THE FRIENDS AND THE FEDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400270005-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 1, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12: CIA-RDP88-0fl3 Qp?490i'80b$y- ' -
.A2TICLE APPEARED T11K PROGRESSIVE
O1Y PAGP__ November 1976
that it contains only . G/4 2.- < -T--- / '6 1-4
The F-riends
and
Thefeds
MARGARET H. BACON
In February 1922, an FBI agent in Philadelphia sent a
confidential and rather plaintive memorandum to his su-
perior in Washington about the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC), which had'been accused of being
used "by anarchistic organizations as a medium for send-
ing their funds for the relief of Soviet Russia"
"(It) is the same as the one known as the Friends Soci-
ety, which is commonly known as the Quakers. In check-
ing up on almost all of the officers of the executive com-
mittee it was found that they are all persons of high stand-
ing in commercial and social circles, many of whom are
devoting their time, without monetary gain, in the Com-
mittee's undertaking to help the famine-stricken people of
Soviet Russia and in their' other philanthropic under-
takings. This Committee, which is known to be a nonpo-
litical organization or society, has accepted and is ac-
cepting funds from any organization or individuals,
whether radicals or not, but they do not allow anyone, no
matter how big the contribution may be, to invoke or
serve their political aims or propaganda through the
Friends Committee."
This pattern-an allegation that the AFSC is being
"used" by a subversive element, followed by an investi-
gation which establishes that it is a "sincere pacifist organ-
ization" - runs through the mountains of files the
Quaker organization - has amassed under the amended
Freedom of Information Act of 1975, which gives indi-
viduals and organizations limited access to the files kept
on them by the FBI, CIA, and similar Government or-
ganizations. 21
Altogether, to' date, the AFSC has received almost
1;700 pages from ten Government agencies, including
553 pages from the FBI. about 230 from the Air Force,
251 from the CIA,-88 from the Navy, 158 front the Inter-
nal Revenue Service, 66 from the Secret Service, and 335
from the State Department. The Army says it has de-
stroyed all its files, as it was ordered to do, but copies keep
showing up in other collections. The Defense Intelligence
Agency has sent only one dMiment, so heavily censored
Agency its CI t e uC r 1~
learned d from rom its Cp
ment "watch list" st
ties, which probably
Some of this mate.....
AFSC agreed, ' under protest, to pay photocopying
charges. Some was released after the AFSC successfully
appealed a denial of information. More may be made
available only after legal action. The most interesting in-
formation - dealing, for example, with the planting of in-
formers, will probably never be released. But the record
clearly establishes more than fifty years of Government
surveillance, including wiretapping, the opening of mail,
and outright spying. To read through the pages and pages
of resulting reports is to be overwhelmed by the sheer in-
efficiency and duplication of effort within the vast surveil-
lance network just now coming to light. -
In the 251 pages the AFSC has received so far from the
CIA, eighty-six are a prepublication draft of a booklet,
Experiment without Precedent, written by eleven repre-
sentatives of the AFSC who spent three weeks in the Peo-
ple's Republic of China in May 1972, two months after
Richard M. Nixon's famous visit. There was nothing
startling, let alone confidential, in the draft, which was, of
course, made public a few weeks later. Yet the CIA saw fit
to obtain the draft at taxpayer expense, to copy and file it
at taxpayer expense, and to analyze it at taxpayer expense.
Perhaps half of the material the AFSC has received
from various Government agencies under the Freedom of
Information Act is of a similar nature -=news releases, I
copies of correspondence, copies of publications, reports
of public meetings. The AFSC has always made it a point
to be an open, public organization; it has no secrets to be
spied out, Yet Government agencies have gone to great
lengths to attend and report on open meetings, to read
and copy news releases, to intercept the mail.
For years the New England regional office of the AFSC
sponsored an annual seminar on international relations, 1
called the Avon Institute. FBI files reveal that in 1954 at
least three informants, "T-3," "T-4," and "T-5," infil-
trated this meeting: "T-5 (of known reliability) advised
that (name deleted) in one of his talks at the seminar at
Avon Old Farms School in June. of 1954" expressed the
opinion that U.S. big business was the cause of the trouble
in Guatemala because big businesses wanted to keep their
interest alive in that country. He also stated that the Unit-
ed States, and other western powers, Should keep out of
I
1 ne Government files provide while proof that the
mail of AFSC staff` members has frequently been opened.
In 1943, an'AFSC stalrcouple vacationing at a state park
in West Virginia received some letters from.the Philadel-
phia office regarding applications from'cotlege students to
work as peace volunteers. There was also a letter from a
Nisei who hoped she would be able to leave a relocation
center to continue her education. A suspicious local resi-
f
h
l
1
b
l
rination
cin/
Margaret H. Bacon is a member oft
services staff of the
in Philadelphia.
7e mai
and of wart cc
its content to Lite
dent opened t
lFQ1Qi~3iAf81$txQ9t3c1PA~lt#t{~QA6sdmateriat. As a
result of this complaint, the Philadelphia bureau of the