Bill D. Burlison (D. , Mo. )
Jack Edwards (R., Ala.)
J. Kenneth Robinson (R., Va.)
Jack F. Kemp (R. , N. Y. )
Elford Cederberg (R., Mich.) ex officio
3. Present from the staff was:.
Ralph Preston
4. Accompanying the Director were:
an Assistant to the Director
George L. Cary, Legislative Counsel
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5. The Director read his prepared statement which was interrupted
by occasional questions and several floor votes. During the question and
answer. period, Mr. Sikes asked the Director to prepare a detailed chronology
of the "Watergate assistance" provided for the record, as well as a copy of
the Agency's proposal for establishing legal sanctions in the event of disclosure
of sensitive information involving intelligence sources and methods. (Ralph
Preston, of the Committee staff, already has a copy of our "sources and
methods package. ") Mr. Addabbo asked the Director for some details with
respect to the activities of the Agency which were discontinued since early
1973. He also said he would like to know what investigations were conducted
regarding the activities of Southeast Asian leaders in connection with the
drug traffic. The Director said he would prefer to go into this in executive
session.
6. Mr. Giairn.o expressed his displeasure at not having had access to
CIA budgetary data in the past and inferred that this kind of information should
be available to every member of Congress.
7. Mr. Burlison asked about the press allegations of CIA involvement
in bugged apartments and sex traps and the Director said that while he did not
want to infer that sex and intelligence never go together, this is something he
would prefer to also discuss in closed session.
8. Mr. Kemp applauded the Director's statement and efforts and
expressed concern about the morale of CIA. He was particularly interested
in the circumstances surrounding Mr. Angleton's retirement from the Agency
and said he thought the Committee should have him come up and talk with them.
9. With obvious sarcasm concerning allegations of the Agency's
maintaining files on members of Congress, the Chairman commented that he
had a confession to make to the Director and that was he had been keeping a
file on CIA for many, many years and had numerous entries in the files
regarding the Agency's contacts with his Committee.
10. Quite surprisingly, Mr. G iairno could not seem to understand
why the Agency was fighting the publication of Agee's book in the United States
since it had already been published in England. The Director tried to get the
point across that the fact that an Ameri~c,an citizen could violate the law outside
the jurisdiction of the United States, hi~~did not mean he should be permitted
on the basis of that fact, to then indirectly defeat that same law here. He
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noted the words of the Appeals Court decision in the Marchetti case to the
effect that a person could not leak information to the press and then repeat
that information (knowing it to be classified) on the assumption that once it
was printed it was in the public domain. Mr. Giaimo also asked about Agency
Ianda -th D
in closed session.
g e erector said he would prefer to discuss that
11. Mr. Addabbo pressed the Director to submit to the Subcommittee
a copy of his report to the President on the domestic activities allegations
and the Director indicated he was not at liberty to do this.
12. Follow up action:
Detailed chronology on "Watergate assistance" for
Legislative Counsel
Distribution:
Original - Subject
1 - DCI
1 - DDCI
1-ER
1-DDI
1-
1 - Mr. Knoche
1 - OLC Chrono
STAT
STAT
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