1970s Law Crippled FBI, CIA, Says Former Intelligence Officer

CNSNews.com ^ | 7/02/02 | Jim Burns

[kattracks]

Washington (CNSNews.com) - A former U.S. intelligence officer believes the FBI and CIA could not have known the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were about to occur because both agencies had been crippled in their intelligence gathering.

Herbert Romerstein, who spoke in Washington Monday, worked on countering Soviet disinformation for the United States Information Agency from 1983 to 1989. According to Romerstein, U.S. intelligence agencies have been prohibited from collecting information on terrorist and anti-American groups since the 1970s, due to actions taken by Democratic majorities in Congress and by former Attorney General Edward Levi, who served under former President Gerald Ford.

Romerstein, who recently authored "The Venona Secrets," said "the FBI was totally in the dark about what was being planned for Sept. 11 because they were not permitted to penetrate those organizations that publicly announced that they intended to do severe damage to the U.S."

He blamed the congressional intelligence committees headed by then Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Rep. Otis Pike (D-N.Y.) during the mid-1970s for convincing the rest of Congress that restrictions were needed on the intelligence gathering agencies.

"The Church and Pike committees undermined the ability of our intelligence agencies to do their job, Romerstein said. "Prior to Sept. 11, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) made it impossible for the FBI, which had possession of one of the hijackers' computer to get a warrant from the court to get into that computer and know what the terrorists were planning."

FISA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and followed congressional investigations into the covert domestic surveillance activities of the FBI during the Vietnam era.

Former President Bill Clinton signed an executive order in Feb. 1995, expanding the law. It barred the physical searches of members of groups designated threats to national security if there was no probable cause to suspect a crime had been committed.

Current Attorney General John Ashcroft would like to see those restrictions lifted in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Levi's old boss, former President Ford, agrees.

"I recognize how skillfully Ed Levi, my attorney general, was drafting the rules of the FBI and he did it with great care. But those were different times," said Ford in a recent speech in Washington. "When new problems arise that affect the survival of this country, I think we have to update in a responsible way what is needed as we try to protect ourselves against terrorists."

Romerstein thinks Congress should change the laws and regulations so the FBI and the CIA can effectively do their intelligence gathering jobs.

"You need to change the laws and regulations to help them do their job," said Romerstein. "You then need to hire more people to make sure that they can do the job.

"The leadership of the FBI and the CIA should be changing the climate in those organizations," he said.

Romerstein had previously served as a professional staff member for several congressional committees, including the House Intelligence Committee and the House Un-American Activities Committees. He is now retired but continues to write and lecture about espionage.

Romerstein's book, The Venona Secrets, is a reference to the Venona Project, the U.S. effort aimed at gathering and decrypting messages sent in the 1940s by Soviet agents.

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[Wm Bach]

FISA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and followed congressional investigations into the covert domestic surveillance activities of the FBI during the Vietnam era.

When Hillary is president, the RNC, Cato Institute, FOX, FreeRepublic, etc. will be considered domestic threats and dealt with in the usual Clinton fashion.

[JohnGalt]

Ruby Ridge occured under the Bush watch and the Branch Davidian ambush was well in the works before Clinton got there. The federal law enforcement agencies have become rogue gestapos, answering to nobody-- witness no resignations from the CIA or FBI after 9/11.

[goldstategop]

Of course there is a political aspect to intelligence work. In giving federal agencies expanded powers to deal with new and emerging threats to the United States, care must taken to ensure the agencies remain responsible to elected officials for the fulfillment of the responsibilities entrusted to them.

[AndyJackson]

"You need to change the laws and regulations to help them do their job," said Romerstein

Maybe - but the fact remains that the agencies did a lousy job of using the information and authorities they had, and there is plenty of evidence that in the wrong hands these agencies will abuse to the max every power given.

Given our experience of the previous 8 years, without some of these laws, things could have been a whole lot worse.

[Grut]

So, prior to the '70s, the FBI and CIA were howling successes?

[norton]

The post-Vietnam emphasis, in intelligence and other areas, was determined by the victorious socialists still in a sweat from their decade long anti-war, anti-military, anti-anyone-but-them campaigns.

Intelligence was literally turned around, the protesters and their overseas allies were not guilty by definition.
The agencies who had once tracked them were deemed to be biased and that bias was reversed in short order.

Real intelligence, strategic intelligence, was to be available via satelite. Tactical intelligence via sensors and intercept.
Lack of adequate regional and language experts played a large role in devolution into electronic wonderment.

Domestic intelligence gathering shifted 180 degrees from the left to the right. Relegious and patriotic groups were targeted as likely opponents of anything the new government managers and new educators might approve of.
(The rise of 'born again' fundamentalism didn't help.

Spooks know what they are expected to find, they know where their bread is buttered. Recruits in those days probably came from the same background as did their masters in any event. And, much like the current Hague Tribunal, results can be made to follow ideology and not necessarily fact.

That's why we got Ruby Ridge and Waco; the movement to finally prove fundamentalism and "right-wing' anything as evil had been in progress since late in Nixon's term.

[BikerNYC]

It barred the physical searches of members of groups designated threats to national security if there was no probable cause to suspect a crime had been committed.

Warrants? Probable cause? Basic Fourth Amendment law. Where in the Constitution is it written that only part of the government has to comply with its provisions?