April 19, 1971
Page 10650
FBI – POLITICAL WHIPPING BOY
(Mr. DEVINE asked and was given permission to extend his remarks at this point in the RECORD.)
Mr. DEVINE. Mr. Speaker, last Wednesday in the other body the junior Senator from Maine made a startling revelation. The FBI, of all things, has been "spying" on public meetings, mass public meetings, in fact.
The very thought of this situation boggles the mind. Thousands of people are gathered for the expressed purpose of conveying to the Government their concern about a matter. Speakers with various backgrounds and motives are vying for the attention of the TV, movie and still cameras and the many reporters from the different news media. Some even have aides passing out copies of their remarks to reporters to insure their every word attracts attention. Many of them crowd around the news media representatives offering to be interviewed and anxiously trying in every way possible to attract attention.
Even a number of the spectators are moving around constantly in an effort to stay exposed to the cameras in the hopes their presence will be recorded at the meeting.
Into this throng walks a clean-cut young man – an FBI agent.
He is recognized. Immediately the speaker stops speaking. Spectators by the thousands cover their faces and flee. In a matter of moments this lone FBI agent has completely repressed this gathering of citizens exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
This horror must be stopped.
This is one of the Senators, who I am sure you all know wants to be President of these United States, says the way to do it is to create a Domestic Intelligence Review Board "to supervise the activities of all agencies of Government in this field."
Now I am sure the Senator has had enough experience with Government boards to know they function in a most cumbersome fashion. By the time such a board gets around to acting the FBI could repress public gatherings all across the country.
I think, Mr. Speaker, I have the solution. Let us quickly enact into law a prohibition against any employee of the FBI attending any public gathering. Think what a relief this will be to all the churches across the country, to the PTA, the Boy Scouts, the American Legion, the directors of the annual Fourth of July celebrations, the sponsors of the St. Patrick Day observances, and other similar gatherings.
Of course, we will have to go a step further. Some of those FBI agents are smart – some of them will take to reading the newspapers and watching the news programs on TV and filing intelligence reports from them. So we will also have to make it a violation of Federal law for any FBI employee to read a newspaper or watch television.
And while we are at it we most certainly must prohibit FBI personnel from sitting in the gallery of either the House of Representatives or the Senate. Think of all the spying they could do up there in the gallery. And to make certain we are totally protected from their spying we must make it a crime for any member of the FBI to ever have a copy of the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. Just think of all the intelligence reports an enterprising FBI agent could compile from the RECORD.
Then, Mr. Speaker, there are a couple other avenues we have to close to make certain the FBI stops its repressive spying. We all know the FBI works very closely with other law enforcement agencies. Some of these policemen assigned to control the crowds, to protect against pickpockets, to guard against violence are bound to talk to their FBI friends. So we must make it a Federal crime for any member of a law enforcement agency to be present at any public gathering.
Now Mr. Speaker, there is one phase of this problem which I am not quite certain I have solved. A lot of Americans think it is their patriot duty, even privilege, to furnish the FBI information about subversive and criminal activities. But I do not know how we can pass a law to forbid a plain citizen from going to a public gathering – I am sure the Supreme Court would frown on such a law. But perhaps we could make every person attending any public gathering sign an oath that he will not at any time discuss with any FBI agents what was said or done at this meeting.
There is, of course, the possibility that some FBI agent will go to court and contest this law. FBI agents, after all, are citizens. But I am certain the junior Senator took this into account last Wednesday before he made his speech implying that FBI agents should not be allowed to attend public gatherings. After all, he is one of the foremost protectors of the rights of all, so I am sure he must have already found through research that FBI agents can legally be denied their right to attend public meetings, and if they like, to take notes. It really would be a shame to exclude FBI agents from the struggle against pollution, however; for I know several who are actively involved in combating this menace to our society, involved through action, not rhetoric.
Mr. Speaker, the junior Senator from Maine also raised the question of invasion of privacy in his speech last Wednesday. I will agree with him the privacy of some people was invaded – the privacy of those individuals named in the FBI report which the Senator made public to all the world. Of course, the local news media did not publicize the names of all the persons mentioned in the FBI report. Neither the Evening Star nor the Washington Post made any reference to the information contained in the FBI report about Rennie Davis, one of this Nation's most notorious rabble rousers who has been convicted in the Federal court in Chicago for conspiracy to violate the Federal anti-riot law. His presence alone as a speaker at the Earth Day Rally on April 22, 1970, was ample reason for the FBI to be present. The FBI report devoted more space to his activities and comments than any one else, but the Senator and the two leading local newspapers somehow missed this.
But we must do something to protect persons named in FBI reports from having their privacy invaded by ambitious politicians and newspapers which act as fences for stolen documents and spread this confidential information over the entire world. I therefore propose, Mr. Speaker, that the FBI be required to prepare all its reports in code so that future leaks of these reports cannot be used to invade the privacy of our citizens.